In 55–54 BC, Julius Caesar invaded Britain twice, but without success.
In 43, the Roman Empire began its conquest of Britain.
Between 122 and 127, the Roman Empire built Hadrian's Wall to defend against the Picts in the north.
Anglo-Saxon Kingdom (406–1066)
In 406, the Visigoths, Vandals and other barbarians defeated the Western Roman army, broke through the Rhine line and entered Gaul. Later, the Western Roman army abandoned the island of Britain, which was gradually occupied by Anglo, Saxon, and other barbarian legions.
Around 870, the Danes captured the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms on the British Isles, with only the Kingdom of Wessex spared.
In 878, King Alfred of Wessex defeated the Danes at Addington, and the Danes withdrew their forces from Wessex and agreed to maintain a permanent peace.
In 886, King Alfred of Wessex defeated the Danes and captured London. The Kingdom of Wessex then allied with the Kingdom of Mercia and began the unification of England.
Around 950, the Kingdom of Wessex unified the Anglo-Saxon regions and brought Danish-controlled areas under its control.
After 978, the Danish king again invaded the Kingdom of Wessex, and King Esselley was defeated and forced to pay annual reparations to the Danes in order to seek peace.
Around 990, King Aislele of Wessex acquired land south of the Forth Bend on the British Isle and became ruler of all England.
In 1016, Aisellay died and the Dane Kanute succeeded to the throne of England.
In 1019, Kanute succeeded to the Danish throne.
In 1028, Kanu subjugated Norway and established a North Sea Empire spanning Denmark, Norway, and England.
In 1035, Kanut died, and his descendants continued to be in civil unrest, and the North Sea Empire collapsed.
In 1042, civil strife in England ended and Esslelay's son Edward became king.
Alfred the Great
Norman period (1066–1154)
In 1066, Edward died, leaving no heir, and England once again descended into civil strife. William, Duke of Normandy, took the opportunity to send troops to England and gradually conquered England through the Battle of Hastings, establishing the Norman dynasty.
In 1087, William I died and his son William II ascended the throne.
In 1100, Wilhelm II died and his younger brother Henry I ascended the throne.
In 1125-1154, Henry I died and left no heirs, and his nephew Stephen and daughter Matilda fought for the throne.
Anjou (Plantagenet) dynasty (1154–1399)
In 1154, Stephen died, Matilda's son Henry II ascended the throne, and the Anjou Empire was established across England and France.
In 1189, Henry II died in a rebellion of his sons and his older Richard I ascended the throne.
From 1189 to 1193, Richard I led his army on the Third Crusade, and after jointly capturing Acre with King Philip II of France, he persisted in the march, and fought a four-year war with the Muslim army, achieving many successes. Richard I later rebelled with his brother John with the support of Philip II and made peace with the Muslims. On his way home, Richard I became a prisoner of Henry VI, Holy Roman Emperor, who detained Richard for more than a year and released him after receiving a large ransom.
In 1199, Richard I died of wounds wounded during an attack on France, and his brother John ascended the throne.
In 1214, King Philip II of France defeated the coalition of England and the Holy Roman Empire at Buben, and John's Anjou Empire collapsed and Otto lost the throne.
In 1215, John compromised with the nobles in the midst of internal and external difficulties and signed the Magna Carta, which limited royal power.
In 1216, John refused to obey the Magna Carta and died in the all-out rebellion of the nobles, and his son Henry III ascended the throne.
In 1258, Henry III, in order to solve a large-scale financial crisis, signed the Oxford Ordinance with the nobility, which limited the power of the crown.
In 1264, the great nobleman Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester, rebelled, captured Henry III alive, and began to rule England briefly in the name of king.
In 1265, Prince Edward, son of Henry III, defeated Montfort and regained rule.
From 1271 to 1272, Prince Edward launched the Ninth Crusade to save King Louis IX of France, and later signed an armistice with the Muslims and withdrew.
In 1272, Henry III died and his son Edward I ascended the throne.
In 1282, Edward I conquered Wales.
In 1290, Edward I took control of Scotland. Due to the disobedience of the Scottish people, William Wallace and Robert Bruce I led the Scottish people in a long period of resistance.
In 1290, Edward I expelled the Jews and confiscated all their goods and property for himself.
In 1307, Edward I died and his son Edward II ascended the throne.
In 1327, Edward II was deposed by the nobility and his son Edward III ascended the throne.
In 1337, Edward III declared war on King Philip VI of France in order to compete for the French throne, and the "Hundred Years' War" broke out.
In 1346, the English army defeated the French army at the Battle of Crécy.
In 1356, the English army defeated the French army at the Battle of Poitiers and captured King John II of France.
In 1377, Edward III died and his son Richard II ascended the throne.
In 1381, a peasant revolt broke out throughout most of England, and Richard II booby-trapped the leaders of this revolt, then quickly divided and suppressed the remaining rebels.
Anglo-French Hundred Years' War
Lancaster dynasty (1399–1461)
In 1399, Richard II was deposed and his cousin Henry IV ascended the throne, establishing the Lancastrian dynasty.
In 1413, Henry IV died and his son Henry V ascended the throne.
In 1415, the English army defeated the French army at the Battle of Agincourt.
In 1420, the Treaty of Troyes was signed between England and France, and King Charles VI of France was forced to recognize Henry V's succession to the French throne.
In 1422, Henry V and King Charles VI of France died, and his son Henry VI ascended the throne, also serving as King of France.
In 1429, the French girl Joan of Arc commanded the French army to defeat the English army in the battles of Orleans and Shoti.
In 1430, the English allies of Burgundy captured Joan of Arc, while King Charles VII of France refused to redeem her. Joan of Arc was sold to England and brought to court in Rouen on charges of heresy and witchcraft.
In 1431, the court of Rouen sentenced Joan of Arc to be burned at the stake.
In 1450, French forces defeated English forces in Normandy.
In 1453, the "Hundred Years' War" ended, and the English army was completely defeated by the French army, losing almost all the land in France.
In 1455, the House of York and the House of Lancasters fought for the throne, and the Thirty Years' War of the Roses broke out.
York dynasty (1461–1485)
In 1461, Edward IV of York defeated Henry VI of Lancaster and established the House of York.
In 1470-1471, Henry VI was restored to the throne with the support of France, and Edward IV briefly lost the throne.
In 1483, Edward IV died and his twelve-year-old son, Edward V, ascended the throne. Soon after, Edward IV's younger brother Richard III imprisoned Edward V and his younger brother, the Duke of York, to seize the throne.
Tudor period (1485–1603)
In 1485, Henry VII, a distant branch of the House of Lancaster, defeated Richard III with the help of the House of York and the King of France, ending the Wars of the Roses and establishing the Tudor dynasty.
From 1485 to 1509, the new monarch, Henry VII, established a solid rule.
In 1509, Henry VII died and Henry VIII ascended the throne.
In 1534, Henry VIII enacted the Supreme Act, which made the Church of England the state religion.
In 1547, Henry VIII died and Edward VI ascended the throne.
In 1553, Edward VI died and Mary I ascended the throne. Mary I restored Roman Catholicism and suppressed Protestants, known as "Bloody Mary".
In 1558, Mary I died and Elizabeth I ascended the throne.
In 1587, Elizabeth I executed Mary, Queen of Scots.
In 1588, Elizabeth I defeated the Spanish Armada.
In 1603, Elizabeth I died, and James I, son of Mary, Queen of Scots, also became King of England, establishing the Stuart dynasty.
Elizabeth I
Stuart dynasty (1603–1714)
In 1625, James I died and Charles I ascended the throne.
In 1642, the English Civil War broke out.
In 1646, the First Civil War ended, Charles I surrendered, was handed over to Parliament and imprisoned.
In 1648, the revolutionaries were divided and the royalists took the opportunity to launch a rebellion, and the Second Civil War in England broke out.
In 1649, the Second Civil War ended, Charles I was executed, and England became a republic.
In 1652-1653, the English Parliament passed the Navigation Ordinance, which stipulated that foreign goods entering or leaving England or its colonies must be transported by England's own ships or the ships of the colonies. This triggered the First Anglo-Dutch War, in which Britain emerged.
In 1653, Oliver Cromwell became "Lord Protector".
In 1658, Richard Cromwell succeeded him as "Lord Protector", but was overwhelmed and the royalists returned to power.
In 1660, Edward Montagu went to the Netherlands to welcome Charles II back and restore the royal power of England.
In 1665-1667, the Second Anglo-Dutch War broke out, ending with the defeat of England.
From 1672 to 1674, the Third Anglo-Dutch War broke out.
In 1685, James II came to the throne and imposed Catholicism, causing domestic discontent.
In 1688, during the "Glorious Revolution", William III and Mary II entered England and ruled together, and James II fled to France.
In 1689, King Louis XIV of France launched a war against England to restore James II.
In 1694, Mary II fell ill and died.
In 1697, France signed a treaty with England recognizing William III's rule over England and Scotland, ending the Seven Years' War.
In 1701, the War of the Spanish Succession broke out.
In 1702, William III died and Queen Anne ascended the throne.
In 1707, England and Scotland merged to form the United Kingdom.
In 1714, Queen Anne died and George I ascended the throne, establishing the Hanover dynasty. In the same year, the Treaty of Utrecht was signed, ending the War of the Spanish Succession.
"Duke of the Protector" Cromwell
Hanover dynasty (1714–1901)
In 1714, George I came to the throne, and Sir Robert Walpole took on most of the king's work and began to be known as "Prime Minister".
In 1727, George I died and George II ascended the throne.
In 1745, Prince Charles Edward Stuart (son of James II) rebelled in Scotland, and the British sent a fleet to blockade it.
In 1746, the British army defeated the Scottish rebels at Culloden, and Prince Charles fled elsewhere, and the rebellion was put down.
In 1756, the "Seven Years' War" broke out between Britain and France.
In 1757, the British East India Company defeated the French-backed Duchy of Bengal in Plassy, giving Britain the initiative in India and gradually making India a British colony.
In 1759, Lieutenant General Charles Sanders defeated the French army and captured Quebec, and French Canada gradually became a British colony. Edward Hawke pursued the fleeing French fleet and was defeated at Quiberon Bay, causing heavy losses to the French navy and establishing British supremacy at sea.
In 1760, George II died and George III ascended the throne.
In 1763, the Seven Years' War ended and Britain defeated France.
In 1768, James Cook made his first voyage to the Pacific, arriving in New Zealand and discovering Australia.
In 1772, James Cook made his second voyage across the Pacific Ocean, crossing the South Pole.
In 1773, the "Boston Tea Party" broke out in North America against British colonial rule, and the British imposed heavy penalties on Boston, and the North American people were even more dissatisfied.
In 1775, the North American War of Independence broke out.
In 1776, James Cook made his third voyage to the Pacific Ocean, arrived in Hawaii, and was killed by the local natives.
In 1778, France, allied with the United States, declared war on Britain.
In 1779, Spain declared war on Britain.
In 1780, the Netherlands declared war on Britain, and the North American War developed into a global war.
In 1781, General Cornwallis was besieged by American troops at Yorktown, and Thomas Grave led the fleet to retreat by the French fleet in the Chesapeake Bay, and Cornwallis was forced to surrender to the United States.
In 1783, the Peace of Paris was signed, and Britain recognized the independence of the United States.
In 1787, the British began to use Australia as a new penal colony.
In 1789, the French Revolution broke out.
In 1793, Britain intervened in the French Revolution, capturing Corsica and withdrawing its troops three years later. After that, Britain imposed a long blockade of France.
In 1798, Horatio Nelson defeated the French fleet at the Nile.
In 1799, Bonaparte Napoleon returned to France from Egypt and staged a coup d'état, seized power and became First Consul.
In 1801, during the British expedition to Egypt, French troops surrendered to the British, boarded British and Ottoman ships, and were transported back to France.
In 1804, Bonaparte Napoleon was crowned emperor in Paris, establishing the French Empire.
In 1805, Horatio Nelson defeated the French fleet at Trafalga.
In 1806, Napoleon issued the Edict of Berlin, which established a continental blockade against Britain, and all ports where Napoleon could influence were forbidden to trade with Britain. Britain has also adopted a-for-tat policy. In the same year, Colonel Holm Popam captured the Cape of Good Hope from the Dutch and expanded northwards to capture Buenos Aires, where he was soon defeated by Spain and the British abandoned the city and returned south.
In 1807, Denmark became a puppet of France, and in order to control the Baltic Sea, James Gambier made an expedition to Copenhagen, and Denmark surrendered and surrendered to Britain. James Samares then led his army into the Baltic Sea, allied with Sweden.
In 1808, Arthur Wellesley was commissioned to support the Spanish uprising against French rule, defeating French forces at Lorica and Vermeiro and capturing Lisbon. John Moore then marched from Lisbon to the Spanish interior, Napoleon personally led an army to counterattack, the British army retreated to Coronna, John Moore was wounded and died, and the British army fled to the port and returned home by ship. Arthur Wellesley was made Duke of Wellington for meritorious service.
From 1812 to 1815, when war broke out again between Britain and the United States, Admiral Coburn attacked the Chesapeake Bay, defeated American troops, briefly occupied Washington, and burned the White House.
In 1813, the anti-French coalition defeated Napoleon at Leipzig.
In 1814, Napoleon was forced to abdicate and was exiled to the island of Elba.
In 1815, Britain and the United States were evenly matched, and the war was truce through peace talks. In the same year, Napoleon fled from Elba back to France to restore his rule over France, and a few months later, the anti-French coalition defeated Napoleon at Waterloo, and Napoleon abdicated again and was exiled to St. Helena, where he eventually died.
In 1820, George III died and George IV ascended the throne.
In 1827, Britain, France and Russia jointly dispatched fleets to assist Greece in opposing the rule of the Ottoman Empire, defeating the Ottoman fleet in the Gulf of Navarino, and the Ottoman fleet was almost completely destroyed, clearing the way for Greek independence.
In 1830, George IV died and William IV ascended the throne.
In 1837, William IV died and Queen Victoria ascended the throne.
In 1839, Britain launched war against Afghanistan.
In 1840, Britain launched the Opium War against China.
In 1842, the Opium War ended and the British occupied Hong Kong and were granted the privilege of trade with four ports. In the same year, the First Anglo-Afghan War ended and the victorious British troops withdrew from Afghanistan.
In 1848, the Chartist movement broke out in London, and revolutions broke out in European countries.
In 1854, Britain, France and Turkey broke out in war with Russia over the ownership of Jerusalem, and the Anglo-French army and the Russian army fought fiercely in Sevastopol.
In 1855, the Anglo-French army defeated the Russian army and captured Sevastopol.
In 1856, Britain launched a second war against China. In the same year, the Crimean War ended, and landmines were used for the first time in the war, resulting in the first photographs of the war and professional nurses and war journalists; This war ended the era of sailing ships and the age of steamboats for the navy.
From 1857 to 1859, a great uprising broke out in India against British colonial rule.
In 1860, the Second Opium War ended, and Britain was granted the privilege of trade in ten ports. In the same year, the British Navy helped the Italian Giuseppe Garibaldi cross the ocean from Sicily to mainland Italy to achieve the unification of Italy.
In 1869, the Suez Canal was opened, which greatly shortened the distance between Europe and Asia.
In 1879-1880, the Second Anglo-Afghan War saw the victorious British withdrawal from Afghanistan.
1880-1881, First Anglo-Boer War.
In 1882, the British occupied Egypt.
In 1884-1885, the European powers carved up Africa.
In 1899, the Second Anglo-Boer War broke out.
Horatio Nelson
Windsor dynasty (1901–present)
In 1901, Queen Victoria died and Edward VII ascended the throne.
In 1902, the Second Anglo-Boer War ended.
In 1907, Britain, France and Russia formed the Triple Entente.
In 1910, Edward VII died and George V ascended the throne.
In 1914, the First World War broke out.
In 1914, at the Battle of the Marne, the Anglo-French forces defeated the Germans, and the warring sides began to build trenches. Since then, trench warfare has become a major feature of the battlefield on the Western Front.
In 1915-1916, the Battle of Galipoli, the Ottoman Empire defeated the Anglo-French army.
In 1916, the Battle of Jutland broke out, the British fleet suffered heavy losses, and the German fleet was forced to withdraw to the port, after which it had to rely on U-boats to continue the naval battle. In the same year, the Battle of the Somme broke out.
In 1917, the Battle of Verdun broke out.
In 1918, the First World War ended.
In 1919, the British- and French-led Paris Peace Conference was held. In the same year, the Third Anglo-Afghan War broke out.
In 1920, Britain and France partitioned the Middle East, France occupied Syria and Lebanon, and Britain occupied Palestine and Iraq.
From June to October 1920, a great uprising broke out in Iraq against British colonial rule.
In 1922, Britain signed the Washington Treaty, which stipulated that the total tonnage of capital ships of the British and American navies should be equal, which marked the beginning of Britain's loss of maritime supremacy. In the same year, Southern Ireland broke away from British rule and established the Republic of Ireland.
In 1931, the British Parliament passed the Westminster Act, which formally granted Australia de facto independent status.
In 1932, Iraq became fully independent from British protection.
In 1936, George V died and Edward VIII ascended the throne. In the same year, Edward VIII abdicated and George VI ascended the throne.
In 1939, World War II broke out.
In 1940, France surrendered to Germany, the evacuation of Dunkirk, and the Battle of Britain.
In 1941, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor and invaded Southeast Asia, occupying a large LinkedIn colony.
In 1942, at the Battle of El Alamein, Montgomery defeated the German Rommel and turned the tide in the North African theater.
In 1943-1944, the Allies liberated Italy and Italian dictator Benito Mussolini fell.
In 1944, the Normandy landings opened the second battlefield for the Allies.
In 1945, World War II ended.
In 1947, Britain abandoned India and Palestine.
In 1952, George VI died and Elizabeth II ascended the throne. In the same year, the Egyptian military officer Nasser overthrew the British-backed Muhammad Ali dynasty and gave Egypt independence.
In 1956, Egyptian President Nasser took back the Suez Canal from Britain and France. In the same year, Sudan gained independence from British colonial rule.
Ghana gained independence from British colonial rule in 1957.
In 1960, the year of African independence, British colonial rule in Africa collapsed.
In 1971, Bahrain, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates became fully independent from British protection. This marked the collapse of British colonial rule in the Middle East.
In 1982, the Falklands War broke out between Britain and Argentina.
In 1990, Britain participated in the "Gulf War".
In 2022, Elizabeth II died and Charles III (Charles III) ascended the throne.