Great Britain

==History==
===Prehistoric period===
{{Main|Prehistoric Britain}}
Great Britain was probably first inhabited by those who crossed on the [[land bridge]] from the [[European mainland]]. [[Happisburgh footprints|Human footprints]] have been found from over 800,000 years ago in [[Norfolk]]<ref name="bbc-2014-02-07">{{cite news|last=Ghosh|first=Pallab|author-link=Pallab Ghosh |title=Earliest footprints outside Africa discovered in Norfolk|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-26025763|work=BBC News|access-date=7 February 2014|date=7 February 2014}}</ref> and traces of [[early humans]] have been found (at [[Boxgrove Quarry]], Sussex) from some 500,000 years ago<ref>{{Cite book|last= Gräslund| first= Bo| title = Early humans and their world|url= https://archive.org/details/earlyhumanstheir00grsl_719|url-access= limited|publisher=Routledge|location=London|year=2005|page=[https://archive.org/details/earlyhumanstheir00grsl_719/page/n70 62]|chapter=Traces of the early humans | isbn=978-0-415-35344-1}}</ref> and [[modern humans]] from about 30,000 years ago. Until about 16,000 years ago, it was connected to [[Ireland]] by only an [[ice bridge]], prior to 9,000 years ago it retained a land connection to the continent, with [[Doggerland|an area of mostly low marshland]] joining it to what are now [[Denmark]] and the [[Netherlands]].<ref name=drowning>Edwards, Robin & al. "[http://www.tara.tcd.ie/bitstream/2262/40560/1/Edwards%26Brooks_INJ08_TARA.pdf The Island of Ireland: Drowning the Myth of an Irish Land-bridge?]" Accessed 15 February 2013.</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Nora McGreevy |title=Study Rewrites History of Ancient Land Bridge Between Britain and Europe |url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/tiny-islands-survived-tsunami-almost-separated-britain-europe-study-finds-180976430/ |website=smithsonianmag.com |publisher=Smithsonian Magazine |access-date=31 March 2022}}</ref>

In [[Cheddar Gorge]], near [[Bristol]], the remains of animal species native to mainland Europe such as [[antelope]]s, [[brown bear]]s, and [[wild horse]]s have been found alongside a human skeleton, '[[Cheddar Man]]', dated to about 7150 BC.<ref>Lacey, Robert. ''Great Tales from English History''. New York: Little, Brown & Co, 2004. {{ISBN|0-316-10910-X}}.</ref> Great Britain became an island at the end of the [[last glacial period]] when sea levels rose due to the combination of melting [[glacier]]s and the subsequent [[isostatic rebound]] of the crust.
Great Britain's [[Iron Age]] inhabitants are known as [[Britons (historic)|Britons]]; they spoke [[Celtic languages]].

===Roman and medieval period===
{{Main|Roman Britain|Medieval England|Medieval Scotland|Medieval Wales}}
[[File:Prima Europe tabula.jpg|thumb|alt=Ptolomy's historical map of Roman Britain|''Prima Europe tabula''. A copy of [[Ptolemy]]'s 2nd-century map of Roman Britain. See notes to image above.]]
The Romans conquered most of the island (up to [[Hadrian's Wall]] in northern England) and this became the [[Ancient Rome|Ancient Roman]] province of ''[[Roman Britain|Britannia]]''. In the course of the 500 years after the Roman Empire fell, the Britons of the south and east of the island were assimilated or displaced by [[Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain|invading]] [[Germanic peoples|Germanic]] tribes ([[Angles (tribe)|Angles]], [[Saxons]], and [[Jutes]], often referred to collectively as [[Anglo-Saxons]]). At about the same time, [[Gaelic Ireland|Gaelic]] tribes from Ireland invaded the north-west, absorbing both the [[Picts]] and [[Britons (historical)|Britons]] of northern Britain, eventually forming the Kingdom of Scotland in the 9th century. The south-east of Scotland was colonised by the Angles and formed, until 1018, a part of the [[Kingdom of Northumbria]]. Ultimately, the population of south-east Britain came to be referred to as the [[English people]], so-named after the Angles.

Germanic speakers referred to Britons as ''Welsh''. This term came to be applied exclusively to the inhabitants of what is now Wales, but it also survives in names such as [[Wallace (surname)|Wallace]] and in the second syllable of [[Cornwall]]. ''[[Cymry]]'', a name the Britons used to describe themselves, is similarly restricted in modern Welsh to people from Wales, but also survives in English in the place name of [[Cumbria]]. The Britons living in the areas now known as Wales, Cumbria and Cornwall were not assimilated by the Germanic tribes, a fact reflected in the [[Celtic language-death in England|survival of Celtic languages]] in these areas into more recent times.<ref name="Ellis1974">{{cite book|last=Ellis|first=Peter Berresford| author-link = Peter Berresford Ellis|title=The Cornish language and its literature|year=1974|publisher= Routledge & Kegan Paul | location=London|isbn=978-0-7100-7928-2|page=20}}</ref> At the time of the [[Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain|Germanic invasion of southern Britain]], many Britons emigrated to the area now known as [[Brittany]], where [[Breton language|Breton]], a Celtic language closely related to Welsh and [[Cornish language|Cornish]] and descended from the language of the emigrants, is still spoken. In the 9th century, a series of Danish assaults on northern English kingdoms led to them coming under Danish control (an area known as the [[Danelaw]]). In the 10th century, however, all the English kingdoms were unified under one ruler as the kingdom of England when the last constituent kingdom, Northumbria, submitted to [[Edgar I|Edgar]] in 959. In 1066, England was [[Norman Conquest|conquered by the Normans]], who introduced a [[Norman language|Norman]]-speaking administration that was eventually assimilated. Wales came under Anglo-Norman control in 1282, and was officially annexed to England in the 16th century.

===Early modern period===
{{Main|Early modern Britain}}
{{Further|History of the United Kingdom}}
On 20 October 1604 [[James VI and I|King James]], who had succeeded separately to the two thrones of England and Scotland, proclaimed himself "King of Great Brittaine, [[France]], and Ireland".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.archontology.org/nations/uk/england/king_england/01_kingstyle_1604.php |title=England/Great Britain: Royal Styles: 1604-1707 |publisher=Archontology.org |date=13 March 2010 |access-date=27 April 2013}}</ref> When James died in 1625 and the [[Privy Council of England]] was drafting the proclamation of the new king, Charles I, a Scottish peer, [[Thomas Erskine, 1st Earl of Kellie]], succeeded in insisting that it use the phrase "King of Great Britain", which James had preferred, rather than King of Scotland and England (or vice versa).<ref>HMC 60, ''Manuscripts of the Earl of Mar and Kellie'', vol.2 (1930), p. 226</ref> While that title was also used by some of James's successors, England and Scotland each remained legally separate countries, each with its own parliament, until 1707, when each parliament passed an [[Act of Union 1707|Act of Union]] to ratify the [[Treaty of Union]] that had been agreed the previous year. This created a single kingdom with one parliament with effect from 1 May 1707. The Treaty of Union specified the name of the new all-island state as "Great Britain", while describing it as "One Kingdom" and "the United Kingdom". To most historians, therefore, the all-island state that existed between 1707 and 1800 is either "Great Britain" or the "Kingdom of Great Britain".