Page 69 - Key to Social Studies 5

• Britain started to build its empire, one of the greatest in world history, in the 1500s. England had a

strong navy, or collection of warships, on the sea. After it defeated the Spanish Armada, or eet of

warships, in 1588 C.E., it was considered to be the greatest navy in the world.

• When James I, King of England, also became the King of Scotland, he decided to o cially, or in a formal

and public way, unify the two countries. Scotland became part of the British crown in 1707 C.E.

• The British Empire expanded from India in the Far East to the Americas in the west. Britain became the

European supreme power, or highest authority, after defeating the French in the Napoleonic Wars in the

1800s.

• The British controlled Ireland in 1801 C.E. The British could not control the whole country of Ireland, as

most of the Irish rebelled. In 1921, southern Ireland was given its independence from the British crown

and was declared to be a separate country from the United Kingdom.

• In the 1900s, as World War I started, Great Britain started to lose its status as a dominant world power,

and it lost most of its colonies.

• The United Kingdom under the leadership of Winston Churchill played a major role in World War II in the

battles against Germany and the Nazi rule. It was the last European power to stand against the Germans

and succeeded in defeating Adolf Hitler.

• The United Kingdom had a major role in world history. It started building great empires that covered

one-fourth of the total Earth mass, or the large land area. Great Britain provided great support in

developing many elds of study, including science, literature, and arts.

Adolf Hitler Winston Churchill
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