Migration

• Migration means moving from one place to another and human history is really all about migration
• All human life is very likely to have originated from Africa and humans left East Africa around 70,000 years ago and the first people arrived in Britain around 4,000 BC
• Factors that cause migration

  • Economic resources
  • Money
  • Governments/leaders
  • Religion
  • War
  • Ideas
  • Science and technology
  • Role of the individual
• The topic of migration starts in around 790 AD
• The topic of migration ends with Brexit which is in the lifetime of the students
• The exam will have 4 questions: a source question, explaining the significance of a person or event, explaining similarities between groups or events, and explaining the main reason for migration
• Vikings


  • Invaders from Scandinavia that first invaded England in 793 AD
  • Stole from monasteries, especially gold and tin
  • Came to England because the farmland was easier to farm than in Scandinavia
  • Had the idea of primogeniture where only the eldest son inherited land, so younger sons had to go out and seize land
  • Used the longboat technology to travel from Scandinavia to Britain and further afield
• Alfred the Great


  • King of Wessex from 871-899 AD
  • Defeated the Vikings at the Battle of Eddington in 878 AD
  • Insisted the Vikings convert to Christianity and created the Danelaw area where Vikings had to stay
• King Cnut


  • Became king of England in 1016
  • Built the North Sea Empire which included England, Norway, Denmark, and parts of Sweden
• King Ethelred launched the St. Brice's Day Massacre


  Killed all Viking men, women and children found south of the Danelaw
• This turned out to be a horrendous mistake

  It led to Sven Forkbeard, the king of Denmark, invading England in 1013 to seek revenge
• Edward the Confessor


  • Stepson of King Cnut
  • When he died in 1066, there was a 3-way battle for the throne between Harold Godwinson, Harald Hardrada, and William Duke of Normandy
• William Duke of Normandy


  • Defeated Harold Godwinson at the Battle of Hastings in 1066
  • Was crowned King William I on Christmas Day 1066
  • Transformed England by changing the feudal system, replacing land ownership with Norman leaders, building castles and churches
• 1066


  There was a three-way battle for the throne with the main claimants being Harold Godwinson (Anglo-Saxon), Harold Hardrada (Viking), and William Duke of Normandy (Norman)
• Harold Godwinson


  Chosen by the Witan to become king, but the other two claimants were deeply unhappy about this
• Battle of Stamford Bridge

  Godwinson defeated Hardrada
• Battle of Hastings


  William defeated Godwinson's troops and killed Harold Godwinson
• William defeated Godwinson at the Battle of Hastings


  14th of October
• William was crowned King


  Christmas Day 1066
• Normans


  • Transformed England by changing the feudal system, replacing land ownership with Norman leaders, building castles and churches to show military power and religious devotion
• Norman influence on English language

  • Words like "soldier" and "city", names like "Robert", "Richard", and "William"
• Henry II


  William's grandson, became king of England in 1154 and built the Angevin Empire
• Angevin Empire


  • Stretched from the edge of Scotland to the edge of Spain, but did not control Scotland or Spain
• How Henry II built the Angevin Empire

  1. Married a French Duchess, Eleanor of Aquitaine

  2. Invaded Ireland in 1161 and was treated as the Irish people's Overlord
• As a result of Henry II's Angevin Empire


  Ireland was under the control of England up until the 1940s
• King John


  Henry II's son, under whom the Angevin Empire began to collapse
• John was so unpopular that he was forced to sign the Magna Carta to limit his powers in 1215</b>
• Hundred Years' War


  Lasted for 116 years, not 100 years
• Reasons for the Hundred Years' War

  • King Edward III wanted to restore the lands of the Angevin Empire, France wanted to take the last remaining part under English control, the wine-making region of Gascony
• Important English victories in the Hundred Years' War

  • Battle of Agincourt
• Battle of Agincourt


  25-year-old King Henry V led a much smaller English army of 11,000 soldiers to victory against 30,000 French, helping to build the idea of England as an underdog nation
• Despite victories like Agincourt, the French were ultimately victorious, led by Joan of Arc
• As a result of the Hundred Years' War


  English kings dropped French as the language of choice and instead started speaking English, England saw itself as separate from Europe
• The idea of English separateness or superiority can be stretched all the way to Euroscepticism and Brexit
• Practice question: Explain the significance of Alfred the Great
• Practice question: Have economic resources been the main reason for migration to and from Britain?