Migration to and from Britain: A timeline of important events

Home Office figures reveal that around 375,000 people from eastern Europe have come to work in the UK since 2004 and the number of foreign workers in the UK now stands at 1.5 million, or one in every 25 workers.

Six out of every ten of these new migrants is Polish. Many are skilled and will find work in construction, agriculture, catering, retail and healthcare. Most have stayed in the south of England, with 34,000 living and working in London and 27,000 in East Anglia. More than 10,000 head for Scotland, where the Scottish Executive actively encourages immigration from the new EU countries as part of its Fresh Talent initiative.

The BBC publishes its 'Born Abroad' database, based on analysis carried out by the Institute for Public Policy Research on Census 2001 figures. It reveals that 7.5 per cent of people living in Britain in 2001 were born abroad, representing 4.3 million people out of a total of 57 million.

The Home Office puts the number of illegal immigrants in the UK at between 310,000 and 570,000.

However, other estimates, such as those released by the think-tank MigrationWatch, suggest that the actual number is much higher - as much as 750,000 - prompting renewed public debate during election year about Britain's immigration and asylum policy.

During the year, a total of 30,500 people seek refuge in the UK, according to figures published by UNHCR, the UN's refugee agency. This represents a 70 per cent drop compared to the record figures in 2002, and is the lowest total since 1993.

The figures also reveal that the UK was the 18th most popular destination out of 50 industrialised nations, with 0.5 asylum applications per 1,000 people. This compared with 0.8 in France and 0.2 in the USA.

Iranians formed the largest groups of people claiming asylum in the UK (3,990), followed by Somalis (3,295) and Pakistanis (3,030).

Estimates from the Office for National Statistics suggest that nearly a quarter of a million more people entered the UK than left it between June 2004 and June 2005. This net increase of 235,000 was the largest yearly total since the current system of estimates began in 1991.

Migration into the UK was around 59,000 more than in the previous mid-year period, a rise of 11 per cent, and migration from the UK fell by 8,000.

On May 1, nationals of the ten new countries admitted to the EU (including the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland) obtain the right to travel freely and live anywhere in the enlarged EU. However, for up to seven years, the established 15 member states may restrict the right to work of people from the eight central and eastern European accession countries. The UK, Ireland and Sweden are the only countries to open their labour markets to workers from these countries straightaway.

More people than the government expected - around 130,000 - arrive in Britain as a result, representing the largest wave of immigration since the 1950s and 1960s.

The government brings in legislation requiring that workers register upon entering the country - the Workers' Registration Scheme (WRS). Most nationals of the new EU member states (except Cyprus and Malta) who want to work for more than one month for an employer in the UK need to register under the scheme. Those who have worked for at least 12 months in the UK no longer have to register on the scheme, and are entitled to a residence permit confirming their right to live and work in the UK.

During the first 18 months of the scheme, 293,000 immigrants apply for work permits. The majority are Poles (56%), with the remainder made up of Lithuanians (17%), Slovaks (10%), Latvians, Czechs, Hungarians and Estonians (all under 10%)

According to the Home Office, the largest number of asylum applications came from nationals of Somalia (over 10% of applications), Iraq (8%), Zimbabwe (7%), Iran (6%) and Afghanistan (5%).

The government introduces the Highly Skilled Migrant Programme. This is a points-based system which allows migrants possessing certain skills to enter the UK and work without first having to find an offer of employment or having their visa application sponsored by an employer.

UN figures show that 103,000 people (24% of the EU total) have sought asylum in the UK this year. This is the highest figure in the EU; Germany is next on the list with 17%.

The most common countries of origin for asylum claimants during this year were Iraq, Zimbabwe, Afghanistan, Somalia and China.

The Home Office later estimates that 42 per cent of applications resulted in grants of asylum.

The 2001 Census shows a 50 per cent increase in the size of the ethnic minority population compared with the figures from 1991. One in nine people are from ethnic minorities (in other words, belonging to an ethnic group other than White British). The largest ethnic minority group in Britain - people of Indian descent - now numbers over a million, or just under 2 per cent of the population. The next largest groups were Pakistani (746,000), Irish (691,000), Black Caribbean (566,000) and Black African (485,000)

The total UK population increased by 2.2 million compared to 1991, some 1.14 million of whom were born abroad.

The Office for National Statistics reports that 46,000 people moved to the UK this year from non-EU Europe - that is, the former Eastern Bloc states, plus countries such as Turkey. It also estimates net total immigration from all countries to the UK at around 150,000 per year.

The legacy of wars fought during the 1980s and 1990s in Iraq and Afghanistan bring asylum seekers and refugees to Britain. In Zimbabwe, many white farmers (and British passport holders) are persecuted by Robert Mugabe's Zanu-PF party and have their land rights confiscated, prompting many to leave the country for good.

More than 8,000 ethnic Albanians from Kosova arrive in Britain, many of them young single men in fear of their lives due to the continuing civil war in Yugoslavia.

Most are granted temprary asylum, but nearly 600 are allowed to settle permanently.

The newly-elected Labour government abolishes this rule, which required a British national who married a spouse from overseas to prove that the primary purpose of the marriage was not to settle in the UK.

This new Act recognises the right to asylum, but also gives the Home Office new powers to deport asylum seekers within days of their arrival - and without a hearing - if it could be shown that, before arriving in Britain, they had stopped in a 'third country' where they could have applied for asylum instead.

A total of 10,530 people were detained this year under the new Act - twice the number for 1992.

The number of asylum applications halves in 1992 compared to the previous year. One significant factor in this is thought to be the Conservative government's decision the previous year to double the carriers' liability fine. This had introduced increased penalties on airline or shipping companies who allowed people to board without a full set of travel documents. Critics of this legislation argue that thousands of refugees were prevented from fleeing persecution or death as a result.

The Treaty promotes closer economic and political union through the establishment of a European currency and central bank, and harmonisation of defence, foreign and social policies. It results in the transformation of the EEC into the European Union (EU) the following year.

The ousting of Somalia's government in 1991 leads to prolonged civil war and tens of thousands of people fleeing the country. Many more Somalis leave in later years to escape severe famine that follows. The combined effect of these factors will see annual applications from Somalis for asylum in the UK rise from less than 400 in 1988 to 7,000 by 1999.

Six communist governments in eastern Europe are overthrown in a series of largely peaceful revolutions. The first to fall is in Poland, followed by East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Bulgaria. In Romania, the regime is overthrown by force and its head of state executed. The Baltic states of Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia declare independence from the Soviet Union shortly afterwards. This paves the way, in most cases, for open and fair multi-party parliamentary elections, and the enshrinement of human and civil rights in national constitutions.

This Act, signed in the previous year by the 12 member states, is the first major amendment of the 1957 Treaty of Rome, which established the European Economic Community. It comes into force on 1 July 1987. The Act's main objective is to progressively establish a single internal market by 31 December 1992, that is, "an area without internal frontiers in which the free movement of goods, persons, services and capital is ensured in accordance with the provisions of this Treaty."

As a result of the tighter immigration controls introduced during the 1980s, the bulk of new immigrants entering Britain are Americans, Australians, New Zealanders and South Africans making use of family-ties entry rules, and South Asian men and women entering the medical professions.

Between 1984 and 1986, only 240 applications for asylum were accepted for every one million of the UK's inhabitants, representing less than 0.1 per cent of the population. By comparison, Sweden takes 5,000 asylum seekers per million of its population, and Denmark and Switzerland more than 4,000 each.

For the first time in its history, the UK begins a sustained period where the number of people arriving in the country (immigrants) exceeds the number of those leaving it (emigrants). In this year, the net increase was 17,000 people; between 1983 and 1992 the net inflow would increase to 240,000; and between 1993 and 2002 it would reach just over 1 million.

In only one year during the period from 1964 to 1982 was there a net migration into this country.

The Conservative government passes a new Nationality Act which effectively removes the right to British citizenship from significant numbers of people from 'new Commonwealth' nations (in other words, those from the Caribbean and the Indian subcontinent) who have previously been classed as British citizens. For example, Hong Kong British passport holders were now no longer entitled to move to, and live in, the UK.

The long-running war in Vietnam ends on 30 April when the Saigon government announces its unconditional surrender to North Vietnames forces. On 3 December 1977, the first boat people, as they become known, flee the now-communist Vietnam. Between 1979 and 1982, 12,500 refugees will arrive in the UK, many with little or no education and unable to write in their own language, let alone English.

The first national referendum ever held in Britain results in victory for the Labour government's campaign to stay in the EEC. Just over 67% of voters vote "yes" in response to the question, "do you think the UK should stay in the European Community (Common Market)?" The campaign succeeds despite several cabinet ministers having come out in favour of British withdrawal.

President Archbishop Makarios is briefly deposed in a military coup by Greek Cypriots seeking unification with Greece. Fearing for the rights of the minority Turkish population, Turkey invades northern Cyprus and expels Greek residents. The island is officially divided and the buffer zone between the two sectors is still patrolled by the UN more than three decades later. An estimated 20,000 Greek Cypriots flee the island and make their way to Britain.

Britain enters the European Economic Community (later to become the EU), eventually paving the way towards economic and social integration more than two decades later.

Britain admits 28,000 Asians expelled from Uganda by its dictator Idi Amin. Many settle in Wembley in Middlesex, and Leicester in the Midlands. Large numbers also arrive from Kenya, due to the government there introducing new laws banning foreigners from working in the country.

The government had initially been reluctant to admit the refugees, even though the majority were highly skilled and had British passports. Some fear that they might destabilise race relations in the country, which had been increasingly strained since the mid-1960s.

This legislation introduces powers for immigration officers to detain asylum seekers in immigration detention centres, or even prisons, while the Home Office considers their application.

The Kenyan government bars foreigners from work, and thousands of Kenyan Asians who have British passports beging arriving in Britain as the rate of 1,000 per month.

The Conservative MP Enoch Powell wins popular support for his anti-immigration "Rivers of Blood" speech, and calls for the forced return of immigrants settled in Britain. The Labour government responds by rushing through a new Commonwealth Immigrants Act, which requires immigrants to demonstrate a "close connection" with the UK

The Act also draws an important distinction between citizens who were ';patrials'; - those who possessed identifiable ancestors in the British Isles - and those who were not. In practice, these 'patrials' were almost exclusively white. The practical effect of this is that people from the 'Old Commonwealth' - Australia, Canada, New Zealand and South Africa - were allowed to settle in Britain, if they chose to, while most potential migrants from south Asia and the Caribbean are not.

The Commonwealth Immigrants Bill becomes law, removing the automatic right of Commonwealth citizens to gain entry to Britain.

From now on, the only people allowed to enter are holders of employment vouchers issued by the Ministry of Labour, students, members of the armed forces, and entrants who can demonstrate their ability to support themselves and their dependants without working. Also, people registering for citizenship now have to demonstrate that they have resided in the UK for a certain period of time.

The initial response to the Act is a tremendous drop in the number of Caribbean migrants entering Britain. Between 1955 and 1962, a quarter of a million had arrived from the Caribbean alone. Migration from south Asia, which had increased during the late 1950s to almost match the numbers of Caribbean migrants by 1961, is similarly affected.

White youths attack black people and businesses in Notting Hill and other areas of west London. The government finds itself under increasing pressure to control immigration.

Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and West Germany, known informally as the Common Market, sign a treaty in Rome establishing the EEC on 25 March.

In May, the first civilian jet airliner, the DeHavilland Comet, enters service in Britain. Its first scheduled flights are between London and Johannesburg.

Although for the first few years air travel would remain the preserve of the rich, the cost soon fell, and this, combined with a rapidly-increasing number of transcontinental routes, had a dramatic effect on migration throughout the world. It became easier to visit relatives 'back home', for example, and short-term migration (such as studying or taking up short-term work in other countries, for example) became a more realistic option than before.

The US government passes more stringent immigration legislation, making it more difficult for Carribean migrants to gain entry. Many turn instead to Britain, which still has a relatively relaxed admissions policy.

The United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees (the 'Refugee Convention') is signed by the British government.

The Refugee Convention defines as a refugee anyone who; a) has a well-founded fear of persecution for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion; b) is outside the country they belong to or normally reside in, and c) is unable or unwilling to return home for fear of persecution.

As part of Britain's rebuilding efforts following the end of World War II, men and women from the south of Italy are recruited to work in factories in Luton and Bedford. More than 7,000 went to work for just one firm - Bedford's Marston Valley Brick Company, which needed extra labour to meet the demands of the post-war reconstruction boom. Others went on to open Italian restaurants, pizzerias and other businesses.

British passport-holders are designated as citizens of "the United Kingdom and Colonies." This means every Commonwealth citizen is also a British subject, with the right of entry to the United Kingdom.

On 22 June, the SS Empire Windrush, carring 450 Jamaicans (mostly ex-servicemen) docks at Tilbury, and receives an official welcome from the government.

This marks the beginning of a sustained period of migration from the Caribbean to Britain over the next fifteen years. Between 1955 and 1962, a total of over 250,000 people arrive in the country. More than 66,000 make the journey in 1961 alone, which was the final year before Britain's first immigration law took effect.

Britain relinquishes its rule over the Indian subcontinent, leaving it partitioned into two countries: mainly Hindu India, and a largely Muslim Pakistan. The next 25 years will see large numbers of people migrating to Britain from the subcontinent, mainly from Gujarat and the Punjab in India, Mirpur in Azad Kashmir (Pakistan), and Sylhet in Bangladesh (which, prior to its independence in 1971, was known as East Pakistan). By 1955, the total number of Indians and Pakistanis in Britain will reach 10,700.

With the newly-established NHS in short supply of qualified doctors and nurses, the door is opened to medical professionals from other countries, so that by 1975, 84% of junior medical hospital staff in geriatric care will come from overseas. However, most immigrants from the subcontinent come to fill unskilled jobs in the manufacturing sector, particularly in metalworking and textiles.

The Australian government introduces the UK Assisted Passage Scheme, offering passages for £10 per adult and £5 for 14- to 18-year-olds. This would be followed in 1957 by the "bring out a Briton" campaign, with the result that between 1961 and 1971 only 10 per cent of UK immigrants would be unassisted.

Displaced people living in refugee camps all over Europe took advantage of various resettlement schemes, such as the European Volunteer Workers scheme. For example, 85,000 Ukrainians, Yugoslavs, Estonians, Latvians and Lithuanians came to Britain between 1946 and 1950, while 100,000 Polish refugees who did not want to return to communist Poland decided to stay in Britain. Some 15,700 German and 1,000 Italian POWs remained in Britain after the war.

Around 345,000 Germans, Italians, Ukrainians, Austrians and Poles were recruited through work permit schemes and, by 1952, 110,000 had been resident in the country for over four years.

Active recruitment also began after the war in Ireland, the Caribbean and the Indian subcontinent. By the end of the 1960s, there were 900,000 Irish-born immigrants in Britain, and about one million non-whites.

During the war, more than 60,000 Irish men and women work in Britain, manufacturing munitions, equipment and food supplies for the war effort, and helping to fill the gaps left in public services.

Britain faces an urgent need for fighter pilots as it becomes clear that Hitler would attempt to defeat her with air power. Trained pilots from the Caribbean, South Africa, India and eastern Europe (especially Poland and Czechoslovakia) join the fighter squadrons and play a major part in repulsing the Luftwaffe. Some squadrons are made up entirely by South Africans or Poles. After the Battle of Britain is won, many of these migrant pilots go on to serve in the bomber squadrons of the Fleet Air Arm.

With the Nazi Party in Germany pursuing an ever more vigorous campaign of persecution against the Jews, nearly 10,000 unaccompanied Jewish children arrive in Britain from Germany, Austria and Czechoslovakia via the Kindertransport programme.

The Special Restriction (Coloured Alien Seamen) Order makes it compulsory for all 'coloured alien seamen' to register with the local police within a limited number of days. Initially, Yemeni seamen are the main target, and the law is actively enforced in only a small number of ports. But within a year the order is applied to all British ports and to all 'coloured' sailors, effectively amounting to a 'colour bar' on work at sea.

Political activists with a history of anti-British activity in India are refused entry to Britain.

Small numbers of Russians, escaping the Bolshevik Revolution, establish a tight-knit community in London. Britain signs an agreement with Russia that men born in Russia, now living in Britain but not naturalised, would have either to serve in the British army, or return to Russia and serve in the Russian army.

Thousands of Caribbean people arrive in Britain's seaports and major cities to work in munitions factories, armouries and the merchant navy. They establish themselves in the seaports and major cities, where their presence leads to race riots in the years immediately following World War I.

At the outbreak of war, many thousands of Belgians take refuge in Britain, although most will return after 1918.

Nearly 29,000 Austrians and Germans are instantly repatriated under the Aliens Restrictions Act. More than 32,000 other 'non-British' nationals are interned in prison camps, where they will remain for the course of the war. This legislation also creates, for the first time, a clear definition of British nationality in law, and sets out how the police and the army should treat 'aliens'.

This legislation, aimed at restricting Jewish immigration from eastern Europe, prohibits entry to Britain by 'undesirable aliens'. This term encompasses 'paupers, lunatics, vagrants and prostitutes'.

By the end of the 19th century, successive waves of Chinese immigrants to London's docklands give rise to the area's new unofficial name, 'Chinatown'. It becomes renowned for its opium dens, Chinese laundries and restaurants.

Russia's Tsar Alexander II is assassinated, and a young Jewish woman identified as one of the suspects. This prompts widespread persecution of Jews in Europe, and, during the next three decades, nearly a million European Jews will arrive in Britain.

With the completion of the canal, travel between Europe and Asia is now possible without having to circumnavigate Africa. This dramatically reduces sailing times between Britain and India, and has a major and lasting impact on world trade and the movement of people between the two continents.

Victorian Britain's vast road and rail building programmes create a huge demand for additional labour, which is met by Irish labourers. Between May and August 1841 at least 57,000 arrived in Britain by boat from across the Irish Sea. Meanwhile, industrial jobs in the emerging cities of Leeds, Bradford, Huddersfield and Manchester attract numerous workers from Germany and other parts of Europe.

With Britons enjoying increasing prosperity, many choose to spend their new-found wealth on leisure and recreational pursuits. By the turn of the twentieth century, migrants from Italy and elsewhere in southern Europe enjoyed an often lucrative trade in street vending, catering, restaurants, baking and confectionary making.

Substantial numbers of skilled, English-speaking Indian workers also arrive in Britain to work in railways, post offices and police stations throughout the country.

Ireland's potato crop is ravaged by blight and the effects of destructive farming methods, causing a severe and widespread famine which eventually causes as many as a million deaths (nearly one in eight of the population). Over the next five years, an estimated 200,000 Irish people will flee to Britain.

This year marks the first permanent settlement of Chinese people in port towns and cities in Britain, such as London (particularly the Limehouse area), and Liverpool

On 25th March, the Abolition of the Slave Trade Bill is finally passed in both Houses of Parliament. This brings a swift halt to the slave trade throughout the British Empire, although slavery itself would not become illegal until the Slavery Abolition Bill became law in 1833. As a consequence, the number of black people arriving in Britain from Africa and the Caribbean falls almost to zero.

This year sees union with Ireland and the adoption of the Union Flag. The first British census was also carried out; it reveals that in England and Wales, the population is nearly nine million while, in Scotland, the figure is a little over 1,600,000.

The first shipload of British convicts land in Australia on the site of the future city of Sydney.

This 'transportation' policy is one of the main reasons why, by the end of the eighteenth century, the number of people emigrating from Britain will, for the first time, surpass the number of those arriving in the country.

Lord Justice Mansfield rules that no individual can be a slave in England, although the trade continues to thrive overseas. It also becomes illegal to remove black slaves from England against their wishes.

During the early- to mid-eighteenth century, the slave trade leads to an increase in the numbers of African residents in England, estimated at this time to be around 14,000.

During the early years of the Industrial Revolution, thousands of Irish labourers travel to Britain to begin work on the construction of new roads, canals and railways.

On 16th January, the Act of Union is signed. This leads to the dissolution of the Scottish and English parliaments, and to England and Scotland becoming one country - the kingdom of Great Britain. Scotland keeps its independence in terms of its legal and religious systems, but there are now single British systems of coinage and taxation. British sovereignty is introduced, and a new Parliament of Great Britain is established in Westminster. A new national symbol - the red, white and blue Union flag, which overlays the flags of Scotland and England - is introduced.

The first of over 20,000 Protestant Huguenot refugees take sanctuary in England from persecution in their native France, after the government there declares Protestantism illegal. Most settle in London, where they form five percent of the city's total population at that time, while others settle in Canterbury. They bring with them skills in silk weaving and in the making of clocks and guns. Others were goldsmiths, silversmiths, merchants and artists.

The Lord Protector, Oliver Cromwell, allows some 300 Jews to settle in Britain, so ending a period of more than nearly four centuries in which Jews were forbidden either to reside in Britain or to practise their religion here (although they were still allowed to visit on business). However, some parts of society still remain closed to Jews, and it is not until the mid-eighteenth century that they were allowed to sit in Parliament, for example.

The year 2006 marks the 350th anniversary of the lifting of the prohibition, which was originally imposed by Edward I in 1290.

Lascars (seamen from south east Asia and India) and sailors from China and West Africa find themselves in demand as Britain's trading empire and financial muscle increases. This is in spite of the 1660 Navigation Act, which requires 75 per cent of a British ship's crew to be British. Many eventually settle permanently, laying the foundations for the modern-day Chinese communities in Liverpool and London.

The East India Company is founded to challenge Dutch and Portuguese dominance in the spice trade. It will become the major force behind British imperial expansion throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. From its beginnings as a commercial trading organization, the East India Company will gain power and influence, acquiring governmental and military functions along the way, and will virtually rule India from 1773 until the company's dissolution in 1858.

The first black African slaves are brought to Britain, heralding the start of a 250-year trade in human beings.

The first Roma Gypsies arrive in Britain from southern and Ireland and eastern Europe (although it is believed that most Roma originate from the Punjab region of south Asia). Many make a living as tinkers, pedlars and horse dealers.

The early years of the fourteenth century see Italian bankers arrive from Lombardy (Lombard Street in London is named after them). Many German merchants also settle in parts of London, along with Dutch brickmakers, brewers and textile weavers.

After several years of anti-semitic persecution, Edward I orders the expulsion of all remaining Jews in Britain.

At this time, about 5,000 Jews live in Britain, spread among 27 towns and cities throughout England. Even before the expulsion ruling, they are forbidden by the Church to own land, employ Christians or bear arms.

The first Dominican friars ("blackfriars") arrive from Italy and set up houses of studies in London, Oxford, and - later - Canterbury.

The newly-crowned King of England, William the Conqueror, invites Jews into England, paving the way for the first substantial wave of Jewish immigration into the British isles. The next century-and-a-half will see a steady increase in the number of Jewish migrants from mainland Europe, including many scholars, businessmen and physicians.

The Anglo-Saxon armies, led by King Harold, repel what turns out to be the last Danish invasion at the Battle of Stamford Bridge, but are in turn defeated by the Norman army from France, led by William, Duke of Normandy. The Norman Conquest moves Britain away from Scandinavian influence and instead ties it closely to continental Europe.

French becomes the official language, and cultural and economic links with France and the rest of Europe are re-established.

A great army of Danes lands in East Anglia and captures the towns of York and Reading. Seven years later, a permanent Danish presence will be established in London, and in 876 a Viking leader will share out the farmlands of Northumbria amongst his warriors, marking the start of the Danish colonisation of England.

The first full-scale raids on Britain are launched from Scandinavia. These are carried out in Scotland by Vikings from Norway, and in England by the Danes

The arrival of Saint Augustine converts most of England and Wales to Christianity

The Dal Riadans - a Scots tribe originally from Antrim in Ireland - arrive in the land which will later become known as Scotland. Within a few years, they will establish Scotland's first tribal kingdom, in the western part of the country.

A series of invasions eventually sees Angles, Saxons and Jutes (originally from northern Germany and Denmark) settle in considerable numbers in southern and central Britain

At the same time, a new tribe - the Scots - arrives from Ireland and establishes itself on the northern coast of the British mainland.

Rome sends a contingent of legionnaires from the African part of its empire to stand guard on Hadrian's Wall in northern England. These soldiers are probably the first black people seen in the British isles.

Roman citizenship is extended to all free inhabitants of the empire. This means that almost everyone in Britain was now considered Roman, legally and culturally, even those of indigenous descent who still mostly speak Celtic languages.

The Roman occupation begins, representing the first substantial wave of immigration into Britain. Britain had long been a target for conquest by Rome, as it was materially rich in commodities like tin and slaves. The Romans were also keen to put a stop to the use of Britain as a safe haven by Gallic rebels.

A force of around 20,000 men, led by Aulus Plautius, lands on the Kent coast and defeats the Britons in a series of skirmishes.

Later the same year, Emperor Claudius arrives with reinforcements, including elephants, and captures Colchester, which becomes the Roman capital of Britain. Claudius accepts the surrender of eleven tribal kings, and appoints Aulus Plautius as the first Governor of Britain, before returning in triumph to Rome.

Pytheas of Massilia (now Marseilles), a renowned Greek scholar and sailor, becomes the first person to sail all the way around England, Wales and Scotland.

The Celtic language slowly spreads throughout Britain, prompted by immigration, inter-marriage and the growing trade with continental Celts.

A small, but thriving trade in tin is established between Cornish miners and Gallic traders from Brittany.

Metal objects, such as tools, utensils and weapons, are brought to the British isles by settlers and traders from central Europe.

The Beaker people - so-called because of the drinking vessels with which they were buried - arrive by boat in small numbers from northwestern and central Europe.

The English Channel is created by the final thaw of the Ice Age. Britain is now an island.

The first modern humans - who were hunter-gatherers - arrive in the British isles from mainland Europe, following the retreating ice northwards. Most settle in the southern and eastern parts of England.