Isolated British Isles

I was thinking earlier on today about the History of Britain and the movement of peoples into and out of the islands over time: Celts, Romans, Anglo-Saxons, Vikings, Normans etc. Right up to the modern day.

I like living in a multicultural, Cosmopolitian Nation but I was wondering if it had to be this way? Is it possible to come up with a timeline where Britain is very isolated, xenophobic even, where immgration even from Mainland Europe near to impossible?

I think a reasonable place to start is no Roman Invasion which did much to enhance Britain's involvement in the rest of the continent, recognising of course there is some connection pre-Julius Ceaser.

But looking at the movement of Germanic Tribes and Vikings and the Dark Age period it feels increasingly doubtful such a "Splended Isolation" comparable with the Sakoku of Japan (recognising this occured from 17th to 19th century so I'm proposing something quite different, and there was still trade during this time) is even possible.

And thinking about the role of Christianity too; either the British Isles would need to remain Pagan but not succumb to any potential crusade analogue should it develop, since interaction as part of Rome religiously would be quite a lot of involvement. Or have a Christianity which is radically different in development.

Anyway, so I'm throwing it to the board. How isolated a Britain could we feasibly have?
 
I've toyed with the idea of Oliver Cromwell imposing not just a Puritan regime on England, but a full-blown, totalitarian theocracy. All scientific research is banned as ungodly, all trade and travel abroad even to Scotland is banned, and an elaborate secret police is formed. All Catholics, Royalists, liberals, non-conformists, Jews, and other undesirables are burned at the stake. Ireland and the North American colonies are abandoned because they're impure and heretical. It will be a mix of Sakoku-era Japan and modern day North Korea. Cromwell starts a North Korean-like dynasty system. As a result, England misses out on overseas exploration, the Enlightenment, and trade.

By the time the Cromwell regime collapses, say the early 18th century, England has missed the opportunity to build overseas colonies and is generally fearful of the outside world. European powers either see no use in influencing a backwater island or have heard too many horror stories from England (many of which were exaggerated by English exiles) to bother invading it.

Most probably the Act of Union will never occur, and by the 19th century England slowly begins a Meiji Reformation, importing industrial technology first developed in the Netherlands, France, and Germany. To this day, the English view the continent as impure and foreign as much as the Japanese do.
 
Problem is that's not who Cromwell is. He believed in creating a British empire that spanned the globe and cared about international Protestantism. Though he was a tyrant, he was no obsessive, inward thinking theocratic. You need someone much crazier who gets ahold of the country to get the results you want.
 
Problem is that's not who Cromwell is. He believed in creating a British empire that spanned the globe and cared about international Protestantism. Though he was a tyrant, he was no obsessive, inward thinking theocratic. You need someone much crazier who gets ahold of the country to get the results you want.

There could be a set of circumstances where the Diggers dominate the Roundheads, backed by disgruntled Anglican clergy, and eventually seize power. Ideological dictatorships certainly weren't just a 20th century thing.
 
Britain is just too green and fertile with nice mild summers and warm wet winters for people to not migrate there - especially from cold harsh places like Scandinavia and northern Germany.
 
Northern Germany is no worse than England for climate. And there are many nicer places in Europe. People followed jobs, not climate.
 
Northern Germany is no worse than England for climate. And there are many nicer places in Europe. People followed jobs, not climate.

But it's the climate that creates jobs.

If people followed climate and not jobs, everyone would be living in Sicily and the Costa del Sol.
 
There could be a set of circumstances where the Diggers dominate the Roundheads, backed by disgruntled Anglican clergy, and eventually seize power. Ideological dictatorships certainly weren't just a 20th century thing.

Utter ASB.

You aren't confusing the Diggers, a historical curiosity blow out of proportion by radical historians and folk singers, with a massively powerful political faction are you?
 
Britain is just too green and fertile with nice mild summers and warm wet winters for people to not migrate there - especially from cold harsh places like Scandinavia and northern Germany.

Well yeah but that describes Japan too. I think you would need to establish a powerful centralized country across the British isles very early on (say maybe around pre-300 BC) who can hold the isles under sway and keep them relatively cut off from the wider world.
 
But it's the climate that creates jobs.

If people followed climate and not jobs, everyone would be living in Sicily and the Costa del Sol.

Sicily was one of the richest places in Europe before the ecological disaster the Romans inflicted on it. Jobs are created by something much more complex than climate.
 

Ramp-Rat

Monthly Donor
It would also help that if like Japan, the British Isles were a bit more than 22 miles from the nearest land in Europe. Out of sight, and to an extent out of mind. As long as Britain can be seen from the other side, and you need little or no navigation skills to get there, or to get away, its going to be impossible to isolate it.
 
Apart turning Britain as a North Korea equivalent that would be far more totalitarian, or nuke the country...I don't see how having "impossible immigration" as it's part of the flux that happen whatever you agree with or not.
 

Thande

Donor
I think Japan under sakoku is a better analogy than North Korea. Cromwell wouldn't do that, but--as anyone has read EdT's latest timeline will know--there was no shortage of crazies with unusual ideologies knocking about during the English Civil War who could potentially have got to the top.

I don't see an easy way to do it in the more distant past--maybe Constantine founds a splinter state of the Roman Empire covering Britain or something, there's no Byzantium and this Britannia considers itself the only true continuation of Rome and looks down on all the other successor states? Even then though it's hard to see this equalling deliberate isolation...
 
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