A bit of history...

 

Per our first day in the classroom, we had a short lecture from a local professor about the history of the United Kingdom and her extensive history. In the image above, I mapped out a few of the main and highest influencing events throughout history. Of those, I want to tell you more about the Roman invasion, the 1776 revolution we are all familiar with, and the more recently developed Brexit deal.

 

 

 First up to the plate is the 43 A.D. Roman invasion. According to our guest speaker, Abigail Hunt from Nottingham University, the Romans were the first to really conquer and civilize the area, getting only as far as Ireland before receiving worthy push back. Sadly, the first recount of this invasion is rather unreliable as it wasn’t documented until over 150 years AFTER the invasion actually happened… and furthermore, there’s no accurate way of knowing where the Romans landed on the island according to the English Heritage site. Because there were local tribes and groupings before this, it would be a lie to say that things would have gone smoothly.

I have experienced a few British people showing great pride and almost a sense of thanks to the Romans for creating the civilization here that they currently rely on. Which is understandable as if it were not the romans, it could have been a number of other groups—however none as advanced. That could have made for a Britain, as we know it today, much younger and less progressed.

 

 

The 1776 revolution was a huge shake that most of you reading this are very familiar with— the Independence of the United States of America. Not only was this the result of a long time battle of taxes, ownership, and a far stretch of the military powers of the English, but the loss of this event lead to further strife. While a BBC article notes that many Americans migrated to Canada and other English owned territories after the Independence movement, there were raised taxes and I have to imagine also increased tension. This increase in tension about another overthrow likely lead to more strict laws being introduced.

Since I’ve been here, a couple of different locals have brought up the revolution. Everyone who has brought it up seems to have a sense of minor embarrassment and have commented on how still being part of Britain would be beneficial to America, however none have been able to give reasons as to why this is…

 

The final event that I want to talk about from the British perspective is Brexit, the shortened name for the “British Exit” from the European Union initiated in 2016. Britain successfully removed themselves from the union in 2020, however recent developments have lead them to want to pause this exit plan. As of our arrival on Monday, Brexit has been paused for reevaluation due to the recent war attempts nearby in their ally India. Aside from the information from this site, I have only heard one local talk about the Brexit changes. I could not tell if this professor was a fan or not of the changes, but she did make it clear that there will likely be many tweaks within the next weeks and there’s no way to tell where this is heading.

 

 

 

 

  

If you’d like to know a little more…

o   Here’s a video on the history of Great Britain

o   This video goes into depth on the royalty and events over the 2000+ years of British history not including Brexit.

o   Here’s a video on the history of London

o   This video, although longer than the last, goes over a slightly shorter period of time. This is because London wasn’t “London” as it’s own city until many decades after the Roman invasion.