British Foreign Relationships

Beginnings

The first time that the British came into contact from outside people since the disappearance of the land bridge connecting the British Isles to mainland Europe occured in the year 43 A.D. This was the year that Ceasar send a Roman expeditionary force under the command of Aulus Platius to the British Isles. Although the indigenous Celtic tribesmen put up heavy initial resistance, superior armed and trained Roman Legionnairies were able to subdue them and successfully occupy Great Britian all the way up to the border of modern day Scotland.

  Over the course of the next 367 years, Great Britian experiences an era of relative peace under Roman rule. Celtic and Roman culture coalesced into a unique society, and Christianity was introduced to Britain. The year 410 A.D. brought about great change though, when Rome withdrew all of its occupation forces from Britain in order to fight the Goths in western Germany. This abandonment left the British people very vulnerable, and almost immediately afterwards various Scandanavian and Germanic tribes began raiding the seemingly defenseless British Isles. Three of these groups, the Anglos, the Saxons, and the Jutes, began establishing permanent settlements along England\'s southern coast (the word England actually descends from the country\'s ancient name Angliland, or Anglo Land.) After years of widespread ethnic conflict, the Anglo-Saxons had driven the indigenous Britons back to modern day Scotland and Wales, and came to dominate most of the main island.

  Towards the end of the first century another group begins to plunder the British Isles, they called themselves the Vikings but were known as the Danes to the Anglo-Saxons. Violent conflict erupted as the Vikings pillaged, looted, and terrorized coastal Britain. At one point, the Vikings under the leadership of King Harrod came close to actually taking over the entire island but were defeated at the battle of Dover.

  The British...