Politics Early PDF

The first inhabitants were groups of hunters and gatherers who wandered along the lands as owners who rules whenever they were. They made their hunting weapons with stone. The Chalkland people lived in small groups of families and were the first to work the land with stone tools and, in this way, th...

The first inhabitants were groups of hunters and gatherers who wandered along the lands as owners who rules whenever they were. They made their hunting weapons with stone. The Chalkland people lived in small groups of families and were the first to work the land with stone tools and, in this way, they became the first landowners. They built great henges which were centers of political, economic, and religious power for the most important family chiefs. The Beaker people arrived and they became a farming society that used bronze tools to work the lands. The families protected their lands by constructing hillforts which became centers of political power. In Romans times, towns were the centers of political power as trading places. Rich landowners exported food and increased their wealth and power. With the Anglo-Saxons, a new political system developed. The family chiefs became kings who owned large administrative areas of lands and this, political power. New ploughing methods were introduced which improved agricultural methods. With the Vikings, a new political figure, the Witan of the King's private council, appeared. The English village with the lord's manor house and church showed the lords' political power represented in the taxes they had to pay to the King for being the owner of the lands they worked. Finally, the Normans established a system called Feudalism, which meant that all land was owned by the King but held by vassals in return for services and goods. The economic activity the people carried out gave them political power. As nobles paid a lot of money to the King in taxes for the working of the land, a council of nobles, called Parliament, was invented, more specifically, The House of Lords. Later, when land could not be worked so much, and taxes charged to the people who traded wool and cloth in towns, The House of Commons was created to represent the new class who now paid high taxes. Moreover, guilds were created to protect each trade and had political representation.