"The sun never sets on an empire" is a title used to describe a country that is strong, prosperous, and everlasting. Why is the UK called the “Empire on which the Sun Never Sets”? Here is a brief introduction to the UK compiled by the editor of Study La. I hope it will be useful to you!
Why is Britain called the "Empire on which the sun never sets"
"The sun never sets on an empire" is a title used to describe a country that is strong, prosperous, and everlasting. The sun never sets refers to an empire where the sun always shines on its territory at all times. It has colonies on all seven continents of the world and controls the hegemony at that time. After the decline of the Spanish Empire, the second one to win the title of "The Empire on which the Sun Never Sets" was the British Empire.
In the 19th century, the term was widely used as another name for the British Empire, especially in the Victorian era. At that time, the world map published by the British marked the British Empire in pink, vividly showing the British hegemony on a global scale.
After defeating the Spanish Armada in 1588, Britain gradually replaced Spain as the emerging hegemonic power at sea and began to continuously expand its overseas colonies. After that, Britain defeated its strongest opponents, the Netherlands and France, in the Anglo-Dutch War and the Seven Years' War, establishing maritime hegemony. Britain's victory in the Napoleonic War in 1815 further consolidated its position as an international political and military power. The Industrial Revolution gave Britain undisputed economic power. The British Empire entered its heyday during the Victorian era. At that time, approximately 400 to 500 million people in the world—about a quarter of the world's population at that time—were subjects of the British Empire, and its territory covered an area of approximately 33.67 million square kilometers, one-quarter of the world's total land area, spreading from the British Isles to Gambia, Newfoundland, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, Malaya, Hong Kong, Singapore, Myanmar, India, Uganda, Kenya, and South Africa , Nigeria, Malta and countless islands, the British Empire is part of the 24 time zones on the earth. The international order under the leadership of British hegemony was called Pax Britannica. The global map of the British Empire published by the United Kingdom usually marks the territory of the empire in red, which can clearly understand the global influence of this huge empire.
British economist Jevons described it this way in 1865: "The plains of North America and Russia are our cornfields, Canada and the Baltic Sea are our forest areas, Australia is our pastures, Peru is our silver mines, South Africa and Australia is our gold mine, India and China our tea plantations, the East Indies our sugar cane, coffee, and spice plantations, and the American South our cotton plantations.”
Introduction to Britain
The British mainland is located in the British Isles northwest of the European continent. It is surrounded by the North Sea, the English Channel, the Celtic Sea, the Irish Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. It consists of England, Scotland and Wales on the island of Great Britain, Northern Ireland in the northeast of the island of Ireland, and a A series of affiliated islands together form a Western European island country. In addition to the British mainland, it also includes fourteen overseas territories.
The Glorious Revolution of 1688 established the British constitutional monarchy. Britain was the first to complete the Industrial Revolution and its national strength grew. From the 18th century to the early 20th century, the territory ruled by Britain spanned the globe. It was the largest country in the world at that time and the largest country recorded in history.
Although Britain won both world wars, its national strength was severely damaged. By the second half of the 20th century, the British Empire disintegrated, and its leadership as a superpower was replaced by the United States and the Soviet Union. However, Britain is still a powerful country in the world. A powerful country with influence.
The UK is the head of state of the Commonwealth, a member of the European Union, a founding member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, a member of the G8, and one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council. It has veto power on Security Council resolutions.
British historical development stages
1. Early civilization
There have been human activities in the British Isles for a long time. About the 13th century BC, the Iberians came from the European continent to settle in the southeast of the island of Great Britain. After about 700 BC, the Celts living in western Europe continued to immigrate. The British Isles, one of which was called the Bretons, from whom the name Britain may have originated.
The Celts are known to have used iron tools, plows have been technologically advanced and currency has been used, and the development of productivity has contributed to the gradual differentiation of Celtic society.
2. Roman period
In 54 BC, Caesar led the Roman legions to invade Britain twice, but were repelled by the Britons. In 43 AD, Roman Emperor Claudius I led his army to invade Britain. After conquering Britain, it became a province of the Roman Empire. By 409 In 2000, all Roman garrison troops were forced to evacuate Britain, and Roman rule over Britain came to an end.
3. Medieval period
After the Romans withdrew, the Germanic tribes such as the Anglo-Saxons who lived near the mouth of the Elbe and southern Denmark, and the Jutes from the lower Rhine River. By the beginning of the 7th century, the invaders had established seven powerful states: this period is known in history as "The Age of the Seven Kingdoms".
When the Anglo-Saxons invaded, they were organized as clans and tribes. During the invasion, the original clan organizations disintegrated. With the development of productivity, land gradually became private property, and nobles, large landowners, dependent farmers and slaves emerged. Village communities became The transition from clan commune land ownership to feudal land ownership is generally considered to be the beginning of the feudalization process in British society.
At the end of the 6th century, ____ was introduced to England.
Starting from the end of the 8th century, Scandinavians, mainly Danes, invaded Britain repeatedly.
In 879, King Alfred the Great signed a treaty with the Danes, placing the northeastern part of England under Danish jurisdiction, called the "Danish District".
At the beginning of the 10th century, the successors of King Alfred the Great gradually recovered the Danish area.
At the beginning of the 11th century, the Danes made a comeback. During the Danish occupation, the feudalization process in England accelerated.
After the death of British King Edward without heirs, French Duke William of Normandy led an army to invade in 1066. In October of the same year, he entered London and was crowned King William I (reigned 1066-1087), known as "William the Conqueror" in history.
The powerful royal power established after William's conquest played a positive role in consolidating the feudal order. John was forced to accept the Magna Carta in June 1215 and compromise with the feudal lords. The Magna Carta was essentially a feudal document that protected the feudal lords. interests, but there are also progressive provisions such as protecting citizens' freedom of trade. However, John soon denied the charter, and civil wars between monarchs and ministers continued.
In 1380, King Richard II (reigned 1377-1399) increased the poll tax to collect war expenses for the Hundred Years War between England and France, which led to the uprising breaking out in May 1381. The leader was the mason Watt Taylor, known as "Watt Taylor" in history. "Uprising", although the uprising failed, it shook the feudal serfdom system in Britain.
At the end of the 14th century, British serfdom had actually disintegrated.
In the 15th century, the vast majority of serfs redeemed their personal freedom and became yeoman farmers. Their legal status was divided into freehold farmers and public bookholding farmers. Monetary land rent became the main form of land rent. The feudal lord class also changed, from affluent farmers to farmers. New aristocrats emerged from farmers, land-owning merchants, and small and medium-sized nobles. They adopted capitalist management methods. The rule of the old aristocracy fell into crisis, and the feudal chivalry system gradually disintegrated. After the War of the Roses from 1455 to 1485, the power of the old aristocracy was greatly weakened. The development of capitalist relations created favorable conditions. Henry VII, who was supported by the new aristocracy and bourgeoisie, ascended the throne (reigned 1485-1509) and began the rule of the Tudor Dynasty.
The enclosure movement was one of the important means of primitive accumulation of capital in the UK. England and Wales merged in 1536. From the 15th to the 16th century, the woolen industry became the "national industry" of the UK. The demand for wool doubled, and landlords changed their farms to Pastures also concentrated small properties into large areas by enclosing fields or occupying public land. In this way, a large number of homesteaders lost their land and became bankrupt and became homeless.
The king promulgated a series of bloody legislation starting in 1530, forcing homeless people to be employed by new nobles and capitalists. Overseas plunder and trade were also important ways of primitive accumulation.
After the 16th century, Britain successively organized many trading companies to carry out pirate plunder. Dock officials, customs officers, naval officers and soldiers, and even high-ranking local officials all colluded with pirates. Pirate J. Hawkins trafficked black people to make a fortune, and F. Drake made a fortune in Elizabeth. Sponsored by I, he plundered Spanish American colonies and conducted a circumnavigation that shocked Europe between 1577 and 1580.
In 1588, Britain defeated the Spanish Armada and took the first step in seizing world maritime hegemony.
In 1603, Queen Elizabeth died without heirs. King James VI of Scotland inherited the British throne and was called James I (reigned 1603-1625), beginning the reign of the Stuart dynasty (1603-1649, 1660- 1714).
From the second half of the 16th century to the first half of the 17th century, the capitalist economy developed rapidly, and the increasingly powerful bourgeoisie and new aristocracy became increasingly unable to tolerate the autocratic rule of the feudal royal power. However, James I and Charles I ignored these changes and insisted on " The power of kings is divinely delegated", which intensified conflicts.
In November 1641, Parliament submitted the "Great Protest" to the king; in January of the following year, the king failed in his attempt to arrest the leader of the opposition in the parliament and fled the capital. In August, he declared war on Parliament in Nottingham.
A cavalry force led by Cromwell, mainly composed of yeoman farmers and craftsmen who believed in Puritanism, the New Model Army defeated the royal army at the Battle of Naseby in June 1645.
The following year, the king was captured. At the end of 1647, King Charles escaped. In February 1648, the royalist forces took the opportunity to provoke another civil war. Under the joint attack of the independents and equalizers, the royalist forces were defeated again, and the second civil war ended. In December 1648, Cromwell eliminated the Presbyterians in Parliament; on January 30, 1649, Charles I was beheaded. In April 1653, Cromwell dispersed the remaining Parliament, and in December established the Protectorate Government and implemented Military dictatorship.
In February 1660, the Stuart dynasty was restored, and the "Glorious Revolution" broke out in 1688-1689. The "Bill of Rights" it announced restricted the royal power and expanded the power of parliament, laying the foundation for the British constitutional monarchy. Since then, the British Parliament The monarchy gradually formed and developed, merging with Scotland in 1707.
4. Renaissance
Compared with continental Europe, the English Renaissance occurred later. However, after the Tudor dynasty and the Elizabethan era, Britain was established as a nation-state, its industry and commerce flourished, its cultural connections with the world expanded, and it broke through the Holy See. Restraint, all of these, allowed the latecomers to the English Renaissance to come on top.
At the end of the 16th century and the beginning of the 17th century, the "Three Giants" emerged in Britain: Shakespeare, Bacon and Harvey. They were the most outstanding representatives in the fields of art, humanities and science during this period. During this period, British art, humanities and science Interpenetrating and blending with each other, while strengthening the connections between different fields, they are also constantly enriching and deepening their respective fields.
5. Industrial Revolution
In the mid-eighteenth century, due to the gradual maturity of politics, economy and technology, Britain took the lead in an industrial revolution. With the invention of the steam engine and the use of various machines, by the Victorian period in the mid-19th century, Britain became the world's leading industrial revolution. The most advanced industrial country ranks first in the world in terms of production and trade. It pursues gunboat policies everywhere, seizes maritime hegemony, invades colonies, and plunders a large amount of wealth from other countries.
The British Empire dominated the world and controlled overseas areas throughout Europe, Asia, the United States, Africa, and Australia. It was known as the "Empire on which the Sun Never Sets."
6. Colonial expansion
Britain's colonies expanded violently in the 19th century. In 1801, Ireland was merged. Britain's official name became the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Its aggression in Asia continued to expand. The British Empire refers to the British mainland and the dominions, colonies, territories, and trusteeships under its rule. The great empire composed of the territory and the protectorate is the largest country in history and the largest global colonial empire.
The empire reached its peak in the early 19th century, with a population of approximately 400 to 500 million, accounting for a quarter of the world's population at that time, and a territory of approximately 33.67 million square kilometers, accounting for a quarter of the world's total land area. The empire continued its expansion in the 16th century. After the Kingdom of Spain, it was known as the "Empire on which the Sun Never Sets."
In the mid-19th century, Britain launched two Opium Wars to invade China, participated in the suppression of China's Taiping Revolution, suppressed the Indian National Uprising from 1857 to 1859, and strengthened its rule over India.
In 1876, the Conservative Party B. Disraeli's cabinet crowned Queen Victoria as the Empress of India. After that, Britain was also called the British Empire (or British Empire).
In addition, it also expanded its aggression in Iran, Myanmar, South Africa, Egypt, East Africa, New Zealand, Australia and other places. It also gradually penetrated South America and became the largest investor there. In 1867, Canada became the first British autonomous territory.
7. World War
After the 1870s, Britain gradually lost its industrial monopoly, and the latecomer United States gradually caught up with and surpassed the United Kingdom, leading to unprecedented intensification of conflicts between them.
At the beginning of the 20th century, Germany became Britain's competitor. Faced with the severe situation, the British government actively expanded its armaments, especially its navy. In order to deal with Germany, Britain abandoned the "glorious isolation" foreign policy pursued in the 19th century. After 1907, Britain and France , Russia's "Three Power Entente" was actually formed, and in August 1914, the First World War broke out.
In 1917, Britain finally defeated Germany's "unrestricted submarine warfare" and maintained its control of the sea. The total number of British combatants killed in the war reached more than 500,000. The war ended with the defeat of the Allies led by Germany, which was also a major victory for the United States. .
In September 1939, Germany attacked Poland, World War II broke out, and Britain declared war on Germany. In April 1940, Churchill formed the wartime coalition cabinet. After Churchill came to power, he immediately organized the Dunkirk evacuation, put the national economy on a wartime track, and quickly Expand armaments.
In the "Battle of Britain" launched by Germany from July to September 1940, the British Air Force effectively attacked the enemy.
British and American troops landed in Normandy, France in June 1944, and Germany surrendered on May 8, 1945.
8. Post-war period
After the war, Britain participated in the formulation and acceptance of the Marshall Plan in 1947, received a large amount of aid from the United States, and gradually recovered its economy. At the same time, the Labor government also implemented some measures to improve the conditions of working people.
After the Second World War, the United Kingdom was governed by the Labor Party and the Conservative Party in turns, and the economy developed slowly. It joined the European Community in January 1973. After the 1979 general election, the Conservative Party came to power, and Mrs. Thatcher became the first woman in British history. Female Prime Minister, re-elected in 1982 and 1987. The Thatcher government adopted the policy of privatizing state-owned enterprises and made great achievements in revitalizing the economy. It began to promote the privatization of some enterprises in order to restore the vitality of the British economy.
After decolonization in the 20th century, the British overseas territories gradually became independent. After independence, most of them formed a peaceful organization with the United Kingdom – the Commonwealth (of ).
On September 18, 2014, Scotland's 4 million permanent residents held a referendum to decide whether Scotland would become an independent and sovereign country. The referendum has been settled, and Scotland will continue to remain in the United Kingdom, and the unity and integrity of the United Kingdom will be maintained.
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