INTRODUCTION

In this
book we are talking about the history of Great Britain right from the first
inhabitants. Each capitol contains the most important information about a
population, and sometimes you'll find imagines that will improve the concepts.
Every topic will be explained in easy words, so that everyone can understand
it. We hope we can make you understand easily the History of England. We hope
you will like this book and... good read

______________________________________________________________________________________

Ch.1: The
Iberians

A long time
ago many people walked for long way. They were the Iberians. They crossed many
countries and, when they arrived at the sea, they made boats and crossed it.
They arrived in an Island in 6.000 B.C. It was the end of the Ice Age and
people thought the island to be a good place to live. The Iberians were hunters
and fishermen, but, once in England, they discovered how to farm and stop to
walk around the World. Four thousand years after, they discovered how to forge
with  bronze and, later, with the iron.  

They left
many things, that we call "Archaeological Remains". Thanks to these remains, we
discovered all what we know about them. Archaeological remains can be
everything: pottery, gold objects, swords, ... But the biggest Archaeological
remain we have is something you sure know: it's called Stonehenge.

The
Iberians lived in the Island for a very long time, for something like 2000
years or maybe more!

                                               Stonehenge

Ch2: The
Celts

After many
centuries, a new population arrived in England. They were tall, muscular, with
fair skin, blond hair and blue eyes. This population arrived around the 700
B.C. (Before Christ) and were called "Celts". The Celts started to walk around
the World about 2 century before they arrived in England. Before, they lived in
the middle of Europe (Austria, Germany,  etc.). They were Farmers, Hunters, Fishermen
and Metalworkers, like the Iberians, but they knew something more powerful than
Bronze and Iron. They knew how to create the Steel. They were very  violent and  were always searching  for a quiet life. That is why they left their
houses and went  to Britain.

With their
force, they conquest Britain very quickly. Under their kingdom, there were lots
of wars, but weren't very long. They lived in tribes and the built high walls around
their villages. They were very related to their clans, and the chiefs were the oldest
grandparents of the clan.

They didn't
believed in one God, but in the Water, in the Sun, in the Wind, in the Spirits
who lived in mountains, lakes and caves 
and in many other Gods. Their churches were the forests, and their
priests were the Druids, the sages who knew all about  laws, medicine and, of course, magic. They
were also the teachers. The druids knew all these things, but they didn't know
how to write!

Today in  Britain there are many Celtic traditions (the
most famous is Halloween), but we can find also two languages very similar to
their: the Gaelic, spoken in Scotland, and the Welsh, the language of Wales.

The Druids

Ch.3: The
Romans

Romans
arrived in Britain in the 55 B.C . Caesar , one of the Romans greatest general,
wanted to Conquest the Island for the Empire. He conquered the Gallia (today it
is called France) and then he tried to conquest Britain. Unfortunately for him,
he had to come back to the Empire to defend it from rebellions, so Britain remained
free for a century more.

In the 43
A.D. (Anno Domini) the emperor Claudius came back to conquest Britain. He was
not interested in the land but he had to show that he was a good chief and, to
prove it, he decided to conquest a new country that Cesar didn't managed to
conquest.

He invaded  from the South. With his army, he conquest the
most part of the island, but the Scottish populations in the North were too strong
even for the Empire. They built a wall to divide the Romanized Britain from the
Scotland. This wall is today know as Hadrian's wall.

In the Romanised
part of the island they built towns, streets and bridges. They divided the
population in three groups: Roman citizen, Celts Romanised and Barbarians. They
lived in different kinds of towns, also with different names.

In 55 B.C.,
roman soldiers had to come back to the continent to defend the empire from another
barbarian invasions. After these barbarian invasion,  Romanised people forgot Latin language and
started again to talk in the ancient languages.

Ch 4: The
Anglo-Saxons

Anglo
Saxons were a Germanic population. They moved to Britain in the 5th century.
They first arrived in the North-West and slowly they conquered all the country.

Two
centuries after, Anglo Saxon divided Britain into 7 kingdoms, with a lots of
petty-countries under their order.

Anglo-Saxon's
traditions were very similar to the Celtic ones, and lived in villages were
family was the most important things, also more than the king .

Later,
Saxons started to build larger cities. First these cities were only for
soldiers, but a few later, families and merchants started to live there, because
it was safer. Slowly, these cities grew up and formed the first towns.

Two famous
monks arrived in Britain during the Anglo Saxon period: they were Saint
Augustine and Saint Patrick. They converted the royal families to Christianity and,
after, that the Celtic monks converted the rest of the population.