British a feeling of their own importance which was difficult to forget when Britain
lost its power in the 20
th
century. This belief of the British in their own importance
was at its height in the middle of the 19
th
century among the new middle class which
had grown with industrialization.
The novelist Charles Dickens nicely described this national pride. One of his
characters believed that Britain had been specially chosen by God and considered
other countries as mistake.
The rapid growth of the middle class was part of the enormous rise in the
population. In 1815 the population was 13 millions, but this had doubled by 1871
and was over 40 men by 1914. This growth and the movement of people to towns
from the countryside forced a change in the political balance and by the end of the
century. Most men had the right to vote.
Politics and government during the 19
th
century became increasingly the property
of the middle class. The aristocracy and the crown had little power left by 1914.
However the working class, the large member of people who had left their villages to
become factory workers had not yet found a proper voice.
Britain enjoyed a strong peace in European Councils after the defeat of Napoleon.
It laid in industry and trade and the navy which protected this trade. Britain wanted
2 main things in Europe. A balance of power, which would prevent any single nation
from becoming too strong and a free market in which its own industrial and trade
superiority would give Britain a clear advantage. Outside Europe Britain wished its
trading position to be stronger than anyone else. It defended its interests by keeping
ships of its navy in almost every ocean of the world.
18. Forming American nation. Ethnical and social structure of the
population and its peculiarities at present time
1/ North and South America are generally accepted as having been named after
the Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci by the German cartographers Martin
Waldseemuller and Matthias Ringmann. Vespucci, who explored South America
between 1497 and 1502, was the first European to suggest that the Americas were
not the East Indies, but a different landmass previously unknown by Europeans.
Scientists have several theories as to the origins of the early human population of
North America. The indigenous peoples of North America themselves have many
creation myths, by which they assert that they have been present on the land since its
creation.
Before contact with Europeans, the natives of North America were divided into
many different polities, from small bands of a few families to large empires. They
lived in several "culture areas", which roughly correspond to geographic and
biological zones and give a good indication of the main life way or occupation of the
people who lived there (e.g. the Bison hunters of the Great Plains, or the farmers of
Mesoamerica). Native groups can also be classified by their language family (e.g.
Athapascan or Uto-Aztecan). It is important to note that peoples with similar
languages did not always share the same material culture, nor were they always
allies. Scientists believe that the Inuit people of the high Arctic came to North
America much later than other native groups, as evidenced by the disappearance of
Dorset culture artifacts from the archaeological record, and their replacement by the
Thule people.