The formation of the United Kingdom

The formation of the United Kingdom was a complex process which took many years to be carried out. At the beginning, around seven thousand years ago, roving bands of hunters inhabited some areas of what is now England. They could survive through hunting, fishing and crop. Then, these people were joined by other groups of immigrants from either the same continent or other parts of the world making this community increase in number. During this formation process, the native hunters were influenced by the immigrants' different kinds of cultures. This way, these hunters' way of life was changed and shaped into a different and more civilized one. However, this process was not always peaceful, there were many wars and therefore many people died. Other civilizations wanted to take and dominate the territory of Britain like the Romans or the Saxons which also changed and shaped the already established culture of this territory.

At the end, the increase of population, wars and different mixes of cultures made the British civilization be regarded as the modern United Kingdom we know nowadays.

Culture, civilization and critical thinking

The concept of culture corresponds to everything that belongs to a certain group of people who live within a community. This community can be as small as an indigenous tribe or as big as a country or even countries which may share a kind of similarity between them like: China, Japan or Korea. Culture is the way of behaving, thinking, creating, celebrating and expressing ideas this group of people have. It is also related to the sort of art and religion of a certain community, which vary according to the different kind of community they belong.

The concept civilization is connected to the one of culture. Civilization has to do more with the development of a big advanced group of inhabitants, that is called society, than what belongs to this group though. A civilization is a community in which many people live in so in this case a small indigenous tribe could not be regarded as an entire civilization but only part of it. Moreover, this community is divided into social classes and its people have the possibility to work in many kinds of jobs.

Critical thinking is the capacity every normal human being has in order to analyze, criticize and give an opinion about a specific topic, thought, creation or theory. This capacity must be developed, improved and fomented, by someone toward others, while this person gains more experience and knowledge in general.

Culture and civilization

What I expect for this class is getting a more detailed point of view about this subject main topics. I mean, during this course I would like to find out more about part of the process which entitles civilization such as: war, conquest, formation of nations, creation of identities, etc.

I would also like to learn and understand how to define better such a broad and subjective concept like that of culture is. I consider it is really interesting to expand our minds by studying in depth the history of culture and civilization in the important Anglo-Saxon areas of Europe and their surroundings, because this way I think we will not only become good teachers but good historians too.

I have always believed English speaking culture has been a so influential group world wide, that I think it is totally worthy to know its roots in a better way.