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Cleopatra Lived Closer to the Computer Age than to the Pyramids, and Other Atypical History Facts

Khalid Elhassan December 30, 2019 33 min

34. The Original Brexit

How Doggerland’s lowlands would have looked before they were claimed by the sea. BBC

Until the last Ice Age, Britain was part of Doggerland, Europe’s northwest corner. However, when the Ice Age ended and temperatures began to warm, the ice cap began to melt, and the sea levels began to rise. That was bad news for much of Doggerland, because much of it was lowlands. As the waters rose, the Atlantic and the expanding North Sea gradually chipped away at the region. Then, about 7500 BC, a landslide off Norway created a tsunami that rolled over much of Doggerland.

By 6000 BC, most inhabitants of the remaining lowlands, by now mostly marshes, had moved to the higher ground of today’s Britain and the Netherlands. Finally, about 5000 BC, the prehistoric Brexit was completed when the Atlantic Ocean and the North Sea finally met, forming the English Channel that separates Britain from Europe. Traces of Doggerland still come up today, as fishermen over the region still occasionally pull up spearheads and mammoth bones.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.