Why was Britain invaded?

Britain has been invaded four times in history, namely the Roman legion invasion, the Germanic invasion, the Danish invasion and the Normandy invasion.

1, Roman legion invasion

In 55 BC and 54 BC, the Roman legions led by G.J. Caesar invaded Britain twice, but they were both repelled by the British. It seems that the British people are still very tenacious at this time. The two invasions of Britain failed, and the Roman emperor still refused to give up. In 43 AD, the Roman emperor Tiberius Claudius Drusus Nero Germanicus led an army to successfully invade Britain and put Britain under the jurisdiction of the Roman Empire.

In the southeast of England ruled by the Romans, the upper class nobles of the Romans and Celts seized tribal land, established slave farms, turned Celts and prisoners of war into slaves and forced them to work. To make matters worse, slave traders also sold slaves to the European continent.

At this time, the British people lived a worse life than pigs and dogs and were sold as cattle, which also aroused the British people's sense of resistance. After more than 300 years of resistance, the Romans were driven away.

2. Germanic invasion

After the Romans were driven away, Germanic tribes such as Anglo-Saxon began to invade Britain in the middle of the 5th century. They ransacked towns and villages, some Britons were killed or enslaved, some were driven to remote mountainous areas, or assimilated by invaders, forming the later English. Robbers wave after wave, scolding the British harder every time.

3. Danish invasion (Viking invasion)

Vikings have invaded Britain many times since the end of the 8th century. By the end of the 9th century, the Vikings had established a large settlement on the island of Great Britain. In order to fight against the Vikings, egbert, King of Wessex, unified seven countries on the British Island and established a unified English kingdom in 827.

However, the power of the kingdom of England could not completely drive away the Vikings in Denmark. In 879, King Alfred signed a humiliating cession treaty with the Danes, ceding the northeastern part of England to Danish jurisdiction, which was called "Danish area" in history. Although the successors of King Alfred gradually recovered the Danish area, the Danes made a comeback at the beginning of the 20th century. King Knut of Denmark led the army to occupy Britain and proclaimed himself King of England.

Denmark is a country of refuge for the Vikings. They paid tribute to the Danish king and seized territory for him everywhere. The notorious vikings in history burned and looted everywhere, including the Nordic countries, the Baltic Sea coast, the Mediterranean coast and other dozens of countries and regions, which became the nightmare of European countries at that time, and Britain, which was close at hand, would certainly not let go.

During the Danish occupation, due to frequent wars and heavy taxes, especially the heavy gold in Denmark, free farmers went bankrupt and became dependent farmers. In the form of imperial edict, the king granted the title of land to the secular aristocrats and gave the secular landlords "privileged rights", that is, the power to exercise all-round political, economic and legal rule over the peasants attached to the territory. These measures accelerated the serfdom of farmers.

4. Normandy invasion

William, Duke of Normandy (descendant of Danish Vikings), led an army invasion in 1066, and entered London in the same year 10, and was crowned King William I of England, known as "William the Conqueror" in history, from which the Norman Dynasty was established. From then on, Britain became strong, and gradually became the center of Europe from a small country in a corner of Europe, avoiding the continuous invasion of other European nations.

The invasion of Britain was successful for three reasons:

The first point is geographical reasons, because the British coast is mostly flat and defenseless, which can provide great help for intruders to invade;

The second point is the reason of national cohesion. At that time, there was no unified political power on the island of England, and most of them were small countries, so there was no way to organize a United and powerful team to fight against the invaders. At that time, there was no unified country in Britain, and there was no way to concentrate financial and material resources to build a United and unified navy to resist.

The third reason is the class reason, which is very similar to the second point. At that time, Britain was still a wilderness, and the world outside the island had developed very strongly.

Refer to the Chronology of British History _ Baidu Encyclopedia British History _ Baidu Encyclopedia