The Indo-European Invasions
Around 50,000 years ago there was a migration out of Africa to the Caucasus mountains in south-eastern Europe. This rocky land now holds the countries of Chechenya, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Armenia.
Research has proven that the Black Sea basin was flooded from the Mediterranean around 5600 BC- and that this was the probable cause of the first great Indo-European movement. With the aid of the horse, the first Indo-Europeans moved in all directions, disrupting the slow but steady pace of development everywhere they went. Large numbers settled in northern Europe, staying there till they later began again to move south; others moved off to the Middle and Near East, while others ventured west, crossing into Britain and Spain.
THE INDO-EUROPEAN INVASIONS
The largest Indo-European invasion of Europe was carried out by four main groups:
- The Celts;
- The Germans;
- The Balts;
- The Slavs.
All of these four major groupings arrived in the European continent in waves from around 4000 BC up to as late as 500 BC.
The Celts emerged as a recognizable culture around 900 BC. They moved west and north into Europe inhabiting what is now Germany, France, and the British Isles. There were peoples in these European lands before the Celts arrived. Remnants of the earlier cultures were mixed with theirs. One earlier remnant is Stonehenge.
2000 – 1200 BC Celts’ migration to England
55/54 BC – Julius Caesar’s failed invasions of England
43 AD – Emperor Claudius’s invasion of England
122 AD – Adrian’s Wall
454 AD – Angles’, Saxons’ and Jutes’ invasions
British Celts driven into Wales, Cornwall, Ireland, and Brittany (on the northwest coast of France)
789 AD – three Viking ships arrived on the Wessex shore.
The raid of 793 was the first recorded Viking raid on Britain.
The English called the Viking invaders 'Danes' but they came from Norway as well as Denmark.
8 June, 793 – devastating Viking raid on the monastery of Lindisfarne in Northumbria
The first Viking raids were hit-and-run affairs. There was no co-ordination and no long-term plan behind them.
Other raids were recorded in the annals kept in monasteries at Iona and in Ireland. Columba's famous monastery on the Scottish island of Iona was pillaged in 795, and again in 802, in 806 and in 825. Nowhere was safe from the Vikings.
865 – Large army of Danes invaded East Anglia
867 – Danes conquer Northumbria
870 – Danes conquer and settle in East Anglia.
871 – Danes invade Wessex
947 – New wave of viking attacks
1014 – Cnut (Canute) of Denmark becomes king of the English
1066 – Last Viking attempt to rule British land fails: Harald Hardrada, King of Norway is defeated by Harold II of England
1066 – Normans’ invasion – Battle of Hastings
1215 – Magna Carta signed by King John Lackland
1338 – Hundred Years’ War with France –
French territories controlled by English Kings: Normandy, Maine, Anjou, Touraine, Poitou, Gascony, Saintonge and Aquitaine.
1453 – End of the Hundred Years’ War French territories controlled by English Kings: Port of Calais
1455 – War of the Roses between the Houses of York and Lancaster
1485 – Battle of Bosworth with the victory of Henry Tudor’s (later King Henry VII), a member of the Lancaster family.
1509 – 1547 – King Henry VIII
1534 – Act of Supremacy: the English monarch becomes head of the Church of England
November 1558 – Elizabeth, daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, becomes Queen Elizabeth I of England
1588 – The English fleet defeats the Spanish Invincible Armada
1603 – Elizabeth I dies
March 1603 – James VI of Scotland King James I of England and Scotland
1625 Charles I King of England, Scotland and Ireland.
1642 – 1645 First Civil War between Charles I and Parliament
1648 – 49 Second Civil War between Charles I and Parliament
1649 – Execution of Charles I
1649 – 1660 Republic – Commonwealth of England
1660 – Monarchy restored with Charles II
1666 – Great fire of London