Great Britain

An Historical Outline

Adapted from:
Why has England and the UK punched above its weight for so much of history?
https://www.quora.com/Why-has-England-and-the-UK-punched-above-its-weight-for-so-much-of-history-1/answer/Yair-Davidiy

Britain had been populated by several martial races.
We identify all of these peoples as of Israelite descent. There may however have also been others, such as Edomites, and Canaanites, among them, or alongside them.
The Romans conquered the local inhabitants. These were of Celtic culture but they did not call themselves "Celts." This is more of a modern-day term. According to Ptolemy and other sources, the early Britons and inhabitants of Ireland referred to themselves as "Iberi." This is another form of the term "Hebrew." The Romans did not take Scotland preferring to build two walls to keep the Scots and Picts away. One of these walls they had to abandon. The Scots and the Picts traced themselves to Isacon i.e. Isaac. Even today most of the British top commando unit, the SAS, come from Scotland and more of these are from the Highlands than anywhere else. The Roman chronicler, Ammianus Marcellinus, mentions the Picts as allies of the Anglo-Saxons in the invasion of England and he implies that they were of the same stock.

The Welsh and the West Country also represent remnants of the Native Britons. The Welsh provided English armies in the Middle Ages with their longbow archers while the West Country supplied much of the mercenary foot soldiers needed for invading other countries. The Welsh also gave Britain crowds of exuberant football enthusiasts who can fill a stadium yet still impressively keep a tune.
See:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AM4mIlYKG9s

Wales was also the ancestral homeland of the Tudor Dynasty, and of Oliver Cromwell. Britain was an island with a fertile soil and benign climate. The island produced sufficient wheat, oats, and barley to feed a substantial population. It also had good grazing land for sheep. Wool for export in both its untreated form and later as cloth kick-started the English economy. Wool was dominant until the 1700s. Even today Britain is still an exporter of wool. Australia, an offshoot of Britain, grew to manhood "on the sheeps back." For much of its history Australia was the leading exporter of wool on earth.

One of the traditional symbols of Joseph was a sheep. We are still searching for an explanation for this but have seen it illustrated in both Jewish and non-Jewish sources.

http://israelcitytour.blogspot.com/2016/01/blog-post_54.html (Shows Mosaic from a Synagogue, "Ahavah ve-Achvah," in Holon, Israel. Joseph is represented by a sheep.)

https://www.123rf.com/photo_91282776_stock-vector-joseph-with-his-colorful-coat-holding-a-sheep-in-his-arms-.html
[Other symbols of Joseph include a palm tree, a sheaf of wheat, a bull and unicorn together]. The palm tree apparently is supposed to represent the Land of Egypt. The Midrash Rabah says the symbol of Joseph (as distinct from Ephraim and Manasseh as separate tribes ieach intheir own right) was a picture of Egypt. To our mind a pyramid is a better representation of Egypt than aything else. The Great Seal of the USA (as depicted on the dolalr bill) shows a pyramid].
Ephraim and Manasseh the sons of Joseph have symbols their own, Ephraim is a bull, Manasseh a unicorn. So says the Midrash Rabah.

The Southern Irish contributed about one-third of the soldiers garrisoning the British Empire. There are more people of Irish descent in England and Scotland than in Ireland itself. The Northern Irish in Ulster, known as Scots-Irish, bequeathed the USA about 90% of its Presidents alongside leaders in both industry and the armed forces.

In Ancient Times the Great Orme Mine in Wales produced copper mined by Israelite captive children used as slave labor. The Assyrians used Edomites, Phoenicians (from Tyre), and Philistines (of Minoan and Mycenean cutlure) as proxies to work their overseas enterprises. This is referred to in Amos chapter 1. In Cornwall the Phoenicians dug for tin. This was the Bronze Age and bronze is an alloy of tin and copper. Gold was to be found in Ireland.

Angles, Saxons, Jutes, and others laid the foundations of England as we know it. The Angles came from southern Denmark-northern Germany, the Saxons from the same area but closer to Frisia on the Netherlands coast and including Frisians among their ranks [The "Saxons" were not related to the people later known as Saxons who inhabited areas more to the east]. The Jutes came from Jutland in Denmark. At that time many of the Danes dwelt in Southern Sweden. After the Jutes left they moved into their present area. In "The Tribes" we quote from traditions tracing the Angles, Saxons, Jutes, and Frisians to Ancient Israel. The Anglo-Saxon invasions lasted from ca. 450 to the 600s CE.

# The settlement was followed by the establishment of Anglo-Saxon kingdoms in the south and east of Britain, later followed by the rest of modern England, and the south-east of modern Scotland.
The few literary sources tell of hostility between incomers and natives. They describe violence, destruction, massacre, and the flight of the Romano-British population.
.... another view, the most widely accepted among 21st century scholars, is that the migrants were fewer, possibly centred on a warrior elite. This hypothesis suggests that the incomers, having achieved a position of political and social dominance, initiated a process of acculturation with the natives to the incoming language and material culture, and intermarried greatly. Archaeologists have found that settlement patterns and land use show no clear break with the Romano-British past, though changes in material culture were profound. This view predicts that the ancestry of the people of Anglo-Saxon and modern England would be largely derived from the Romano-British. ##
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglo-Saxon_settlement_of_Britain

What is known as the "Justinian Plague" (an early form of what became known as the "Black Death" i.e. bubonic plague) decimated much of Europe in the 550s. The Romano-Britons were disproportionately affected by it. This facilitated the Anglo-Saxon conquest.

# This process of conquest and immigration, which caused a massive cultural shift in the British Isles, was aided by the decimation of the native population by the Plague of Justinian in the mid-sixth century. #
https://hekint.org/2020/07/06/plague-epidemics-and-the-evolution-of-language-in-england/

About one-third of the present-day English have the same DNA (for what it is worth) as the population of Northern France. This is believed to date back to before the Anglo-Saxon invasions.

Vikings from Denmark and Norway added to the mix as did Normans (of partly Viking origin) from Normandy in France. The Normans brought the French language with them. This was superimposed on existing Anglo-Saxon dialects and the English Language emerged from it. All European Tongues show some similarity to Hebrew but in English the Hebraic affinity is especially noticeable.
During the Middle Ages England periodically invaded neighboring countries. Under Richard-1, they also went on a Crusade (1189-1192). This involved about 1% of the population but it had an influence. Up until the 1700s the population of England was only a fraction of that of France but it was belligerent and relatively fertile. The Black Death in the 1300s and an agricultural depression in the 1400s was followed by an upsurge due to wool production. The internecine Wars of the Roses ended when the Tudor, Henry-7 (reigned 1485-1509) seized control. He stabilized the realm. His son, Henry-8 (rg. 1509-1547), broke with Rome, and dissolved the monasteries. This liberated about 20% of the arable land. The dissolution of Church lands enriched Henry and his nobles as well as augmenting their ranks and that of the middle men below them. It gave them all a personal stake in the official changes of Religion. Henry placed a Bible in every parish church to be made available for reading to whomsoever was literate. Henry-8 also built a navy with bigger and better ships. Elizabeth-1 (rg. 1558-1603) sent her pirates and buccaneers to raid Spanish colonies and ships in the Atlantic. The Americas had been discovered. Spain was becoming rich by looting Amerindian peoples in what became Latin America. The Spanish Inquisition was in full swing. Spain was the dominant world power at the time yet the English defied and attacked her and repulsed an attempted invasion by the Armada in 1588. Literature and the arts flourished. More radical extreme forms of Protestantism began to take root. Colonies were founded in North America.

Scotland, England, and Wales were united under one monarch in 1601 when James (Stuart)-6 of Scotland became James-1 of England. This gave the Kingdom an extra infusion of brains and brawn. Scotland has always brought forth original tyhinkers and brave soldiers. Northern Ireland was colonized from Scotland and England intermixing with those of the locals who agreed to abandon Catholicism. The resulting admixture became known as the Scots-Irish. Many of these later moved to North America where they played an important role. In the reign of James-1 a translation of the Bible was produced known as the King James Version. This became the most popular book ever published and one of the most influential. It also had a profound effect on the English Language and on all English Literature that followed after it. After James-1 came his son Charles-1 who championed the Divine Right of Kings. A Civil War resulted in the dictatorship of Oliver Cromwell (rg. 1653-1658) and the rule of the Puritans. This was short-lived but had far-reaching effects. Cromwell also acquiesced in the informal but semi-official re-admittance of Jews to England. The reigns of Charles-2 and James-2, and of Mary (with her consort William of Orange, ruler of the Netherlands), and of Anne saw the end of the Stuart dynasty. During the reign of Anne (rg. 1702-1707), John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, defeated the forces of Louis-14, King of France, on the Continent. Marlborough has been considered possibly the greatest military strategist who ever lived. Between 1600 and 1700 British prosperity had increased. George-I, of the House of Hanover in Germany, became King (rg 1704-1727). Gibraltar dominating the passage way between the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean was acquired in 1704. The Union of England with Scotland was formalized in 1707 creating a sovereign state to be known as "Great Britain." A rebellion of mainly Highlander-Catholic "Jacobites" in Scotland was suppressed. Under the Hanovers the realm evolved into a constitutional monarchy. [In World War-1 the House of Hanover officially renamed itself "House of Windsor."]. After the 1750s the British progressively took control of India. Captain James Cook chartered the coasts of Australia and New Zealand in 1770s. Colonization followed. Eventually the British were to rule directly over more than one-fifth of the world population and a quarter of its area. They also had a determining influence in all neighboring regions. British investors and financial institutions also invested heavily in areas outside of the British Empire, such as the USA and Argentina. The long-range returns from all this still benefit Britain.

Under "Farmer" George-3 control of the United States was lost in the American War of Independence (1775-1783). Britain still retained control of Canada and important wealth-producing sugar-growing islands in the Caribbean.
The British Agricultural Revolution reached its peak.

"Agricultural output grew faster than the population over the century to 1770, and thereafter productivity remained among the highest in the world. This increase in the food supply contributed to the rapid growth of population in England and Wales, from 5.5 million in 1700 to over 9 million by 1801."

Agricultural improvements resulted in more available labor. This was one of the factors that contributed to the Industrial Revolution. The availability of coal was also important. From the 1750s onwards Britain developed into the most prominent industrial power in the world economy, and the major political power on the world scene.

# According to Max Weber, the foundations of this process of change can be traced back to the Puritan Ethic of the Puritans of the 17th century. This produced modern personalities attuned to innovation and committed to a work ethic, inspiring landed and merchant elites alive to the benefits of modernization, and a system of agriculture able to produce increasingly cheap food supplies. To this must be added the influence of religious nonconformity, which increased literacy and inculcated a "Protestant work ethic" amongst skilled artisans.# Economic history of the United Kingdom - Wikipedia

The Wars against Napoleon in the early 1800s helped confirm British military, economic, and diplomatic paramountcy on the European scene.

# In 1832, Parliament abolished slavery in the Empire with the Slavery Abolition Act 1833. The government purchased the slaves for #20,000,000 (the money went to rich plantation owners who mostly lived in England), and freed the slaves, especially those in the Caribbean sugar islands.#

The sugar plantations and other colonial enterprises in the Caribbean West Indies (Jamaica and co.) had in previous years contributed much to British coffers.

The British also banned the international trade in slaves! The British Royal Navy would stop, search, and if necessary seize the ships of foreign powers (including those of the USA) if they were suspected of slave-trading.

The war against slavery led to the occupation of regions on the West Coast of Africa such as Lagos (Nigeria).

"The powerful Royal Navy protected British commercial interests, shipping and international trade, while the British legal system provided a system for resolving disputes relatively inexpensively, and the City of London functioned as the economic capital and focus of the world economy."

In 1819 Singapore was established and Malaya subdued shortly afterwards, along with Burma.

In 1839 the British seized part of China after which Hong Kong came into existence.

Benjamin Disraeli (Prime Minister 1868 and 1874-80) and his opponent, William Gladstone (Prime Minister four times (1868-74, 1880-85, 1886, and 1892-94), both in their own way had importance. Gladstone was a devout Christian but his policies favored the Middle Class more than others. Disraeli strove to better the lot of the working people and to effect some degree of social reform and national reconciliation between the Upper and Lower Classes. Disraeli was considered a leading statesman in Europe. He arranged British acquisition of the Suez Canal and effective control over Egypt. Disraeli also acquired Cyprus. This became a pattern in British Imperial and Foreign policy, i.e. to gain control of strategic passes and international thoroughfares. For this purpose military bases and naval stations were set up all over the world. [The USA has continued this policy].

This had been prophesied in the Blessings to the Patriarchs:

Abraham was told that his seed would inherit the gate of his enemies. This was part of an irrevocable Promise from the Almighty:

Genesis 22:
16 and said: BY MYSELF I have sworn, says the LORD, because you have done this thing, and have not withheld your son, your only son 17 blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your descendants shall possess THE GATE OF THEIR ENEMIES. 18 In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.

God says that "By Myself" HE has sworn. God is eternal and so is the promise. The promise was made as UNCONDITIONAL and IRREVOCABLE. It had to be fulfilled as it has been. Abraham was promised that his descendants would control strategic points giving him an edge over actual and potential adversaries. This is the gate of their enemies. The son of Abraham was Isaac. Isaac married Rebecca who it was predicted would become the mother of 'alfei revava' or thousands of ten thousands, or millions of millions (Genesis 24:60) and that her seed would possess the gate of those who hate them:

Genesis 24:
60 AND THEY BLESSED REBEKAH, AND SAID UNTO HER, THOU ART OUR SISTER, BE THOU THE MOTHER OF THOUSANDS OF MILLIONS, AND LET THY SEED POSSESS THE GATE OF THOSE WHICH HATE THEM.

These prophecies meant that the promised seed would possess international thoroughfares and vantage points of strategic importance as the USA and Britain (and only they) have done. Obtaining bases and control over international strategic points is still a fundamental part of American and British foreign policy and military strategy. They are unique in this matter.

"Britain Rules the Waves," became a popular slogan. Disraeli arranged for Queen Victoria to formally receive the title "Empress of India" in 1876.

Source: British have invaded nine out of ten countries - so look out Luxembourg

source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Empire

British settlement in South Africa had began in the early 1800s. This brought the Empire into conflict with Boer ("Afrikaner") settlers of mixed German, Dutch, and French Huguenot origin. Conflict needed in 1902 with Britain in control of the whole area.
Previously other areas (such as Nigeria) had been occupied on the west and east coasts of Africa. With defeat of Germany in WW-1 former German colonies also accrued to the British. Serious British settlement was attempted in Kenya and Rhodesia, etc, but with the independent of these areas this was mostly abandoned.

Between 1870 and 1900, economic output per head of the United Kingdom rose by 50 percent. In 1870, Britain's output per head was the second highest in the world, surpassed only by Australia. In 1914, British income per capita was the world's third highest, exceeded only by New Zealand and Australia.

# Ireland was incorporated in the United Kingdom economy between 1800 and 1920; from 1921 the Irish Free State (the modern Republic of Ireland) became independent. #

By 1913, the British Empire ruled over 412 million people, 23% of the world population at the time. By 1920, it encompassed 24% of the Earth's total land area. It was referred to as "the empire on which the sun never sets."

On the whole when account is taken of the prevailing cultural standards the British had a civilizing influence:

# Britain [gained] unparalleled power in world trade, ... ports, ships arrived from all over the globe carrying goods and raw materials. The wealth supported an age of scientific, industrial, cultural and military advancement within the United Kingdom.

Kirk Emmert wrote, "The glory of the British Empire was its service TO A CAUSE THAT TRANSCENDED BRITAIN, THAT TRANSCENDED HISTORY, THAT TRANSCENDED TIME ITSELF." ... in Churchill's view, the British Empire acted to "lift human life away from barbarism and savagery towards civilization and human excellence."

Niall Ferguson explains in detail the good work of the British Empire in his book Empire. Despite the wide criticism leveled at the British Empire today, he writes, 'the fact remains that NO ORGANIZATION IN HISTORY HAS DONE MORE TO PROMOTE THE FREE MOVEMENT OF GOODS, CAPITAL AND LABOR THAN THE BRITISH EMPIRE in the 19th and early 20th centuries. And NO ORGANIZATION HAS DONE MORE TO IMPOSE WESTERN NORMS OF LAW, ORDER AND GOVERNANCE AROUND THE WORLD. ' The Glory of Empire. https://www.thetrumpet.com/9587-the-glory-of-empire

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# ... in India they did their best to eradicate thuggee and suttee, General Sir Charles Napier: 'when men burn women alive we hang them.' In Africa they endeavoured to put down slavery, In New Zealand they suppressed cannibalism. In Hong Kong they tried to stop foot-binding and infanticide. https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/british_empire/ #

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After this came World War-1, the Balfour Declaration of 1917 and the British Mandate over Palestine that helped lay the foundations for the future State of Israel. Then we had World War-2 in which Britain stood alone for a while in defiance of tyranny.

The power and glory of Britain has been eclipsed by newer and stronger powers. Even so, something of the old fire is still there. The story has not ended.