英语国家概况—英国

Part One: The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandChapter 1 Land and PeopleChapter 2 The Origins of a Nation (500BC~AD1066)Chapter 3 The Shape of the Nation (1066~1381)Chapter 4 Transition to the Modern Age (1455~1688)Chapter 5 The Rise and Fall of the British Empire (1688~1990)Chapter 6 The EconomyChapter 7 Government and AdministrationChapter 8 Justice the LawChapter 9 Social AffairsChapter 10 Cultural AffairsChapter 1 Land, People and Language☺1 Different Names for Britain and its PartsThe official name of Britain is the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.The geographical names are the British Isles, Great Britain and England. People just say Britain, the United Kingdom or simply U.K.☺PeopleEngland is the largest and most populous, almost a quarter of the people lives in England’s prosperous and fertile southeast, with over 7 million in the capital.The majority of the population are descendants of the Anglo-Saxons, a Germanic people from Europe who went to England between the 5th and 7th centuries.These people settled in England and drove the native Celtic people to the mountainous areas of Wales and Scotland. Their language became the official language of the country. Most people in W ales and Scotland are descendants of the Celtic people who were the earliest known inhabitants of Britain. The Irish people were also of Celtic origin.About a hundred years ago, as a result of its imperialist expansion, Britain ruled an empire that had one fourth of the world’s people and a quarter of the world’s land area.☺Geographical FeaturesThere are 3 political divisions on the island of Great Britain: England, Scotland and Wales. The island of Ireland is divided into 2 parts: Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.Britain has, for centuries, been slowly tilting with the North-W est slowly rising and the South-East slowly sinking. The north and west of Britain are mainly highlands; the east and south-east are mostly lowlands.There are 3 natural zones of Scotland: the Highlands in the north, the central Lowlands, and the southern Uplands.The highest mountain in Britain is Ben Nevis (1,343m), located in Scotland.The longest river of Britain, the Severn River, which is 354kms long, originates in mid-Wales and flows through western England to the Bristol Channel.The largest lake in U.K, Lough Neagh, is located in Northern Ireland.☺ClimateThe average temperature in January is around 0 degree and seldom falls below -10 degree, even in the northern Scotland.Factors which influence the climate in Britain are:☺1 The surrounding waters tend to balance the seasonal differences by heating up the land in winter and cooling it off in summer. ☺2 The prevailing south-west winds or the W esterlies blow over the country all the year round bringing warm and wet air in winter and keeping the temperatures moderate. ☺3 The North Atlantic Drift, which is warm current, passes the western coast of the British Isles and warms them.As a result of the rainfall distribution in Britain there is a water surplus in the north and west, and a water deficit in the south and the east.☺LanguageEnglish is a member of the Indo-European family of language (印欧语系).Old English was strongly influenced by old Norse (挪威语) spoken by the Vikings（北欧海盗）and was closely related to the German and Dutch language. The introduction of Christianity added the first wave of Latin and Greek words to the language. The Old English period ended with the Norman Conquest, when the language was influenced, to an even extent, by the French-speaking Normans.William the Conqueror, the Duke of Normandy, invaded and conquered England and the Anglo-Saxons in 1066. In the early of this period, French, spoken by the Normans, replaced English as the official language in England, while English was only used by the low class. Numerous French words came into the English vocabulary. This period was the Middle English.From the late 15th century onward, the English language changed further into what is now described as Modern English. The printing press was introduced to England in 1476 by William Caxton, who brought standardization to English. The dialect of London became the standard. Spelling and grammar became fixed. The first English dictionary was published in 1604. Samuel Johnson’s dictionary, published in 1755, was influential in establishing a standard form of spelling.Standard English is based on the speech of the upper class of the southern England, adopted as a broadcasting standard in the British media. It is also called Queen’s English or BBC English.At present, nearly a quarter of the world’s population use English. It has become a universal lingua franca（国际通用语）Today about a quarter of the W elsh population still speak W elsh as their first language and about one percent speak only W elsh. Welsh is an ancient Celtic language. It was given equality with English for all official use in Wales in 1965.Chapter 2 The Origins of a Nation (500BC~AD1066)☺ The Early Settlers (5000BC-55BC)☺1 The IberiansAt about 3000BC during New Stone Age, Iberians came to Britain from Iberian Peninsula, now Spain.☺2 The Beaker Folk☺3 The Celts☺ Roman Britain (55BC-AD410)British recorded history begins in the year 55BC, when Julius Caesar and his Roman troops invaded the island.In 410, Germanic barbarians attacked Rome, forcing all Roman troops to leave Britain in order to defend their own nation, and thus ending the Roman occupation of the island.☺The Anglo-Saxons (446-871)Soon after the Roman left, groups of Germanic warriors, including the Angles, the Saxons and the Jutes from what is today Denmark and Northern Germany, landed in Britain. They drove the Britons to the mountains, and those did not flee remained as slaves to the new invaders.In 579 St. Augustine became the first Archbishop of Canterbury; he was remarkably successful in converting the king and the nobility.Anglo-Saxons laid the foundation of the English state, divided the country into shires and devised the narrow-strip, three-field farming system, which continued until the agriculture revolution in the 18th century. And they created the Witan (council or meeting of the wise men), to advise the king, the basis of the Privy Council which still exists today.☺ The Viking and Danish InvasionsIn the 8th century, the Norwegian Vikings and the Danes from Denmark attacked the English coast. In the process of resisting the Vikings, the 7 Anglo-Saxon kingdoms in England gradually became united under Alfred the Great, king of Wessex (871-899). Afred is known as “the father of the British navy”as he founded a strong fleet which first beat the Danes at sea, then protected the coasts and encouraged trade; he translated into English Bede’s Ecclesiastical History of the English People and he encouraged learning in others, established schools and formulated a legal system.☺ The Norman Conquest (1066)William the Conqueror, the Duke of Normandy, invaded and conquered England and the Anglo-Saxons in 1066.Chapter3 The Shaping of the Nation (1066-1381)☺ Norman Rule (1066-101381)☺To consolidated his powerUnder William, the feudal system in England was completely established. According to this system, the king owned all the land personally. William gave his barons large estates in England in return for a promise of military service and a proportion of the land’s produce. One peculiar feature of the feudal system of England was that all the landowners took the oath宣誓of allegiance效忠for the land they held, not only to their immediate lord, but also to the king, in other words , this restrained(resisted) the growth of the power of the barons.William replaced Witan, the council of the Anglo-Saxon kings, with the Grand Council of his new tenants-in-chief. The Grand Council met 3 times a year in the southern cities of Winchester.William sent his clerks to compile汇编a property record known as Domesday Book, completed in 1086. Today it is kep t in the Public Records Office in London.☺ Henry II’s ReformsHenry II was the first king of the House of Plantagenet. He abolished the annual land tax based on hides (hide _ an Anglo-Saxon unit of land variously calculated as 24 to 48 hectares). He divided the county into six circuits and appointed itinerant justices to each of them.In Henry’s time, a jury was composed of 12 men and the juror’s function was to act as witnesses, not to hear evidences and give verdict.As parts of his legal reforms, Henry II insisted that all clerks charged with criminal offences should be tried in the king’s courts instead of the Bishop’s courts.☺Henry II VS Thomas BecketIn 1154, Thomas Becket became Henry’s intimate friend. In 1162, Becket became Archbishop, and the next year, a clerk of Bedford was acquitted on a murder charge in the Bishop of Lincoln’s court. The king demanded that the man should come forward to answer the charge in a civil court, but Becket refused to allow this. This brought matters to a crisis.☺The Great Charter and the Beginning of Parliament☺The Great Charter (1215)King John was defeated in a war with France and lost Normandy in 1204. In order to avenge himself on France, he demanded more feudal taxes and army service. Dissatisfied with John’s leadership, the lords forced him to sign the Magna Carta, or the Great Charter on June 15, 1215.The Magna Carta contained 63 clauses, the most important being the following:☺1the king could not exact索取payment from the vassals诸侯without their consent;☺2no freeman should be arrested, imprisoned, or deprived剥夺of their property unless they are convicted by a jury;☺3merchants would be allowed to move aboutfreely;☺4there should be the same weights and measures throughout the country;☺5traditional rights and privileges优惠待遇should be given to the towns;☺6 if the king attempted to free himself from the law, the vassals had the right to force him to obey the law by every means possible, even by means of a civil war. The spirit of Magna Carta was the limitation of the powers of the king, keeping them within the bounds范围of the feudal law of the land.The significance of the Magna Carta is regarded as the foundation of the British constitutionalism and it provides the basic principles for the protection of the individual rights in both Britain and the United States.☺The beginning of ParliamentHenry III waged a series of wars on France. Being unable to manage these with normal revenue财政收入, he exacted money from English people under all pretexts 借口in violation of the spirit of the Magna Carta.The outraged nobles, led by Simon de Montfort,rebelled. Thus,it was through the efforts of Simon de Montfort that the modern idea of a representative parliament emerged出现. Later, by the mid-14th century, the Great Council developed later into the House of Commons and the House of Lords as a parliament.☺Hundred Y ears’ War with France (1337-1453)The Hundred Y ear s’War was a series of intermittent断断续续的wars between France and England. The causes were territory, economy, security and the throne.At first, the war went in England’s favor. As time went on, the French peasants农民rallied under Joan of Arc a national heroine, defeated the English and drove them out of France.☺The significance of the Hundred Y ears’ W arIt promoted the concept of English nationalism and promoted the development of the textile industry because it reduced the export of English wool. In addition, the war raised the social position of the bourgeois中产阶级. All these factors contributed to the decline of feudalism in English.☺The Black Death (1348-1349)The Black Death spread through Europe in the summer of 1348 without warning and, most importantly, without any cure.☺The consequences of the Black Death☺1 It had reduced England’s population from 4 million to 2 million by the end of the 14th century. ☺2 As a result of the plague瘟疫, much land was left untended and there was a terrible shortage of labor.After the Black Death, the laboring and merchant classes grew in economic and social importance, and along with them English increased in importance compared to French.☺The Peasant Uprising (1381)农民起义Although the Peasant Uprising of 1381 was brutally残酷suppressed, it had far-reaching significance in English history, paving the way for the development of capitalism.☺Chapter 4☺Transition to the Modern Age (1455-1688)The name W ars of the Roses was coined创造by the great 19th century novelist Sir W alter Scott.The Wars of the Roses (1455-1485) was a series of civil wars between two great noble families: the House of Y ork, whose badge was a white rose, and the House of Lancaster, whose badge was a red rose.In the end, the House of Lancaster won and their leader Henry Tudor became King Henry VII (1485-1509) .The Tudor family ruled England from 1485 to 1603. Under the Tudor, England became a national state with an efficient centralized go vernment, and started changing from a medieval中世纪的to a modern country.☺The significance of the W ars of the Roses☺1 The feudalism received its death blow; ☺2 The great medieval nobility was much weakened and discredited; ☺3 The king’s power now became supreme; ☺4 England changed from a medieval to a modern country.☺The English ReformationHenry VIII’s reform was to get rid of the English Church’s connection with the Pope, and to make an independent Church of England.The reform began as a struggle for a divorce and ended in freedom from the Papacy教皇.He carried out a wholesale suppression of the monasteries教徒and confiscated the property of the church. In 1534 he issued the Act of Supremacy《至尊法案》, and declared himself to be the “only head of the church of England”. The Reformation was in essence a political movement in a religious guise/ under the guise of the religion.伪装，打着宗教的幌子☺Elizabeth I (1558-1603)Elizabeth was 25when she came to the throne. She reigned England, Wales and Ireland for45years and she remained single. Elizabeth’s reign was a time of confident English nationalism and of great achievements in literature and other arts, in exploration and in battle.Elizabeth’s relationship with Parliament was often turbulent动荡. Parliament had grown in status地位since Henry VIII’s day and hoped to receive recognition of this in two days.。