英语国家文化简答

"British history has been a history of invasion". Please illustrate this point with the

●British history has been a history of invasions. Before the first century AD Britain was made

up of many tribal kingdoms of Celtic people: a powerful culture originating in central Europe.

Then in 43AD Britain was invaded by the Roman empire, and England and Wales (though not Scotland or Ireland) became a part of the Roman empire for nearly 400 years.Two more groups of invaders were to come after the English: from the late 8th century on, raiders from Scandinavia, the ferocious Vikings, threatened Britain's shores….

●Key points:

What are some of the factors in Irish and English history that affect the situation in

●Along with the political campaign for home-rule there were groups who followed a more

direct method of pursuing Irish independence, engaging in guerilla or terrorist activities against British institutions and the British military forces. During the First World War and immediately after, this activity increased, sometimes brutally suppressed by British forces.

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1.The Celts originally lived on Scotland, they kept their own culture and language—the Gealic.

2.Around the AD 6th C, people from Northern Ireland invaded the South-west --- the lowland zone. They were called Scots and gave the modern country of Scotland its name.

3.The Scottish people have a strong sense of nationality and desire for cultural independence. They observed some old customs and tradition, like the Highland tradition. Today, bagpipe, and tartan are considered as the

souvenir of the Scottish history.

4.The division between highland and lowland Scotland remains a cultural divide today, in much the same way as north and south England see themselves as different from each other.

5.Scotland has a great tradition of innovation in the arts, philosophy and science.

Robert Louis Stevenson’s famous novel Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde 《吉基尔医生与海德先生》shows that: Scotland was superficially fully integrated into the UK, but concealed beneath this is a still-strong Scottish identity.

Union with England in 1707

1. In 1603, Queen Elizabeth I of England died. James the 6th of Scotland took the throne, called James the First of England; uniting the two thrones

2. Scotland maintained its separate political identity.

3. In 1707, Scotland joined the Union by agreement of the English and Scottish Parliaments

4. Scotland sends 72 representatives to the London Parliament.

How did the doctrine of the “divine right of kings”, according to the author, lead to the

English Civil War? What do you know about the causes of the English Revolution in the 17th century?

●King James I believed the divine right of kings, so did his descent---Charles I.

Charles I called his t Parliament only when he needed to collect money.

The Civil War was caused by a dispute over the power of the king against Parliament in the 17th C. The Republican ―roundheads‖, led by Oliver Cromwell, wanted to abolish the monarch y and to reassert the rights of Parliament. In 1642, the royalists were defeated and King Charles I was executed in 1649.

The English Civil War not only overthrew feudal in England but also shook the foundation of the feudal rule in Europe. It is generally regarded as the beginning of modern world history. The Civil War was in essence a capitalist revolution because capitalism paved its way of development after the war.

What are three big parties in the UK? What are some of the similarities and

dissimilarities between the three parties?

●They are the Labor party, the Conservative party and the Liberal Democratic party.

the Labour party--- one of the 2 biggest parties in the UK. It is also the newest party, created by the trade union movement at the end of the 19th century. It is a socialist party, believing that a society should be relatively equal in economic terms, and that the government should redistribute the wealth between the rich and the poor. It also thinks that the government should provide a range of public services for all the people.

the Conservative party --- one of the 2 biggest parties in the UK. It is basically the party of the individual, protecting the individual’ s right to acquire wealth and to spend it as he/she wants. It advocates economi c policies which are favourable to businessmen, such as low taxes. From 1979 to 1997, the Conservative party won 4 consecutive elections and was in power for quite a long period of time.

the Liberal Democrats--- the 3rd biggest party and often seen as a pa rty of the ―middle‖, occupying the ideological ground between the two major parties. They are comparatively flexible and pragmatic in their balance of the individual and the social. They emphasize the need to change the Britain’s constitutional arrangement s to make the government more democratic and accountable.

Similarities:

1. they all support the capitalist system

2. generally speaking, they all are the active participants and supporters of representative democracy

3. they share some similar beliefs in their political and socioeconomic ideology

Dissimilarities: