The United Kingdom, also known as Britain or the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern

Ireland, is a European region with a long and storied history. The first modern humans (Homo
sapiens) arrived in the region during the Ice Age (about 35,000 to 10,000 years ago), when the sea
levels were lower and Britain was connected to the European mainland. It is these people who built
the ancient megalithic monuments of Stonehenge and Avebury.
Between 1,500 and 500 BCE, Celtic tribes migrated from Central Europe and France to Britain and
mixed with the indigenous inhabitants, creating a new culture slightly distinct from the Continental
Celtic one. This came to be known as the Bronze Age.
The Romans controlled most of present-day England and Wales, and founded a large number of
cities that still exist today. London, York, St Albans, Bath, Exeter, Lincoln, Leicester, Worcester,
Gloucester, Chichester, Winchester, Colchester, Manchester, Chester, and Lancaster were all
Roman towns, as were all the cities with names now ending in -chester, -cester or -caster, which
derive from the Latin word castrum, meaning "fortification.‖
History of the United Kingdom: The Anglo-Saxons
In the 5 century, the Romans progressively abandoned Britannia, as their Empire was falling apart
and legions were needed to protect Rome.
With the Romans vacated, the Celtic tribes started warring with each other again, and one of the local
chieftains had the (not so smart) idea to request help from some of the Germanic tribes from the
North of present-day Germany and South of Denmark. These were the Angles, Saxons and Jutes,
who arrived in the 5th and 6th centuries.
When the fighting ceased, the Germanic tribes did not, as expected by the Celts, return to their
homeland. In fact, they felt strong enough to seize the whole of the country for themselves, which
they ultimately did, pushing back all the Celtic tribes to Wales and Cornwall, and founding their
respective kingdoms of Kent (the Jutes), Essex, Sussex and Wessex (the Saxons), and further
northeast, the kingdoms of Anglia, Mercia and Northumbria (the Angles). These 7 kingdoms, which
ruled over the United Kingdom from about 500 to 850 AD, were later known as the Anglo-Saxon
heptarchy.
History of the United Kingdom: The Vikings
In the latter half of the 9 century, the Norse people from Scandinavia began to invade Europe, with
the Swedes putting down roots in Eastern Europe and the Danes creating problems throughout
Western Europe, as far as North Africa.
Towards the dawn of the 10 century, the Danes invaded the Northeast of England, from
Northumerland to East Anglia, and founded a new kingdom known as the Danelaw. Another group of
Danes managed to take Paris, and obtain a grant of land from the King of France in 911. This area
became the Duchy of Normandy, and its inhabitants were the Normans (from 'North Men' or
'Norsemen', another term for 'Viking').
History of the United Kingdom: The Normans
After settling in to their newly acquired land, the Normans adopted the French feudal system and
French as the official language.
During that same period, the Kings of Wessex had resisted, and eventually vanquished the Danes in
England in the 10th century. However, the powerful Canute the Great (995-1035), king of the newly
unified Denmark and Norway and overlord of Schleswig and Pomerania, led two other invasions on
England in 1013 and 1015, and became king of England in 1016, after crushing the Anglo-Saxon
King, Edmund II.
During the 11 century, the Norman King Edward the Confessor (1004-1066) nominated William, Duke
of Normandy, as his successor, but upon Edward‘s death, Harold Godwinson, the powerful Earl of
Wessex, crowned himself king. William refused to acknowledge Harold as King and invaded England
with 12,000 soldiers in 1066. King Harold was killed at the battle of Hastings and William the
Conqueror become William I of England.
The Norman rulers kept their possessions in France, and even extended them to most of Western
France (Brittany, Aquitaine...). French became the official language of England, and remained that
way until 1362, a short time after the beginning of the Hundred Years' War with France. English
nevertheless remained the language of the populace, and the fusion of English (a mixture of Anglo-
Saxon and Norse languages) with French and Latin (used by the clergy) slowly evolved into the
modern English we know today.
History of the United Kingdom: 12 and 13 Centuries
The English royals that followed William I had the infamous habit to contend for the throne. William's
son, William II was killed while hunting, although it is widely believed that he was in fact murdered so
that William's second son, Henry, could become king. Henry I's succession was also fraught with
agitation, with his daughter Matilda and her cousin Stephen (grandson of William I) starting a civil war
for the throne. Although Stephen eventually won, it was ultimately Matilda's son that succeeded to the
throne, becoming Henry II (1133-1189). It is under Henry II that the University of Oxford was
established.
The two children of Henry II—Richard I "Lionhearted" and John Lackland—also battled for the
throne. The oldest son, Richard, eventually succeeded to the throne, but because he was rarely in
England, and instead off defending his French possessions or fighting the infidels in the Holy Land,
his brother John Lackland usurped the throne and started another civil war.
John's grandson, Edward I "Longshanks" (1239-1307) spent most of his 35-year reign fighting wars,
including one against the Scots, led by William Wallace and Robert the Bruce. With the help of these
men, the Scots were able to resist, as immortalized in the Hollywood movie Braveheart.
History of the United Kingdom: 14 and 15 Centuries
After a brief rule by Edward Longshanks son, his grandson, Edward III (1312-1377), succeeded to the
throne at the age of 15 and reigned for 50 years. His reign was marked by the beginning of
the Hundred Years' War (1337-1416) and deadly epidemics of bubonic plague ("Black Death"), which
killed one third of England‘s (and Europe's) population.
Edward III was often off fighting in France, leaving his third son, John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, to
run the government. Later, John‘s son, Henry Bolingbroke, would be proclaimed King Henry IV
(1367-1413).
Henry V (1387-1422) famously defeated the French at the Battle of Agincourt in 1415, but his pious
and peace-loving son Henry VI (1421-1471), who inherited the throne at age one, was to have a
much more troubled reign. The regent lost most of England‘s possessions in France to a 17-year old
girl (Joan of Arc) and in 1455 the Wars of the Roses broke out. This civil war opposed the House of
Lancaster (the Red Rose, supporters of Henry VI) to the House of York (the White Rose, supporters
of Edward IV). The Yorks argued that the crown should have passed to Edward III' second son, Lionel
of Antwerp, rather than to the Lancaster descendant of John of Gaunt.
Edward IV's son, Edward V, only reigned for one year, before being locked in the Tower of London by
his evil uncle, Richard III (1452-1485). In 1485, Henry Tudor (1457-1509), the half-brother of Henry
VI, defeated Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth Field and became Henry VII, founder of the House
of Tudor.
Following Henry (Tudor) VII to the throne was perhaps England‘s most famous and historically
significant ruler, the magnificent Henry VIII (1491-1547).
History of the United Kingdom: 16 Century

Portrait of Henry VIII Henry VIII is remembered in history as one of the most powerful kings of
England. He changed the face of England, passing the Acts of Union with Wales (1536-1543), and
became the first ruler to declare himself king of both Wales and Ireland.
In 1533, Henry VIII divorced Catherine of Aragon to remarry Anne Boleyn, causing the Pope to
excommunicate him from the church. As a result, Henry proclaimed himself head of the Church of
England. He dissolved all the monasteries in the country (1536-1540) and nationalized them,
becoming immensely rich in the process.
Henry VIII was the last English king to claim the title of King of France, as he lost his last possession
there, the port of Calais (although he tried to recover it, taking Tournai for a few years, the only town
in present-day Belgium to have been under English rule).
It was also under Henry VIII that England started exploring the globe and trading outside Europe,
although this would only develop to colonial proportions under his daughters, Mary I and especially
Elizabeth I.
Upon the death of Henry VIII, his 10-year old son, Edward VI, inherited the throne. Six years later,
however, Edward VI died and was succeeded by Henry‘s elder half-daughter Mary. Mary I (1516-
1558), a staunch Catholic, intended to restore Roman Catholicism to England, executing over 300
religious dissenters in her 5-year reign (which owned her the nickname of Bloody Mary). She married
the powerful King Philip II of Spain, who also ruled over the Netherlands, the Spanish Americas and
the Philippines (named after him), and was the champion of the Counterreformation. Mary died
childless of ovarian cancer in 1558, and her half-sister Elizabeth ascended to the throne.
The great Queen Elizabeth I (1533-1603) saw the first golden age of England. It was an age of great
navigators like Sir Francis Drake and Sir Walter Raleigh, and an age of enlightenment with the
philosopher Francis Bacon (1561-1626), and playwrights such as Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593)
and William Shakespeare (1564-1616).
Her reign was also marked by conflicts with France and Scotland, and later Spain and Ireland. She
never married, and when Mary Stuart tried and failed to take over the throne of England, Elizabeth
kept her imprisoned for 19 years before finally signing her act of execution.
Elizabeth died in 1603, and ironically, Mary Stuart's son, James VI of Scotland, succeeded Elizabeth
as King James I of England—thus creating the United Kingdom.
History of the United Kingdom: 17 Century
James I (1566-1625), a Protestant, aimed at improving relations with the Catholic Church. But 2
years after he was crowned, a group of Catholic extremists, led by Guy Fawkes, attempted to place a
bomb at the parliament's state opening, hoping to eliminate all the Protestant aristocracy in one fell
swoop. However, the conspirators were betrayed by one of their own just hours before the plan's
enactment. The failure of the Gunpowder Plot, as it is known, is still celebrated throughout Britain on
Guy Fawkes' night (5th November), with fireworks and bonfires burning effigies of the conspirators'
leader.
After this incident, the divide between Catholics and Protestant worsened. James's successor
Charles I (1600-1649) was eager to unify Britain and Ireland. His policies, however, were unpopular
among the populace, and his totalitarian handling of the Parliament eventually culminated in
the English Civil War(1642-1651).
Charles was beheaded, and the puritan Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658) ruled the country as a dictator
from 1649 to his death. He was briefly succeeded by his son Richard at the head of the Protectorate,
but his political inability prompted the Parliament to restore the monarchy in 1660, calling in Charles I'
exiled son, Charles II (1630-1685).
Charles II, known as the ―Merry Monarch,‖ was much more adept than his father at handling
Parliament, although every bit as ruthless with other matters. During his reign, the Whig and Tory
parties were created, and the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam became English and was renamed
New York, after Charles' brother, James, Duke of York (and later James II).
Charles II was the patron of the arts and science, helping to found the Royal Society and sponsoring
some of England‘s proudest architecture. Charles also acquired Bombay and Tangiers through his
Portuguese wife, thus laying the foundation for the British Empire.
Although Charles produced countless illegitimate children, his wife couldn't bear an heir, and when he
died in 1685 the throne passed to his Catholic and unpopular brother James.
James II's unpopularity led to his quick removal from power in the Glorious Revolution of 1688. He
was succeeded by his Protestant daughter Mary, who was married to his equally Protestant nephew,
William of Orange.
The new ruling couple became known as the "Grand Alliance," and parliament ratified a bill stating
that all kings or queens would have to be Protestant from that point forward. After Mary's death in
1694, and then William's in 1702, James's second daughter, Anne, ascended to the throne. In 1707,
the Act of Unionjoined the Scottish and the English Parliaments thus creating the single Kingdom of
Great Britain and centralizing political power in London. Anne died heirless in 1714, and a distant
German cousin, George of Hanover, was called to rule over the UK.
History of the United Kingdom: 18 Century and the House of Hanover

George I as Prince of Hanover When George I (1660-1727) arrived in England, he couldn't speak a
word of English. The king's inability to communicate well with his government and subjects led him to
appoint a de facto Prime Minister in the person of Robert Walpole (1676-1745). This marked a turning
point in British politics, as future monarchs were also to remain more passive figures, lending the
reins of the government to the Prime Minister.
George II (1683-1760) was also German born. He was a powerful ruler, and the last British monarch
to personally lead his troops into battle. The British Empire expanded considerably during his reign; a
reign that saw notable changes, including the replacement of the Julian Calendar by the Gregorian
Calendar in 1752, and moving the date of the New Year from March 25 to January 1.
George III was the first Hanoverian king to be born in England. He had one of the most troubled and
interesting reigns in British history. He ascended to the throne during the Seven Years' War (1756-
1763) opposing almost all the major Western powers in two teams, chiefly British against French, and
ended in a de facto victory for the UK, which acquired New France (Quebec), Florida, and most of
French India in the process.
Thirteen years later, the American War of Independence (1776-1782) broke out and in 1782 13
American colonies were finally granted their independence, forming the United States of
America. Seven years later, the French Revolution broke out, and Louis XVI was guillotined. George
III suffered from a hereditary disease known as porphyria, and his mental health seriously
deteriorated from 1788. In 1800, the Act of Union merged the Kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland.
The United Kingdom during this time also had to face the ambitions of Napoleon, who desired to
conquer the whole of Europe. Admiral Nelson's naval victory at Traflagar in 1805, along with
Wellington's decisive victory at Waterloo, saved the UK and further reinforced its international
position. The 19th century would be dominated by the British Empire, spreading on all five continents,
from Canada and the Caribbean to Australia and New Zealand, via Africa, India and South-East Asia.
History of the United Kingdom: 19 Century
In 1837, then king William IV died of liver disease and the throne passed to the next in line, his 18-
year old niece Victoria (1819-1901), although she did not inherit the Kingdom of Hanover, where
the Salic Lawforbid women to rule.
Victoria didn't expect to become queen, and being unmarried and inexperienced in politics she had to
rely on her Prime Minister, Lord Melbourne (1779-1848). She finally got married to her first cousin,
Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha (1819-1861), and both were respectively niece and nephew of
the first King of the Belgians, Leopold I (of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha).
Britain asserted its domination on virtually every part of the globe during the 19 century, resulting in a
number of wars, including the Opium Wars (1839-42 & 1856-60) with Qing China and the Boer
Wars(1880-81 & 1899-1902) with the Dutch-speaking settlers of South Africa. In 1854, the United
Kingdom was brought into the Crimean War (1854-56) on the side of the Ottoman Empire and against
Russia. One of the best known figures of that war was Florence Nightingale (1820-1910), who fought
for the improvement of women's conditions and pioneered modern nursing.
The latter years of Victoria‘s reign were dominated by two influential Prime Ministers, Benjamin
Disraeli (1808-1881) and his rival William Ewart Gladstone (1809-1898). The former was the favorite
of the Queen, while Gladstone, a liberal, was often at odds with both Victoria and Disraeli. However,
the strong party support for Gladstone kept him in power for a total of 14 years between 1868 and
1894. He is credited with legalizing trade unions, and advocating for both universal education and
suffrage.
Queen Victoria was to have the longest reign of any British monarch (64 years), but also the most
glorious, as she ruled over 40% of the globe and a quarter of the world's population.
History of the United Kingdom: 20 Century (Two World Wars)
Victoria's numerous children married into many different European Royal families, The alliances
between these related monarchs escalated into the Great War –WWI—from 1914-1918. It began
when Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria was assassinated in Sarajevo, and Austria declared war
on Serbia, which in turn was allied to France, Russia and the UK. The First World War left over 9
million dead (including nearly 1 million Britons) throughout Europe, and financially ruined most of the
countries involved. The monarchies in Germany, Austria, Russia and the Ottoman Empire all fell, and
the map of central and Eastern Europe was completely redesigned.
After World War I, the Labor Party was created in Britain. The General Strike of 1926 and the
worsening economy led to radical political changes, including one in which women were finally
granted the same universal suffrage as men in 1928.
In 1936, Edward VIII (1894-1972) succeeded to the throne, but abdicated the same year to marry
Wallis Simpson, a twice divorced American woman. His brother then unexpectedly became George
VI (1895-1952) after the scandal.
Nazi Germany was becoming more menacing as Hitler grew more powerful and aggressive. Finally,
Britain and France were forced to declare war on Germany after the invasion of Poland in September
1939, marking the beginning of World War II. The popular and charismatic Winston Churchill (1874-
1965) became the war-time Prime Minister in 1940 and his speeches encouraged the British to fight
off the attempted German invasion. In one of his most patriotic speeches before the Battle of Britain
(1940), Churchill address the British people with "We shall defend our island, whatever the cost may
be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and
in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender." And indeed, Britain did not
surrender.
Following World War II, the United Kingdom was bankrupt and in ruins. The British Empire was
dismantled little by little, first granting independence to India and Pakistan in 1947, then to the other
Asian, African and Caribbean colonies in the 1950's and 60's. Most of these ex-colonies formed the
British Commonwealth, now known as the Commonwealth of Nations. 53 states are now members of
the Commonwealth, accounting for 1.8 billion people (about 30% of the global population) and about
25% of the world's land area.
In 1952, the current queen of England, Elizabeth II, ascended to the throne at the age of 26. The
1960s saw the dawn of pop and rock music, with bands like the Beatles, Pink Floyd, and the Rolling
Stones rising to prominence, and the Hippie subculture developing.
The 1970's brought the oil crisis and the collapse of British industry. Conservative Prime minister
Margaret Thatcher (b. 1925) was elected in 1979 and served until 1990. Among other
accomplishments, she privatized the railways and shut down inefficient factories, but she also
increased the gap between the rich and the poor by scaling back social security. Her methods were
so harsh that she was nicknamed the ―Iron Lady.‖
Thatcher was succeeded in her party by the unpopular John Major, but in 1997, the "New Labor"
party came back to power with the appointment of Tony Blair (b. 1953). Blair's liberal policies and
unwavering support for neo-conservative US President George W. Bush (especially regarding the
invasion of Iraq in 2003) disappointed many Leftists, who really saw in Blair but a Rightist in disguise.
Regardless, Blair has impressed many dissenters with his intelligence and remarkable skills as an
orator and negotiator.
Today, the English economy relies heavily on services and, like the rest of the world, is in the process
of beginning to rebuild after the global economic recession of 2008. The main industries in the
country are travel, education, prestigious automobiles and tourism
https://www.studycountry.com/guide/GB-history.htm
Brexit: The U.K. Votes to Exit the EU
Brexit ballotA postal ballot for the June 23, 2016, referendum on whether the United Kingdom should leave
the European Union (the act referred to as Brexit) is shown. The turnout for the vote was over 72%, and,
surprisingly, some 52% of the participants expressed the desire to withdraw from the EU.Russell
Boyce/Reuters/Newscom

Brexit rallyFormer mayor of London Boris Johnson speaks at a rally for those in favour of Brexit. The
outcome of the vote (calling for the move away from the EU) shocked many people around the
world.Andrew Parsons/ZUMA Press/Newscom

On June 23, 2016, the United Kingdom voted in a referendum to withdraw from the European Union. With
a 72.2% voter turnout, 17.4 million people (51.9%) approved Brexit, as Britain‘s exit came to be known,
while 16.1 million (48.1%) opted to remain in the EU. It was the first time that any EU member country had
decided to leave. The result was a defeat for British Prime Minister David Cameron, who immediately
announced his intention to resign. More widely, the vote led to a period of economic uncertainty within
both the U.K. and the rest of the EU.
Cameron became prime minister in 2010 on a commitment, as expressed in the Conservative Party
election manifesto, to ―play an active and energetic role in the European Union.‖ His government passed a
law saying that a referendum would be needed to endorse any further transfer of powers from member
states to the EU. In January 2013, under pressure from anti-EU MPs in his own party and rising support
for the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP)—the latter of which came partially at the expense of
the Conservatives—he announced his intention to hold an in-out referendum if his party won the 2015
general election.

Cameron‘s ultimate goal was to negotiate a new relationship with the rest of the EU and win public
approval for continued membership. Following the Conservatives‘ election victory in May 2015, he sought
agreement from other EU members on four key issues:

 Protection for noneuro countries: Guarantees that decisions relating to the euro zone not impose costs or
other obligations on countries, such as the U.K., that maintain their own currencies outside the euro zone
 Competitiveness: Faster progress on liberalizing the EU‘s single market and a decrease in excessive
regulation, a factor commonly referred to by critics as ―Brussels bureaucracy‖
 Sovereignty: The U.K.‘s right to opt out of the commitment, enshrined in successive EU treaties, to ―ever
closer union‖
 Benefit restrictions: A change in the freedom-of-movement rules to allow the U.K. to delay paying welfare
benefits to people arriving from other countries to work in the U.K.
On Feb. 19, 2016, following a meeting of the EU Council in Brussels, Cameron announced that he had
reached agreement on those issues; the following day he set June 23 as the date for the referendum. He
told voters: ―The choice is in your hands—but my recommendation is clear. I believe that Britain will be
safer, stronger, and better off by remaining in a reformed European Union.‖

However, Cameron‘s critics, including some of his own party‘s MPs, said that he had achieved too little.
They accused him of compromising too far on freedom of movement (by agreeing to the phasing in of
welfare payments to workers from other EU countries over four years rather than an outright ban for that
period); as for the other three issues, they maintained that the commitments made by other countries
were largely symbolic and carried no real legal force.
The stage was thus set for the referendum campaign. The question that voters were asked was: ―Should
the United Kingdom remain a member of the European Union or leave the European Union?‖ Under strict
rules that limited spending and banned paid television advertisements (similar to the rules that applied to
U.K. general elections), the U.K.‘s Electoral Commission authorized two official campaigns: Britain
Stronger in Europe (BSE), advocating ―remain,‖ and Vote Leave, advocating ―leave.‖ Cameron said that
government ministers would be free to campaign on either side rather than be bound by the normal
convention of collective responsibility. (Cameron was following the precedent of the 1975 referendum on
British membership in the European Economic Community [or Common Market], as the EU was then
known, when Labour Prime Minister Harold Wilson allowed ministers to campaign on either side of the
issue.) Although most cabinet ministers sided with Cameron, a minority campaigned for Brexit. They were
joined by Boris Johnson, the Conservative mayor of London (until May 2016) and one of the party‘s most-
popular MPs.

The leaderships of the Labour Party, the Liberal Democrats, the Scottish National Party (SNP), the
Greens, Plaid Cymru (Wales), and the Alliance Party and Sinn Fein (Northern Ireland) joined Cameron
and most ministers in campaigning for ―remain.‖ A minority of Conservative and Labour MPs, together
with Northern Ireland‘s Democratic Unionist Partyand UKIP, advocated ―leave.‖

During the campaign three issues dominated public concern. The first was immigration. When Cameron
became prime minister, he promised to reduce net immigration to less than 100,000. Instead, by 2015 that
figure had increased to more than 300,000; roughly half were from EU countries, and half were from the
rest of the world. Vote Leave said that only by withdrawing from the EU and its freedom-of-movement
rules could the U.K. regain full control over immigration.

The second issue was the U.K.‘s contribution to the EU budget. Vote Leave‘s slogan, emblazoned on a
red battlebus (a vehicle used by a political party during an election campaign) said: ―We send the EU
£350 million a week/let‘s fund our NHS [National Health Service] instead.‖ Campaigners for remaining in
the EU stated that this number was the gross amount; the U.K.‘s net contribution, after deducting the
U.K.‘s rebate and the money that the EU spent in the U.K., was very much less.

Third, ―remain‖ campaigners said that Brexit would be bad for the U.K.‘s economy, leading to less
investment, fewer jobs, a lower standard of living, and weaker government finances. They concluded that
as a result, less money would be available for the NHS and other public services. In addition, they pointed
out that any future relationship with the EU that gave the U.K. ready access to the single market would
require that the U.K. maintain freedom of movement, as was the case with Norway and Switzerland, two
European countries outside the EU; therefore, immigration would not be reduced significantly.

The campaign was livelier than most general election campaigns and produced a turnout that was higher
than those in the five general elections held in the previous 20 years. Clear majorities in Scotland
and Northern Ireland voted ―remain,‖ while Wales and every English region, with the exception of London,
voted ―leave.‖ Some of the biggest ―leave‖ majorities were in the former industrial heartlands of northern
England, the Midlands and South Wales, which from the 1970s had suffered most from the economic
upheavals associated with globalization, deindustrialization, and new technology. Opinion polls also
showed that voters under the age of 30 voted strongly for ―remain,‖ while those over 60 voted equally
strongly for ―leave.‖

In the early hours of June 24, it became clear that ―leave‖ had won. At 7:15 AM the Electoral Commission
declared the final result. One hour later Cameron announced his resignation as prime minister. Voters, he
said, had chosen ―a different path‖ from the one that he had recommended, and the country needed new
leadership. In the event, the Conservatives chose Theresa May as their new leader; she had supported
―remain‖ but had not played a prominent role in the referendum campaign. She took over as prime
minister on July 13.
After becoming prime minister, May confirmed that she would accept the referendum result and negotiate
the U.K.‘s withdrawal from the EU. With a view to completing the U.K. exit from the EU by early 2019, she
appointed three pro-Brexit ministers to key posts: Johnson (foreign secretary), Liam Fox (trade secretary),
and David Davis (secretary of state for exiting the European Union).

The ripples from the result affected other parties as well. On June 28 a large majority of Labour MPs
passed a vote of no confidence in the party leader, Jeremy Corbyn, who had shown little enthusiasm for
his party‘s support for ―remain.‖ However, he refused to step down. His decision prompted a new
leadership election, in which Corbyn was challenged by Owen Smith, an MP who enjoyed the support of
most other Labour MPs. Nigel Farage also stepped down as UKIP‘s leader, saying that his political
ambition had been achieved, though he retained his seat in the European Parliament.

In Scotland Nicola Sturgeon, the country‘s first minister and leader of the SNP, said that she wanted
Scotland to remain in the EU and would explore the possibility of holding a second referendum on
independence (the first, in September 2014, had produced a 55–45% vote in favour of staying in the
U.K.). She hoped that Scotland would be able to stay within the EU as a continuing member rather than
being required to apply as a new member outside the EU.

Peter Kellner

CITATION INFORMATION

ARTICLE TITLE: Brexit: The U.K. Votes to Exit the EU

WEBSITE NAME: Encyclopaedia Britannica

PUBLISHER: Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.

DATE PUBLISHED: 18 August 2016

URL: https://www.britannica.com/topic/Brexit-The-U-K-Votes-to-Exit-the-EU-2075293

ACCESS DATE: January 31, 2019

Northern Ireland. One of the most contentious and defining conflicts of the twentieth
century and one whose impact is still felt today. What caused it?

Pre-Twentieth Century
The origins of problems in the region stretch centuries back to the Anglo-Norman
intervention of Ireland in 1167, when England first laid roots in the area. Despite some
intermingling of the English and Irish population, the two were never completely united. As
a result, two disparate populations, with differing interests, found themselves living in a
small island side by side.
These differences became more marked during the reign of Henry VIII. His break from
Rome placed him at loggerheads with Catholic Europe and introduced religion into Irish
politics for the first time. Resistance to the British Crown came in 1534 when the Kildare
heir, Lord Offaly, led a Catholic revolt against the Protestant English King in Ireland. It was
swiftly put down and those involved were executed.

Elizabeth I continued her father‘s legacy in Ireland. A bid for independence by Hugh
O‘Neill, Earl of Tyrone, was ultimately defeated by the Queen‘s army, with a harsh post-
war settlement impeding future uprisings from the Catholic majority.

All the while, plantations were being established throughout the country. Lands occupied
by Irish landowners were confiscated, especially in Munster and Ulster. They were
distributed to colonists, commonly known as planters, who came in large numbers from
England, Scotland and Wales. The final official plantations sprung up under Oliver
Cromwell‘s English Commonwealth during the 1650s, when thousands of Parliamentarian
soldiers were settled in Ireland.

The plantations altered the demography of Ireland. Large Protestant English communities
were created, whose identity was at odds with the Roman Catholic Irish inhabitants.

Cromwell‘s name is not just synonymous with the establishment of plantations in Ireland,
but with brutality in general. The Battle of Drogheda maintains particular resonance. In
September 1649, Cromwell laid siege to Drogheda, a town on the East coast of Ireland,
which had been garrisoned by a coalition of Roman Catholics, Confederates and Royalists
in their quest to expel the English from Ireland. Showing no compassion, all 2,800 of
Drogheda‘s defenders were massacred.

By the late seventeenth century, against a backdrop of battles and disputes, which further
mired relations between the two populations, the position for Catholics was incredibly
compromised. Indeed, the Battle of the Boyne(1690), in which the previously desposed
Catholic King James II was defeated by the Protestant King William III, ensured Protestant
supremacy. The passage of ‗penal laws‘ limited Catholic property ownership even further,
alongside restricting their right to education and to bear arms, and driving out the clergy.
Even for those seemingly unaffected by the laws, the fact that ultimate control of their land
lay in the hands of Westminster was a mockery. Consequently, a reform movement of
‗patriots‘ emerged, that began to lobby for representation in Parliament. The first sounds
of Irish nationalism were being made.

England could not afford to ignore Ireland‘s calls for independence. After all, the mood
was ripe for unrest, with both America and France already experiencing revolution in the
latter half of the eighteenth century. As a concession, the penal laws were relaxed.

But this did not extinguish opposition; in 1798 a rebellion broke out in Ireland, organised
by the United Irishmen, a revolutionary republican group, who had been inspired by the
revolutions of France and America. The rebellion lasted for several months. Despite
successes in the south-east county of Wexford and the assistance of the French, it
ultimately failed. In January 1801 the Act of Union was passed, which made Ireland and
England one state, as a result of the rebellion convincing William Pitt that this was
necessary for national security. Out of this act the United Kingdom was created, the Irish
parliament was abolished and the Church of Ireland and England were united. 100 Irish
MPs entered the House of Commons and 32 Irish peers entered the House of Lords.

In response to the Union, the Catholic Association was formed by Daniel O‘Connell, who
turned it into a national movement campaigning for Catholic emancipation. In his debate,
Ulster (Northern Ireland) was singled out as a special case for the first time.

The British government‘s laissez faire approach to the 1840s potato famine exacerbated
the situation. By 1851, the Irish population had dropped by two million as a result of
death, disease and emigration. The desire for an autonomous Ireland took on even more
intensity and violence. Within this context, British politicians recognized that a resolution to
problems in Ireland was paramount. The formation of the Home Rule League in 1870
acted as a further catalyst for Prime Minister William Gladstone to put forward bills for Irish
self-government. Gladstone never got to see his wish for Home Rule come to light – both
his 1886 and 1893 bills were never passed. But the turn of the century ushered in an age
in which Ireland was firmly on the British political agenda.

Early Twentieth Century

The beginning of the twentieth century saw a cultural renaissance in Ireland. Groups
sprung up throughout Ireland, which aimed to preserve native Irish pastimes and
language, such as the Gaelic Athletic Association and the Gaelic League. In 1905 Sinn
Fein (‗Ourselves Alone‘) was established and the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB) was
revived. Not all favoured an independent Ireland, however. Home Rule met opposition
both from within Parliament and outside of it. The Protestant population of Ulster were
particularly keen to remain part of the British Empire.

As tensions mounted, private armies of 100,000 plus men arose to represent the interests
of both sides. Protestants formed the Ulster Volunteer Force, while nationalists formed the
Irish Volunteers. As it became evident that it was no longer a matter of if but when for
Home Rule, tensions mounted and the unionists pressed the importance of an exclusion
for Ulster.

With the advent of World War I, Home Rule was pushed to one side in Britain. And a
distracted Britain offered the perfect setting for the Military Council of the IRB to plan an
uprising.

The Easter Rising of 1916 did indeed catch the British off guard. Nevertheless, the
rebellion was swiftly crushed and the key figures rounded up. Britain had won the battle.
But they had not won the war – the subsequent brutal execution of the key figures turned
these men into martyrs and the cause gained further momentum. The Easter Rising was
especially fortuitous for Sinn Fein, whose popularity surged. With the 1917 election of
Eamon de Valera, one of the surviving leaders of the uprising, to the Presidency of Sinn
Fein, all groups working towards an independent Ireland were unified under a single
leadership.

A Solution?

The end of World War I did not bring an end to problems for Britain, with issues remaining
tense across the shore. During the first election since the war‘s close, 73 Sinn Fein
candidates were elected. All of them refused to attend Westminster, forming their own
Irish Assembly, the Dail Eirann. Violent confrontations quickly broke out, with atrocities
committed on both sides.
The escalation of violence made an Irish solution urgent. There was no longer time to deal
with the ‗Ulster Question.‘ In May 1921 the Government of Ireland Act was passed,
splitting Ireland into two. Six predominantly Protestant counties in Ulster become known
as the ‗North‘ and the remaining 26 counties formed part of the ‗South.‘ The South was
established as the ‗Irish Free Zone,‘ which had dominion status within the British
Commonwealth, although not full independence - that was granted in 1937, when a new
constitution abolished the Irish Free State and proclaimed EIRE (Gaelic for Ireland) as an
independent, sovereign state.

Trouble instantly erupted in the North, in 1921, as the Ulster Volunteer Force was revived
to fight in the campaign of violence launched by the Irish Republican Army (IRA). And thus
Northern Ireland was born.

The Troubles

Calm prevailed for several decades in Northern Ireland, owed in large part to the rule of
Prime Minister Viscount Brookeborough, who was in office for 20 years. His political
allegiance with the Ulster Unionists marginalised the Catholic minority both socially and
politically.

With the advent of better education as a result of the introduction of the Welfare State and
the equal opportunities it entailed, the disparities within the Northern Ireland community
were highlighted.

This situation was exacerbated in the 1960s: Northern Ireland, which had been relatively
prosperous in the immediate years after the war, now suffered the same economic fate as
the mainland, which was in economic decline. Brookeborough fell from power; his inability
to deal with the situation causing the members of his own party to turn against him.
Former army officer Terence O‘Neill was appointed in his place. O‘Neill introduced a
series of measures to address Northern Ireland‘s social, economic and political malaise.
Amongst his many radical moves, he met with the Republic of Ireland‘s Prime Minister
Sean Lamass, which was the first meeting between the two factions in forty years.
His new attitude raised hopes for Catholics, but was a cause of concern for Protestants.
Then on the 50th anniversary of the Battle of the Somme and the Easter Rising, in 1966,
violence erupted. Blood was spilt on both sides.

This descent into violence precipitated the need for armed forces on both sides. By 1969,
the Provisional IRA (PIRA) was formed, a breakaway from the main part of the IRA. Like
the IRA itself, the PIRA demanded the unification of Ireland, advocated civil rights and
represented Catholic interests. Unlike the IRA, it was prepared to use violent means to
achieve its ends.

A small force of British troops was also deployed to Northern Ireland. Pitted against the
PIRA, the British Army conducted house-to-house searches and imposed a curfew, albeit
limited. Rather than diminishing the power of the IRA, in reality more people were driven
into its ranks.

This was evident on 30 January 1972, when the army controversially suppressed rioting at
a civil rights march in Derry in a day that became known as ‗Bloody Sunday.‘ The resulting
death toll of 14 civil rights protestors fed into the hands of the IRA; more recruits flooded
into their ranks. In turn, more British troops were deployed to the area.

By 1973, with violence escalating further, plans were afoot for a new Northern Ireland
assembly, elected by proportional representation, in which Protestants and Catholics
would share power. Known as the Sunningdale Agreement, a reference to the town in
Berkshire where the negotiations took place, unionists were split by the agreement since it
raised the possibility that the Republic could have a voice in Northern Ireland. Despite
staunch opposition to Sunningdale in the form of a referendum in which anti-agreement
Unionists won 11 of Northern Ireland‘s 12 parliamentary seats, the agreement was signed
at the end of 1973. Coming to fruition in January 1974, the new government was wrought
with weakness, mired by its exclusion of anti-power sharing representatives from the
executive. By May of the same year, turmoil had reached a head: The Ulster Workers‘
Council, a coalition of Protestant trade unionists, called for a general strike in the province
and loyalist bombs exploded throughout Dublin and Monaghan, killing 32 people in the
worst day of the Troubles. By the end of May, those who had been in favour of
Sunningdale resigned. Direct rule was immediately reinstated and would remain so for the
next 25 years.

Over the next decade, various different peace initiatives were both suggested and tested,
but none led to peace in the region. Relations between the Republic of Ireland and Britain
became more strained upon the declassification of paramilitary prisoners from a ‗special
category‘ that gave them similar rights as prisoners of war, to simply ordinary criminals.
Seen as an affront to their vision that they were fighting a war, something the British
government would not concede, PIRA prisoners embarked on a series of protests, most
significantly hunger strikes. The strikes were popular, as demonstrated by leading hunger
striker Bobby Sands, who won the vacant Westminster seat of Fermanagh in South
Tyrone in a by-election. Nevertheless, Margaret Thatcher refused to make any
concessions.

Ten hunger strikers died in prison, including Sands who died on 5 May 1981. Despite his
death, his election victory encouraged Sinn Fein, the IRA‘s political wing, to fight in further
elections. And in June 1983, Gerry Adams, the leader of Sinn Fein, went on to win the
Westminster seat for West Belfast.

A new Dawn

Even though Margaret Thatcher was not in a conciliatory mood after narrowly escaping an
IRA bomb at a Conservative Party conference in Brighton in October 1984, she could not
dismiss the rising popularity of Sinn Fein or overlook the continued violence in the region.
Thus in November 1985 Thatcher and Garret Fitzgerald signed the Anglo-Irish
Agreement, which outlined that Northern Ireland would remain independent of the
Republic as long as that represented the will of the majority in the North. At the same time,
it set up the Intergovernmental Conference, which gave the Republic a voice on security
and political issues.

Reaction to this agreement was diverse; it was greeted by huge demonstrations and the
likes that aimed to derail the agreement. Nevertheless, it prevailed.
 The light had not been turned out on tensions in the region, which resonate to this day.
But as a result of several initiatives, most specifically the 1994 paramilitary ceasefires in
Northern Ireland and the Good Friday Agreement of 1998, which saw direct rule of
Northern Ireland being placed in the hands of locally elected government, a much more
peaceful era had emerged.

Northern Ireland Conflict Timeline:

 14 August 1969: British Army first deployed onto streets of Northern

Ireland
 9 August 1971: Internment introduced and violent protests begin
 1972: Bloodiest year of the conflict
 30 January 1972: Bloody Sunday, 13 civil rights protesters shot
dead by British Army
 March 1972: Northern Ireland Government suspended and Direct
Rule imposed. No-go areas (set up 1969) dismantled
 21 July 1972: Bloody Friday, IRA bombs kill 9 people and injure
130 in Belfast
 From 1974: IRA step up bombing campaign on Mainland
 29 November 1974: Prevention of Terrorism Act
 1980: 7 Republican prisoners launch hunger strike in Maze Prison
 1981: Death of Bobby Sands (first IRA hunger striker to die), huge
surge in support for Sinn Fein, the IRA‘s political wing
 12 October 1984: IRA Brighton bombing of the Grand Hotel kills 5
people and seriously injures 34
 15 November 1985: Anglo-Irish Agreement signed, giving Dublin
some say in Ulster affairs
 November 1987: Remembrance Day bombing Enniskillen
 15 December 1993: Downing Street Declaration that people of
Northern Ireland can determine their own future. Warrington bomb
kills two young boys
 August 1994: Peace process receives a big boost when the pro-
Catholic 1994 IRA ceasefire declared with Sinn Fein entering peace
process
 1996: Peace Talks stall and violence resumes with Canary Wharf
bombing
 1997: Resumption of peace talks
 February 1997: Stephen Restorick last soldier to be killed until 7
March 2009
 10 April 1998: Belfast (Good Friday) Agreement