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The Impact the Romans Made on British Isles

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Examine the impact the Romans made on the British Isles Although there had been increasing contact between the British Isles and the classical world during the Late Iron Age, the first real Roman presence here was that of Julius Caesar. In 55BC a Roman army of around ten thousand men crossed the channel and invaded Britain, yet were defeated and had to return to Gaul. Then in the following year; 54BC, Caesar came to Britain again. This time with a much larger army, although on this occasion he won the majority of battles and was victorious, he still returned to Gaul. It wasn’t until 43AD that the real invasion took place and the real ‘Romanisation’ of the British Isles began. Romanisation is commonly seen as the coming of …show more content…

Those from the lower social class still lived in Iron Age houses within poor rural communities. They still relied on Pre-Roman farming technology to live and trade from. This was shown when archaeologist discovered a settlement in Devon dating back to the Roman period. The remains show inhabitants were still living in native roundhouses, as Britons had done for centuries before, despite the presence of Roman pottery and coins.[4] One of the most visible changes in landscape was the construction of Roman roads. Prior to this, Britain used unpaved track ways for their communications. The Roman created straight, paved roads which could be used in all weather conditions. The development of Over 9,000kilometres of roads meant communication and travel from one area of Britain to another was made substantially easier. Although they were mainly designed for a military purpose, it had a positive impact on trade as it became easier to transport goods. Speaking of trade, the Romans made vast improvements in agriculture. They introduced to Britain a range of new crops, as well as better farming equipment. Iron equipment created by the Romans allowed farmers to work on much larger and tougher areas of land which would have proved too difficult during the pre-roman era. Along with this, livestock was also improved;

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