Migration, empires and the people: c790 to the present day

• 793 


  Lindisfarne attacked by Vikings (start of Viking era)
• 871: Alfred the Great becomes King of Wessex and the English
• 878: Battle of Edington, Alfred wins but agrees for Danelaw so Vikings retain some land
• 1002: St Brice's Day massacre - Aethelred orders mass killing of Vikings inc. Sven Forkbeard's (the Danish King and Cnut's dad) sister
• 1016 - 1035: Cnut's North Sea Empire

  driven out by Aethelred but comes back and has North Sea Empire. Marries Emma of Normandy uniting Vikings and Anglo-saxons
• 1066 


  Norman conquest of England/Battle of Hastings
• 1086: Domesday Book which leads to heavy, national taxation system
• 1154 - 1216: Henry II Angevin Empire
• 1171 


  Henry II invades Ireland after King Dermot's death
• 1215 


  Magna Carta which limits a Kings power
• 1290 


  Edward I expelled the Jews from England
• 1337-1453 


  Hundred Years' War
• 1415: Battle of Agincourt

  English victory with longbows despite being heavily outnumbered
• 1600

  East India Company founded
• 1606: Ulster plantations established

  Wealthy merchants were encouraged to fund plantations in return for land
• 1607 


  Jamestown founded

  John Smith 'saved' by Pocahontas
• 1619: First enslaved people arrive on British Plantations in West Indies

  from 1761-1808 Britain made £60m from the slave trade, fuelled the industrial revolution
• 1620: Puritan pilgrims land at Plymouth on Mayflower

  +20,000 follow between 1629-40
• 1651- 73: Trade and Navigation Acts said colonies could only buy and sell goods via British ships and ports which raised prices for the colonies but made Britain richer
• 1746: Highland Clearances

  Jacobite (Stuart-supporting) Catholics moved off the land for industrial sheep farming
• 1757: Robert Clive beats the Indian Army at the Battle of Plassey an takes over Bengal
• 1765 


  Stamp Act raised tax on paper
• 1770 


  Cook discovers Australia
• 1775 - 1783: American War of Independence, ended by the signing of the Treaty of Paris when Britain lost America.
• 1773: Gov't of India Act - EIC and British government jointly control India

  By 1914, Britain invests £400term-30m and builds 30,000km of railways
• July 4, 1776: Declaration of Independence was signed, 13 colonies
• 1787: Arthur Philips sets up first colony which is used as a prison for +20,000 sent there
• 1807: British abolish Trans-Atlantic slave trade, replaced by Indenture system which transports many Asians to Africa to build infrastructure
• 1846: Potato blight - 1m dead and +1m flee to Britain

  navies and built canals

  6m brits have Irish ancestors
• 1869: Suez Canal built

  Britain and France late bail out Egypt for control of ports, trains and railways
• 1870-80s: Jews arrive from Russia fleeing Pogroms (Anti-Jewish riots) after falsely accused of killing the Tsar

  1881-1914 - +120,000 Jews arrive
• 1881 - 1914: Scramble for Africa

  1870-10% of Africa controlled by Europe but by 1900-90% (only Abyssinia and Liberia)
• 1899 - 1902: Second Boer War

  After gold and diamonds discovered, Cecil Rhodes opens mines but British workers denied rights by Paul Kruger (Boer leader).
• 1905: Alien acts limits Jewish migrants

  though seen as law-abiding and hard-working
• 1910: Boer states, Cape Colony and Natal join to become South Africa, a dominion of Britain (run own affairs)
• 1815 - 1914: 22m people leave Britain to got to the Empire
• 1922 


  Egyptian independence
• 1935: Government of India Act gave India control of everything except the army
• 1947 


  Independence and Partition of India and Pakistan
• 1956 


  Nationalisation of Suez Canal by Nasser