Introduction

they are doing makes sense to them.”

Successful communication in another

culture requires knowledge of the country’s: HISTORY, POLITICS, LITERATURE AND ART, TRADITIONS AND CUTOMS, VALUES AND BELIEFS

3d centuries BC

and 2300 BC. It is one of the most famous

and mysterious archaeological sites in the world. One of the 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). Another is its purpose. It appears to function as a kind of astronomical clock and we know it was used by the Druids for ceremonies making the passing of the seasons. These days Stonehenge is not only of interest to tourists, but is also a gathering point of certain minority groups such as hippies and “New Age Travelers”. It is now fenced off to protect it from damage.

Ireland and Scotland
Londinium (London)
Chester, Lancaster, Gloucer [‘glɔstə] (Lat. “castra” –

military road)

second century across the northern border of their province in

order to protect their territory from attacks by the Scots and the Picts.

Anglo-Saxons)
King Arthur
Pagan
Christianity
St. Augustine
597
Canterbury (the south-east of England)
Vikings, Norsemen, Danes

(Scandinavia)
King Alfred of the Saxon kingdom of Wessex
Wessex (in the south and west) and “Danelaw” (in the north and east)
Gaelic Kingdom

to medieval histories and romances, led the defence of Britain

against Saxon invaders in the late 5th and early 6th centuries AD. The details of Arthur's story are mainly composed of folklore and literary invention, and his historical existence is debated and disputed by modern historians.

Pagan is a term which refers to a variety of

different religions. Some Pagans are of no specific religion, but rather are eclectic (разносторонний, разнообразный). In general Pagan religions have more than one deity, or many gods which are aspects of one (an idea similar to that of the Christian trinity). Another quite common feature of Pagan religions are that they tend to be nature oriented.

the Bible as sacred scripture, and professed by Eastern, Roman

Catholic, and Protestant bodies.

Wessex and one of the outstanding figures of English history,

as much for his social and educational reforms as for his military successes against the Danes. He is the only English monarch known as 'the Great'.

language (Middle English)
Norman language (French)
Eisteddfods
The division of Scotland
Parliament, 1295

from Normandy defeated the English at the Battle of Hastings.

The Battle was extremely bloody. At the end of it most of the best warriors in England were dead, including their leader, king Harold. On Christmas day that year the Norman leader, Duke William of Normandy, was crowned king of England. He is known in popular history as William the Conqueror and the date is remembered as the last time that England was successfully invaded.

into society after the Norman invasion, people often point to

the fact that modern English has two words for the larger farm animals: one for the living animal (cow, ship, pig) and another for the animal you eat (beef, pork, mutton). Only Normans normally ate meat, the poor Anglo-Saxons did not!

was controlled by Anglo-Norman lords in the name of the

English king
The whole Wales was under his (the king’s) direct rule
Scotland was politically independent

music and performance. The tradition of such a meeting of

Welsh artists dates back to at least the 12th century, when a festival of poetry and music was held by Rhys ap Gruffydd of Deheubarth at his court in Cardigan in 1176 but, with the decline of the bardic tradition, it fell into abeyance. The present-day format owes much to an eighteenth-century revival arising out of a number of informal eisteddfodau. The closest English equivalent to eisteddfod is "session"; the word is formed from two Welsh morphemes: eistedd, meaning "sit", and bod, meaning "be".

nobles called together by the king.

death)
The Tudor dynasty (1485-1603)
The House of Lords and the

House of Commons
Henry VIII
Protestantism, Anglicanism, Calvinism

series of battles fought in medieval England from 1455 to

1485 between the House of Lancaster and the House of York. The name Wars of the Roses (sometimes mistakenly referred to as War of the Roses) is based on the badges used by the two sides, the red rose for the Lancastrians and the white rose for the Yorkists. Major causes of the conflict include: 1) both houses were direct descendents of king Edward III; 2) the ruling Lancastrian king, Henry VI, surrounded himself with unpopular nobles; 3) the civil unrest of much of the population; 4) the availability of many powerful lords with their own private armies; and 5) the untimely episodes of mental illness by Henry VI. The wars ended when Richard III, the last Yorkist king, was defeated at the battle of Bosworth in 1485 by Henry Tudor founder of the house of Tudor.

Welsh origin, which gave five sovereigns to England: Henry VII

(reigned 1485–1509); his son, Henry VIII (1509–47); followed by Henry VIII’s three children, Edward VI (1547–53), Mary I (1553–58), and Elizabeth I (1558–1603).

presiding over sweeping changes that brought his nation into the

Protestant Reformation. He famously married a series of six wives in his search for political alliance, marital bliss and a healthy male heir. His desire to annul his first marriage without papal approval led to the creation of a separate Church of England. Of his marriages, two ended in annulment, two in natural deaths and two with his wives’ beheadings for adultery and treason. His children Edward VI, Mary I and Elizabeth I would each take their turn as England’s monarch.

that separated from the Church of Rome during the Reformation,

or of any group descended from them.
Anglican - a member of the Church of England or one of the Churches in full communion with it.
Calvinism - The religious doctrines of John Calvin. Calvin stressed that people are saved through God's grace, not through their own merits. The most famous of Calvin's ideas is his doctrine of predestination. In the United States, the Presbyterians make up the largest single group of Christians in the Calvinist tradition.

II
The Glorious Revolution
Prince William of Orange, ruler of the Netherlands
Bill

of Rights
Dissenters (those who did not agree with the practices of Anglicanism)
Ulster

1603, when he became the first Stuart king of England

as well, creating the kingdom of Great Britain.

royalist “Cavaliers” and puritanical, parliamentarian “Roundheads” (because of the style

of their haircuts). The latter won by 1645, although the war periodically continued until 1649.

to Parliament in 1628 and 1640. The outspoken Puritan helped

organize armed forces after the outbreak of civil war in 1642, serving as deputy commander of the “New Model Army” that decimated the main Royalist force at the 1645 Battle of Naseby. After the death of Charles I, Cromwell served in the Rump Parliament and set to reform the legal system in part through the establishment of the Blue Laws. He commanded campaigns in Ireland and Scotland in the early 1650s, and served as “lord protector” of England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland from 1653 until his death.

England, Scotland and Ireland who in 1688 was overthrown in

the 'Glorious Revolution' by William III.

history of England and Scotland in 1688. The people of

England and Scotland did not like the king, King James II because he would not let them vote or practice the religion of their choice. They invited William III of Orange-Nassau to take over as king. William was King James II's nephew and Mary's first cousin. He came to England with his wife Queen Mary, the daughter of King James II. They let the old king escape, so he moved to France out of fear.

William signed the Bill of Rights and became king, and England became a constitutional monarchy.

joint monarchs of England, Scotland and Ireland in 1689. Their

accession, known as the ‘Glorious Revolution’, marked an important transition towards parliamentary rule as we know it today. William’s ousting of his predecessor, the Catholic James II, ensured the primacy of the Protestant faith in Britain. His decisive victory over James at the Battle of the Boyne is celebrated annually in Northern Ireland on 12 July. In Europe, William was successful in his lifelong struggle to contain the military ambitions of Louis XIV, the Catholic king of France. In part to help finance his wars with Louis, William founded the Bank of England.

the Parliament of England that deals with constitutional matters and

lays out certain basic civil rights. Passed on 16 December 1689, it is a restatement in statutory form of the Declaration of Right presented by the Convention Parliament to William and Mary in February 1689, inviting them to become joint sovereigns of England. The Bill of Rights lays down limits on the powers of the monarch and sets out the rights of Parliament, including the requirement for regular parliaments, free elections, and freedom of speech in Parliament. It sets out certain rights of individuals including the prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment and reestablished the liberty of Protestants to have arms for their defence within the rule of law. Furthermore, the Bill of Rights described and condemned several misdeeds of James II of England.

Government
The tartan Kilt
The expansion of the empire in Americas, along

the West African coast and India
The Industrial Revolution

were Hanoverian Germans with interests on the European continent. The

first of them, George I, could not even speak English. Perhaps this situation encouraged the habit whereby the monarch appointed on principal “prime” minister from the ranks of Parliament to head his government. It was also during this time that the system of annual budget drawn up by the monarch’s Treasury officials for the approval of Parliament was established.

18th to 19th centuries, was a period during which predominantly

agrarian, rural societies in Europe and America became industrial and urban. Prior to the Industrial Revolution, which began in Britain in the late 1700s, manufacturing was often done in people’s homes, using hand tools or basic machines. Industrialization marked a shift to powered, special-purpose machinery, factories and mass production. The iron and textile industries, along with the development of the steam engine, played central roles in the Industrial Revolution, which also saw improved systems of transportation, communication and banking. While industrialization brought about an increased volume and variety of manufactured goods and an improved standard of living for some, it also resulted in often grim employment and living conditions for the poor and working classes.

of Values
Human rights

the modern powerlessness of the monarch was confirmed, she herself

became an increasingly popular symbol of Great Britain’s success in the world. As a hard-working, religious mother of ten children, devoted to her husband, Prince Albert, she was regarded as the personification of contemporary morals. The idea that the monarch should set an example to the people in such matters was unknown before this time and has created problems for the monarchy since then.

one’s duties
Absolute honesty in public life
Extreme respectability in sexual matters

very far from what most people consider correct or reasonable

women campaigning for the right to vote in an article

in a British newspaper in 1906.
The Pankhurst family is closely associated with the militant campaign for the vote. In 1903 Emmeline Pankhurst and others, frustrated by the lack of progress, decided more direct action was required and founded the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) with the motto 'Deeds not words'.

(French: Traité de Versailles) was one of the peace treaties

at the end of World War I.

the October Crisis (Spanish: Crisis de octubre), the Caribbean Crisis

(Russian: Карибский кризис), or the Missile Scare, was a 13-day (October 16–28, 1962) confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union over Soviet ballistic missiles deployed in Cuba. It played out on television worldwide and was the closest the Cold War came to escalating into a full-scale nuclear war.

against the attack on their standard of life by the

coalowners.” Specifically, this entailed calling for mine workers wages not to be reduced and their hours not to be lengthened (as mine owners were threatening to do).

look back on the second part of the 20th century.

Here is a country that fought and won a noble war, dismantled a might empire in a generally benign and enlightened way, created a far-seeing welfare state – in short did nearly everything right – and then spent the rest of the century looking on itself as a chronic failure. (Bill Bryson)