United Kingdom

From Roman province and warring kingdoms to a united realm, a global empire, and a modern democracy.

The history of the United Kingdom reaches back through Roman Britannia, the Anglo-Saxon and Viking kingdoms, and the unification of England in the tenth century. The Norman Conquest of 1066 bound the island to continental Europe and reshaped its language, law, and ruling class, while later struggles between crown and parliament — from Magna Carta in 1215 to the Glorious Revolution of 1688 — laid the foundations of constitutional government. The Acts of Union of 1707 joined England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain, which a further union with Ireland in 1801 turned into the United Kingdom. Powered by an early industrial revolution and naval supremacy, Britain built the largest empire in history — an achievement inseparable from the transatlantic slave trade, colonial conquest, and famine. The twentieth century brought two world wars, the creation of a welfare state, and the loss of empire, leaving a smaller but still influential nation negotiating its place in a changed world.