Important periods of english speaking countries

 

Otázka: An important periods of english speaking countries

Jazyk: Angličtina

Přidal(a): Adéla

 

 

THE UNITED KINGDOM

55 BC  Julius Caesar invaded the Britain

• the Romans conquered majority of the island and ruled there for 400 years
• they brought Christian faith and Latin
• they built roads, cities, towns, bridges → easily detected nowadays
• the north of the Britain was ruled by Scots who often attacked the Romans → Hadrian’s Wall
  • it supposed to protect the southern part of the country from the raids of the northern tribes from Scotland
• 4^th century – end of the Romans era in the UK
• since 407 the Romans started leaving and the Germanic tribes of the Angles, Saxons and Jutes were coming here from northern Europe
  • original name: „Anglaland“ – land of Angles
  • legend of Beowulf – the most significant work of Old English literature

 

Alfred the Great

• he reigned in the UK after Germanic tribes left in 9^th century
• he was the first king of the Britain
• he was very intelligent
• he created Doomsday Book
  • there we can find information about the land and who owned it

 

1066 Battle of Hastings

• William Duke of Normandy (William the Conqueror) X king of the UK Harold Godwinson
• ended with the victory of the Norman army → the Normans dominated the Great Britain
• William Duke of Normandy – he was a French
  • english was mixed with france → Middle English
  • The Canterbury Tales
    • a collection of 24 stories written in Middle English by Geoffrey Chaucer
  • he built the Tower of London

 

1215 Magna Carta Libertatum

• connected with the reign of the king John (John Lackland)
• the document that lessened the power of the king
• he wanted to reign absolutely, but people didn’t want it
• we can find copy of this charta in Salisbury Cathedral

 

Henry VIII.

• he became the king of Britain in 1509 / he died in 1547
• he founded his own church – The Church of England (= Anglicans)
• he added the Wales to England (Act of Union)
  • he became the first king of Wales
  • from this time is always first-born son called „the prince of Wales“ (oldest son of Elizabeth II., Charles → prince of the Wales)

 

Elizabeth I. – The Virgin Queen

• she had no husband
• daughter of Henry VIII.
• she reigned in the time of colonialism of America
  • the first colony of the UK in the US was called Virginia
• she restarted The Protestant Church
• it was the era of Golden Age in England
  • Shakespeare lived in this era

 

Guy Fawkes

• on 5^th November 1605 he attempted to assassinate King James I. – The Gunpowder Plot
  • the king persecuted Catholics (he was the Protestant)
  • they wanted to blow up the Westminster Palace
  • the attempt was unsuccessful
• nowadays there is celebration on that day (only in the UK)

 

1649 Civil War

• there was a conflict between Charles I. and Oliver Cromwell
  • Charles I. represented the British parliamentarians → army Roundheads
  • Orivel Cromwell represented the royalists → army Cavaliers
• Oliver Cromwell won and Charles I. was executed
• the UK become the Republic → the head was Oliver Cromwell – „Lord Protector“
• in 1660 the monarchy was restarted – the king was Charles II.
  • he had very limited powers

 

1837 Queen Victoria

• Industrial Revolution
  • agriculture, production, mining, transport and other economic sectors have fundamentally changed
  • new scientific and technological discoveries have played an important role
• during her reign there was a big expansion of the empire
  • the UK had lots of colonies (about 40% of world)
• husband: Prince Albert
  • very popular with people
  • he organised The Great Exhibition – in 1851
    • it was the first international exhibition of manufactured products
  • she loved puggs

 

1912 Titanic

• Titanic sank on its first voyage from Southampton to New York
• loss of more than 1500 lives

 

1914 – 1918 the First World War

• the UK was on the winning side with Russia and France

 

1939 – 1945 the Second World War

• the UK deslares war on Germany after the ivasion of Poland
• the UK reflects the German invasion by its Air Force
• the losses caused by this war are catastrophic

 

1954 Elizabeth II.

• she started to reign

 

1979 – 1990 Margaret Thatcher = „Iron Lady“

• she was the prime minister and leader of conservative party
• she privatised railways and closed factories which were non-profitable
• she cut on the social security – it led into gap between rich and poor

 

The United Kingdom is a member of the UN Security Council and a founding member of NATO

 

THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

1492 Christopher Columbus

• he was searching the Western Way to India
• he sailed with three ships – Niña, Pinta and Santa Maria
• he landed on the Caribbean islands and discovered a new continent

 

Colonization of the US

• 16^th – 19^th century
• the main reason was that people disagreed with reformations in Europe
  • they didn’t like the king or his laws
• the Spanish, the English, the French and the Dutch were main engaged in colonization
  • the northernmost regions were colonized by Russia
• Spain:
  • the colonized the southern part of North America and south-western of the US
  • they controlled all or most of California, Texas, Arizona, New Mexico and Florida
• France:
  • they were searching the canal to China
  • explored northern part of North America, which they named Canada
  • in 1718 New Orleans was founded
• Great Britain:
  • Walter Raleigh established colonies Virginia and Jamestown
  • in 1620 a group of immigrant arrived from Britain on a ship Mayflower and they established the Plymouth Colony in Massachusetts
    • a group of English purists and separatists known as the Pilgrim Fathers arrived on this ship
    • they were not used to the local climate, so they had a problem with growing crops
    • native people helped them
    • on October 1621 they together celebrated the first Thanksgiving day to thank God for harvest in the past year
  • consequences:
    • building of new ports
    • planting new crops, breeding new animals
    • expanding slavery
      • slavery becomes an important part of the American economy
      • in 1750, 25% of people in America were slaves

 

1773 The Boston Tea Party

• protest of the American colonists against the British Empire → they didn’t like high taxes
• the leader was Samuel Adams
• in the port of Boston many boxes of pressed tea were destroyed
• protests also took place in Philadelphia and New York

 

1775 – 1783 The American War of Independence

• between the Kingdom of Great Britain and thirteen colonies in North America
• leader of Continental army was George Washington
• an important role in the war was played by France, which supplieded US patriots with finance and ammunition
• the war ended in the defeat of Britain and the recognition of the independence of the US
• in 1776 Americans declare independence from England (written by T. Jefferson)

1789 – 1797 George Washington

1801 – 1809 Thomas Jefferson

 

1812 British-American War

• the reason for the war was disputes in the area of maritime trade and division of territories and spheres of influence on the North American continent (the US wanted bigger area and power )
• British burned Washington in 1814
• the war ended in 1815 when the Pact in Ghent was signed
• from this time comes the national anthem of the United States – mixed:
  • S. Key – poemThe Defence of Fort McHenry + J.S. Smith – song To Anacreon in Heaven

 

1817 – 1825 James Monroe

1861 – 1865 Abraham Lincoln

 

1861 – 1865 American Civil War

• between the states of the Northern Union (23 states, leaders: Grant, Sherman) and the Southern Confederation (11 states, leader: Robert Lee)
  • the main cause of the war is a dispute about whether slavery should be allowed, but there were also many other reasons
  • north: industry – better economy, more materials and weapons, bad leaders
  • south: slavery, farming – in a beginning it seem that they are stronger
• the war ended in 1865 after the Union‘s victory at the Battle of Gettysburg
• Abraham Lincoln was murdered (assassination) in 1865 and slavery was abolished in 1863

 

in 1886 France donated the Statue of Liberty to the United States

1901 – 1909 Theodore Roosevelt

1913 – 1921 Woodrow Wilson

 

1914 – 1918 World War I.

• allies Fr, GB, Russia X Germany, Austria
• allies were supported by the USA – they entered the war in 1917 (Woodrow Wilson)

 

1920´s – 1930´s Jazz Age

• period of prosperity – people were very rich
• at that time, Francis Scott Fitzgerald wrote his book The Great Gatsby (in 1925)

 

1929 The Wall Street Crash

• began on 24th October („Black Tuesday“)
• it was the most devastating stock market crash in the history of the United States
• tt destroyed confidence in Wall Street markets and led to the Great Depression which lasted for 12 years (until 1941) and hit all Western industrialized countries
  • for ordinary people the Great Depression means that one day they had 1,000,000 but the other day they had zero (nothing)
  • they must travel around the country for tiny jobs to save their family from starving
  • at that time, John Steinbeck wrote his book The Grapes of Wrath
• also Czechoslovakia was hit by the crisis → the most affected area was the Sudeten area, where the light industry dominated
• during the presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt there was an attempt at social and economic reforms aimed at supporting, rehabilitating and reforming the state economy during the Great Depression called New Deal

 

1933 – 1945 Franklin D. Roosevelt

1945 – 1953 Harry S. Truman

 

1950´s – 1960´s The civil rights movement

• it was American Social Movement against racial segregation and discrimination of Afro-Americans in the US
• they were non-violent protests, through which they demanded equal rights for all black Americans
• one of the greatest leaders of this movement was Martin Luther King Jr.
  • his philosophy of passive resistance and non-violent protests was inspired by Mahatma Gandhi
  • he was assassinated because he believed all people are equal
  • his famous phrase is „I have a dream“
    • dream about that one day there will be equal rights between black and white people
  • in 1964 he awarded The Nobel Peace Prize
  • he was assassinated in Memphis
• also known is the story of Rosa Parks
  • she refused to give up her seat on the bus and release it for a white passenger
  • she inspired other Afro-Americans to boycott → Montgomery Bus Boycott
  • the boycott was very effective → in 1955 segregation in public transport was declared illegal
• the result of this movement was the formal equalization of African Americans with white people

 

1961 – 1963 John Fitzgerald Kennedy

 

1947 – 1991 Cold War

• Communist States – especially USSR and their allies X western states – especially USA and their allies
• end in Reykjavik (Reagan X Gorbačov)

 

1969 Apollo 11 landed on the Moon

• také-off 16^th of July – landing 20^th of July – return 24^th of July (on Hawai)
• Neil Armstrong was the first man who was walking on the Moon
• but there was three men: Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, Michael Collins
• the main goal of Apollo 11 was to fly to the Moon, land on its surface, and safely return to Earth → this goal has been successfully accomplished

 

1996 – 1974 Richard Nixon

1972 The Watergate scandal

 

1981 – 1989 Ronald Reagan

1989 – 1993 George H. W. Bush

1993 – 2001 Bill Clinton

2001 – 2009 George W. Bush

2009 – 2017 Barack Obama

2017 Donald Trump