|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (usually shortened to the United Kingdom, the UK, Great Britain or Britain)[5] is a European country[6] and sovereign state[7] that lies to the north-west of the continent with the Republic of Ireland to the west. It occupies all of the island of Great Britain and the north-east part of the island of Ireland, sharing a land border with the Republic of Ireland. It is a member of the European Union. The United Kingdom is bounded by the Atlantic Ocean, and its ancillary bodies of water, including the North Sea, the English Channel, the Celtic Sea, St George's Channel, and the Irish Sea. The United Kingdom is linked to France by the Channel Tunnel.
Although Britain was the foremost great power during the 19th century, the economic cost of two world wars and the decline of its empire in the latter half of the 20th century diminished Britain's status in global affairs. However, as a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, a nuclear power, a member of the G8 and the fifth largest economy, Britain remains an important political, economic and military world power.
HistoryImage:Sadler, Battle of Waterloo.jpg The Battle of Waterloo marked the end of the Napoleonic Wars and the beginning of the Pax Britannica. The Kingdom of England and Kingdom of Scotland had existed as separate sovereign and independent states with their own monarchs and political structures since the 9th century. The once independent Principality of Wales fell under the control of English monarchs from the Statute of Rhuddlan in 1284. Under the Acts of Union 1707, England (including Wales) and Scotland, which had been in personal union since the Union of the Crowns in 1603, agreed to a political union in the form of a unified Kingdom of Great Britain.[9] The Act of Union 1800 united the Kingdom of Great Britain with the Kingdom of Ireland, which had been gradually brought under English control between 1541 and 1691, to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland in 1801.[10] Independence for the Republic of Ireland in 1922 followed the partition of the island of Ireland two years previously, with six of the nine counties of the province of Ulster remaining within the UK, which then changed to the current name in 1927 of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.[11] (The terms Great Britain or Britain collectively refer to three of the four UK constituent countries, namely England, Scotland and Wales. The terms United Kingdom or UK however include Northern Ireland as the fourth). Britain was an important part of the Age of Enlightenment with philosophical and scientific input and an influential literary and theatrical tradition. Over the next century the United Kingdom played a leading role in developing Western ideas of parliamentary democracy with significant contributions to literature, the arts and science.[12] The wealth of the early British Empire, like other Great Powers, was also partly generated by colonial exploitation, including the industrialisation after 1750 of the slave trade, with Britain's 18th century shipping fleet, the largest in the world, taking African slaves to the Americas as part of the infamous triangular trade. At the beginning of the 19th however, Britain passed the Slave Trade Act and became the first nation to permanently prohibit trade in slaves.
Over the 19th century the country played an important role in the development of parliamentary democracy, partly via the emergence of a multi-party system and expansion of suffrage. Developments of science and the arts, building on an 18th century inheritance of figures such as Isaac Newton, and particularly its earlier tradition of literature, were influential. Image:British Empire 1897.jpg The British Empire in 1897. The empire became the largest and most extensive empire in history. At the end of the Victorian era, however, the United Kingdom lost its industrial leadership, particularly to the United States, which surpassed the UK in industrial production and trade in the 1890s, as well as to the German Empire. Britain remained the pre-eminent superpower, and its empire expanded to its maximum size by 1921, gaining the League of Nations mandate over former German and Ottoman colonies after World War I. After emergence from the war, the world's first large-scale international broadcasting network, the BBC, was created. The country's Labour movement had been in expansion since the late 19th century, and in 1924 the first labour government came to power. Britain fought Nazi Germany in World War II, with its Commonwealth allies including Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and India, later to be joined by further allies. Wartime leader Winston Churchill and his successor Clement Atlee helped plan the post-war world as part of the "Big Three". World War II, however, left the United Kingdom financially and physically damaged. Economically costly wartime loans, loans taken in 1945 from the United States and from Canada, combined with post-war Marshall Plan aid from the United States started the United Kingdom on the road to recovery. Image:Supermarinespitfire.JPG The famous Spitfire of the RAF. The RAF won the Battle of Britain and ended Germany's advance in western Europe during World War II. 1945 saw the emergence of the British Welfare State and one of the world's first and most comprehensive Health Services, while the demands of a recovering economy brought people from all over the Commonwealth to create a multiethnic Britain. Although the new postwar limits of Britain's political role were confirmed by the Suez Crisis of 1956, the international currency of the language meant the continuing impact of its literature and culture, while at the same time from the 1960s its popular culture found an influence abroad. Following a period of economic stagnation and industrial strife in the 1970s after a global economic downturn, the 1980s saw the premiership of Margaret Thatcher, under whom a marked break with the post-war political and economic consensus saw, for her supporters, economic recovery, and, for her critics, greater social division. From the mid-1990s onward these trends have largely continued under the leadership of Tony Blair. The United Kingdom has been a member of the European Union since 1973. The attitude of the present Labour government towards further integration with this organisation is mixed,[13] with the Conservative Party favouring a return of some powers and competencies to the state,[14] and the Liberal Democrats supportive of current engagement. Government and politicsThe United Kingdom is a Constitutional Monarchy, with executive power exercised on behalf of the monarch by the Prime Minister and other cabinet ministers. Following the Act of Settlement 1701 only the descendants of Sophia of Hanover who were Anglican or Protestant, and had not married a Roman Catholic could succeed the throne. The monarch technically holds all executive power and must nominate a head of government (Prime Minister) that the Parliament agrees upon. The Prime Minister is nowadays always a member of the House of Commons; the last Lord to be Prime Minister was Lord Home(as Sir Alec Douglas-Home) in 1963-64. The cabinet, including the Prime Minister, and other senior ministers collectively make up Her Majesty's Government. These ministers are drawn from, and are responsible to, Parliament. The British system of government has been emulated around the world – a legacy of the British Empire's colonial past, most notably in the other Commonwealth Realms – however the United Kingdom is one of the three countries in the world today that does not have a codified constitution (the other two being New Zealand and Israel), relying instead on traditional customs and separate pieces of constitutional law.[15] Image:Location of the BOTs.PNG Location of the British Overseas Territories (British Antarctica, and Akrotiri and Dhekelia on Cyprus not shown) The Prime Minister appoints ministers to government posts, usually from senior members of their own party. Most ministers are members of, and answerable to, the House of Commons (particularly at their Department's "Question Time"). The remaining ministers are usually from the House of Lords, Ministers do not legally have to come from Parliament, but that is the modern day custom, and a Prime Minister who wants to bring someone into the government from outside Parliament will usually first create them a Life Peer, i.e. give them a non-hereditary seat in the House of Lords. The chief advantage put forward for the Parliamentary system of Government is this direct accountability of cabinet members to Parliament. The counter-argument is that the majority of legislators (elected to hold government to account) are (because they are in the PM's party) actually looking to the Prime Minister for personal advancement — and that most politicians (at least in the early stages of their career) appear to view the being an MP not as an honourable and status-awarding end in itself but as the route to office. Image:The mall london.jpg The Mall looking onto Buckingham Palace, the official residence of the British Monarch. In the United Kingdom, the monarch has extensive theoretical powers, but his/her role is mainly, though not exclusively, ceremonial.[16] The monarch is an integral part of Parliament (as the "Crown-in-Parliament"), and theoretically gives Parliament the power to meet and create legislation. An Act of Parliament does not become law until it has been signed by the monarch (known as Royal Assent), although not one has refused assent to a bill that has been approved by Parliament since Queen Anne in 1708.[17] Although the abolition of the monarchy has been suggested, the popularity of the monarchy remains strong in the United Kingdom. Support for a British republic usually fluctuates between 15% and 25% of the population, with roughly 10% undecided or indifferent.[18] The present monarch is HM Queen Elizabeth II who acceded to the throne in 1952 and was crowned in 1953. The current Prime Minister is Tony Blair of the Labour Party, who has been in office since 1997. At the 2005 general election, the Labour Party had a majority of 66 seats. However, it is now a 64 seat majority due to a by-election loss to the Liberal Democrats in Scotland. Image:Westminster palace.jpg The Palace of Westminster, on the banks of the River Thames, London, houses the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Parliament is the national legislature of the United Kingdom. It is the ultimate legislative authority in the United Kingdom, according to the doctrine of parliamentary sovereignty (however, questions over sovereignty have been brought forward because of the UK's entry in to the European Union[19]). It is bicameral, composed of the elected House of Commons and the unelected House of Lords, whose members are mostly appointed. The House of Commons is the more powerful of the two houses. The House of Commons houses 646 members who are directly elected from single-member constituencies based on population. The House of Lords has around 700 members (though the number is not fixed), constituted of life peers, hereditary peers, and bishops of the Church of England. (Note: The House of Lords Act 1999 removed the automatic inheritance of seats in the Lords and permitted 92 hereditary peers to remain. The Church of England is the established church of the state in England.[20] LawImage:Parliament House, Edinburgh.JPG Parliament House, Edinburgh is the seat of the supreme courts of Scotland. The United Kingdom has three distinct systems of law. English law, which applies in England and Wales, and Northern Ireland law, which applies in Northern Ireland, are based on common-law principles. Scots law, which applies in Scotland, is a hybrid system based on both common-law and civil-law principles. The Act of Union 1707 guarantees the continued existence of a separate law system for Scotland. The Appellate Committee of the House of Lords (usually just referred to, as "The House of Lords") is the highest court in the land for all criminal and civil cases in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, and for all civil cases in Scots law. Recent constitutional changes will see the powers of the House of Lords transfer to a new Supreme Court of the United Kingdom.[21] In England and Wales, the court system is headed by the Supreme Court of Judicature of England and Wales, consisting of the Court of Appeal, the High Court of Justice (for civil cases) and the Crown Court (for criminal cases). In Scotland the chief courts are the Court of Session, for civil cases, and the High Court of Justiciary, for criminal cases, while the sheriff court is the Scottish equivalent of the county court. The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council is the highest court of appeal for several independent Commonwealth countries, the UK overseas territories, and the British crown dependencies. GeographyTopographyImage:Uk-map.svg Map of the United Kingdom Most of England consists of rolling lowland terrain, divided from more mountainous terrain in the north-west (Cumbrian Mountains of the Lake District), north (the upland moors of the Pennines and limestone hills of the Peak District) and south-west (Exmoor and Dartmoor) by the Tees-Exe line. Lower ranges include the limestone hills of the Isle of Purbeck, Cotswolds and Lincolnshire Wolds, and the chalk downs of the Southern England Chalk Formation. The main rivers and estuaries are the Thames, Severn and the Humber Estuary. The largest urban area is Greater London. England's highest mountain is Scafell Pike, which is in the Lake District 978m (3,208 ft). Scotland's geography is varied, with lowlands in the south and east and highlands in the north and west, including Ben Nevis, the highest mountain in the British Isles at 1,344m (4,406 ft). There are many long and deep-sea arms, firths, and lochs. There are nearly eight hundred islands in Scotland, mainly west and north of the mainland, notably the Hebrides, Orkney Islands and Shetland Islands. In total, it is estimated that the UK includes around one thousand islands.[22] Image:Lakeland View.jpg The panorama across Eskdale from Ill Crag, in the Lake District Wales is mostly mountainous, the highest peak being Snowdon (Yr Wyddfa) at 1,085m or 3,560 ft above sea level. North of the mainland is the island of Anglesey (Ynys Môn). Northern Ireland, making up the north-eastern part of Ireland, is mostly hilly. The province is home to one of the UK's World Heritage Sites, the Giant's Causeway, which consists of more than 40,000 six-sided basalt columns up to 12m (40 feet) high. Lough Neagh, the largest body of water in the British Isles, by surface area (388 km² / 150 mi²), can be found in Northern Ireland.[23] The highest peak is Slieve Donard at 849 metres (2,786 ft) in the province's Mourne Mountains. The greatest distance between two points on the UK mainland of Great Britain is 1,350 km (839 miles) between Land's End in Cornwall (near Penzance) and John O'Groats in Caithness (near Thurso), a two day journey by car. When measured directly north-south it is a little over 1,100 km in length and is a fraction under 500 km at its widest. ClimateEngland has a temperate climate, with plentiful rainfall all year round, though the seasons are quite variable in temperature. However, temperatures rarely fall below −4 °C and will only rise above 32 °C in the height of the summer. The prevailing wind is from the southwest, bringing mild and wet weather to England regularly, from the Atlantic Ocean. It is driest in the east, warmest in the southwest in winter (closest to Atlantic currents), and warmest in the southeast in summer (closest to the European mainland). Snowfall can occur in winter and early spring, though it is not that common away from high ground. The highest temperature recorded in England is 38.5 °C on 10 August 2003 at Brogdale, near Faversham, Kent. The lowest temperature ever recorded in England is −26.1 °C on 10 January 1982 at Edgmond, near Newport, Shropshire. Wales' climate is alike in most regards to that of England, with the highest maximum temperature recorded at 35.2 °C in Hawarden Bridge, Flintshire on 2 August 1990 and the lowest minimum temperature at -23.3 °C in Rhayader, Radnorshire on 21 January 1940. The climate of Scotland is temperate and oceanic, and tends to be very changeable. It is warmed by the Gulf Stream from the Atlantic, and as such is much warmer than areas on similar latitudes, for example Oslo, Norway. However, temperatures are generally lower than in the rest of the UK, with the coldest ever UK temperature of -27.2 °C recorded at Braemar in the Grampian Mountains, on 11 February 1895 and 10 January 1982 and also at Altnaharra, Highland, on 30 December 1995. Winter maximums average 6 °C in the lowlands, with summer maximums averaging 18 °C. The highest temperature recorded was 32.9 °C at Greycrook, Scottish Borders on 9 August 2003. Generally, western Scotland is warmer than the east because of the influence of the Atlantic Ocean currents (the Gulf Stream) and the colder surface temperatures of the North Sea. Tiree, in the Inner Hebrides, is the sunniest place in Scotland: it had three hundred days with sunshine in 1975. Rainfall varies widely across Scotland. The western highlands of Scotland are the wettest place, with annual rainfall exceeding 3,000 mm (120 inches). In comparison, much of lowland Scotland receives less than 800 mm (31 inches) annually. Heavy snowfall is not common in the lowlands, but becomes more common with altitude. Braemar experiences an average of fifty-nine snow days per year, while coastal areas have an average of less than ten days. The whole of Northern Ireland has a temperate maritime climate, rather wetter in the west than the east, although cloud cover is persistent across the region. The weather is comparatively unpredictable at all times of the year, and although the seasons are distinct, they are considerably less pronounced than in interior Europe or the eastern seaboard of North America. Average daytime maximums in Belfast are 6.5 °C in January and 17.5 °C in July. The damp climate and extensive deforestation in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries resulted in much of the region being covered in rich green grassland. The highest maximum temperature was set at 30.8 °C at Knockarevan, near Belleek, County Fermanagh on 30 June 1976 and at Belfast on 12 July 1983, whilst the lowest minimum temperature recorded at -17.5 °C at Magherally, near Banbridge, County Down on 1 January 1979. The United Kingdom can sometimes be affected by blocking highs during summer, and along with the rest of Europe, has been hit by severe heat waves in recent years. Cities and urban areasThe four capitals of the United Kingdom's constituent parts are London (United Kingdom) & (England), Edinburgh (Scotland), Cardiff (Wales) and Belfast (Northern Ireland). Largest Cities
Other major cities with populations in excess of 300,000 inhabitants are Leeds, Sheffield, Liverpool, Manchester, Edinburgh, Bristol, Cardiff and Coventry. The greater urban areas of Leicester, Nottingham, Bradford and Belfast also exceed 300,000 inhabitants. Urban Areas
There is considerable dispute over which is the second city. During the last 100 years that title has been applied to either Glasgow or Birmingham, the second largest.[24] DemographicsImage:Nelson's Column Looking Towards Westminster - Trafalgar Square - London - 240404.jpg Trafalgar Square in London is one of the most famous public places in the United Kingdom. PopulationAt the April 2001 UK Census, the United Kingdom's population was 58,789,194, the third largest in the European Union (behind Germany and France) and the twenty-first largest in the world. This had been estimated up to 59,834,300[25] by the Office for National Statistics in 2004. Two years later it had increased to 60.2 million, largely from net immigration, but also because of a rising birth rate and increasing life expectancy.[26] The UK's overall population density is one of the highest in the world. About a quarter of the population lives in England's prosperous southeast[27] and is predominantly urban and suburban, with an estimated 7,517,700 in the capital of London.[28] The United Kingdom's high literacy rate (99%)[29] is attributable to universal public education introduced for the primary level in 1870 and secondary level in 1900 (except in Scotland where it was introduced in 1696, see Education in Scotland). Education is mandatory from ages five to sixteen (15 if born in late July or August). Migration and ethnicityLocated as they are on a group of islands close to Continental Europe, the lands now constituting the United Kingdom have historically been subject to many invasions and migrations, especially from Scandinavia and the continent - including Roman occupation for several centuries. Present day Britons are descended mainly from the varied ethnic stocks that settled there before the eleventh century. The pre-Celtic, Celtic, Roman, Anglo-Saxon, and Norse influences were blended on Great Britain under the Normans, Scandinavian Vikings who had lived in northern France (Normandy).
More recent immigration has come through interaction with continental Europe and international ties forged by the | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
