From Stonehenge to the Balti Triangle: What does it mean to be British?

Recent elections have brought identity to the core of politics: nationalism worldwide threatens to undermine efforts toward global cooperation and social justice and replace it with scepticism and damaging culture wars. Therefore, it becomes crucial to delve into the nature of identity and how nationalism has morphed over time. 

British civilisation can be traced back millennia, with prehistoric monuments serving as reminders of long-lost people standing tall still over us today. Megalithic structures such as Stonehenge and Rudston symbolise a tradition of asceticism and conscious connections with nature allow individuals today to seek out ancestral connections. The mystery and excitement espoused by these symbols can be seen up to today: thousands gather at these sites to celebrate the solstice annually. However, since then Britishness has been redefined completely, being influenced by invaders and their colonies alike.  

Pretty soon, the first British civilisation was subsumed into the culture of an invading army: the Romans. By the end of the first century AD, they had taken over England and set up new administrative structures. New ideas, systems and beliefs suddenly imparted themselves to the indigenous people. Now, old Celtic and Roman gods would have to share the spotlight. We can still see the remnants of Roman rule today: from Christianity to the old Roman roads along which we continue to travel up and down the country today. Indeed, London was founded by the Romans as a centre for administration – the foundation for a unified England which would come much later on.  

Modern values, and the freedom they entail, are rooted in the 17th-century overhauls experienced by England’s consciousness. Christian conflict and royal failures surmounted in the Great Rebellion: ending the century with a new relationship established between king and country. The groundwork for a sovereign Parliament which represented the people’s interests against the divine king, espousing today’s essentially democratic identity, was therefore laid here. Consequently, it can be seen that pan-Protestantism led to the reformation of British conceptions around government and a substantial development on the path to accountable government. Until today, the tradition of constitutional monarchy established there remains at the heart of what it is to be British in the eyes of many all around the world.  

The Industrial Revolution marked a new era of British identity and established the island nation as one of global influence, which remains the case to this day. Through technological innovation and a rapidly industrialised economy, Britishness became a globally exported enterprise: the English Education Act of 1835 can be seen as an attempt to develop an international “Englishman”. Today, we know the product of this across the formerly colonised world: Indian and African individuals who have identified as British for generations. The expansion of the tea industry, and adoption by some British colonial agents of Indian identity, goes to show the creation of a new international British identity – once again mixing the cultures of an invader and the colonised into a distinct national identity. In the postwar world, we saw Britain reduced once more to its island self, with colonial holdings slowly gaining their independence from their former masters. However, affinity with Britishness remains in those lands for the most part and in their people: the Commonwealth and their head of state being the British monarch being characteristic of these nations. Furthermore, the persistence of English and French languages across the Global South evokes criticism as a remnant of the colonial influence, with schools set up during their rule which spread these languages across the world.  

This brief history allows us to better understand varying national identities, and the variety of British nationalisms which exist in today’s politics. If identity is rooted in a passport or living under a specific government, British Afro-Caribbean and South Asian families have held British passports for generations. Similarly, the postwar boom in migrant workers defines a generation of individuals whose descendants view themselves as essentially British, and their parents as having built the country they see today. In contrast, there exists a British nationalist movement which has grown as a reaction to the rise of immigration and a view that “true” British values are being lost.  

When considering the elections, and the rise of politicised identity rhetoric, it is important to consider that identity and nations change substantially over time. It is thus a responsibility of students of history to understand the implications of seeing nations, and their identities, as entrenched and unable to change. As identity and culture wars take precedence, we should rather look to ideas of inclusivity and unity to define what it means to be British.  

Bibliography

Murray, Douglas, The War on the West (London: HarperCollins, 2023)

The English Civil War and the Execution of Charles I, BBC Bitesize, https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/zgh9ycw/revision/4 [accessed 30 July 2024]

The English Civil War and the Abolition of the Monarchy, UK Parliament, https://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/evolutionofparliament/parliamentaryauthority/revolution/ [accessed 30 July 2024]