The nineteenth century

Not long before this century began, Britain had lost its most important American colonies in a war of independence. When the century began, the country was locked in a war with France, during which an invasion by a France army was a real possibility. Soon after the end of the century, Britain controlled the biggest empire the world had ever seen.

One section of this empire was Ireland. It was during this century that the British culture and way of life came to predominate in Ireland. In the 1840s, the potato crop failed two years in a row and there was a terrible famine. Millions of peasants, those with Irish Gaelic language and customs, either died or emigrated. By the end of the century almost the whole of the remaining population were using English as their first language.

Another part of the empire was made up of Canada, Australia and New Zealand. These countries had complete internal self-government but recognized the overall authority of the British government. Another was India, an enormous country with a culture more ancient that Britain’s. Tens of thousands of British civil servants and troops were used to govern it. At the head of this administration was a viceroy (governor) whose position within the country was similar to the monarch’s in Britain itself. Because India was so far away, and the journey from Britain took so long, these British officials spent most of their working lives there and so developed a distinctly Anglo-Indian way of life. Large parts of Africa also belonged to the empire.

As well as these areas (Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India and Africa), the empire included numerous smaller areas and islands.

The British came to see themselves as having a duty to spread this culture and civilization around the world. Being the rulers of an empire was therefore a matter of moral obligation.

There were great changes in social structure. Most people now lived in towns and cities. They depended on the owners of industries. These factory owners held the real power in the country. As they established their power, so they established a set of values which emphasized hard work, thrift, religious observance, family life, an awareness of one’s duty, absolute honesty in public life and extreme respectability in sexual matters. This is the set of values which we now call Victorian.

Middle-class religious conviction, together with a conscious belief that reform was better than revolution, allowed reforms in political and public life to take place. Slavery and the laws against people on the basis of religion were abolished, and laws were made to protect workers from some of the worst forms of exploitation. Public services such as the police force were set up.

The twentieth century

By the beginning of this century, Britain was no longer the world’s richest country. Perhaps this caused Victorian confidence in gradual reform to weaken. The first twenty years of the century were a period of extremism in Britain. The Suffragettes, women demanding the right to vote, were prepared both to damage property and to die for their beliefs; the problem of Ulster in the north of Ireland led to a situation in which some sections of the army appeared ready to disobey the government; and the government's introduction of new types and levels of taxation was opposed so absolutely by the House of Lords that even Parliament, the foundation of the political system, seemed to have an uncertain future in its traditional form. But by the end of the First World War, two of these issues had been resolved to most people’s satisfaction (the Irish problem remained) and the rather un-British climate of extremism died out.

Notes:

1. Stonehenge - one of the most famous and mysterious archeological sites in the world. One of its mysteries is how it was ever built at all with the technology of the time (the stones came from over 200 miles away in Wales.)

2. BC- means “before Christ”

3. AD - (Latin anno Domini)signifies, after the birth of Christ

4. King Arthur- in folklore and myth he is a great English hero, he and his

knights of the round table are regarded as the perfect example of medieval

nobility and chivalry. In fact he was a Romanized Celt trying to hold back

the advances of the Anglo-Saxons.

5. King Alfred-known as “Alfred the Great” the only monarch in English

history to be given this title. He was not only an able warrior but also a

dedicated scholar and a wise ruler.

6. The battle of Hastings (1066)- The date is remembered for being the last

time that England was successfully invaded. On 14.th October 1066 an

invading army under the command of Duke William of Normandy

defeated the English at the Battle of Hastings. On Christmas day that year

he was crowned king of England. In popular history Duke William of

Normandy is known as “William the Conqueror”.

7. The Wars of Roses-The English throne was claimed by two rival groups: the Lancastrians whose symbol was a red rose supported the descendants of the Duke of Lancaster and the Yorkists, whose symbol was a white rose, supported the descendants of the Duke of York. The struggle for power led to the “Wars of Roses” between 1455 and 1485 and ended when Henry VII defeated and killed Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth Field.

8. Henry VIII- is one of the most well-known monarchs in English history

chiefly because he took 6 wives during his life. It was during his reign that

Reformation took place. For his polemic against Protestantism he was

given a title Fidei Defensor (Defender of the Faith). The initials FD still

appear on British coins today.

9. The Civil war - this is popularly remembered as a contest between fun-

loving, aristocratic royalist “Cavaliers” who nevertheless were “wrong ”

in their beliefs, and over-serious puritan parliamentarian “Roundheads”

(because of the style of their haircuts) who nevertheless had right on their

side. The Roundheads were victorious by 1645 although the war

periodically started again until 1649.

III. Look through the text and say who:

1. Despite the long occupation of Britain left very little behind;

2. temporarily halted the Anglo-Saxon’s invasion in the west of Britain;

3. conquered and settled the extreme north and west of Scotland in the ninth

century;

4. brought Christianity to the British Isles;

5. defeated King Harold at the Battle of Hastings in 1066;

6. made himself a head the “Church of England ”, independent of Rome and

caused the rise of Protestantism in England;

7. was the first English King of the Stuart dynasty;

8. the first monarch in Europe to be executed after a formal trial for crimes

against his people;

9. established the set of values which we now call Victorian;

10. demanded the right to vote in Britain in the 20th century.

IV. Match the following phrases according to their meanings:

1. to impose one’s way of life a. to set up one’s supremacy

2. to exert an influence b. to refuse to follow the

government’s policy

3. to take something at one’s grasp c. to banish somebody out of the

country or to the remote regions

4. to bring somebody into the mainstream d. to succeed in life and business

5. in the name of e. to capture something by force

6. to strengthen royal power f. to undergo reconstruction

7. to be forced into exile g. to make somebody adopt one’s

mode of life, way of thinking and

basic conceptions

8.to establish one’s supremacy h. to place somebody into the thick of

things

9.to be restored i. on the part of

10.to limit the power j. to have an effect on somebody

11. to get on quite well k. to consolidate the king’s or queen’s

position

12. to be economically backward l. to have low level of industrial

agricultural development

13. establish a set of values m. to found the pattern of morals

14. to disobey the government n. to restrict the authority

5. Be ready to answer the questions:

1. What architectural monuments of the prehistoric period do you know?

2. What was the Roman contribution to the Celtic mode of life?

3. What was the Anglo-Saxons influence on English society?

4. What can you say about the spreading of the Christianity throughout Britain?

5. What did Scandinavian invasion result in?

6. Were the cultural differences between Anglo-Saxons and Danes great?

What did it lead to?

7. What did the Norman invasion bring?

8. What was the cultural story of the medieval period?

9. Why did the power of the English monarch increase in the XII century?

10. What was the political context in which Parliament established its supremacy over the monarchy in the 17-th century? Why did the pre- revolutional situation emerge?

11. What did the Civil War result in?

12. What were two divisions of the Parliament in the XVIII century?

13. What political innovations were established in the century?

14. What radical changes did Scotland undergo in the XVIII century?

15. What political event marked the beginning of the 19th century?

16. What were the parts of the greatest empire the Britain controlled?

17. What problems did the country face in the XX century?

6. Make reports on the following topics:

1. The interrelationship between politics and religion in British history;

2. The most remarkable British Kings (queens);

3. Oliver Cromwell and his role in British history;

4. The British Empire: its role golden age and decline.