Guernsey's culture is strongly influenced by Britain, evident in its use of the pound sterling and the status of English as the primary native language.

Around 6000 BC, rising seas created the English Channel and separated the Norman promontories that became the bailiwicks of Guernsey and Jersey from continental Europe.

[13] Neolithic farmers then settled on its coast and built the dolmens and menhirs found in the islands today, providing evidence of human presence dating back to around 5000 BC.

[18] About the year 1030, the fleet of Robert, Duke of Normandy, which was to support the claim of his cousins Alfred and Edward to the English crown against Canute, was scattered by a storm, and was driven down the Channel to Guernsey.

Around the middle of the eleventh century, Guernsey was beset by a new breed of pirates who built a castle called Le Château des Sarrasins in the centre of the island near the present church of Catel; Duke William of Normandy (later the Conqueror) commissioned his Esquire Sampson d'Anneville to fight them.

Each free fief had a manorial court to hear disputes between tenants, and the Abbot of St. Michael and the Seigneur d'Anneville had the right of high jurisdiction and the privilege of trying and executing criminals, respectively, so that the civil order of the island was fully regulated even before the Norman conquest of England.

[19] In 1204, when King John lost the continental portion of the Duchy to Philip II of France, the islands remained part of the Kingdom of England.

[22] In 1372, the island was invaded by Aragonese mercenaries under the command of Owain Lawgoch (remembered as Yvon de Galles), who was in the pay of the French king.

The neutrality lasted another century, until William III of England abolished the privilege due to privateering activity against Dutch ships.

[29][30] Wars against France and Spain during the 17th and 18th centuries allowed Guernsey shipowners and sea captains to exploit the island's proximity to mainland Europe by applying for letters of marque and turning their cargo ships into privateering vessels.

[35] The early 19th century saw a dramatic increase in the prosperity of the island, due to its success in the global maritime trade, and the rise of the stone industry.

The tomato industry started up again and thrived until the 1970s when the significant increase in world oil prices led to a sharp, terminal decline.

Combined with a tidal range of 10 metres (33 feet) and fast currents of up to 12 knots, this makes sailing in local waters dangerous.

The very large tidal variation provides an environmentally rich inter-tidal zone around the islands, and some sites have received Ramsar Convention designation.

From 2021 with free travel to the continent ceasing, additional bureaucratic procedures come into force, including the need for international driving licences.

[93] Banks began setting up operations in the island from the early 1960s onwards in order to avoid high onshore taxes and restrictive regulation.

If it was classified with "Islander Status", the British passport was endorsed as follows: 'The holder is not entitled to benefit from EU provisions relating to employment or establishment'.

[130] In 2008, the school-leaving age was raised so the earliest date is the last Friday in June in the year a pupil turns 16, in line with England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Post-GCSE pupils have a choice of transferring to the state-run Grammar School & Sixth Form Centre, or to the independent colleges for academic AS/A Levels/International Baccalureate Diploma Programme.

[133] Since the 1960s the number of individual islanders raising these cattle for private supply has diminished significantly, but Guernsey steers can still be occasionally seen grazing on L'Ancresse common.

The survival of this breed is largely credited to the work of a single woman, Miriam Milbourne, who successfully hid her herd from the Germans during the occupation.

[136] The traditional explanation for the donkey (âne in French and Guernésiais) is the steepness of St Peter Port streets that necessitated beasts of burden for transport (in contrast to the flat terrain of the rival capital of Saint Helier in Jersey), although it is also used in reference to Guernsey inhabitants' stubbornness.

[138] A local delicacy is the ormer (Haliotis tuberculata), a variety of abalone harvested under strict laws from beaches at low spring tides.

[citation needed] Victor Hugo, having arrived on Halloween 1855,[9] wrote some of his best-known works while in exile in Guernsey, including Les Misérables.

[143][144] Guernseyman G. B. Edwards wrote a critically acclaimed novel, The Book of Ebenezer Le Page, that was published in 1981, including insights into Guernsey life during the 20th century.

[148] The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, a novel by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows, describes the Occupation of Germans during World War II.

A film adaptation of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, starring Lily James and Jessica Brown Findlay, was released in 2018.

The top tier of Guernsey football is the FNB Priaulx League where there are eight teams (Alderney, Belgrave Wanderers, Northerners, Sylvans, St Martin's, Rovers, Rangers and Vale Recreation).

[159] Their second season saw them promoted again on the final day in front of 1,754 'Green Lions' fans, this time to Division One South of the Isthmian League,[160][161] despite their fixtures being heavily affected not only by poor winter weather, but by their notable progression to the semi-finals of the FA Vase cup competition.

Le Val des Terres, a steeply winding road rising south from St Peter Port to Fort George, is often the focus of both local and international hill-climb races.