The first settlers of Britain were nomadic groups from mainland Europe who arrived as early as 10,000 BC. Later settlers came from northern and central Europe and populated eastern Britain, while others arrived from Iberia and settled in southwest England, Ireland, the Isle of Man and western Scotland. The Norman conquest of 1066 had a significant influence on British history and institutions. Despite some intermingling, racial differences remained between the English, Irish, Welsh and Scottish. England sought to unite the countries under its rule through both military and political means, though Scotland and Ireland maintained independence at various points. Britain experienced waves of immigration over the centuries from groups like the Dutch, French Huguenots, Jews and others fleeing persecution in Europe as

2. First settlers
Nomads from mainland Europe (earliest human
bone evidence found in 1994)
Later settlers came from north-central and
occupied eastern Britain. Others arrived from
the Iberian areas and populated south-west
England, Ireland, the Isle of Man and western
Scotland.

4. Norman Conquest
Important watershed in English history
Batle of Hastings in AD 1066 (last successful
external military invasion of the country)
Great influence on the English people and their
language.
Initiated many of the social and institutional
frameworks of the British history (feudal system)

6. Ethnic & national diversity
Usually newcomers tended to concentrate
initially in southern England and settlement
patterns were not uniform over all of Britain at
the same time.
Despite some intermixture between the various
settlers, there were racial differences between
the English and the people from Ireland, Wales
and Scotland.

9. The UK
Political and military attempts long made by England
to unite Wales, Scotland and Ireland under the
English Crown.
Ireland was attacked in the 12th century. The later
colonization and control of Ireland by the English
became a source of hatred between the two
countries.
Irish settlements in London and west-coast ports
such as Liverpool.

10. The UK
Ireland became part of the United Kingdom in
1801 but after civil unrest and political agitation,
it was divided in 1921 into two political units.
Wales lost its independence in 1285 after years
of bloody conflict witht the English. It was
eventually integrated with England by a series of
Acts of Union between 1536 and 1542.

11. The UK
The English tried to conquer Scotland by
military force, but were repulsed at the Battle of
Bannockburn in 1314.
Scotland was to remain independent until the
political union between the two countries in
1707 (creation of Great Britain)
England + Wales + Scotland = Protestantism

12. The UK
Ireland = Catholicism  colonization problems.
Britain = recent and unstable union of four old
nations. The political entity called Great Britain
in only slightly older than the United States of
America, and the United Kingdom (1801) is
younger.
Englishness  Britishness (outsiders = colonial
subjects)

13. The UK
Despite the tensions and bitterness between the
four nations, there has been steady internal
migration between them.
Newcomers arrived from overseas, including
gypsies, blacks (associated with the slave trade)
and a further wave of Jews, who in 1655 created
the first permanent Jewish community.

14. The UK
In the 16th and 17th century the country attracted a
large number of refugees, such as Dutch Protestants
and French Huguenots (largely Calvinists who
escaped Catholic persecution, warfare and
employment needs).
A second central development in British history was
a number of industrial revolutions in the 18th and
19th century.
Post colonial immigration.

15. The UK
First World War = Jews and Poles escaped persecution in
eastern Europe and settled in London.
Anti-foreigner feeling spread, increased by nationalism and
spy mania caused by WWI (Aliens Act of 1905)
World Recession of the 1930s and WWII = Poles, Latvians,
Ukrainians and other nationalities chose to stay in Britain.
Later in the 20th century, political and economic refugees
arrived, such as Hungarians, Czechs, Chileans, Libyans, East
Africans, Asians, Iranians, Vietnamese, to name a few.