How We Got Here: English and Western History In a Nutshell

By MJ Jolley

Our ancestors laid the foundations of the modern world we inhabit. They evolved our languages, customs, beliefs, technologies, the Arts and cultures. They created our nations and many of our international alliances and rivalries.

So, take a fascinating journey through time, from the beginning of the universe to the 21st Century and see how England and the countries of the Western World and the Commonwealth became the societies they are today.

For further details visit: www.impossibledreamers.co.uk

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Oct 8, 2019
• ISBN: 9780244817367

Book preview

How We Got Here: English and Western History In a Nutshell

How We Got Here: English and Western History In a Nutshell

MJ Jolley

Copyright © MJ Jolley 2019

ISBN: 978-0-244-81736-7

MJ Jolley has asserted his right under the Copyright, Design and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the publisher.

Acknowledgement

I am indebted to my best friend, who also happens to be my wife, for proof-reading the script and enabling me to produce the polished version contained within these pages. This book is dedicated to her and our beautiful daughter - two exceptional women.

Foreword

As a boy, my friends divided roughly between those that wanted to know how things worked and others, like me, who were more interested in what made people tick. My fictional hero was Sherlock Holmes. I was captivated by how his stupendous powers of observation and deduction enabled him to harvest clues missed by lesser mortals and read the characteristics and personal history of his subject of interest at a glance.

But after spending six years as a young man reading psychology, politics and criminology at university (where I resisted the urge to buy a deerstalker, although I did à la Holmes smoke a pipe while pondering life’s mysteries) I became more aware of the need to understand the wider context within which we live and exercise a degree of free will.

As an Englishman, I realised that I had little idea of how the country of my birth came into being and evolved into the modern, technologically advanced, relatively free and prosperous place it is today. And although I have visited Wales, Scotland, Ireland, Australia the USA and much of Europe, my knowledge of the history of these places was equally sketchy.

So, after putting off the task for many years, it was only relatively recently that I knuckled down to learning about the history of England and the Western world by researching every relevant printed and broadcast source I could find. It proved to be an absorbing experience. 

I am not a professional historian, and such minutiae as how Henry VIII got along with each of his wives hold no interest for me; but the fact that he changed the religion of England, became the first English King of Ireland and developed the English navy, does. Accordingly, this book is designed to provide you, dear reader, with a broad understanding of how England, Britain, the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland, the Commonwealth, Western Europe and the Americas became the places they are today without boring you with unnecessary detail. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I did writing it.

Any mistakes contained within the script are mine alone. No one else bears any responsibility for the content of this book. Every effort has been made to avoid breaching the copyright of any of the sources I have used. Rather, I have digested my sources and produced an original piece of work.

Contents

How We Got Here: English and Western History In a Nutshell

Copyright © MJ Jolley 2019

Acknowledgement

Foreword

Section One: Pre-History: How did it all begin?

Section Two: Ancient History

Section Three: The Middle Ages Circa AD 410 - 1500

Section Four:  The Early Modern Period: The Pre-Industrial Age Circa 1500 to 1700

Section Five:  1700-1799

Section Six: 1800-1899

Section Seven: 1900 – 1914

Section Eight: The Great War  And Its Aftermath

Section Nine: The Inter War Years:  1918-38

Section Ten:  The Second World War 1939 -1945

Section Eleven: The Post-WW2 Years

Section One:

Pre-History:

How did it all begin?

The Creation of the Universe and Life

People born in the 20th Century were the first in history to be offered a detailed scientific theory to explain the creation of the universe and the development of life on earth.

In 1929 American Astronomer Edwin Hubble observed the track of galaxies and realised the universe was expanding. This led some in the scientific community to argue that if an imaginary film of the expansion could be re-wound, it would reveal the creation of the universe some 14 billion years earlier. The starting point would have been a spontaneous expansion of all matter and energy which had been compressed into a tiny density. British astrophysicist Sir Fred Hoyle thought this theory unlikely and somewhat sceptically referred to it as The Big Bang. Nevertheless, the theory gained traction and was complemented by speculation that the existence of dark energy, dark matter and gravity led to the continuing expansion of the universe via the creation of countless more galaxies, the distance between them being so vast it is measured in light years.

The theory goes that among the planets created was our earth, which was struck at one point by something big enough to detach a large chunk, and this became our moon. Gravity ensured not only that both parts became spheres, but also locked the moon into an orbit around its mother planet.

Then life was most likely brought to our planet by microbes and organic compounds contained in interstellar dust which triggered some kind of complicated (and, as yet, unexplained) chemical process which gradually evolved into the unique living cells we have on earth.

From this point, about 3.5 billion years ago, and made possible by the fact that around 70% of the surface of our planet is covered in water, a process of evolution began which led to the spread of flora, vegetation and fauna leading to a massively increasing variety of all forms of plant life and living creatures.

Much of the above is, of course, speculation. But scientific research carried out since the 1950s has brought a degree of certainty about the relationship between living things. The cells of all living organisms contain four base chemicals. These form in a strip of DNA which is shaped like a double helix (imagine two sections of railway line spiralling around each other). Each strip of DNA divides into thousands of genes, and each gene contains unique genetic information.

As a result of large-scale DNA mapping, we now know that every living thing on earth shares some common features. Human beings from across the planet are extremely homogenous in that we share 99.9% of our genes. But more surprising is the fact that we share varying proportions of our genes with animals, fish, insects, bacteria and fruit.

Combined with complex dating techniques of fossil evidence, DNA mapping has helped scientists to postulate basic evolutionary steps. These started with sea life; sharks, for example, pre-dated dinosaurs by many millions of years. Various stages of land life followed, with human beings eventually evolving from a long line of Humanoids about 250,000 years ago in Africa, specifically in what is now known as Ethiopia.

Speech, Mass-Movement and Humanoids

The first humans (Homo Sapiens) were hunter-gatherers, essentially living on anything they could catch, kill or pluck. They would have grown in number and the vocal sounds they made to communicate eventually developed into a rudimentary form of speech as a particular sound would become associated with a certain object or activity.

It wasn’t until around 100,000 years ago, during a glacial period when sea levels were low and people could move more easily between land masses that humans first migrated from Africa and eventually to all parts of the globe. Different groups moved into and populated the Middle East, the Indian Sub-Continent, the Far East, Asia, Europe and Scandinavia.

And it all happened over a long period of time: roughly 35,000 years after the initial migration from Africa the first people were inhabiting the islands of the Indian Ocean, Pacific Ocean and the lands of Australia and New Zealand.

The last major migration was across the Bering Strait from Siberia into Alaska on the North American continent. The migrants that survived and created settlements would have been the ancestors of the Red Indian tribes – today’s native Americans. Some moved south through Mexico, Central America and eventually to the tip of the South American continent which, if the scientific evidence is accurate, became the last place to be populated around 12,000 years ago.

The theory is that tribes settled and developed in all parts of the world, originating the ethnic diversity we have today. The varying climatic conditions across the globe influenced the evolution of different shades of skin and hair colour, while different cultures, customs and religions subsequently emerged over time.

There is an ongoing debate, however, about whether or not the world’s population has evolved into different Races or, because we all share almost identical genes, we are one Race which divides into ethnic groupings. It’s a debate shaped by politics as much as genetics.

The early migrants would almost certainly have encountered creatures unknown to our present-day selves, as it is estimated that 99% of the species that ever existed are now extinct. Amongst these would have been other humanoids, the last of whom became extinct as recently as 10,000 years ago - quite possibly having been wiped out by our ancestors!

These theories - regarding the creation of the universe, evolution and mass movement – were constructed as a result of relatively recent scientific research. This is one of the consequences of there being more scientists working in the 20th and 21st Centuries than the aggregate number of all the past scientists who have ever lived. None of our distant ancestors, certainly before Darwin, were ever offered such an explanation. Their common understanding would have been founded on the Old Testament account of Creation and how life on earth, including Adam and Eve as fully developed humans with the capacity to speak, was willed into existence by an omnipotent God.

In fact, in 1654, the scholarly Bishop James Ussher, the Primate of all Ireland, after having spent around 20 years researching over 10,000 religious texts, concluded that God’s Creation took place precisely on the 23rd October 4004 BC. This would make the universe now just over 6,000 years old; a claim that is simply unbelievable to many scientists today, such as those who believe the English Channel flooded and Britain became an island about 8,000 years ago.

On the face of it, the scientific theories of the Big Bang and evolution are so far distanced from the religious view of Creation that the two positions seem wholly incompatible. Yet some scientists believe that there is a feasible concept of Intelligent Design which, to some degree, fuses the two. It accepts evolution as a given: all domestic dogs, for example – even breeds like Chihuahuas and Poodles – have evolved from the same line as wolves. And without evolution everyone on earth would have the same coloured skin. But the concept of evolution can only explain how life on earth has changed and adapted to its environment. Evolution cannot explain the creation of life itself. The laws of nature are so perfect and the creation of life so otherwise inexplicable, say the Intelligent Design theorists, that there must be a Creator (or God) for these phenomena to exist.

Whether there will ever be certainty pertaining to the big questions of life and the universe is a moot point. Many millions in the West have retained their religious convictions and acceptance of the Biblical account of Creation. Amongst others, there is a diversity of alternative beliefs including that of the theory of Intelligent Design, Agnosticism, Atheism and the view that we are in a new Age of Enlightenment within which science will eventually reveal the answers to all of life’s mysteries.

Fire, Art and Music

Early humans lived in caves for shelter. Any tools, weapons or implements they used were made of stone or bone and their clothing from animal hides. Archaeological evidence (bearing in mind that there’s a difference between evidence and proof) suggests that around 50,000 to 100,000 years ago they learned how to create and control fire. This would have been used for heating the cave in cold weather, deterring wild animals from entering and for cooking humankind’s first hot meals. But it wasn’t until about 30,000 years ago that they built their first primitive huts from mud and branches so that they could enjoy their summers in the outdoors. Whoever sent out the first invites for friends to come around for a barbeque remains a mystery.

Some of the first known expressions of human art were painted on the walls of caves around 15,000 years ago. A superb example was in how ochre (a yellow/orange/brown natural earth pigment) and charcoal were used to spectacular effect in creating awe-inspiring paintings of animals and human hands inside the caves of Altamira near the Spanish city of Santander.

The precise time when the first form of music appeared is less certain, but it’s likely that percussion instruments such as the drum would have pre-dated other instruments – and equally likely that drums were first used by the early humanoids in Africa. It’s quite possible that singing, in the form of chants, actually pre-dated any spoken language.

Well, somebody’s got to be in charge.

Human settlements grew and, around 10,000 BC, food production became more organised with the advent of crop farming, now being aided by land irrigation and the husbandry of cattle. This period was known as the Agricultural Revolution. Tribes had grown large enough to develop social hierarchies, as not everyone now had to spend most of their time ensuring they had enough to eat.

It was probably no different then than it is now; put any group of people together and human nature dictates that there will be competition between those that want to wield power and influence over the rest. Those larger societies that handled these conflicts best without self-destructing developed complex societal structures and became the first we would recognise as civilisations.

Section Two:

Ancient History

The World’s First Civilisations

The first civilisations of which we are aware were the Sumerians from around 3,500 BC. They were followed by the Egyptians around 300 years later as tribes from Upper and Lower Egypt united under a leader named Menes, who became their first Pharaoh, or King. Both civilisations had settled alongside rivers so that they had a source of drinking water and a means of irrigating their crops. The Sumerians lived between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in what is now Iraq and Kuwait. This area was part of a wider Mesopotamia and included the ancient city of Babylon. The first Egyptian civilisation later developed around the River Nile.

The Sumerians and Egyptians were the first peoples to build structures using bricks made from sun-dried mud with straw used as a binding agent. And both civilisations carved logograms (symbols) and hieroglyphs into stone surfaces as a form of script to share their knowledge and history. It was humankind’s first form of writing and historical record. Napoleon’s troops in Egypt discovered a slab of basalt known as The Rosetta Stone in 1799: script written in both Egyptian and Greek on the stone interpreted the meaning of the hieroglyphs.

Both the Sumerians and Egyptians also had wheeled vehicles, as did the people of Southern Russia, the latter being amongst the first to use horses for transport. 

The Egyptian civilisation in particular was the engine of massive cultural and technological changes. It gave the world its first royal dynasty of Pharaoh God-kings and at least, in Cleopatra, one Queen. This long line of rulers helped create the pillars of an advanced society – a legal system, trade, architecture, construction skills, shipbuilding, medicine, literature, art, civil society and an overall cultural identity. They also enslaved and tasked many thousands of their less fortunate contemporaries with the building of a total of 138 pyramids. These were the world’s oldest structures of dressed masonry i.e. the surfaces would have been cut carefully and then most likely polished with grinding wheels. These huge monuments – those at Giza, for example, being amongst the biggest ever built – were used as tombs for the dynastic rulers and stocked with the riches needed to ensure the God-kings enjoyed a luxurious after-life.

From the Stone Age to the Bronze Age

There is some dispute over who exactly were the first people to use bronze (a mixture of copper and tin). It might have been the Chinese, although the Sumerians and Egyptians were the first in the Western world to use bronze for armaments, utensils and jewellery.

And by doing so, these ancients moved the western world from the Stone Age to the Bronze Age.

Around 3000 BC a people known as the Minoans, living on the Greek island of Crete, created the first literate civilisation in Europe. Other civilisations developed across Asia, the Indian sub-continent, Persia, the Middle East, Far East, Africa and the Americas. All developed distinctive cultures, while some went on to create powerful empires.

As the influence of China spread throughout the Far East it was the Greek (and, later, the Roman) cultures which largely influenced and

shaped Western culture.

The Rise of Philosophy and Religion

Discourse within the more sophisticated and developing societies inevitably led to the type of questions many would still ask today – about the meaning of life, whether there was a higher power (or powers), morality, ethics and so on.

There was a consequential rise in different schools of philosophy and religious beliefs and practices, such as the spread of Hinduism and Buddhism in the Indian sub-continent, and Taoism and Confucianism in China and the Far East in the centuries before the birth of Jesus Christ.

A common feature of many early societies, including the Greeks and Romans, was their shared belief in numerous Gods. Much of what they could not understand or explain was attributed to supernatural powers - there being, for example, Gods of war, peace, love, the sea, the sun and the moon.

It is not known exactly how many Gods have been worshipped across the world throughout history, but the minimum number is certainly in the thousands.

But not all societies were polytheistic. A very different and important view emerged which was to radically re-shape the world’s major religions.

Judaism; the first Abrahamic Religion

Abraham was an immensely important historical figure. He lived during the Bronze Age and three of the present-day world’s major religions - Judaism, Christianity and Islam - are regarded as Abrahamic as they share his monotheistic belief of there being only one God.

Abraham is regarded by Jews as the patriarch of the Jewish people as his grandson Jacob (son of Isaac) had 12 sons who were the originators of 12 Hebrew tribes that later developed into the Jewish nation (and subsequently became known as Israelis). Ten of the tribes disappeared from historical records - possibly having assimilated with other peoples – and are known as The Ten Lost Tribes.

During the early time of their existence, the Jews lived in conditions of slavery within Egypt. Centuries later the Jewish leader Moses led his people in an exodus from Egypt to Canaan, an ancient area of territory which included present-day Israel and Palestine. Canaan is cited in The Old Testament as the land promised to the Israelis by God. It was while he was on Mount Sinai that Moses received from God tablets of stone on which were inscribed the Ten Commandments. Jews also believe that God dictated to Moses the Torah, which consists of the first Five Books of the Old Testament. These set out the laws by which the Israelis were to live. Although Moses never got to enter Canaan, the Israelites were eventually led there by their new leader Joshua.

Centuries later, during the end of the Iron Age, Abrahamic monotheism was a key belief of the newly developing Christian religion, just as it was for Muslims with the beginning of the Islamic religion during the 7th Century AD.

Classical Greece

Although the ancient Greeks didn’t engage in massive Empire-building military campaigns like the Romans, their influence on the development of culture in the West was no less extensive.

The organised games the Greeks staged on the plains of Olympia in 776 BC were the forerunner of the Olympic Games in which the modern world now engages every four years. One event, the Marathon, replicates the feat achieved in the year 490 BC by the Greek messenger Pheidippides, who dropped the armour he had been wearing all morning while fighting a battle and ran 26 miles from the plains of Marathon to warn the residents of Athens of the impending arrival of the Persian army. His warning enabled the Athenians, aided by Spartans and other Greek warriors, to repel the Persians (today’s Iranians) from conquering Greece and potentially changing the course of Western history. Pheidippides reputedly completed the 26 miles in around three hours before collapsing and dying from exhaustion. His remarkable feat of athleticism and endurance became the prototype for an Olympic Games event now echoed in Marathon races all over the modern world.

The introduction of vowels in a new form of writing at around 700 BC was another remarkable achievement by the Greeks. It is virtually impossible to think how any sophisticated form of written communication could exist without vowels. Even Morse Code has to be translated back into normal text to be understood.

Between the years 400-500 BC the classical Greek City State of Athens developed the world’s first form of democratic government when all male citizens (females had a long wait) were made eligible to serve in public office and vote on major decisions.

Political debates obliged participants to develop their reasoning skills to present a case logically and coherently. As a consequence, intellectual life flourished and different schools of philosophy emerged promoting the development of enquiry, critical thinking and evaluation. This not only resulted in people thinking better in the abstract, there were also more practical benefits.

Greek scientists were among the first to engage in disciplined and methodical practice. Aristarchus claimed that the earth revolved around the sun nearly 2,000 years before Copernicus confirmed it in the 16th century. And the claim by Democritus (in 460 BC), that all substances were made up of atoms, was all but forgotten until a British scientist, John Dalton, came to a similar conclusion in the early 1800s. 

And commerce improved in the City-State of Athens when a system of weights and measures was introduced along with coins. Instead of bartering about what was a fair swap for a pig, a goat, a garment or some food, citizens could now put a monetary value on any object and simply sell or buy as they wished.

This new and progressive Greek culture proliferated across much of the West and the Near East as a result of Alexander the Great’s undefeated 12-year military campaign. Though not Greek himself (he was born in Macedonia) Alexander had been a student of Aristotle and had been as instrumental and committed as any Greek in the spreading of his adopted culture.

The First Great Thinkers

During the six centuries before the birth of Christ and the rise of Christianity some very important thinkers turned their minds to questions of morality and ethics (the ideas,