History and Geography of the UK

History
1. The first inhabitants of the British Isles were the Iberians in about 3000 BC and they were followed by the Celtic tribes. It was approximately 43 BC when the Romans invaded the country and stayed there until the 5th century when the Anglo Saxons from Northern Europe pushed them out.
2. 9th century – Anglo-Saxons Alfred the Great, a heroic warrior, captured London in 886 from the invading Danes, created a new nation and established a legal code.
3. 11th century – Norman Conquest. The death of the English king Edward the Confessor brought unrest to England. Harold, King of England, defeated his namesake Harold, King of Norway at Stamford Bridge in the north of England. Meanwhile, William of Normandy was attacking the south coast of England. Harold rushed south, but was defeated and killed at the Battle of Hastings in 1066. When William the Conqueror became King of England, feudalism and the French language became the dominant influence.
4. 13th century – Magna Carta In 1215, King John signed the Magna Carta, which restricted the power of the ruler and recognized the rights and privileges of the barons and freemen. The ‘Great Charter’ survived many difficult times and became an essential part of English law. Centuries later it formed the basis of the American Bill of Rights of the United States Constitution.
5. 15th century – Wars of the Roses. Two great English noble houses wanted the crown: the Lancastrians with their symbol of a red rose and the Yorkists with their white rose. The last battle of the War of the Roses in 1485 ended thirty years of civil war in England at Bosworth Field when Lancastrian Henry Tudor’s army defeated the larger force of the Yorkist Richard III. However, by marrying the Yorkist princess Elizabeth, Henry brought the warring families together and brought peace to the country.
6. 16th century - Church of England. The English Reformation began during the reign of the Tudor dynasty, when Henry VIII wanted a divorce from his first wife, Catherine of Aragon. She had not produced a son, only a daughter, Mary. The Pope said no to this divorce, so Henry founded the Church of England with himself as head in 1534, and divorced Catherine. He did have a child by his second wife Anne Boleyn, another girl, Elizabeth, later Queen Elizabeth I. Her reign was dominated by a great flowering of national culture and the war with Spain. The Spanish Armada was defeated by the English in 1588.
7. 17th century – Glorious Revolution. After the Civil War (started in 1640) between the king’s army and the parliamentary forces led by Oliver Cromwell, the monarchy was restored in 1660 and Charles II succeeded to the throne. Later, when King James II (brother of Charles II) was suspected of imposing the catholic faith on the English, the King was deposed and James’ sonin-law William of Orange and his wife Mary became joint sovereigns after a bloodless invasion from Holland in 1688. This event is commonly known as the Glorious Revolution.
8. 18th century – British Empire. Britain and France had been bitter rivals in the race to conquer the world. In 1759, British victories in West Africa, the West Indies, and on the battlefields of Europe, India and Quebec established the British Empire ‘on which the sun never set.’
9. 19th century - Battle of Trafalgar. France and Spain still troubled the British at sea, but their fleet was defeated by Admiral Nelson at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. Napoleon lost at Waterloo in 1815 and Britain continued her colonial expansion. The Industrial Revolution fuelled the continued prosperity of Britain. The Victorian Era from 1837 (named after the reign of Queen Victoria), continued this period of stability and economic growth.
10. GB fought in both WW on the side of the Allies. Especially in the WW2 the UK was almost defeated, but in the end managed to fend off the attack of Hitler.
11. 20th century – political stability. After WWII, the country gained its political and financial stability at home as well as abroad. The UK is a founding member of NATO and since 1973 it has been a member of the European Union.
12. In december 2017, the UK sent a letter to Donald Tusk. The letter announced british will to exit the Eruropean Union. The GB has not left the Union yet due to the controversy of the final leaving agreement.
Geography
The UK consists of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. The many islands in this political group lie off the NW mainland of Europe and are surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean to the west and the North Sea to the east. France is only 35 km to the southeast across the English Channel. The southern tip of England is roughly at the same latitude (52 degrees North) as Prague and the zero degree of longitude (Greenwich Meridian) passes through London. The UK covers an area of 244,820 sq km, only three times that of the Czech Republic. The physical geography is varied with the highest mountains in Wales and Scotland). The eastern and southern parts of England are lower and high ground is referred to as hills, downs or heights (eg. The Chiltern Hills, The South Downs and the East Anglican Heights). The lowest point in the UK is minus 4 m in the drained Fens of East Anglia. The highest peak is Ben Nevis with its height of 1300meters. The capital is London. The currency is a bristish pound.
Scotland is a historically and culturally separate country from England. Scotland is the land of many special traditions, which cannot be found elsewhere in the world – playing the pipes, wearing kilts made of tartan, Scotch whisky.
Wales is a beautiful country with many highlands and castles (Caernarfon, Conwy, Harlech). There aren’t many industrial towns, the biggest are Cardiff, Newport and Swansea.
The main industries are steel, metals, vehicles, shipbuilding, shipping, banking, insurance, textiles, chemicals, electronics, aircraft, machinery, distilling. The main agricultural products are grain, sugar, beet, fruit and vegetables. Worldknown is British cattle breeding. Britain’s natural riches are coal, tin, oil, gas, limestone, iron, salt, clay, chalk and lead.
The UK is known as the Land of sheep. An enormous number of sheep is bred in the Uk for wool and fleece.
The Lake District, or just the Lakes or Lakeland, in the north-west of England is one of the most picturesque (attractive) regions in Britain. With its high mountains, green forests and shimmering lakes it is a very popular tourist destination. The beauty of the Lakes has inspired many poets and is associated with the poetry of William Wordsworth and other so-called Lake Poets. Beside the Lake District, there i salso one world-known lake called the Lochness lake. It is said that a monster live under the water there and it has become a local legend.

State
Queen Elizabeth II is head of the constitutional monarchy and the government is responsible to her for its decisions. She is also Head of the Protestant Church of England. Theresa May is currently Prime Minister. Many decisions for the UK are made in London through the Parliament, consisting of the elected House of Commons and the un− elected House of Lords. Recently, there has been a heated discourse on Brexit, because the opposition doesn´t like the final leaving agreement.
Capital of England is London, Scotland is Edinburgh, Wales is Cardiff, Northern Ireland is Belfast
Climate
The weather is a main talking point among the British at first meeting. Its variability is due to the temperate maritime climate. Winters are milder than they would normally be for the latitude because of the warming effect of the North Atlantic drift (The Gulf Stream). Summers are occasionally hot but 50 per cent of the year the skies are cloudy and overcast.
Rivers from the atlas.
People
The population of the UK is more than 60 million, taking into account emigration and immigration. About 7 million live in London. To live in Britain means that you could enjoy a very good standard of living with life expectancy for men being nearly 76 years and 81 years for women. Unemployment is low (4.8%). On the negative side, 17% of the population is living below the poverty line. Population is 59 mil. people. The density is one of the highest in the world. People live mostly in urban areas. In Britain we can find the following ethnic groups: English, Scottish, Irish, Welsh and others. The majority of people speaks English. There are minority languages that are of Celtic origin – Welsh, Scottish and Irish Gaelic.