Great Britain

Paper Summary:

This paper explains that Britain became "civilized" in the first century B.C. when the Romans invaded and remained for some five hundred years. They were followed by the Viking and other Scandinavian invaders, such as the Angles, Saxons and Jutes. The author points out the huge parade of British geniuses beginning with Geoffrey Chaucer to the immortal William Shakespeare; philosopher-writers like Thomas Hobbes, John Locke and Adam Smith; the most famous women writers of their time--Jane Austen, George Eliot, the Bronte Sisters; Noel Coward; Sir Alexander Fleming, the discoverer of penicillin, and perhaps the greatest British export, the Beatles. The paper concludes that the United Kingdom is not the empire it once was; however, it still stands as a beacon of freedom in a Europe beset by fractious, ethnic struggle.

From the Paper:

"Historically, the next remarkable figure in British history was the Tudor King, Henry VIII. While we all know about his many wives, and as the father of Elizabeth I, the most important historical fact was his severing religion from the Catholic Church in Rome, and establishing The Church of England as the "official" British religion (which it still remains today). Henry's time was also one of establishing the British navy, in part to investigate the New World, and in part to raid the Spanish and Portuguese ships, returning from the New World, laden with gold and jewels. While many history books proclaim Sir Francis Drake, for example, as the "savior" of Britain in the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588, actually he was a vicious pirate captain who (with the tacit approval of the English Crown) raided and sank dozens of ships along the French coast, brining spoils and booty back to England."

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