Why did the romans invade britain

Why Did the
Romans Invade
Britain

Britain had lots of things the Romans wanted
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Lead
Wood
Tin
Wool
Pearls
Slaves
Gold
Silver
Corn

Corn
 As the Roman Empire grew bigger there were more and more people to feed  More and more Romans started living in towns leaving fewer people in the country to grow crops

Valuable Metals: Silver
 The Romans made their money out of silver – more coins were needed as the
Empire grew.
 Britain already had silver mines that the Romans knew about.  Silver was a luxury item for rich Romans – so there was a big demand for it.

Other Valuable Metals:
Gold and Tin
 Gold was used for jewellery.
 Gold was used in trade as a means of exchange.  There was a scarcity of gold
(not much of it about ) but
Britain had some  Tin and pewter were used for cups and plates.
 Tin could be mixed with other metals to make strong, hard metals. The Romans used a lot of lead!
 Lead was really useful for the
Romans.
 Lead was used to make water pipes and plumbing systems
 Lead was also used to make coffins like the one pictured right! Slaves?
 Romans planned to used captured Britons as slaves.
 Roman society was a slave based economy so their was a big demand for slaves in the rest of the empire
 Slaves could be used to work for rich Romans or for entertainment

Raw Materials: Wool and Leather
 Wool was used for making
Roman togas
(see picture below) and also for stuffing mattresses  The Roman army used a lot of leather in uniforms and in soldiers tents.
 Leather was also used to make buckets.

Power!
 The Romans wanted to show how powerful they were by conquering more and more countries.  They believed it was their duty to this and make the world
“civilised” like them
 Read the quote on the next slide to see what they thought about this!

The Roman Idea
 “Remember you are a Roman. It will be your job to rule over other countries, so that the world becomes peaceful and everyone obeys the law.” written by Virgil 20BC

Ambition: Julius Caesar
 Julius Caesar was an ambitious general in the
Roman army
 He knew that if he led a military victory against
Britain it would strengthen his position and his reputation Revenge!
 The Britons had been helping the Gauls (French) fight against the Romans.
 The Romans wanted to punish the Britons for this