Great britain is made up of
Great britain is made up of
Great britain is made up of
Project Britain
British Life and Culture
by Mandy Barrow
The UK is made up of:
Where is the UK?
The UK is an island nation in Western Europe just off the coast of France. The mainland areas lie between latitudes 49В°N and 59В°N and longitudes 8В°W to 2В°E.
The UK lies between the North Atlantic Ocean and the North Sea, and comes within 35 km (22 miles) of the northwest coast of France, from which it is separated by the English Channel. Northern Ireland shares a 360 km international land boundary with the Republic of Ireland. The Channel Tunnel bored beneath the English Channel, now links the UK with France.
How big an area does the UK cover?
The UK has a total area of approximately 245,000 kmВІ, almost a quarter-of-a-million square kilometres.
| Interesting Fact |
| No one in the UK lives more than 120 km (75 miles) from the sea. |
Seas surrounding the UK
The UK is made up of several islands. The only land border connecting the UK to another country is between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.
The UK is bordered by four seas:
The Land
The UK Landscape is very varied, ranging from the Grampian Mountains of Scotland to the lowland fens of England which are at or below sea level in places.
Scotland and Wales are the most mountainous parts of the UK. A ridge of hills, the Pennine, runs down the centre of northern England. Many coastal areas are low-lying, especially in the east and south of England. These include the wetlands of the Somerset levels, that regularly flood during heavy rain.
Most of the UK is made up of gently rolling hills with isolated areas of high ground such as Dartmoor in the south-west of England or the Mourne Mountains in Northern Ireland.
Lakes
Northern Ireland is also home to the UK’s largest lake, Lough Neagh, which covers an area of 396sq.km (153 sq miles). Other major lakes include Windermere in the English Lake District and Loch Lomond in Scotland. Another of Scotland’s lakes, Loch Ness is famous for sightings of ‘Nessie’, a mythical monster!
Being a relatively small Island, the UK’s rivers are not very long. The Severn, its longest river, is just 338 km in length, beginning in Wales and entering the Atlantic Ocean near Bristol in England. Other major rivers include the Thames, which flows through Oxford and London, and the Trent and Mersey rivers, which drain rainfall from large areas of central England.
The UK’s climate varies greatly according to season and location, but on the whole can be described as mild with few extremes.
Great Britain
| Native name: Great Britain (English) Prydain Fawr (Welsh) Breatainn Mhòr (Scottish Gaelic) Great Breetain (Scots) Breten Veur (Cornish) | |
 |
True color image of Great Britain, captured by a NASA satellite on 6 April 2002.
Great Britain is the largest island of the British Isles. It lies to the northwest of Continental Europe, with Ireland to the west, and makes up the larger part of the territory of the United Kingdom. It is the largest island in Europe and eighth largest in the world. It is surrounded by over one thousand smaller islands and islets within the Atlantic Ocean, North Sea, Irish Sea, Celtic Sea, and the English Channel.
Contents
As a part of the once powerful British Empire, Great Britain played a central role in history; one of the world’s most influential centers of cultural development. Though the imperial system had its ills, it left a cultural, literary, legal and political legacy that has been adopted throughout much of the world.
Terminology and usage
Great Britain is an island off the north-west coast of continental Europe. It is the largest island in Europe, and consists of England, Scotland, and Wales. The terms «Great Britain» and «United Kingdom» are often used interchangeably, however the U.K. includes Northern Ireland, a number of offshore islands and several overseas territories in addition to Great Britain.
Difficulty in understanding which words to use in describing various geographical and political entities within the area of the British Isles is common. Innocent misuse in this often politically sensitive area can cause unwitting offense to natives of the area.
Etymology
The Roman leader Julius Caesar conquered Gaul and was responsible for the first Roman invasion of Britannia in 55 B.C.E. At the time of his invasion, the native population of the island later known as Great Britain were called Pretani by the Celts of Gaul. Greek writers soon termed the island, along with present-day Ireland, the «Pretanic Islands.» Caesar substituted Brittani or Britanni for Pretani. The island had formerly been known as insula Albionum, the «island of the Albions» (or Albio or Albion). From Brittani the by-form Brittones also came into use. [2]
The term «Bretayne the grete» was used by chroniclers as early as 1338, but it was not used officially until James I of England succeeded Elizabeth in 1603. He proposed that the union of the crowns should be followed by a governmental union and suggested the name Great Britain. Though the English parliament did not agree, King James adopted the name by proclamation and used it on his coinage. It was given statutory authority by the Act of Union with Scotland in 1707. In 1801 Ireland joined the union, which then became known as the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. [3]
Technically, Great Britain is the island unit of consisting England, Scotland and Wales. Though the sovereign state of the United Kingdom includes Great Britain as well as Northern Ireland, the simple term «Britain» is often used synonymously to that nation. [4]
Geography
Great Britain is located off the northwest coast of continental Europe. Comprised of England, Scotland, and Wales, it has a total area of 88,386 square miles (228,919 square kilometers), making it the largest of the British Isles. Broken down further, England is 50,301 square miles, Scotland is 30,080 square miles, and Wales at 8,005 square miles.
The island stretches over approximately ten degrees of latitude on its longer north-south axis. Geographically, the island is marked by low, rolling countryside in the east and south, while hills and mountains predominate in the western and northern regions. Before the end of the last ice age, Great Britain was a peninsula of Europe; the rising sea levels caused by glacial melting at the end of the ice age caused the formation of the English Channel, the body of water which now separates Great Britain from continental Europe at a minimum distance of 21 miles (34 kilometers).
Great Britain is the largest island in Europe and the eighth-largest in the world. It is the third most populous island in the world, with an estimated 2005 population of 58,485,100 (England: 50,431,700; Scotland: 5,094,800; Wales: 2,958,600.)
The major cities in England are London, Liverpool, Manchester, and Birmingham. The chief cities of Scotland are Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen, and Dundee. The chief urban centers of Wales are Cardiff, Swansea, and Newport in the south, and Wrexham in the north. [5]
The capital cities of each are:
Political definition
Great Britain is no longer a country, but simply an island in the United Kingdom. Politically, «Great Britain» describes the combination of England, Scotland and Wales, and therefore includes a number of outlying islands such as the Isle of Wight, Anglesey, the Isles of Scilly, the Hebrides, and the island groups of Orkney and Shetland, but does not include the Isle of Man or the Channel Islands.
Great Britain has evolved politically from the gradual union of the kingdoms of England and Scotland which began in 1603 with the Union of Crowns under James VI of Scotland (James I of England) and eventually resulted in the Acts of Union in 1707 which merged the parliaments of each nation and thus resulted in the formation of the Kingdom of Great Britain, which covered the entire island, to the situation following 1801 in which Great Britain together with the island of Ireland constituted the larger United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (UK). The UK became the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in 1922 following the independence of five-sixths of Ireland as first the Irish Free State, a Dominion of the then British Commonwealth, and then later as an independent republic outside the British Commonwealth as the Republic of Ireland.
History
The island of Great Britain was formed around nine thousand years ago at the end of the Pleistocene ice age. Prior to that time the island was connected to the European mainland in what is now northeastern France. When sea levels rose due to isostatic depression of the crust and the melting of glaciers, the area was cut off from the continent, forming an island.
In Cheddar Gorge near Bristol, the remains of animals native to mainland Europe such as antelopes, brown bears, and wild horses have been found alongside a human skeleton, «Cheddar Man,» dated to about 7150 B.C.E. [6]
Great Britain was first inhabited by people who crossed over the land bridge from the European mainland. Its Iron age inhabitants are known as the Brythons, a group speaking a Celtic language. Most of the island, except the northernmost part, was conquered to become the Ancient Roman province of Britannia. After the fall of the Roman Empire, the Brythons of the south and east of the island became assimilated by colonizing Germanic tribes (Angles, Saxons and Jutes) and became known as the English people.
Beyond Hadrian’s wall, the major ethnic groups were the Scots, who may have emigrated from Ireland, and the Picts as well as other Brythonic peoples in the southwest. The southeast of Scotland was colonized by the Angles and formed, until 1018, a part of the Kingdom of Northumbria. To speakers of Germanic languages, the Brythons were called Welsh, a term that came eventually to be applied exclusively to the inhabitants of what is now Wales, but which survives also in surnames such as Wallace. In subsequent centuries Vikings settled in several parts of the island, and The Norman Conquest introduced a French ruling elite who also became assimilated.
Since the union of 1707, the entire island has been a related political unit, first as the Kingdom of Great Britain, later as part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and then as part of the present United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Since the formation of this unified state, the adjective British has come to refer to things associated with the United Kingdom generally, such as citizenship, and not the island of Great Britain.
The term «Great Britain» was used officially for the first time during the reign of James I of England. Though England and Scotland each remained legally in existence as separate countries with their own parliaments, on October 20, 1604, King James proclaimed himself as «King of Great Brittaine, France and Ireland,» a title that continued to be used by many of his successors. [7] In 1707 an Act of Union joined both parliaments. That Act used two different terms to describe the new all island nation, a «United Kingdom» and the «Kingdom of Great Britain.» However, the former term is regarded by many as having been a description of the union rather than its name at that stage. Most reference books therefore describe the all-island kingdom that existed between 1707 and 1800 as the Kingdom of Great Britain.»
In 1801, under a new Act of Union, this kingdom merged with the Kingdom of Ireland, over which the monarch of Great Britain had ruled. The new kingdom was from then onwards unambiguously called the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. In 1922, twenty-six of Ireland’s 32 counties attained independence to form a separate Irish Free State. The remaining truncated kingdom has therefore since then been known as the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
See also
Notes
References
External links
All links retrieved July 11, 2017.
| The British Isles | |
|---|---|
| Sovereign states |  Ireland  United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland |
| British Dependencies |  Guernsey ·  Isle of Man ·  Jersey |
| Semi-autonomous British political entities | Northern Ireland ·  Scotland ·  Wales |
| Islands | Great Britain · Ireland · Isle of Man |
| List of islands of | England · Ireland · Isle of Man · Scotland · Wales |
| History | Britain · England · Ireland · Isle of Man · Scotland · United Kingdom · Wales |
| Historic states | Kingdom of  Scotland ·  England ·  Ireland ·  Great Britain ·  United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland ·  Irish Free State |
| Modern Languages | BSL · Cornish · English · French · Guernésiais · Irish · ISL · Jèrriais · NISL · Manx · (Ulster) Scots · Scottish Gaelic · Welsh |
| Peoples | British · Celts (List of tribes) · Cornish · English · Irish · Irish Traveller · Manx · Scottish · Ulster-Scots · Welsh |
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United Kingdom
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United Kingdom, island country located off the northwestern coast of mainland Europe. The United Kingdom comprises the whole of the island of Great Britain—which contains England, Wales, and Scotland—as well as the northern portion of the island of Ireland. The name Britain is sometimes used to refer to the United Kingdom as a whole. The capital is London, which is among the world’s leading commercial, financial, and cultural centres. Other major cities include Birmingham, Liverpool, and Manchester in England, Belfast and Londonderry in Northern Ireland, Edinburgh and Glasgow in Scotland, and Swansea and Cardiff in Wales.
The origins of the United Kingdom can be traced to the time of the Anglo-Saxon king Athelstan, who in the early 10th century ce secured the allegiance of neighbouring Celtic kingdoms and became “the first to rule what previously many kings shared between them,” in the words of a contemporary chronicle. Through subsequent conquest over the following centuries, kingdoms lying farther afield came under English dominion. Wales, a congeries of Celtic kingdoms lying in Great Britain’s southwest, was formally united with England by the Acts of Union of 1536 and 1542. Scotland, ruled from London since 1603, formally was joined with England and Wales in 1707 to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain. (The adjective “British” came into use at this time to refer to all the kingdom’s peoples.) Ireland came under English control during the 1600s and was formally united with Great Britain through the Act of Union of 1800. The republic of Ireland gained its independence in 1922, but six of Ulster’s nine counties remained part of the United Kingdom as Northern Ireland. Relations between these constituent states and England have been marked by controversy and, at times, open rebellion and even warfare. These tensions relaxed somewhat during the late 20th century, when devolved assemblies were introduced in Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. Nonetheless, even with the establishment of a power-sharing assembly after referenda in both Northern Ireland and the Irish republic, relations between Northern Ireland’s unionists (who favour continued British sovereignty over Northern Ireland) and nationalists (who favour unification with the republic of Ireland) remained tense into the 21st century.
The United Kingdom has made significant contributions to the world economy, especially in technology and industry. Since World War II, however, the United Kingdom’s most prominent exports have been cultural, including literature, theatre, film, television, and popular music that draw on all parts of the country. Perhaps Britain’s greatest export has been the English language, now spoken in every corner of the world as one of the leading international mediums of cultural and economic exchange.
The United Kingdom retains links with parts of its former empire through the Commonwealth. It also benefits from historical and cultural links with the United States and is a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Moreover, the United Kingdom became a member of the European Union in 1973. Many Britons, however, were sometimes reluctant EU members, holding to the sentiments of the great wartime prime minister Winston Churchill, who sonorously remarked, “We see nothing but good and hope in a richer, freer, more contented European commonalty. But we have our own dream and our own task. We are with Europe, but not of it. We are linked, but not comprised. We are interested and associated, but not absorbed.” Indeed, in June 2016, in a referendum on whether the United Kingdom should remain in the EU, 52 percent of British voters chose to leave. After much negotiation, several deadline extensions, prolonged domestic political discord, and two changes of prime minister, an agreement on “Brexit” (British exit from the EU) was reached that satisfied both the EU and the majority of Parliament. Thus, on January 31, 2020, the United Kingdom would become the first country to withdraw from the EU.
The United Kingdom comprises four geographic and historical parts—England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. The United Kingdom contains most of the area and population of the British Isles—the geographic term for the group of islands that includes Great Britain, Ireland, and many smaller islands. Together England, Wales, and Scotland constitute Great Britain, the larger of the two principal islands, while Northern Ireland and the republic of Ireland constitute the second largest island, Ireland. England, occupying most of southern Great Britain, includes the Isles of Scilly off the southwest coast and the Isle of Wight off the southern coast. Scotland, occupying northern Great Britain, includes the Orkney and Shetland islands off the northern coast and the Hebrides off the northwestern coast. Wales lies west of England and includes the island of Anglesey to the northwest.
Apart from the land border with the Irish republic, the United Kingdom is surrounded by sea. To the south of England and between the United Kingdom and France is the English Channel. The North Sea lies to the east. To the west of Wales and northern England and to the southeast of Northern Ireland, the Irish Sea separates Great Britain from Ireland, while southwestern England, the northwestern coast of Northern Ireland, and western Scotland face the Atlantic Ocean. At its widest the United Kingdom is 300 miles (500 km) across. From the northern tip of Scotland to the southern coast of England, it is about 600 miles (1,000 km). No part is more than 75 miles (120 km) from the sea. The capital, London, is situated on the tidal River Thames in southeastern England.
The archipelago formed by Great Britain and the numerous smaller islands is as irregular in shape as it is diverse in geology and landscape. This diversity stems largely from the nature and disposition of the underlying rocks, which are westward extensions of European structures, with the shallow waters of the Strait of Dover and the North Sea concealing former land links. Northern Ireland contains a westward extension of the rock structures of Scotland. These common rock structures are breached by the narrow North Channel.
Britain is more than London
Знакомимся с Великобританией.
Britain is more than London
Знакомимся с Великобританией.
Questions about the United Kingdom
Why do We Usually Confuse the Name of the UK?
«The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland» is the official name of the state that is geographically situated on the British Isles. Strange it may seem but even people of this country are sometimes confused about its name.
On official occasions they call it the United Kingdom and in everyday speech it’s shortened to the UK. In speaking or writing where it is not particular formal or informal they use Britain. The name Britain is usually used in press.
People of England sometimes with a certain portion of selfishness call it England. Official employees such as customs officers or economists use the term the UK. TV weather presenters call it the British Isles, but the Irish people are not quite comfortable with this name.
To avoid this confusion of the terms the United Kingdom, Great Britain and England we should bear in mind the following: Great Britain is the geographical name for the largest island in the British Isles which comprises England, Wales, and Scotland.
The island of Ireland is mainly occupied by the Irish Republic (or Eire) and the remaining part of Ireland island is occupied by Northern Ireland. Great Britain and Northern Ireland form the UK. The capital of the UK is London.
The difference between Britain and Great Britain
Where is Britain?
Britain is part of an island lying off the western coast of Europe, comprising the main territory of the United Kingdom.
What is Britain?
Britain is the official name given to the kingdom of England and the principality of Wales. The name was made popular by the Romans when they came to the British islands.
Britain is made up of:
Great Britain is divided into small regions called counties.
Is Great Britain the same as Britain?
Sometimes people use the shorten name Britain instead of Great Britain, to mean the same thing, but really Britain only refers to England and Wales.
The name Britain goes back to Roman times when they called England and Wales «Britannia» (or «Britannia Major», to distinguished from «Britannia Minor», ie Brittany in France). The Roman province of Britannia only covered the areas of modern England and Wales. The area of modern Scotland was never finally conquered.
How much do you know about the United Kingdom?
UK Quiz
General Information about the UK
The UK is one of the smallest countries in the world. In size it is twice smaller than Spain or France. Its total area is about 245,000 square kilometers, but the population of the UK is over 60 million people.
Four countries that make up the UK are England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
England is situated in the central and southern part of Great Britain. Historically it’s the most important part of the country. It’s also the biggest and the most populated part of the UK.
Scotland is the northern part of Great Britain and it is much smaller than England. Scotland is very close to the Arctic circle. Because of its geographical position Scotland is less populated than England.
Wales is situated in the western part of the island.
Northern Ireland is the smallest part of the UK. It has only one-sixth of the territory of Ireland island.
Historically, the four nations were divided into counties, that is areas for local government administration. Although these counties are still used to some extent for this purpose and as geographical areas, they are no longer the basis for local government administration.
England (its administrative status is a kingdom) is divided into 9 regions.
Scotland (its administrative status is a kingdom) is made up of 32 burghs, that is a Scottish name for cities with self government.
Wales (its administrative status is a principality) consists of 8 preserved counties of Wales.
Northern Ireland (its administrative status is a province) comprises 26 districts.
There is the Greenwich Royal Observatory in London, England, that is a truly unique place. The Meridian that passes through the principal Transit Instrument at the Observatory is the Prime Meridian or Longitude Zero degrees.
Great britain is made up of
Project Britain
British Life and Culture
by Mandy Barrow
Where is Great Britain?
Great Britain is an island lying off the western coast of Europe, comprising the main territory of the United Kingdom.
What is Great Britain?
Great Britain is the official name given to the two kingdoms of England and Scotland, and the principality of Wales.
Great Britain is made up of:
Great Britain is divided into small regions called counties.
The term Great Britain was first used during the reign of King James I of England (James VI of Scotland) in 1603, to refer to the separate kingdoms of England and Scotland. on the same landmass, that were ruled over by the same monarch. Despite having the same monarch, both kingdoms kept their own parliaments.
Is Great Britain the same as the UK?
No, Great Britain and the United Kingdom refer to different areas.
Great Britain is very often, but incorrectly, used as a synonym for the sovereign state properly known as the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland or the UK for short.
If you look at the full name of the UK, you will see that the UK includes «Great Britain AND Northern Ireland».
Great Britain is a political term which describes the combination of England, Scotland, and Wales, the three nations which together include all the land on the island. It is also a geographical term referring to the island on which the greater parts of England, Wales and Scotland are situated.
Great Britain has an area of 229,850 kmВІ (88,745 sq. mi.) and is the largest island of the British Isles.
Other pages on the same theme
Questions about the United Kingdom
Questions about the British Isles
Questions about England
Mandy is the creator of the Woodlands Resources section of the Woodlands Junior website.В
The two websitesВ projectbritain.comВ andВ primaryhomeworkhelp.co.ukВ are the new homes for the Woodlands Resources.
Mandy left Woodlands in 2003 to work in Kent schools as an ICT Consulatant.В
She now teaches computers atВ The Granville SchoolВ andВ St. John’s Primary SchoolВ in SevenoaksВ Kent.