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Little is known of the first ancestors of the British but human habitation in Britain goes back more than 10,000 years. These first Britons were hunter-gatherers and crossed to Britain by the land bridge from mainland Europe during the end of the last Ice age. There are conflicting accounts as to the physical appearance of these first Britons and their influence in modern British culture is questionable, although river names such as Thames, Tamar, Severn, Tyne, etc., are attributed to the culture of these earliest ancestors of the British. One modern view is that the Britons of today accurately reflect the physical appearances of the Britons of the past in the areas in which they reside, such as tall and blonde in the south of England, tall and dark in Northumbria and southern Scotland, and short and dark in north WalesFor alternate meanings, see Wales (disambiguation Wales ( Welsh: Cymru pronounced /"k@mrI/ SAMPA, km IPA, 'Kumree' approximate pronunciation) is one of the four nations comprising the United Kingdom (the other three being England, Scotland and Northern Ir.
Modern genetic evidence indicates that in parts of remote Wales are those with the most similar genetic connection to the earliest inhabitants of Britain, and have a genetic connection to the BasqueThis article is about the Basque people. For the article of clothing, see basque (clothing). The Basques Euskaldunak are an indigenous people who inhabit parts of both Spain and France. They are found predominantly in four provinces in Spain and three in. 3000 years ago, Britain was invaded by Celts who brought with them superior fighting skills and whose culture dominated the indigenous people. Ancient Kings of the BritonsKing of the Britons refers to the legendary kings of celtic Britain as established by such pseudo-historical authors as Nennius, Gildas, and predominantly Geoffrey of Monmouth. Various lists of the kings survive, although none of the originals. The Welsh written by NenniusNennius or Nemnivus is the name of two shadowy personages traditionally associated with the history of Wales. The better known of the two is Nennius, the student of Elvodugus. Elvodugus is commonly identified with the bishop Elfoddw of Gwynedd, who convin, GildasGildas (c. 570) was a prominent member of Celtic Christianity in Britain, renowned for his learning and literary style. He was ordained, and in his works favored the monastic ideal. Fragments of letters he wrote reveal that he wrote a Rule for monastic li, and Geoffrey of MonmouthGeoffrey of Monmouth was a clergyman and one of the major figures in the development of British history. Born in about 1100 in Wales, he probably had some Breton blood. After graduating from Oxford University, he became archdeacon of Llandaff and/or Monmo helped make rich histories of these people. Over time, they became Celtic in culture, and it is in this time that the PictsThe Picts inhabited Caledonia ( Scotland), north of the River Forth. The name Pict comes from the Romans: in Latin the word Picti means painted folk or possibly tattooed ones and may be akin to the Welsh word Pryd meaning to mark or draw''. Julius Caesar became noted as a separate cultural entity in the north and east of what is now Scotland.
Britain was later conquered by other peoples, such as the Romans, the Irish Scots, various Germanic peoples (see Anglo-Saxons) and finally the Normans, each of which brought a definite cultural change in Great Britain that was markedly different from before.
Prior to the Second World War, it was believed that the Anglo-Saxons had driven the Britons into Wales, Cornwall, and Brittany and wiped out the remaining inhabitants. This romanticised view, popular with 'Celtic Nationalists', fails to take into consideration the complexities of a few thousand Germanic warriors against millions of, albeit disunited, Britons. While many of those that would have had the means to, such as the elite classes of Romano-British, would have fled from the Anglo-Saxon advance, the majority of the population, as with the Roman invasion, remained and became absorbed into the developing English culture. Over the course of several centuries, Germanic culture and influence dominated over most of what is now England and south eastern Scotland. It is also seldom commented upon but at the time of the Germanic advance into England, the Irish advance into Scotland was resulting in a similar situation, with Gaelic invaders causing many Britons in Scotland to move south into Cumbria and east to eastern Scotland, with the remainder becoming absorbed into the fledgling Scottish nation.
About 150 million people world-wide refer to their ethnic heritage as British or as having a strong British influence. The largest concentration of ethnic Britons living outside of the United Kingdom is in the United States where approximately 40 million people claim British heritage (less than 20% of the 2000 US population and down from 60% in 1900). There are also large concentrations of Britons in Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
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