Briton
The term Briton may have the following meanings:
- in a historical context:
- an inhabitant of Great Britain in pre-Roman times
- a descendant of Britons during a later period (e.g. Britons in Roman Britain)
- in a modern context, a resident of the United Kingdom
- a person indigenous to Great Britain
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The first Britons
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.
Foreign conquest
Three thousand years or so ago Britain was invaded by Celts (Hallstatt culture/Iron age), who brought with them superior fighting skills and whose culture dominated the native people (Beaker people/Bronze age). The Beaker culture of the Bronze age had itself replaced the previous neolithic/stone age culture of Britain around 4200 years ago. The spread of the Beaker people may be due to cultural diffusion or due to an invasion by bronze age peoples of stone age Britain.
Over more than a thousand years from 55 BC onwards, Britain was invaded and/or settled by various other peoples, such as the Romans, the Irish Scots, various Germanic and Scandinavian peoples (see Anglo-Saxons, Vikings), and finally at the end of the 11th century the Normans, each of which brought a definite cultural change in Great Britain.
Over the course of several centuries, Germanic culture and influence dominated over most of what is now England and south eastern Scotland. Wales, the highlands of Scotland and Cornwall preserved a more or less Celtic culture.
Immigration and emigration
Immigration to the island after the Norman conquest was on a much smaller scale – see Immigration to the United Kingdom for details.
The growth of the British Empire resulted in the spread of ethnic Britons around the world. About 150 million people world-wide refer to their ethnic heritage as British (or, perhaps inaccurately, as English, Scottish or Welsh) or as having a strong British influence. The largest number 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 numbers of ethnic Britons living in Canada, Australia, South Africa and New Zealand.
Genetic and archaeological considerations
Modern genetic evidence, based on analysis of the Y chromosome (which men inherit from their fathers), indicates that Germanic (or Anglo-Saxon) men are not the patrilinear ancestors of men in parts of remote Wales. The Y chromosomes of these Welsh men may be most similar genetically to the pre-Roman inhabitants of Britain, and do have a genetic connection to the Basque people. However, this does not give any information about matrilinear descent, and since post-Roman Germanic invaders of Great Britain may have taken native women as wives, men whose Y chromosome is "Germanic" may have a significant proportion of Celtic ancestors. Post-industrial internal migration of British people has occured on a massive scale, and it is likely that most people living in modern Britain are descended from all ethnic groups to have settled on the island during ancient times.
Modern usage
A Briton is also a commonly accepted word to represent a citizen of the United Kingdom, which includes both the indigenous majority and non-indigenous groups, for example, Africans, who are often referred to as Black Britons — see British, Alternate words for British.
The use of the word Briton in a modern context is a historically recent development. Prior to the Act of Union, nationalistic and cultural differences were such that few inhabitants of what is now the United Kingdom would identify themselves as 'Britons'.
See Linda Colley's 1992 book, Britons: Forging the Nation 1707–1837 for a treatment of the modern adoption of this term.