3. Climate and weather in the uk.

Weather is variable. The climate represents the average weather conditions over a long period of time. The geo position within latitude 50 to 60 north and the Gulf Stream are the basic factors in determining the main characteristics of climate:

• Small seasonal contrasts

• In mountain area the greater condensation of air, clouds form, precipitation follow due to west winds.

• North winds bring snowfalls

• Continental ones bring warm and dry air steams

UK’s mineral wealth.

The rise of Britain as an industrial power in the late 18 19 centuries was partly due to the presence of considerable mineral recourses. coal and iron ore (желез.руда) - 2 chief minerals on which the industrial revolution was based. Br had non-ferrous metals: copper(медь), lead(свинец), But these deposits have been worked out. Moreover, the coal lost its former importance. Such recourses as oil, gas, uranium ores are most important in the modern world. Br imports manganese, chrome, nickel. Coal has been worked for 700 years – the richest and the most accessible coal fields. Yorkshire and the Midlands produce now 60 of the country’s output. Up to the 1960s the oil and gas were imported. 1975 - the discovery of crude oil and natural gas in the North Sea=> Br is self sufficient in oil. Br has a variety of non metallic minerals: clay, chalk, sand, gravel => for building industry. In the south west parts where the winds are prevalent the British use windmills to generate power. Former world workshop of the 19 century, she is the 5th in the terms of GNP, and has 6% share in the world trade.=> the 5^th largest trading nation in the world.

4.Ancient Britain: early prehistoric evidence, prehistoric monuments.

Prehistoric Britain was a period in the human occupation of Great Britain that extended throughout prehistory, ending with the Roman invasion of Britain in AD 43.

The first written record of Britain and its inhabitants was by the Greek navigator Pytheas [‘piΘiəs], who explored the coastal region of Britain in around 325 BC. Ancient Britons were however involved in extensive trade and cultural links with the rest of Europe from the Neolithic onwards, especially in exporting tin which was in abundant supply. Britain has not always been an island. It became one only after the end of the last ice age.

The first evidence of human life that archeologists have found is a few stone tool is about 250,000 BC. These were simple objects such as hand axes made of flint. After that the ice advanced again and Britain became hardly habitable until another milder period around 50,000 BC. During this time a new type of human beings arrived, who are considered ancestors of the modern British.

Around 10,000 BC, as the Ice Age came to a close, Britain was inhabited by small groups of hunters, gatherers and fishers. By about 5000 BC Britain finally became an island, and had also become heavily forested.

About 3000 BC Neolithic (or New Stone Age) people crossed the narrow sea from Europe in small boats. They probably came from the Iberian peninsula or even North African coast and settled in the western parts of Britain and Ireland. These were the first of several waves of invaders, before the first arrival of the Romans in 55 BC.

We can judge about how prehistoric Britain was developing by studying the great “public works” of this time (“barrows”, or burial mounds, made of earth or stone).

After 3000 BC the people started building great circles of earth banks and ditches. Inside, they built wooden buildings and stone circles (henges) were centres of religious, political and economic power. The most spectacular is Stonehenge which was once thought to have been a type of astronomical clock or calendar for predicting the seasons. It was built between 3100 and 1550 BC near Salisbury, England. The long-held thesis that Stonehenge was a Druid temple is untenable (недоказуемый), because the Druids did not appear in Britain until a few hundred years before the Christian era. In recent years many attempts have been made to interpret Stonehenge as a prehistoric astronomical observatory, but the site is now so ruined, and so much restored, that any attempt to ascertain its original alignments must rely principally on guesswork.

After 2400 BC new groups of people arrived in southern Britain from Europe, probably from Spain. They were round-headed and strongly built, taller than Neolithic Britons. They became leaders of British society. Their arrival is marked by the first individual graves, furnished with pottery beakers, from which these people get their name: the “Beaker” people. The Beaker people probably spoke an Indo-European language.

However, from about 1300 BC a new form of society in southern England, that of settled farming class. The new farmers grew wealthy because they learned to enrich the soil with natural waste materials.

The Celts and their descendants.

Around 700 BC, another group of people began to arrive. Many of them were tall, and had fair or red hair and blue eyes. These were The Celts, who probably came from central Europe or further east, from southern Russia. The Celts were technically advanced, they knew how to work with iron, and could make better weapons than the people who used bronze. The Celts are believed to have come in three distinct waves. The first group were the Goidels or Gaels. These Celts were driven by late invaders into the less fertile and more mountainous western and northern regions. The original language of Ireland and of North-West Scotland is this Goidelic Celtic (Gaelic [‘geilik]). The second wave of Celtic tribes, the Brythonic Celts or Brythons, from whose name the word Britain is derived, arrived between 600 and 500 BC and settled in the South of England, in Wales and in North-West England and South-West Scotland. Their language developed into the Celtic language of modern Wales. A third wave, Belgae from Northern Gaul, containing people of Teutonic origin, arrived about 100 BC and occupied the greater part of what are now known as the Home Countries (the central part of Great Britain).

The Celtic tribes continued the same kind of agriculture as the Bronze Age people. But their use of iron technology and their introduction of more advanced ploughing methods made it possible for them to farm heavier soils, thus they were more successful farmers.

The hill-fort remained the centre for local groups. The insides of these hill-forts were filled with houses, and they became the simple economic capitals and smaller “towns” of the different tribal areas. The Celts traded across tribal borders and trade. Much trade, both inside and beyond Britain, was conducted by river and sea. For money the Celts used iron bars, until they began to copy the Roman coins.

According to the Romans, the Celtic men wore shirts and breeches (knee-length trousers), and striped or checked cloaks fastened by a pin. It is possible that the Scottish tartan and dress developed from this “striped cloak”.

The Celtic tribes were ruled over by a warrior class, of which the priests, or Druids, seem to have been particularly important members. These Druids memorized all the religious teachings, the tribal laws, history, medicine and other knowledge necessary in Celtic society. The Druids from different tribes all over Britain probably met once a year.

During the Celtic period women may have had more independence than they had later for hundreds of years. When the Romans invaded Britain two of the largest tribes were ruled by women. The most powerful Celt to stand up to the Romans was a woman, Boadicea, had become queen of her tribe when her husband had died. In AD 61 she led her tribe against the Romans. She nearly drove them from Britain, and she destroyed London, the Roman capital, before she was defeated and killed.

Roman Britain.

Caesar's Summer Vacation. In 55 B.C. Julius Caesar decided that it would be a good move to try a little summer invasion of Britain. For the 1^st time the Romans were on the island for 3 weeks. The 2^nd roman invasion took place in the summer of year 54 BC, but for this time with a powerful army. The truly invasion of white land started during the reign of king Claudius, where approximately 40,000 of roman fighters participated.

The new capital (s). The first Roman capital of the new province of Britannia was at Colchester. A small existing settlement was built up on the river Thames to become a trade and administrative centre. The Romans called it Londinium(London). Then it became the most important town, and the capital, of the new province of Brittania.

Client Kingdoms. The Romans didn’t use force, they established "client kingdoms" on the borders of territory they directly controlled (certain Celtic tribes, in return for not being overrun, agreed to ally themselves to Rome).The most obvious characteristic of Roman Britain was its towns. Many grew out of Celtic settlement, military camps or market centres. The Romans also built water and sewage systems. Towns were connected by roads.