Great Britain

Great Britain (or simply Britain) is a large island in the Atlantic Ocean, separated from continental Europe to the south by the English Channel and from Ireland to the west by the Irish Sea. It is the largest island in the archipelago known as the British Isles, with an area of 218,595 km² (93,282 square miles). Politically, the island is part of the United Kingdom (for which "Britain" and "Great Britain" are often used as synonyms), and contains the nations of England, Wales and the majority of Scotland.

Geography and geology

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History and politics

Prehistory

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• Ice ages
• Paleolithic
• Mesolithic
• Neolithic
• Bronze Age
• Iron Age
• Religion

Britain in the Classical period

Britain was known in the early Classical period as a source of tin. It is likely that the name Cassiterides or "tin islands", mentioned in the 5th century BC by Herodotus, refs to the British Isles. The Greek explorer Pytheas of Massalia claimed to have visited the island in the 4th century, and although his own writings are lost, and later classical writers are sceptical, it seems likely that he did so.

Britain became part of Rome's sphere of political influence in the 1st century BC. Julius Caesar, in the course of his conquest of Gaul, made two armed expeditions there in 55 and 54 BC. The first barely gained a foothold on the south-east coast before being forced to return to the continent for winter. The second was more successful, installing a friendly king, Mandubracius of the Trinovantes, and forcing the submission of his rival Cassivellaunus, but conquered no territory and did not extend beyond the Thames Valley. Augustus planned invasions in 34, 27 and 25 BC, but circumstances were never favourable, and the relationship between Britain and Rome settled into one of diplomacy and trade. Strabo, writing late in Augustus's reign, claims that taxes on trade brought in more annual revenue than any conquest could, and mentions British kings who sent embassies to Augustus. Augustus' own Res Gestae refers to two British kings whom he received as refugees. Rome appears to have encouraged a balance of power in southern Britain, supporting two powerful kingdoms: the Catuvellauni, ruled by the descendants of Tasciovanus, and the Atrebates, ruled by the descendants of Commius. Archaeology shows an increase in imported luxury goods in south-eastern Britain. These peaceful relations broke down in AD AD 39 or 40, when Caligula received an exiled member of the Catuvellaunian dynasty and staged an invasion that collapsed in farcical circumstances.

When Claudius successfully invaded in 43, it was in aid of another fugitive British ruler, this time Verica of the Atrebates. The Catuvellaunian territory became the nucleus of a new Roman province, while Tiberius Claudius Cogidubnus was sent up as the client ruler of Atrebatian and other lands. Over the course of the 1st century Roman control expended west into Wales, then north into Scotland. However, the Roman presence in the north proved untenable, and was withdrawn to the line of Hadrian's Wall in the 2nd century.

More to come

• Language
• Urbanisation & road-building
• Arrival of Christianity
• Roman civil wars

Sub-Roman Britain

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• Roman withdrawal
• Migration period
• Anglo-Saxons
• Arthur legend
• Emergence of England, Scotland and Wales

Medieval Britain

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• Early Anglo-Saxon kingdoms in England, Gaelic kingdoms in Scotland, Welsh kingdoms
• Norman conquests of England and Wales
• Wars of Scottish independence
• Owain Glyndwr's rebellion in Wales
• Wars of the Roses

Renaissance and early modern Britain

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Modern Britain

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