The history of Britain is usually divided by historians into a series of periods. This list gives you some of the highlights of each period.
Ancient Britain
Neolithic Britain c12,000 BC–c2,750 BC
The Beaker people and the Bronze Age c2,750 BC–750 BC
Iron Age and La Tène culture c750 BC–43 AD
Roman Britain 43 AD–410
The Middle Ages
Anglo–Saxon raids and settlement 449–c550
Separate Anglo–Saxon Kingdoms c550–924
Anglo–Saxon England united 924–1066
Danish rule 1016–1042
Norman period 1066–1154
The Anarchy 1135–1148
The Plantagenets 1154–1399
Conquest of Ireland begins 1155
Scottish Wars of Independence 1296–1357
Hundred Years War with France 1337–1453
Wars of the Roses 1455–1485
Early Modern Britain
Tudor period 1485–1603
English Reformation begins 1532
Union of Crowns of England and Scotland 1603
Expansion into America begins 1620
Civil Wars and Revolution 1642–1660
Royal Society incorporated 1662
Revolution Settlement 1688–9 and Union of England and Scotland 1707 create basis of modern British state
The Modern Age
Changes in agriculture begin 1730s
Beginnings of industrialisation 1770s–1780s
Wars in America and with France help to unify British state 1770s–1815
Victorian Age 1837–1901
Great Exhibition marks highpoint of Victorian era 1851
Imperial expansion in Africa 1880s–1890s
Great War 1914–1918
Second World War 1939–1945
Height of industrial unrest 1960s–1980s
Britain within the European Union 1970s–2000s
