McEwan masterfully combines a laconic narrative style with an unpredictable ending. Its story centers on two friends, the editor of a popular newspaper and the composer composing the Millennium Symphony. True, practically nothing remained of their friendship, only hidden anger and resentment. It is worth reading to find out how the confrontation between old comrades ended.
In this collection we have included the writer’s most English novel, in which he tries to explain what good old England is. The events take place on the island-attraction of White, where all sorts of stereotypes about the country are collected: the monarchy, Robin Hood, The Beatles, beer... Indeed, why do tourists need modern England if there is a miniature copy that combines all the most interesting things?
A novel about the love of Victorian poets of the 19th century, which is intertwined with the history of modern scientists. A book for the intelligent reader who will enjoy the rich language, classic plots and numerous allusions to cultural and historical phenomena.
Coe composed jazz music for a long time, which was reflected in his literary work. “What a scam!” akin to improvisation, this is a bold and unexpected novel.
Michael, an average writer, gets the opportunity to tell the story of the rich and very influential Winshaw family. The problem is that these greedy relatives, who have taken over all spheres of public life, poison the lives of other people and do not inspire sympathy.
If you've seen Cloud Atlas, this incredible twisted story was created by David Mitchell. But today we recommend that you take up reading another, no less interesting novel.
"Dream No. 9" is often compared to the best works. A young boy, Eiji, comes to Tokyo in search of the father he has never met. In eight weeks in the metropolis, he managed to find love, fall into the clutches of the yakuza, make peace with his alcoholic mother, find friends... You have to figure out for yourself which of this happened in reality and which in a dream.
“Tennis Balls of Heaven” is a modern version of “The Count of Monte Cristo”, supplemented with new details and meanings. Although we know the plot, it is simply impossible to stop reading.
The main character is student Ned Muddstone, for whom everything in life is going better than ever. He is handsome, smart, rich, well-mannered, from a good family. But because of a stupid joke from envious comrades, his whole life changes dramatically. Ned finds himself locked in a mental hospital, where he lives with only one goal - to get out in order to take revenge.
The novel about the life of 30-year-old Bridget Jones is popular all over the world. Thanks in part to the Hollywood adaptation starring Renee Zellweger and Colin Firth. But mostly because of the eccentric and so charming Bridget. She counts calories, tries to quit smoking and drink less, experiences setbacks in her personal life, but is still optimistic about the future and believes in love.
There are books in which you forgive the simplicity of the plot, the banality of the scenes, and stupid coincidences simply because they have soulfulness. "Bridget Jones's Diary" is that rare case.
The story of the boy with the scar is a true cultural phenomenon. The first book, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, was rejected by 12 publishers, and only the small Bloomsbury, at its own risk, decided to publish it. And it was right. "" was a resounding success, and Rowling herself received the love of readers around the world.
Against the backdrop of magic and enchantment, we are talking about familiar and important things - friendship, honesty, courage, readiness to help and resist evil. That's why Rowling's fictional world captivates readers of all ages.
"The Collector" is John Fowles' most frightening and at the same time exciting novel. The main character, Frederick Clegg, loves collecting butterflies, but at some point he decides to add a cute girl, Miranda, to his collection. We learn this story from the words of the kidnapper and from the diary of his victim.
Rhode Island
Vermont
Population density
87.7 people/km²
Paul Le Page (R-ME)
Patrick Deval (D-MA)
John Lynch (D-NH)
Lincoln Chafee (I-RI)
Peter Shumlin (D-VT)
It was home to some of the earliest settlements in North America. Pilgrims from England first settled in New England in 1620 to form the Plymouth Colony. Ten years later, the Puritans settled north of the Plymouth Colony in Boston, forming the Massachusetts Bay Colonies. Over the next 130 years, New England fought in four French and Indian Wars until the British finally defeated the French and their allies in North America.
It was in New England that resistance arose in the late 18th century against the British Parliament imposing new taxes without the consent of the colonists. The Boston Tea Party, which expressed the grievances of the colonial people, prompted Britain to purge the colonial governments. The confrontation led to open war in 1775 and the expulsion of the British from New England in the spring of 1776, and then to the signing of the Declaration of Independence in July 1776.
Some of the first movements in American literature, philosophy, and education arose in New England. The region played a prominent role in the abolition movement, and was the first region of the United States to be transformed by the Industrial Revolution. Today, New England is one of the world's main centers of education, high technology, insurance, and medicine. Boston is its cultural, financial, educational, medical and transportation center.
Each state is divided into small municipalities known as New England towns, which are governed by town meetings. Since 1970, voters have been more likely to support liberal candidates at the state and federal level than in any other region of the United States.
New England is only one of nine regional US Census Bureau divisions whose name is not derived from its geography, and it is only a few state areas with clear, consistent boundaries. It maintains a strong sense of cultural identity separate from the rest of the country, although the terms of this identity are often contested, combining Puritanism with liberalism, agrarian life with industry, and isolation with immigration.
Story
Indigenous people
The earliest known population of New England were American Indians who spoke various Eastern Algonquian languages. Notable tribes include the Abenaki, Penobscot, Peugeot, Mohecane, Pocomtuc, and Wampanog. Before the arrival of Europeans, the western Abenaki inhabited New Hampshire and Vermont, as well as parts of Quebec and western Maine. Their capital was Norridgewock, in modern Maine.
The Penobscot lived along the Penobscot River in Maine. The Wampanoga occupied southeastern Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and the islands of Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket. Pocumtucks lived in Western Massachusetts, Mohecan and Peugeot in the Connecticut area. The Connecticut River Plain, which includes parts of Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Connecticut, connects diverse peoples culturally, linguistically, and politically.
As early as 1600, French, Dutch and English traders began trading metal, glass, and textiles as well as beaver pelts while exploring the New World.
Virginia Company
On April 10, 1606, King James I of England issued an order to equip the companies of Virginia, London and Plymouth. These were privately financed enterprises designed to develop English lands for the purpose of trade and return at a profit.
Thanks to the Virginia Company, territories stretching to the northern borders of Maine were developed. In the fall of 1607, the Popham Colony was founded at the mouth of the Kennebec River in Maine. Unlike Jamestown, the colony was unable to hold out and was abandoned the following spring. Captain John Smith, exploring the coast of the region in 1614, called it "New England", he accounted for more than two voyages there, and he also published a description of New England.
The next notable event was the arrival in New England in the winter of 1616-1617, at Bidford Basin, of Captain Richerd Viney. Today it is a large city in Maine. Four years later, the Mayflower Pilgrims arrived in Plymouth, Massachusetts, marking the beginning of permanent European settlement in New England.
The name "New England" itself was officially adopted on November 3, 1620, when the charter of the Virginia Plymouth Company was replaced by the Royal Charter of the Plymouth Council for New England, a joint stock company formed to colonize and govern the region. The first colonists arrived in Plymouth and signed the May Flower Act, which became the first governing document of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, to which the entire region would be subject; a royal charter was signed in 1629; its main city and port of Boston was founded in 1630.
Massachusetts Puritans began settling in Connecticut as early as 1633. Roger Williams, exiled from Massachusetts for heresy, led the group south, and founded Providence, in the area that later became the state of Rhode Island in 1636. At this time, Vermont was not yet settled, the territories of New Hampshire and Maine were under the control of Massachusetts.
Colonial Wars
Relations between the colonists and the Indians alternated between peace and armed conflict, the bloodiest of which was Peugeot's War in 1643, which resulted in the Mystic Massacre. Six years later, the Massachusetts Bay Colonies, Plymouth, New Haven, Connecticut, united into what became known as the New England Confederacy (officially the "United New England Colonies"). The Confederation was created primarily to coordinate mutual defense, but was never effective and soon collapsed.
Over the next seventy-four years, there were six colonial wars, fought primarily between New England and New France (see French and Indian Wars). Throughout these wars, New England was allied with the Iroquois Confederacy, and New France was allied with the Wabanaki Confederacy. After the conquest of New England, Acadia in 1710, and the mainland, Nova Scotia was under New England control, but at that time New Brunswick and virtually all of modern Maine remained disputed territory between New England and New France. After the British won the war in 1763, the Connecticut River Valley opened up the region for the settlement of Western New Hampshire, and what is now Vermont.
The New England colonies were made up primarily of farmers who became relatively self-sufficient. Later, with the help of the Puritan work ethic, New England's economy began to focus on crafts and trade, in contrast to the Southern Colonies, which were forced to import many goods from England.
Protectorate of England
In 1686, King James II became concerned about the colonies' increasing independence, including their self-government and charters, their open disregard for the Navigation Acts, and their growing military power. Therefore he established the supremacy of New England, an Administrative Union comprising all the New England colonies. In 1688, the former Dutch colonies of New York and New Jersey were added to the union. The union, imposed from outside and against the deep-rooted democratic tradition of the region, was extremely unpopular among the colonists.
The government significantly changed the statutes of the colonies, including the appointment of royal Governors in almost all of them. Thus, an alarming tension arose between the royal Governors, officials, and the elected bodies of government of the colonies. The governors wanted to regain absolute power, and various local elected officials began to oppose them. In most cases, local city governments continued to operate as local governments, as they had before the appointment of governors.
After the Glorious Revolution of 1689, the Bostonians overthrew the king's viceroy, Sir Edmund Andros. They captured mainstream officials and adherents of the Church of England, in a popular and bloodless uprising. These tensions eventually culminated in the American Revolution, which boiled over with the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War in 1775. The first battles of the war took place in Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts, and later the siege of Boston by Continental troops took place. In March 1776, British troops were forced to retreat from Boston.
New England and the rise of the United States
Post-Revolutionary New England
After the Revolutionary War, New England ceased to be a significant political entity, but the region remained a cultural region consisting of independent states. By 1784, all states in the region had already taken steps toward abolition, with Vermont and Massachusetts abolishing slavery in 1777 and 1783, respectively.
During the War of 1812, there was a movement in New England to secede from the United States; merchants in New England, just beginning to recover, opposed war with their largest trading partner, Great Britain. Delegates met at the Hartford Convention in the winter of 1814–15. A total of twenty-seven delegates gathered to discuss changes to the US Constitution in order to protect the interests of the region and maintain their political power, feeling that they were being used as pawns in the trade relations of the states.
After resolving the dispute in New York, Vermont was admitted to statehood in 1791, formally completing certain areas of New England. On March 15, 1820, as part of the Missouri Compromise, the territories of Maine, formerly part of Massachusetts, were admitted to the Union as a free state. Today, the New England region is defined as consisting of six states: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont.
For the rest of the time before the American Civil War, New England differed from the rest of the US states in its political views, which resulted in many differences with the rest of the country. Massachusetts and Connecticut were among the last refuges of the Federalists, and when the Two Party system came into effect in 1830, New England became a bastion of the new Whig Party. The Whigs were generally dominant throughout New England, with the exception of the more democratic Maine and New Hampshire. Leading statesmen - including Daniel Webster - hail from this region. New England left contributions in other areas of life. Many famous literary and intellectual figures representing the United States before the Civil War were from New England, including Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, John Greenleaf Whittier, George Bancroft, and William H. Prescott.
Industrial Revolution and the Abolitionist Movement
New England was the key to the Industrial Revolution in the United States. In 1787, it became home to the first spinning mill in America, the Beverly Cotton Manufactory, which was founded on the north shore of the seaport of Beverly, Massachusetts. The manufactory is also considered the largest cotton mill of its time. Technological developments and advances at the Manufactory led to the development of more modern textile mills, including the Slater Mill in Patucket, Rhode Island. The Blackstone Valley, which runs through Massachusetts and Rhode Island, was nicknamed the America of the Industrial Revolution. Cities such as Lawrence and Lowell in Massachusetts, Wansocket in Rhode Island, and Lewiston in Maine became centers of the textile industry, thanks to innovations at the Slater Mill and Beverly Cotton Mill.
Geography
The New England states have a total area of 71,991.8 square miles (186,458 km2), making the region slightly larger than Washington State and larger than England. Maine makes up nearly half of New England's total area, but is only 39th largest among the states, slightly smaller than Indiana. The remaining states are among the smallest in the United States, including the smallest state, Rhode Island.
Topography
Climate
Weather conditions vary throughout the region. The states of Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont have a humid continental climate with short, mild summers and cold winters. Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, southern Maine, southern New Hampshire and Vermont have a humid continental climate with long, warm summers but also cold winters. Due to the dense deciduous forest, autumn brings vibrant color to New England, which arrives earlier than other nearby regions, bringing in many tourists.
Average precipitation ranges from 40 to 60 inches (1,000 to 1,500 mm) per year, although northern Vermont and Maine have slightly less, from 20 to 40 inches (510 to 1,000 mm). Snowfall often exceeds 98 V (2500 mm) per year. What makes the ski resorts of Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont extremely attractive in the winter.
The lowest recorded temperature in New England was −50 °F (−46 °C) in Bloomfield, Vermont on December 30, 1933. Rhode Island is the warmest state in New England, Maine the coldest and the largest, nearly half of all of New England.
Demography
Largest cities
List of most populous cities based on the 2010 census.
- Boston, MA: 617594 (4552402)
- Worcester, Massachusetts: 181045 (798552)
- Providence, Rhode Island: 178,042 (1,600,852)
- Springfield, Massachusetts: 153,060 (692,942)
- Bridgeport, CT: 144229 (916829)
- New Haven, CT: 129,779 (862,477)
- Hartford, CT: 124775 (1212381)
- Stamford, CT: 122643 (part of Bridgeport's MSA)
- Waterbury, CT: 110366 (228984)
- Manchester, New Hampshire: 109565 (400721)
- Lowell, Massachusetts: 106519 (315158)
- Cambridge, Massachusetts: 105162 (part of Greater Boston)
In the 20th century, the growth of cities in the regions surrounding New York City had an important impact on neighboring Connecticut, with which it has close ties.
Ecology
Economy
Review
Export
Production
A 2010 study from the University of Connecticut found that five out of six states ranked 43rd in manufacturing costs, meaning that manufacturing in New England tended to be more expensive than other parts of the U.S. Only Maine was less expensive. Vermont, Rhode Island and New Hampshire rank last.
Agriculture
Energy
Employment
Taxes
Real estate
Control
Historical reference
Town meeting
Elections
Political parties
New Hampshire
Policy
Laws and movements
Education
Colleges and Universities
Private and independent secondary schools
Public education
Scientific journals and press
Culture
Cultural roots
Accents
Social activity and music
Mass media
Comedy
Literature
Sport
Professional and semi-professional teams
Famous places
Historical
Transport
see also
Notes
| New England | ||
|---|---|---|
Some of the earliest settlements in North America were located here. Pilgrims from England first settled in New England in 1620 to form the Plymouth Colony. Ten years later, the Puritans settled north of the Plymouth Colony in Boston, forming the Massachusetts Bay Colonies. Over the next 130 years, New England fought in four French and Indian Wars until the British finally defeated the French and their allies in North America.
It was in New England at the end of the 18th century that resistance arose against the British Parliament, which introduced new taxes without the consent of the colonists. The Boston Tea Party, which expressed the grievances of the colonial people, prompted Britain to purge the colonial governments. The confrontation led to open war in 1775 and the expulsion of the British from New England in the spring of 1776, and then to the signing of the Declaration of Independence in July 1776.
Some of the first movements in American literature, philosophy, and education arose in New England. The region played a prominent role in the abolition movement and was the first region of the United States to be transformed by the Industrial Revolution. Today, New England is one of the world's main centers of education, high technology, insurance, and medicine. Boston is its cultural, financial, educational, medical and transportation center.
Each state is divided into small municipalities known as New England towns, which are governed by town meetings. Since 1970, voters have been more likely to support liberal candidates at the state and federal level than in any other region of the United States.
The New England Census Bureau is the only one of the nine regional census bureaus in the United States whose name is not related to its geographic location, and the only such entity with clearly defined boundaries. The entire region shares a strong sense of cultural identity that sets it apart from the rest of the country, although this is often contested due to its combination of Puritanism with liberalism, agrarian life with industry, and isolation with immigration.
Story
Indigenous people
The earliest known population of New England are American Indians who spoke Eastern Algonquian languages. Notable tribes are the Abenaki, Penobscot, Pequot, Mohican, Pocumtuck, and Wampanoag. Before the arrival of Europeans, the western Abenaki inhabited and, as well as parts of Quebec and western Maine. Their center was Norridgewock in modern Maine.
Over the next 100 years, New England colonists had to fight six more wars, mostly against New France. New England's allies in these wars were the Iroquois, and New France's allies were the Wabanaki. Following the New England conquest of Acadia (1710), it was made Nova Scotia under New England control, but at that point New Brunswick and virtually all of modern Maine remained disputed territory between New England and New France. After the British victory in the Seven Years' War (1763), the settlement region of Western New Hampshire opened in the Connecticut River valley, now .
New England farmers were becoming relatively self-sufficient. Later, thanks to the Puritan work ethic, trade and crafts began to develop in New England, in contrast to the Southern Colonies, which imported needed goods from England.
Protectorate of England
Industrial Revolution
New England became a key region of the Industrial Revolution in the United States. On the north shore of the seaport of Beverly (Massachusetts) in 1787, the first, and subsequently the largest, cotton mill in America appeared. Technological advances at Beverly's mill led to more modern textile mills, including the Slater Mill in Patucket, Rhode Island. The Blackstone Valley in Massachusetts and Rhode Island has been called the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution in America. The cities of Lawrence and Lowell (Massachusetts), Wansocket (Rhode Island), and Lewiston (Maine) became centers of the textile industry, based on the innovations of the Slater Mill and the Beverly Cotton Mill.
Geography
Golden Autumn in New England
The New England states cover an area of 71,991.8 square miles (186,458 km2), slightly larger than Washington State and larger than England. Maine makes up nearly half the total area of New England, but it is only 39th in area, slightly smaller than Indiana. The remaining states are among the smallest in the United States, including the smallest state, Rhode Island.
Climate
Weather conditions vary across the region. The climate of Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont is humid with short, mild summers and cold winters. Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, southern Maine, southern New Hampshire and Vermont have a humid climate with long, warm summers but also cold winters.
Autumn comes to New England earlier than to neighboring regions, and thanks to the dense deciduous forests, it paints it in bright colors, which attracts many tourists.
Average precipitation ranges from 40 to 60 inches (1000-1500 mm) per year, although northern Vermont and Maine have slightly less, 510-1000 mm. Snow depths often exceed 2.5 m, making ski resorts in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont extremely attractive in the winter.
Lowest temperature recorded in New England -46 °C (Bloomfield, Vermont, December 30, 1933). The smallest state, Rhode Island, is the warmest in New England, the largest, Maine, the coldest.
Largest cities
List of most populous cities based on census year. The population of the corresponding urban agglomeration is indicated in brackets.
- Boston: 617,594 (4,552,402)
- Worcester, Massachusetts: 181,045 (798,552)
Modern England is often also called Britain, and this is the name that has most suited the country being described since ancient times. Because when Julius Caesar appeared on the shores of Foggy Albion (55 BC), the Britons lived here. These Celtic tribes inhabited modern England at the time when Caesar invaded these glorious lands, thereby marking the beginning of the Roman phase of British history.
Therefore, we can say that the history of England actually began with captivity, which turned out to be a very contagious affair for the descendants of the Britons, who founded the British Empire several centuries later, uniting the lands of several continents.
Caesar and the Britons, Picts and Scots
So, the era of Caesar, England, the history of the country at the very beginning. The Romans captured the entire southern territory of the island (now the lands that make up the territories of England and Wales are located here), which became part of the Roman Empire and remained there until the period of collapse (5th century AD).
And it was a time of intrigue and compromise Because they were inherently weak, the Britons nevertheless desired to be free. They did not want to “walk under the Romans”, and as an alternative they turned to the help of the barbarian Germans (the battle of Roman legionnaires with barbarian tribes was very plausibly recreated in the film “Gladiator”).
However, as long as the Roman legions stood on English soil, the Germans could not take possession of new territories.
And only with the departure of the Romans (V-VI centuries) the barbarians managed not only to help the Britons (the fact that it was they who petitioned the Germanic tribes with a request to protect them from the north from the ancestors of the Scots - the Picts and Scots - is evidenced by the chronicles of those years), but and subsequently push the “natives” back to Wales and Cornwall.
Egbert and Alfred the Great
In those years, England was ruled by aliens representing three groups of Germans - these were the combat brigades of the Jutes, Saxons and Angles. In the territories taken from the Britons, they formed their own separate kingdoms.
In particular, the history of England contains evidence of the existence of the Union of the Seven Kingdoms - the Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy.
The kings were then called “Britwalds” (that is, rulers of Britain). Most researchers believe that the history of this state as a united kingdom is connected with the name of one of these Britwalds named Egbert (date of birth unknown - 839). The fact is that when the Danish Vikings attacked the eastern lands of England, it was he who managed to rally the rest of the Britwalds around his kingdom of Wessex.
However, the truly “royal” history of England actually began two centuries later, when Alfred the Great (871-899) first introduced the titled phrase “King of England” into use. Some, however, are inclined to consider 1066 as the “zero point”, when the Normans landed on the shores of England.
From William I to James I
Actually, from this date no unification followed. On the contrary, through the efforts of William I the Conqueror, Franco-Norman order reigned in England. Wales was conquered and became part of a single state in the 13th century. Unification with Scotland occurred much later, in 1707 (the so-called “Act of Union”).
All this time, the future kingdom moved through the Middle Ages and the Renaissance - to the time of Elizabeth I, the last of the Tudors. James I, who replaced her, was in fact James VI, but not in England, but in Scotland. (Since English traditions provide for giving the serial number of the king only based on the presence or absence of such in the annals of Britain, and the history of the country did not know Jacob before him, he was destined to become the first of them).
The French trace and the reforming kings
Britain's closest neighbor was France, which predetermined the powerful influence of this country on the destinies of all generations of the British. Even William the Conqueror, having made a historical claim to the English throne, remained to rule French Normandy.
And his great-grandson Henry II Plantagenet had power over approximately half of the rulers of the French provinces, who were his vassals. It was this king who came up with the idea of judicial reform, from which the jury was subsequently formed.
Henry gave the throne to Richard I the Lionheart (1189-1199). It was the time of the Crusades. But his younger brother John the Landless (1199-1216) began strengthening the English shores from the appetites of the French monarch.
However, Philip Augustus turned out to be a more skillful master of warfare, and after 1214 Britain lost its influence over almost all French provinces. John, however, went down in the history of England as the creator of the first constitution of this country (the Magna Carta law).
His son Henry III (1216-1272) also distinguished himself: he initiated the creation of the world's first parliament.
Edward I (1272-1307), who replaced him, also became famous for the annexation of Wales.
Centralization, language reform
Despite the activity of the English kings, Scotland maintained its independence for many centuries. As a separate kingdom, this part of the British island was formed in the 9th-11th centuries. The already mentioned above-mentioned Angles, Saxons and Jutes, who settled in the southern part of Scotland, had a great influence on the existing ethnic community.
Meanwhile, in England itself, centralization continued in the 12th-13th centuries, accompanied by the development of the economy and the growth of cities. The population also consolidated; the history of the English ethnic community was a merger of the Angles, Saxons and Normans. At the same time, the language standard was formed.
Previously, commoners communicated with each other using the Anglo-Saxon language, and royal society, nobles and nobility (as later in Russia) - in French. Now the London dialect, not without the influence of the French language, united the existing bilingualism. It must be emphasized that currently the British speak three main languages, accepted as traditional on the shores of Foggy Albion.
This is, in fact, English, which is used by the vast majority of Britons, as well as Welsh (every fourth Welshman uses it) and Gaelic.
The latter is used by about 60 thousand Scots; in fact, it is nothing more than the Gaelic language in its Scottish dialect form.
Market, Hundred Years' War and War of the Roses
Serfdom was gradually pushed aside by the development of the wool industry, and with it other sectors of the economy. A new type of relationship - commodity-money - was penetrating the village, and sheep breeding was developing by leaps and bounds. Feudalism thus dug its own grave already in the 15th century.
Meanwhile, the reign of Edward III (1327-1377) was marked by new British claims to the French throne.
As a result of the Hundred Years' War (1337-1453), the French fleet was sunk (1340), the army of the "frogs" was defeated at Crecy (1346), and their king himself was captured at Poitiers (1356). Thus, the history of Britain began a new countdown to English influence on the continent.
The fiasco of Agincourt (1415) forced the French monarch to relinquish his throne in favor of the reigning Henry V. However, wars have never benefited the common people. If in England the reaction to the Hundred Years' War was the rebellion of Wat Tyler (1381), then in France it became the cause of the feat of Joan of Arc, and Henry VI in 1453 was forced to leave the continent back to the island.
From this same time, the beginning of the war started between the Lancasters and the Yorks (Scarlet and White Roses) began.
Beginning in 1455, she mowed down all contenders for the royal throne from both opposing sides, clearing the way for the Tudors. And the new king of England, Henry VII (1485-1509), marked the beginning of the reign of the Tudor dynasty. And he not only ascended the throne, but also, being a relative of the Lancasters, married a representative of the York dynasty. Since then, the enemies have made peace, and both roses have reigned on the coat of arms of Henry VII.
Absolutism and gentry, Stuarts and Cromwell
The unlimited power of the king was laid down by Henry VII, and his descendant Henry VIII (1491-1547) reformed the church, declaring himself as the head of the Church of England. Edward VI (1537-1553) declared Protestantism the religion of England; the 16th century is also known for the birth of new nobles - the gentry, from which the bourgeoisie later became.
Their intensive seizure of peasant lands formed the basis for the emergence of capitalist relations.
The last of the Tudors, Elizabeth I (1533-1603) found herself without an heir, and he became James I, from whom the reign of the Stuarts began in England. Under him, Protestants began to be pushed aside by Catholics, and his son Charles I (1625-1649) aggravated the confrontation with Parliament and, having brought the country to the Civil War, was executed by Cromwell's supporters. The latter, in just five years of his reign, annexed the lands of Scotland and Ireland to England, and from that time on, the history of the kingdom became united.
The end of the Stuarts, the bourgeois revolution
In the following decades, the monarchy triumphed (Charles II); in the 17th-19th centuries, two parties, now traditional for England, the Tories and Whigs, were formed, and the Slavic Revolution (1688) marked the end of the Stuarts and the strengthening of the bourgeoisie.
It was the “Slavic” king William III of Orange who contributed to the strengthening of the Tories and Whigs, as well as the press. At the same time, the history of the country's first Bank of England (1694) began.
Under Anne Stuart, England and Scotland became inseparable (1707).
The bourgeoisie who came to actual power completed the formation of England as a nation.
In the 18th century the peasantry disappeared. By this time, in three wars, the British had managed to break the onslaught of the Dutch, and the wars between England and France continued as the British Empire was created.
However, the Treaty of Versailles (1763) contributed to the civilized redistribution of colonies between France, Britain and Spain. Australia becomes a state-scale colony (Parliamentary laws of England 1768-1771).
In the 18th century, the era of Hanover contributed to the rise of parliament as the ruling body of the state. The accession of 18-year-old Victoria to the throne (1837) marks the beginning of the longest reign in English history. By this time, Britain had become the most powerful world power..
Modern England
Today, Britain, with 39 counties, is one of the world's most densely populated countries.
It is the second largest economy in Europe and the fifth largest in the world.. Tourism is widely developed here. The largest cities in England are London, Birmingham, Leeds, Sheffield, Liverpool, Manchester and Glasgow. The population is almost 60 million people. The cost of living in England is still measured in pounds sterling, although the national currency is the euro.
You will rarely meet a person on earth who has not heard anything about England. Every self-respecting tourist should visit this state to fall in love with its rich history and become imbued with its traditions. Today you have the opportunity to learn about rare facts in England.
1. In Britain, pigs are not castrated, so it is better not to buy pork or order it in restaurants, but if the smell and taste of boar urine in meat is normal to you, then you can. The British really love bacon for breakfast, and in the morning a specific stench emanates from the food. I once tried to talk to supermarket managers, I thought maybe there was some kind of identification system on the packages, but they didn’t even understand what I was talking about and why they castrate pigs. But there is a lot of halal meat, I am surprised that none of the green and other eco-animal lovers almost protests against it, because the slaughter of animals according to Muslim traditions is very cruel.
2. England almost doesn’t have its own national cuisine, or rather, it kind of exists, but it’s quite primitive and, frankly, tasteless. Probably the worst in Europe. I’ll write more about English cuisine
3. England has the highest obesity rate in Europe
4. The British really drink a lot of tea, a cup of tea is such a ritual in the culture of communication, and a panacea for all ills. It’s a paradox, but good loose tea is rare in large supermarkets; you have to order it in special stores. Everyone drinks packaged.
5. School uniform is mandatory for all schoolchildren. In most state schools it is the same, but private schools adhere to different
6. Public school is actually a private school, and free is a state school. Students refers to all students, both schoolchildren and university students. The word pupil in the meaning of “schoolboy” is practically not used. The word school can also mean university, such as law school or medical school
7. Parents may be subject to criminal liability for schoolchildren's absenteeism.
8. Children go to school from the age of five and compulsory education lasts until the age of 16. To enter university, you still need to study for an additional year or two
9. Corporal punishment in state schools was abolished only in 1987. In private schools - in 1999. In Scotland and Ireland even later.
10. A private elite school is actually a boarding school. A very tough establishment.
11. There is no more rainfall in London than in Moscow, or even less. And fogs are rare here. However, rain can come suddenly, but usually does not last long. Rain for the whole day is quite rare. If the weather forecast predicts rain, then it will always fall from one to two in the afternoon or from 5 to 7 in the evening, exactly at the time when it is lunch break, or when you have to go home from work. The law of meanness works constantly
12. In England it rarely snows in winter. If one centimeter of snow falls, then this is a whole event. Cities are at a standstill, transport is not working, planes are not flying, everyone is running to build shabby snowmen and ride down the slides on inflatable mattresses. Utilities almost don’t keep snow removal equipment, apparently it’s cheaper to suffer multimillion-dollar losses every year than to maintain the equipment....what will they do if the Germans attack
13. The British are seasoned from childhood. It is not customary to wrap children up from head to toe, and it is generally not customary to dress according to the season. The climate is quite mild, but because of the humidity, zero temperatures in winter seem like everything is minus 10 in Russia. In winter, you can see people wearing only T-shirts or ballet shoes on bare feet. Everyone saves on heating, so whether you like it or not, they will be hardened like steel from childhood.
14. The British love animals very much. You will not see stray cats and dogs on the streets. This issue was resolved a long time ago.
15. The Society for the Protection of Animals from Cruelty was created in England back in 1824 and has royal status. What is characteristic is that the society for the protection of children was founded only 60 years later and has national status, which is no longer so prestigious.
16. But at the same time, traditional fox hunting still takes place in England. The British love their traditions more than animals.
17. Although you may encounter stray animals, especially at night, they will be unfortunate foxes. Even in central London you can see them very often. They flash their green eyes and dash into the bushes. Sometimes they jump right out from under the wheels of a bicycle late on a dark evening; such suddenness and convulsions won’t last long. They live in parks, of which there are a huge number throughout London. They often get into houses and can be quite dangerous. At night, foxes make very specific screams, as if they are cutting a baby.
18. Household pests include bedbugs and mice. There are no cockroaches, and there are no mosquitoes either. You can also easily run into a false black widow. This is such a spider that can be dangerous and poisonous if it bites.
19. There are huge numbers of squirrels in the parks; they are all almost tame. The squirrels are all gray and quite plump, I would even say muscular. Once upon a time there were red squirrels, but gray squirrels killed them; now red squirrels are protected by the state. There are swans and many different interesting birds. By the way, all Thames swans are legally the property of the Queen.
20. In parks you can often see benches with nameplates installed in memory of a deceased relative or friend. Sometimes captions are an example of purely English irony, as is the case in the photo. “In memory of the husband whom I dreamed of, but he was never found.”
25. Britain has a huge number of regional accents, dialects and dialects. Accents may differ within the boundaries of one city, and even more so within a county. English in former colonies is sometimes very different from British English, and not just in pronunciation.
26. The British feel a little guilty that almost everyone knows English, and the British themselves are not strong in foreign languages. Therefore, they will always praise a foreigner's English. Many Russian speakers immediately begin to show off, as if the English themselves noticed that I speak almost without an accent. This has little to do with reality. This is simply a polite compliment to a foreigner's ability to string words together into sentences. In fact, I have almost never met Russian speakers who moved as adults and have excellent pronunciation... although no, Berezovsky’s first wife has excellent pronunciation
27. The Scots, Welsh and Irish are very proud of their roots and nationality. Don’t even think about calling an Irishman or a Scotsman an Englishman or even a Briton - they will be terribly offended.
28. In Britain there is no concept of provincialism in the Russian sense of the word. It's not considered cool here to be a native Londoner or a native Edinburgher. Historically, all the nobility lived on estates. In the big cities lived those who had to work; the need to work was always despised by the English nobility. But if you grew up in your own house with a lot of land, then yes, this is class. Certain regions are considered provincial here, for example, the north of England; historically, the Irish are considered rednecks, because the British essentially committed a mass genocide of the Irish, so the elite created a certain snobbish attitude towards them, which is still alive. New Zealanders who have arrived in large numbers are considered provincials
29. Britain has no constitution
30. Big Ben is actually the name of a bell, not a clock.
31. There is no concept of a courtyard here, because in urban development there is no city courtyard in the Russian sense; urban planning is planned differently. There is the concept of estate or neighbourhood, i.e. district.
32. In English cities, everything is very compact, the streets and sidewalks are narrow, the houses and apartments are quite small. For example, there are standard houses with 4 rooms of only 56 square meters. I call these apartments and houses mittens.
33. All land is private. There is no concept of “giving up on barbecue in nature,” because all of nature is divided into private areas, except for protected areas and parks. There are designated camping areas that you have to pay for, and areas for barbecues and picnics.
34. There is no registration in Britain, but without a bank account and card you can do almost nothing here, much less live legally. Residence is determined by bills, which are paid through a bank account. All bills are proof that you have lived here and may be needed for various bureaucratic needs. Therefore, a resident of Britain keeps a lot of waste paper at home from paper utility bills, payslips and the like; I already have two hefty folders.
35. If Moscow never sleeps, then London sleeps and how, I would say, just sleeps. Pubs are open until 11, on weekends until a maximum of 2. There are no traces of 24-hour restaurants, just as there are no 24-hour coffee shops. There are only fast food eateries that are open at night on weekends, the so-called take-away, where people flock to refuel after energy-consuming club parties. There are just mountains of garbage in city centers on weekends.
36. By the way, chips in English are French fries, not chips, but crisps are just chips in bags
37. In broad daylight, in various places in London, you can see people smoking weed, and if you don’t see it, you can acutely feel it. Few people care or care about this. In fact, there are a huge number of quiet weed addicts here.
38. Some people believe that the British are entirely music lovers and certainly don’t listen to any cheap pop music. The percentage of music lovers here is the same as in Russia, and there are a lot of pop lovers here
39. The working class in Russia loves to vacation in Turkey and Egypt, and the working class in England really loves Spain and Eastern Europe. The British "Tagil" has a better holiday there than ours in Egypt.
40. The British constantly say sorry, sorry, thank you, please, even if they are not to blame. An Englishman will apologize if you accidentally step on his foot. Don't delude yourself and think that this is sincere. In fact, an Englishman will say sorry to the table if he accidentally touches it; these words are more of an interjection than a sincere apology.