The following table gives a short overview of the British history and is a leitmotif for the most important incidents in Britain’s history.
It is not necessary to know every date of every incident, but the thickly marked words should be known. To put incidents in context, it is helpful to know the most important dates.
| Date | Incident | Details |
| 1606 | Battle of Hastings | Basis for England as powerful monarchy |
| 1558 - 1603 | Elizabethan Era | Golden Age of English history, culture blossomed, start of British Empire |
| 1564 – 1616 | Shakespeare | |
| 1591 | First performance of a play by William Shakespeare | |
| 1600 | England became colonial power | East India Company = first British involvement in Indian continent |
| 1688 | Glorious Revolution | Political turn and bloodless fight with the end of royal absolutism |
| 1707 | Act of Union | |
| 1750s | Industrial Revolution | |
| 1770 | Australia became a British colony | |
| 1807 | Abolition of the slave trade | |
| 1919-1921 | Irish War of Independence | |
| 1920s | 20 % of the global population belonged to the British Empire | Because of international pressure the British Empire was disintegrated and Commonwealth was founded |
| 18th century | Robin Cook: “Britain was unusually open to external influence” | |
| 1948 | Influx of immigrants from Commonwealth states | Britain’s economy was booming |
| From 1980s on | British Muslims’ isolation started | High crime rate and bad living conditions |
| 2011 | London Riots | |
| JULY, 7th 2015 | London bombing | Series of suicide bomb attacks, most bombers were British-born sons of Pakistani immigrants who called themselves “Secret Al Qaeda” |
| 2016 | Britons voted against Britain’s membership in the EU | |
| 2020 | Great Britain in transition period | |
| 2024 | Next election |