Kingdom of Great Britain
←   ← 1707–1801 →
Flag Royal Coat of arms
Motto Dieu et mon droit (English: "God and my right")2
Anthem None Official – Unofficially "God Save The King/Queen"
Territory of Great Britain
Capital	London
Language(s)	English (de facto official), Cornish, Scots, Scottish Gaelic, Norn, Welsh
Government	Parliamentary democracy and constitutional monarchy
Monarch
- 1707–1714	Anne
- 1714–1727	George I
- 1727–1760	George II
- 1760–1801	George III
Prime Minister
- 1721–1742	Robert Walpole
- 1742–1743	Earl of Wilmington
- 1757–1762	Duke of Newcastle
- 1766–1768	William Pitt the Elder
- 1770–1782	Lord North
- 1783–1801	William Pitt the Younger
Legislature	Parliament of Great Britain
- Upper house	House of Lords
- Lower house	House of Commons of Great Britain
Historical era	18th century
- Established	1 May 1707
- 1801 Union[1]	1801
Area
- 1801	230,977 km2 (89,181 sq mi)
Population
- 1801 est.	16,345,646
Currency	Pound sterling
Today part of	United Kingdom3
1Cornish: Rywvaneth Breten Veur; Scots: Kinrick o Great Breetain; Scottish Gaelic: Rìoghachd na Breatainne Mòire; Welsh: Teyrnas Prydain Fawr. 2 The Royal motto used in Scotland was In My Defens God Me Defend. 3 England,  Scotland,  Wales.

The Kingdom of Great Britain, described occasionally as the United Kingdom of Great Britain,^[2][3][4] was a sovereign state in northwest Europe, that existed from 1707 to 1801. It came into being on 1 May 1707, with the political union of the Kingdom of Scotland and the Kingdom of England (which included Wales). With the 1706 Treaty of Union (ratified by the Acts of Union 1707), it was agreed to create a single, united kingdom, encompassing the whole of the island of Great Britain and its minor outlying islands, excluding Ireland, which remained a separate realm under the newly created British crown. A single parliament and government, based at Westminster, controlled the new kingdom. The former kingdoms had already shared the same monarch since James VI, King of Scots became King of England in 1603 following the death of Queen Elizabeth I, bringing about a "Union of the Crowns".

On 1 January 1801, the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Kingdom of Ireland united to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Most of Ireland left the union as the Irish Free State in 1922, leading to the remaining state being renamed as the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in 1927.

Name[link]

The Treaty of Union and the subsequent Acts of Union themselves state explicitly that England and Scotland were to be "United into One Kingdom by the Name of Great Britain". They also refer to the new state as One Kingdom, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and the United Kingdom.^[2] The websites of the UK parliament,^[5] the Scottish Parliament,^[6] the BBC,^[7] and others, including the Historical Association,^[8] refer to the state created on 1 May 1707, as the United Kingdom of Great Britain. However, the state created by the union of England and Scotland in 1707 is usually referred to as the Kingdom of Great Britain.^[9][10][11]

The term united kingdom is found in informal use during the 18th century to describe the newly combined kingdom of England and Scotland but only became part of the name of the subsequent United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, created in 1801,^[12][13] The Historical Association stated in The Times in 2006 that "The United Kingdom did not come into being until 1800, with the Act of Union with Ireland,"^[14] although an article on its website now refers to, ""The Creation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707".^{[citation needed]}

Extent[link]

The new state created in 1707 included the whole island of Great Britain, together with the many smaller islands which had been part of the kingdoms of Scotland and England at the time of the Union. As with the rest of Wales, this included all of the Welsh islands, the largest of which was Anglesey. However, the Channel Isles and the Isle of Man were never part of the kingdom of Great Britain, although by the Isle of Man Purchase Act 1765 the British Crown acquired suzerainty over the island from Charlotte Murray, Duchess of Atholl.^[15]

Political structure[link]

The kingdoms of England and Scotland, both in existence from the 9th century, were separate states until the Acts of Union came into effect in 1707. However, they had come into personal union in 1603, when James VI of Scotland succeeded his cousin Elizabeth I as King of England (under the name of James I). This Union of the Crowns under the House of Stuart meant that the whole of the island of Great Britain was now ruled by a single monarch, who by virtue of the English crown also ruled over the Kingdom of Ireland. Each of the kingdoms maintained its own parliament and laws (although there was a brief attempted union during the Interregnum in the mid-17th century).

This disposition changed dramatically when the Acts of Union 1707 came into force, with a single unified Crown of Great Britain and a single unified parliament.^[16] (However, Ireland remained formally separate until the Acts of Union 1801.) The Treaty of Union provided that succession to the British throne (and that of Ireland) would be in accordance with the English Act of Settlement;^[17] rather than Scotland's Act of Security, which thus ceased to have effect. The Act of Settlement required that the heir to the English throne be a Protestant descendant of the Electress Sophia of Hanover; this brought about the Hanoverian succession only a few years after the Union.

Legislative power was vested in the Parliament of Great Britain, which formally replaced both the Parliament of England and the Parliament of Scotland.^[18] However, the new body was in practice a continuation of the English parliament, sitting at the same location in Westminster, albeit expanded to include representation from Scotland.

As with the former Parliament of England and the modern-day Parliament of the United Kingdom, the Parliament of Great Britain was formally constituted of three elements: the House of Commons, the House of Lords, and the Crown. The right of the English peerage to sit in the House of Lords remained unchanged, while the disproportionately large Scottish peerage was only permitted to send sixteen representative peers, elected from amongst their number for the life of each parliament. Similarly, the members of the former English House of Commons continued as members of the British House of Commons, but (as a reflection of the relative tax bases of the two countries) the number of Scottish representatives was reduced to forty-five compared to their previous numbers at the Scottish parliament.^[19] Newly created peers in the Peerage of Great Britain were also given an automatic right to sit in the Lords.

Despite the end of a separate parliament for Scotland, however, the country retained its own laws and system of courts after the Union.

Relationship with Ireland[link]

As a result of Poynings' Law of 1495, the Parliament of Ireland was subordinate to the authority of the Parliament of England, and after 1707 to the Parliament of Great Britain. In addition, the British parliament's Dependency of Ireland on Great Britain Act 1719 noted that the Irish House of Lords had recently "assumed to themselves a Power and Jurisdiction to examine, correct and amend" judgements of the Irish courts and declared that as the Kingdom of Ireland was subordinate to and dependent upon the British crown, the King, through the Parliament of Great Britain, had "full power and authority to make laws and statutes of sufficient validity to bind the Kingdom and people of Ireland".^[20] The Act was repealed by the Repeal of Act for Securing Dependence of Ireland Act 1782.^[21] The same year, the Irish constitution of 1782 produced a period of legislative freedom. However, the Irish Rebellion of 1798 that sought to end the subordination and dependency upon the British crown and establish a Republic, was one of the factors which led to the Union between the kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland in 1801.

Great Britain in the 18th century[link]

The 18th century saw England, and after 1707 Great Britain, rise to become the world's dominant colonial power, with France becoming its main rival on the imperial stage.^[22]

Integration[link]

The deeper political integration of Britain was a key policy of Queen Anne, the last Stuart monarch of England and Scotland and the first monarch of Great Britain. Under the aegis of the Queen and her advisors a Treaty of Union was agreed in 1706 following negotiations between representatives of the parliaments of England and Scotland, and each parliament then passed separate Acts of Union to ratify the treaty. Having received royal assent, the Acts came into effect on May 1, 1707, uniting the separate Parliaments and crowns of England and Scotland and forming a united Kingdom of Great Britain. Anne became formally the first occupant of the unified British throne and in line with Article 22 of the Treaty of Union, Scotland sent 45 Members to join all the existing members from the Parliament of England in the new House of Commons of Great Britain.^[23]

Lord Clive meeting Mir Jafar after the Battle of Plassey, by Francis Hayman (c. 1762)

Empire[link]

The death of Charles II of Spain on 1 November 1700 and his bequeathal of Spain and its colonial empire to Philip of Anjou, a grandson of the King of France, had raised the prospect of the unification of France, Spain and their colonies, an unacceptable possibility for the other powers of Europe. In 1701, England, Portugal and the Netherlands sided with the Holy Roman Empire against Spain and France in the War of the Spanish Succession. The conflict, continued by the new state of Great Britain, lasted until 1714, with France and Spain proving the losers. At the concluding Treaty of Utrecht, Philip renounced his and his descendants' right to the French throne. Spain lost its empire in Europe, and although it kept its empire in the Americas and the Philippines, it was irreversibly weakened as a great power. The new British Empire, based upon what until 1707 had been the English colonies, was territorially enlarged: from France, Britain gained Newfoundland and Acadia, and from Spain, Gibraltar and Minorca. Gibraltar, which is still a British overseas territory to this day, became a critical naval base and allowed Britain to control the Atlantic entry and exit point to the Mediterranean.

The Seven Years' War, which began in 1756, was the first war waged on a global scale and saw British involvement in Europe, India, North America, the Caribbean, the Philippines and coastal Africa. The signing of the Treaty of Paris of 1763 had important consequences for Britain and its empire. In North America, France's future as a colonial power there was effectively ended with the ceding of New France to Britain, leaving a sizeable French-speaking population under British control, and Louisiana to Spain. Spain ceded Florida to Britain. In India, the Carnatic War had left France still in control of its enclaves but with military restrictions and an obligation to support British client states, effectively leaving the future of India to Britain. The British victory over France in the Seven Years War therefore left Britain as the world's dominant colonial power.^[24]

Mercantilism[link]

Mercantilism was the basic policy imposed by Britain on its colonies.^[25] Mercantilism meant that the government and the merchants became partners with the goal of increasing political power and private wealth, to the exclusion of other empires. The government protected its merchants—and kept others out—by trade barriers, regulations, and subsidies to domestic industries in order to maximise exports from and minimise imports to the realm. The government had to fight smuggling—which became a favourite American technique in the 18th century to circumvent the restrictions on trading with the French, Spanish or Dutch. The goal of mercantilism was to run trade surpluses, so that gold and silver would pour into London. The government took its share through duties and taxes, with the remainder going to merchants in Britain. The government spent much of its revenue on a superb Royal Navy, which not only protected the British colonies but threatened the colonies of the other empires, and sometimes seized them. Thus the Royal Navy captured New Amsterdam (later New York) in 1664. The colonies were captive markets for British industry, and the goal was to enrich the mother country.^[26]

American Revolution[link]

During the 1760s and 1770s, relations between the Thirteen Colonies and Britain became increasingly strained, primarily because of resentment of the British Parliament's ability to tax American colonists without their consent.^[27] Disagreement turned into violence, and in 1775, the American War of Independence began. The following year, the colonists declared the independence of the United States and with economic and naval assistance from France, would go on to win the war in 1783.

Second British Empire[link]

The loss of the Thirteen Colonies, at the time Britain's most populous overseas possessions, which became the United States, marked the transition between the "first" and "second" empires,^[28] in which Britain shifted its attention away from the Americas to Asia, the Pacific and later Africa. Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations, published in 1776, had argued that colonies were redundant, and that free trade should replace the old mercantilist policies that had characterised the first period of colonial expansion, dating back to the protectionism of Spain and Portugal. The growth of trade between the newly independent United States and Britain after 1783^[29] confirmed Smith's view that political control was not necessary for economic success.

India[link]

During its first century of operation, the focus of the East India Company had been trade, not the building of an empire in India. Company interests turned from trade to territory during the 18th century as the Mughal Empire declined in power and the East India Company struggled with its French counterpart, the French East India Company (Compagnie française des Indes orientales) during the Carnatic Wars of the 1740s and 1750s. The Battle of Plassey, which saw the British, led by Robert Clive, defeat the French and their Indian allies, left the Company in control of Bengal and a major military and political power in India. In the following decades it gradually increased the extent of the territories under its control, ruling either directly or indirectly via local puppet rulers under the threat of force by its Presidency armies, much of which were composed of native Indian sepoys.

Australia[link]

In 1770, James Cook had discovered the eastern coast of Australia whilst on a scientific voyage to the South Pacific. In 1778, Joseph Banks, Cook's botanist on the voyage, presented evidence to the government on the suitability of Botany Bay for the establishment of a penal settlement, and in 1787 the first shipment of convicts set sail, arriving in 1788.

Wars with France[link]

At the threshold to the 19th century, Britain was challenged again by France under Napoleon, in a struggle that, unlike previous wars, represented a contest of ideologies between the two nations.^[30] It was not only Britain's position on the world stage that was threatened: Napoleon threatened invasion of Britain itself, and with it, a fate similar to the countries of continental Europe that his armies had overrun. The Napoleonic Wars were therefore ones that Britain invested large amounts of capital and resources to win. French ports were blockaded by the Royal Navy.

The French Revolution revived religious and political problems in the Kingdom of Ireland, under the rule of the King of Great Britain. In 1798, Irish nationalists launched the Irish Rebellion of 1798, believing that the French would help them to overthrow the British.^[31] William Pitt the Younger, the British prime minister, firmly believed that the only solution to the problem was a union of Great Britain and Ireland. Following the defeat of the rebellion, which had had some assistance from France, he advanced this policy. The union was established by the Act of Union 1800; compensation and patronage ensured the support of the Irish Parliament. Great Britain and Ireland were formally united into a single realm, as the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, on 1 January 1801.

Monarchs[link]

The coat of arms of the House of Hanover

• Anne (1707–1714), previously Queen of England, Queen of Scots, and Queen of Ireland since 1702.
• George I (1714–1727)
• George II (1727–1760)
• George III (1760–1801), continued as King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland until his death in 1820.

Parliament of Great Britain[link]

The Parliament of Great Britain consisted of the House of Lords, an unelected upper house of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and the House of Commons of Great Britain, the lower chamber, which was elected periodically. In England and Wales the parliamentary constituencies remained unchanged throughout the existence of the Parliament.^[32]

During the 18th century, the British Constitution developed significantly.

Peerage of Great Britain[link]

As a result of the Union of 1707, no new peerages were created in the Peerage of England or the Peerage of Scotland. English peerages continued to carry the right to a seat in the House of Lords at Westminster, while the Scottish peers elected representative peers from among their own number to sit in the Lords. Peerages continued to be created by the Crown, either in the new Peerage of Great Britain, which was that of the new kingdom and meant a seat in its House of Lords, or in the Peerage of Ireland, but an Irish peerage gave the holder a seat only in the Irish House of Lords.

See also[link]

• Great Britain in the Seven Years War
• Timeline of British history (1700–1799)
• 1st Parliament of Great Britain
• 2nd Parliament of Great Britain
• List of Acts of the Parliament of Great Britain
• List of Parliaments of Great Britain
• Early Modern Britain
• Georgian era
• Jacobitism

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Black, Jeremy. Crisis of Empire: Britain and America in the Eighteenth Century (2010) excerpt and text search
• Black, Jeremy. Culture in Eighteenth-Century England: A Subject for Taste (2007)
• Colley, Linda. Britons: Forging the Nation 1707–1837 (2nd ed. 2009) excerpt and text search
• Hilton, Boyd. A Mad, Bad, and Dangerous People?: England 1783–1846 (New Oxford History of England) (2008) excerpt and text search
• Langford, Paul. A Polite and Commercial People: England 1727–1783 (New Oxford History of England) (1994) excerpt and text search
• Porter, Roy. English Society in the Eighteenth Century (2nd ed. 1990) excerpt and text search
• Watson, J. Steven. The Reign of George III, 1760–1815 (Oxford History of England) (1960)
• Williams, Basil. The Whig Supremacy 1714–1760 (1939) online edition

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Kingdom of Great Britain

• The Treaty of Union, the Scottish Parliament
• Text of Union with England Act
• Text of Union with Scotland Act

v t e Kingdom of Great Britain History Union of 1707 Great Britain in the Seven Years War Jacobitism Jacobite Risings War of Jenkins' Ear French and Indian War Boston Massacre American Revolutionary War Fourth Anglo-Dutch War French Revolutionary Wars Union of 1801 Royal houses Stuart (Anne) Hanover (George I George II George III) Politics Parliament List of Parliaments Acts of Parliament Commons Elections Monarchs Peers Whigs Tories Whig Junto Patriot Whigs Kit-Cat Club Geography Great Britain Architecture Queen Anne Georgian Other East India Company British Empire Longitude prize Window tax Proclamation of Rebellion South Sea Company Speenhamland system Symbols Flag Royal arms History of Great Britain category

Great Britain

Native name: Names in native languages Great Britain (English) Prydain Fawr (Welsh) Breatainn Mhòr (Scottish Gaelic) Great Breetain (Scots) Breten Veur (Cornish)
True colour image of Great Britain, captured by a NASA satellite on 6 April 2002.
Geography
Location	North West Europe
Coordinates	53°49′34″N 2°25′19″W / 53.826°N 2.422°W / 53.826; -2.422
Archipelago	British Isles
Area	229,848 km2 (88,744.8 sq mi)[1]
Area rank	9th
Highest elevation	1,344 m (4,409 ft)
Highest point	Ben Nevis
Country
United Kingdom
England  Scotland  Wales
Largest city	London
Demographics
Population	60,003,000 (mid-2009 est.)[2][3]
Density	277 /km2 (717 /sq mi)

Great Britain or Britain (Welsh: Prydain Fawr, Scottish Gaelic: Breatainn Mhòr, Cornish: Breten Veur) is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, the largest European island, and the largest of the British Isles. With a population of about 60.0 million people in mid-2009, it is the third most populous island in the world, after Java and Honshū. Great Britain is surrounded by over 1,000 smaller islands and islets. The island of Ireland lies to its west. Politically, Great Britain may also refer to the island itself together with a number of surrounding islands which comprise the territory of England, Scotland and Wales.^{[7][3][8][9] [10][11]}

All of the island is territory of the sovereign state of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and most of the United Kingdom's territory is in Great Britain. Most of England, Scotland, and Wales are on the island of Great Britain, as are their respective capital cities: London, Edinburgh, and Cardiff.

The Kingdom of Great Britain resulted from the political union of the kingdoms of England and Scotland with the Acts of Union 1707 on 1 May 1707 under Queen Anne. In 1801, under a new Act of Union, this kingdom merged with the Kingdom of Ireland to create the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. After the Irish War of Independence most of Ireland seceded from the Union, which then became the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

The relatively limited variety of fauna and flora on the island is due to its size and the fact that wildlife has had little time to develop since the last glacial period. The high level of urbanisation on the island has contributed to a species extinction rate that is about 100 times greater than the background species extinction rate.

Political definition[link]

Great Britain is the largest island of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Politically, Great Britain refers to England, Scotland and Wales in combination,^[12] but not Northern Ireland; it includes a number of islands off England, Scotland and Wales such as the Isle of Wight, Anglesey, the Isles of Scilly, the Hebrides, and the island groups of Orkney and Shetland. It does not include the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands which are not part of the United Kingdom, instead being self-governing dependent territories with their own legislative and taxation systems.^[12][13]

The political union that joined the kingdoms of England and Scotland happened in 1707 when the Acts of Union ratified the 1706 Treaty of Union and merged the parliaments of the two nations, forming the Kingdom of Great Britain, which covered the entire island. Prior to this, a personal union had existed between these two countries since the 1603 Union of the Crowns under James VI of Scotland and I of England.

Geographical definition[link]

Great Britain lies to the northwest of Continental Europe and east of Ireland. It is separated from the continent by the North Sea and by the English Channel, which narrows to 34 kilometres (21 mi) at the Straits of Dover.^[14] It stretches over about ten degrees of latitude on its longer, north-south axis, and occupies an area of 209,331 km² (80,823 sq mi), excluding all the smaller surrounding islands of the archipelago.^[15] The North Channel, Irish Sea, St George's Channel and Celtic Sea separate the island from the island of Ireland to its west.^[16] The island is physically connected with continental Europe via the Channel Tunnel, the longest undersea rail tunnel in the world which was completed in 1993. 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. It is surrounded by over 1,000 smaller islands and islets. The greatest distance between two points is 968 km / 601.5 miles (between Land's End, Cornwall and John O'Groats, Caithness), or 1,349 km / 838 miles using the national road network.

The English Channel is thought to have been created between 450,000 and 180,000 years ago by two catastrophic glacial lake outburst floods caused by the breaching of the Weald-Artois Anticline, a ridge which held back a large proglacial lake, now submerged under the North Sea.^[17] Around 10,000 years ago, during the Devensian glaciation with its lower sea level, Great Britain was not an island, but an upland region of northwestern Europe, lying partially underneath the Eurasian ice sheet. The sea level was about 120 metres (390 ft) lower than today, and the bed of the North Sea was dry and acted as a land bridge to Europe, now known as Doggerland. It is generally thought that as sea levels gradually rose after the end of the last glacial period of the current ice age, Doggerland became submerged beneath the North Sea, cutting off what was previously the British peninsula from the European mainland by around 6500 BC.^[18]

History[link]

The island was first inhabited by people who crossed over the land bridge from the European mainland. Traces of early humans have been found (at Boxgrove Quarry, Sussex) from some 500,000 years ago^[19] and modern humans from about 30,000 years ago. Until about 10,000 years ago, Great Britain was joined to Ireland, and as recently as 8,000 years ago it was joined to the continent by a strip of low marsh to what is now Denmark and the Netherlands. In Cheddar Gorge, near Bristol, the remains of animal species 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 BC. Thus, animals and humans must have moved between mainland Europe and Great Britain via a crossing.^[20] Great Britain became an island at the end of the Pleistocene ice age when sea levels rose due to isostatic depression of the crust and the melting of glaciers.

According to John T. Koch and others, Britain in the Late Bronze Age was part of a maritime trading-networked culture called the Atlantic Bronze Age that also included Ireland, France, Spain and Portugal where Celtic languages developed,^{[21][22][23][24][25][26][are 6 citations necessary?]} but this stands in contrast to the more generally accepted view that Celtic origins lie with the Hallstatt culture.

Its Iron Age inhabitants are known as the Britons, a group speaking a Celtic language. The Romans conquered most of the island (up to Hadrian's Wall, in northern England) and this became the Ancient Roman province of Britannia. For 500 years after the Roman Empire fell, the Britons of the south and east of the island were assimilated or displaced by invading Germanic tribes (Angles, Saxons, and Jutes, often referred to collectively as Anglo-Saxons). At about the same time, Gaelic tribes from Ireland invaded the north-west, absorbing both the Picts and Britons of northern Britain, eventually forming the Kingdom of Scotland in the 9th century. The south-east of Scotland was colonised by the Angles and formed, until 1018, a part of the Kingdom of Northumbria. Ultimately, the population of south-east Britain came to be referred to, after the Angles, as the English people.

Germanic speakers referred to Britons as Welsh. This term eventually came to be applied exclusively to the inhabitants of what is now Wales, but it also survives in names such as Wallace, and in the second syllable of Cornwall. Cymry, a name the Britons used to describe themselves, is similarly restricted in modern Welsh to people from Wales, but also survives in English in the place name of Cumbria. The Britons living in the areas now known as Wales, Cumbria and Cornwall were not assimilated by the Germanic tribes, a fact reflected in the survival of Celtic languages in these areas into more recent times.^[27] At the time of the Germanic invasion of Southern Britain, many Britons emigrated to the area now known as Brittany, where Breton, a Celtic language closely related to Welsh and Cornish and descended from the language of the emigrants, is still spoken. In the 9th century, a series of Danish assaults on northern English kingdoms led to them coming under Danish control (an area known as the Danelaw). In the 10th century, however, all the English kingdoms were unified under one ruler as the kingdom of England when the last constituent kingdom, Northumbria, submitted to Edgar in 959. In 1066, England was conquered by the Normans, who introduced a French ruling élite that was eventually assimilated. Wales came under Anglo-Norman control in 1282, and was officially annexed to England in the 16th century.

On 20 October 1604 King James, who had succeeded separately to the two thrones of England and Scotland, proclaimed himself as "King of Great Brittaine, France and Ireland".^{[citation needed]} While that title was also used by many of his successors, England and Scotland each remained legally in existence as separate countries with their own parliaments until 1707, when each parliament passed an Act of Union to ratify the Treaty of Union that had been agreed the previous year. This had the effect of creating a united kingdom, with a single, united parliament, from 1 May 1707. Though the Treaty of Union referred to the new all-island state as the "United Kingdom of Great Britain", many regard the term 'United Kingdom' as being descriptive of the union rather than part of its formal name (which the Treaty stated was to be 'Great Britain' without further qualification.) Most reference books, therefore, describe the all-island kingdom that existed between 1707 and 1800 as the "Kingdom of Great Britain".

Terminology[link]

Toponymy[link]

The oldest mention of terms related to the formal name of Britain was made by Aristotle (c. 384–322 BC), in his text On the Universe, Vol. III. To quote his works, "There are two very large islands in it, called the British Isles, Albion and lerne".^[28] The archipelago has been referred to by a single name for over 2,000 years: the term British Isles derives from terms used by classical geographers to describe this island group. Pliny the Elder (c. 23–79 AD) in his Natural History (iv.xvi.102) records of Great Britain: "It was itself named Albion, while all the islands about which we shall soon briefly speak were called the Britanniae."^{[dubious – discuss]}

The earliest known name of Great Britain is Albion (Ἀλβίων) or insula Albionum, from either the Latin albus meaning white (referring to the white cliffs of Dover, the first view of Britain from the continent) or the "island of the Albiones", first mentioned in the Massaliote Periplus and by Pytheas.^[29]

The name Britain descends from the Latin name for Britain, Britannia or Brittānia, the land of the Britons. Old French Bretaigne (whence also Modern French Bretagne) and Middle English Bretayne, авBreteyne. The French form replaced the Old English Breoton, Breoten, Bryten, Breten (also Breoton-lond, Breten-lond). Britannia was used by the Romans from the 1st century BC for the British Isles taken together. It is derived from the travel writings of the ancient Greek Pytheas around 320 BC, which described various islands in the North Atlantic as far north as Thule (probably Norway).

The peoples of these islands of Prettanike were called the Πρέττανοι, Priteni or Pretani.^[29] Priteni is the source of the Welsh language term Prydain, Britain, which has the same source as the Goidelic term Cruithne used to refer to the early Brythonic speaking inhabitants of Ireland.^[30] The latter were later called Picts or Caledonians by the Romans.

Derivation of "Great"[link]

After the Anglo-Saxon period, Britain was used as a historical term only. Geoffrey of Monmouth in his pseudohistorical Historia Regum Britanniae (c. 1136) refers to the island of Great Britain as Britannia major ("Greater Britain"), to distinguish it from Britannia minor ("Lesser Britain"), the continental region which approximates to modern Brittany. The term Great Britain was first used officially in 1474, in the instrument drawing up the proposal for a marriage between Cecily the daughter of Edward IV of England, and James the son of James III of Scotland, which described it as "this Nobill Isle, callit Gret Britanee." As noted above it was used again in 1604, when King James VI and I styled himself "King of Great Brittaine, France and Ireland."

[edit] Use of the term Great Britain

The term Great Britain refers to the largest island within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. It is also used to refer to England, Scotland and Wales as a unit (including many smaller islands which "have administrative ties with the mainland"). It does not include Northern Ireland.^[31]

The term Britain, as opposed to Great Britain, has been used to mean the United Kingdom, for example in official government yearbooks between 1975 and 2001.^[32] Since 2002, however, the yearbooks have only used the term "United Kingdom".^[33]

The initials GB or GBR are used in some international codes instead of the initials UK to refer to the United Kingdom. Examples include: Universal Postal Union^{[dead link]}, international sports teams, NATO, the International Organization for Standardization country codes ISO 3166-2 and ISO 3166-1 alpha-3, and international licence plate codes.

On the Internet, .uk is used as a country code top-level domain for the United Kingdom. A .gb top-level domain was also used to a limited extent in the past, but this is now effectively obsolete because the domain name registrar will not take new registrations.

Biodiversity[link]

Fauna[link]

The Robin is popularly known as "Britain's favourite bird".^[34]

Animal diversity is modest, as a result of factors including the island's small land area, the relatively recent age of the habitats developed since the last Ice Age and the island's physical separation from continental Europe, and the effects of seasonal variability.^[35] Great Britain also experienced early industrialisation and is subject to continuing urbanisation, which have contributed towards the overall loss of species.^[36] A DEFRA study from 2006 suggested that 100 species have become extinct in the UK during the 20th century, about 100 times the background extinction rate.^[37] However, some species, such as the brown rat, red fox, and introduced grey squirrel, are well adapted to urban areas.

Rodents make up 40% of the total number of mammal species in Great Britain. These include squirrels, mice, voles, rats and the recently reintroduced European beaver.^[36] There is also an abundance of rabbits, hares, hedgehogs, shrews, moles and several species of bat.^[36] Carnivorous mammals include the fox, badger, otter, weasel, stoat and elusive wildcat.^[38] Various species of seal, whale and dolphin are found on or around British shores and coastlines. The largest land-based wild animals today are deer. The red deer is the largest species, with roe deer and fallow deer also prominent; the latter was introduced by the Normans.^[38][39] Sika deer and two more species of smaller deer, muntjac and Chinese water deer, have been introduced, muntjac becoming widespread in England and parts of Wales while Chinese water deer are restricted mainly to East Anglia. Habitat loss has affected many species. Extinct large mammals include the brown bear, grey wolf and wild boar; the latter has had a limited reintroduction in recent times.^[36]

There is a wealth of birdlife in Britain, 583 species in total,^[40] of which 258 breed on the island or remain during winter.^[41] Because of its mild winters for its latitude, Great Britain hosts important numbers of many wintering species, particularly ducks, geese and swans.^[42] Other well known bird species include the golden eagle, grey heron, kingfisher, pigeon, sparrow, pheasant, partridge, and various species of crow, finch, gull, auk, grouse, owl and falcon.^[43] There are six species of reptile on the island; three snakes and three lizards including the legless slow worm. One snake, the adder, is venomous but rarely deadly.^[44] Amphibians present are frogs, toads and newts.^[36]

Flora[link]

Heather growing wild in the Highlands at Dornoch.

In a similar sense to fauna, and for similar reasons, the flora of Great Britain is impoverished compared to that of continental Europe.^[45] Great Britain's flora comprises 3,354 vascular plant species, of which 2,297 are native and 1,057 have been introduced into the island.^[46] The island has a wide variety of trees, including native species of birch, beech, ash, hawthorn, elm, oak, yew, pine, cherry and apple.^[47] Other trees have been naturalised, introduced especially from other parts of Europe (particularly Norway) and North America. Introduced trees include several varieties of pine, chestnut, maple, spruce, sycamore and fir, as well as cherry plum and pear trees.^[47] The tallest species are the Douglas firs; two specimens have been recorded measuring 65 metres or 212 feet.^[48] The Fortingall Yew in Perthshire is the oldest tree in Europe.^[49]

There are at least 1,500 different species of wildflower in Britain,^[50] Some 107 species are particularly rare or vulnerable and are protected by the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981. It is illegal to uproot any wildflowers without the landowner's permission.^[50][51] A vote in 2002 nominated various wildflowers to represent specific counties.^[52] These include red poppies, bluebells, daisies, daffodils, rosemary, gorse, iris, ivy, mint, orchids, brambles, thistles, buttercups, primrose, thyme, tulips, violets, cowslip, heather and many more.^{[53][54][55][56]} There are also many species of algae, lichens, fungi and mosses across the island.^[57]

Religion[link]

Canterbury Cathedral, seat of the Anglican Church – the island's largest denomination

Christianity is the largest religion on the island and has been since the Early Middle Ages, though its existence on the island dates back to the Roman introduction in antiquity and continued through Early Insular Christianity. The largest form practised in present day Britain is Anglicanism (also known as Episcopalism in Scotland); dating from the 16th century Reformation, the religion regards itself as both Catholic and Reformed. Head of the Church is the monarch of the United Kingdom as the Supreme Governor. It has the status of established church in England. There are just over 26 million adherents to Anglicanism in Britain today,^[58] although the number of active adherents (those who regularly attend services) is only around one million. The second largest Christian practice in Britain is the Latin Rite of the Roman Catholic Church which traces its formal, corporate history in Great Britain to the 6th century with Augustine's mission and was the main religion on the island for around a thousand years. There are over 5 million adherents in Britain today; 4.5 million in England and Wales^[59] and 750,000 in Scotland,^[60] although less than a million Catholics regularly attend mass.^[61]

Baitul Futuh – the largest mosque in Western Europe^[62]

The Church of Scotland, a form of Protestantism with a Presbyterian system of ecclesiastical polity is the third most numerous on the island with around 2.1 million members.^[63] Introduced in Scotland by clergyman John Knox, it has the status of national church in Scotland. The monarch of the United Kingdom is represented prominently by a Lord High Commissioner. Methodism is the fourth largest and grew out of Anglicanism through John Wesley.^[64] It gained popularity in the old mill towns of Lancashire and Yorkshire, also amongst tin miners in Cornwall.^[65] The Presbyterian Church of Wales, which follow Calvinistic Methodism, is the largest denomination in Wales. There are other non-conformist minorities, such as Baptists, Quakers, the United Reformed Church (a union of Congregationalists and English Presbyterians), Unitarians and more.^[66] The first patron saint of Great Britain was Saint Alban.^[67] He was the first Christian martyr dating from the Romano-British period, condemned to death for his faith and was sacrificed to the pagan gods.^[68] In more recent times, some have suggested the adoption of Saint Aidan as another patron saint of Britain.^[69] Originally from Ireland, he worked at Iona amongst the Dál Riata and then Lindisfarne where he restored Christianity to Northumbria.^[69]

The Swaminarayan Temple at Neasden, London - one of the largest Hindu Temples in Europe^[70]

Three constituent countries of the United Kingdom located on the island have patron saints; Saint George and Saint Andrew are represented in the flags of England and Scotland respectively.^[71] These two saintly flags combined form the basis of the Great Britain royal flag of 1604.^[71] Saint David is the patron saint of Wales.^[72] There are many other British saints, some of the best known include; Cuthbert, Columba, Patrick, Margaret, Edward the Confessor, Mungo, Thomas More, Petroc, Bede and Thomas Becket.^[72]

Numerous non-Christian religions are practised in Great Britain.^[73] Jews were a small minority on the island since 1070. The Jews were expelled from England in 1290 but allowed to return in 1656.^[74] Their history in Scotland is quite obscure until later migrations from Lithuania.^[75] Especially since the 1950s religions from the former colonies have become more prevalent; Islam is the most common of these with around 1.5 million adherents in Britain.^[76] A total of more than 1 million people practise either Hinduism, Sikhism or Buddhism, religions introduced from India and South East Asia.^[76]

Settlements[link]

Capital cities[link]

The capitals of the three countries of the United Kingdom which comprise Great Britain are:

• England: London
• Scotland: Edinburgh
• Wales: Cardiff

Other major cities[link]

The largest cities in Great Britain by urban area population (not including the capital cities listed above) are Birmingham, Bristol, Glasgow, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle, Nottingham and Sheffield.

See also[link]

• List of islands of England
• List of islands of Scotland
• List of islands of Wales
• Terminology of the British Isles

References[link]

Footnotes[link]