The United Kingdom (0)

The United Kingdom
The United Kingdom consists of England , Scotland , Wales and North Ireland and it is situated in the Atlantic Ocean near the mainland of Europe . The population of the UK is 58.6 million and area is 244,110 sq km.
Britain has a temperate humid climate. Its characteristic features are mild winters, warm summer , no temperature extremes, abundant rain all year round and frequent changes of weather . The mild climate is partly due to the warm Gulf Stream and partly to the south westerly winds. Occasional winds from the east in winter may bring cold and dry weather. The distribution of rainfall is influenced by the Atlantic Stream. The mountainous areas of the north and west have more rain than the lowlands of the south and east.
Wales is located on a peninsula in central-west Britain. The entire area of Wales is about 20,779 km². Wales borders by England to the east and by sea in the other three directions: the Welsh Channel to the south, St George's Channel to the west, and the Irish Sea to the north. There are many bays, peninsulas, cliffs and beaches , together Wales has almost 2000 km of coastline. There are several islands off the Welsh mainland, the largest being Anglesey in the northwest.
About 3 million people live in Wales. The main population and industrial areas are in South Wales, consisting of the cities of Cardiff (also the capital), Swansea and Newport and surrounding areas.
Much of Wales' beautiful and diverse landscape is mountainous. It has two major mountain systems: the Black Mountains and the Brecon Beacon in the south and the mountains of Snowdonia in the south. The highest mountains in Wales are in Snowdonia and include Snowdon, which at 1085 m (3,560 ft) is the highest peak in Wales.
Welsh flag has a red dragon on a white and green background. It is not represented on the Union Jack.
England is 130 000 square kilometres. Its capital is London. The population is about 50 million people and growing because of immigration .
England is bordered to the north by Scotland and to the west by Wales. It is closer to continental Europe than any other part of Britain, divided from France only by a 38 km sea gap. The Channel Tunnel , near Folkestone, directly links England to the European mainland. The English / French border is halfway along the tunnel.
London is by far the largest English city and one of the largest and busiest cities in the world. Birmingham is the second largest. A number of other cities, mainly in central and northern England, are of substantial size and influence . These include: Manchester, Leeds, Liverpool, Newcastle , Sheffield, Bristol , Coventry, Leicester , Nottingham and Hull.
England features mostly low hills and plains. the Lake District in the north-west features some of England’s most beautiful landscapes, and includes Scafell Pike – at 978 m, the highest point of England. There are also some important rivers in England and the most significant ones are Thames , Severn (the longest river in Great Britain) and Avon .
The flag of England is a red cross on a white background. It is also on the Union Jack.
Scotland is in the northern part of Britain. It covers a little less than 80000 square kilometres and this is about one third of Great Britain. The population of Scotland is about 5 million people. There are three official languages spoken there: English, Scots , Gaelic.
Edinburgh , the country 's capital and second largest city, is one of Europe's largest financial centres. The biggest city is Glasgow . There is a fierce rivalry between the most important football clubs of Glasgow and entire Scotland – Glasgow Celtic and Glasgow Rangers.
Scotland has a very picturesque landscape. It may be divided into two parts: the Lowlands (an are of gentle hills, fields and woodlands, more densely populated than other parts, they also include plenty of wild upland country) and the Northern Highland (which are considered by many people, especially mountain-lovers, to be the most beautiful part of Scotland and a real tourist Mecca; they say that there may even be small patches of land on which nobody has ever set foot ).
Britain’s highest peak, Ben Nevis (1343 m) lies not far from Fort Williams .
The Scottish flag has a white cross on a blue background. It is also on the Union Jack.
Northern Ireland is the smallest part of the UK as it only covers about 5500 square kilometres. About half of the 1.7 million inhabitants live in or around Belfast , the capital, in the eastern coastal region .
The centrepiece of Northern Ireland's geography is Lough Neagh, at 151 square  miles (392 km²) the largest freshwater lake both on the island of Ireland and in the British Isles, and the third largest lake in Western Europe. A second extensive lake system is centred on Lower and Upper Lough Erne in Fermanagh.
Northern Ireland don’t have an official flag any more nor a coat of arms. Due to the division of the population along ethnic , religious and political lines, a wide variety of flags can be seen flying from lampposts and private houses across Northern Ireland.
Government . The British Constitution is an unwritten constitution, not being contained in a single legal document . England and Wales have no criminal or civil code . It is case law there. It contains two main principles – the rule of law (nobody can escape from the law) and the supremacy of Parliament (in theory the Parliament can do whatever it wishes). Since the age of absolute monarchy there has been a gradual decline in the Sovereign’s power and, while formally still the head of the executive and the judiciary , commander-in- chief of all the armed forces, and temporal governor of the Church of England, nowadays monarchs reign but they do not rule.
Parliament is the supreme legislative authority . There is usually a one- party government. It consists of three separate elements : the Sovereign, the House of Lords and the elected House of Commons. After passing through the House of Commons, all bills are debated in the House of Lords, and after that, signed by the Queen . As a result the bills then become laws .
There are 650 Members of Parliament in the House of Commons. Leaders of the Government and the Opposition sit in the front row and their supporters sit behind them . The House is presided over by the Speaker. He/she is elected by the MPs.
The members of the House of Lords are not elected. This chamber consists of the Lords Spiritual . The House of Lords is presided over by the Lord Chancellor. There are about 1200 members there.
There are 2 main parties: the Labour Party and the Conservative Party. The Labour Party has been in power from 1997 and have had some shorter spells before too. The leader of them is Tony Blair. He’s also the Prime Minister as the leading figure of the party in power becomes also the Prime Minister and he can appoint himself his Government. The Labour Party is popular amongst the middle classes and the Conservative Party has the support of the wealthier people.
Economy . Britain has a wide range of industries. Services , like finance and business services, have expanded and account for about 63% of British national output. Manufacturing though still plays a vital role in the economy. Britain excels in high- technology industries like chemicals , plastics , pharmaceuticals, aerospace, electronics, motor vehicles and components , offshore equipment and paper and printing . Here the British companies are among the world`s biggest and most successful. The British construction industry continues to be engaged in some of the most prestigious international projects.
Britain also excels in the field of scientific and technological innovation. The oldest universities are Oxford and Cambridge which are also centres of scientific research. There have been several British breakthroughs in genetics research, including the identification of genes linked to diseases e.g. a form of breast cancer . In 1997 scientists in Edinburgh succeeded in cloning a sheep .
Scotland and Northern Ireland have long been noted for their production of whisky and textiles, notably tweed and linen respectively. Today Scotland is also a major producer of computers .
The leading manufacturing regions are Greater London, Greater Manchester, West Midlands (Birmingham), Yorkshire, Newcastle, Glasgow, Bristol.
Britain has relatively few mineral resources. Zinc , tin, iron ore and copper are all produced in small quantities, together with tiny amounts of gold and silver . Non-metallic minerals include limestone , chalk , clay, sandstone, salt and gypsum. Britain has the richest energy resources in EU including oil and natural gas, both primarily found in the North Sea, off eastern Scotland and eastern England respectively.
About 77% of the land area of Britain is under agricultural use of some sort. Agriculture employs 2 per cent of the population. However , it achieves high levels of efficiency and productivity.
Large parts of Britain, notably in Scotland and Wales, are suitable only for grazing. Over half of all full -time farms are devoted to dairy- or beef-farming, or sheep raising.
Tourism forms a big part of English economy. Britain is one of the world’s leading tourist destinations. The industry is a big business and now about 2 million people are employed in this area. The majority of tourists come from Western Europe. It is good to travel all over Britain because there is a good railway and road network . It is also possible to travel by inland waterways. People come to Britain because the things that you can see there are very famous all over the world e.g. Stonehenge , Big Ben and of course the magnificent natural beauty .
History. Britain was connected to the European mainland by a land bridge until the end of the last Ice Age. Afterwards the ice started to melt and oceans began to rise and the connection was covered with water. Britain became a separate island in about 6000 BC. From about 3000 to 2000 BC the British Isles were inhabited by a group of people called the Iberians. These Stone Age people lived in limestone caves, used stone axes and bones as tools .
Later groups of people from what are now Germany , the Netherlands and France also settled there. During the Bronze Age they mined tin, gold and copper and made bronze tools. The descendants of the Iberians are thought to have built spectacular megaliths including the world-famous Stonehenge on Salisbury Plain .
The Celts invaded the British Isles in the 5th century BC. One of the Celtic tribes was called the Brythons from whom the name Britain derived. The Celts were miners, traders and cattle farmers. They brought the knowledge of smelting iron with them. The Celtic language still lives in the Welsh language.
While the Celts were still living in tribes, the Romans were the most powerful people in the world. The already a common law system that united the people who spoke different languages but lived under the Romans. The language of Romans was Latin . That became the basis of many languages, such as French, Italian and Spanish . The foundation for the legal systems of most countries in Western Europe and Latin America was Roman law. Their political system later influenced the building of governments in the United States and other countries.
The Romans invaded Britain in 43 AD under the Emperor Claudius . They occupied Britain for almost 4 centuries . Throughout the 350-year invasion Britain was ruled as a province . The free Celts were not imprisoned but they had to pay heavy taxes . The Romans brought their advanced technologies with them and taught the Britons how to build bridges, houses and paved roads.
Many of Britain’s main towns and cities were established by the Romans including York , Bath and London. Place names ending with –cester, - caster , or
-chester reveal the original locations or Roman military camps. They built Hadrian’s Wall in AD 122 to keep out the raiding Picts who lived in what is now Scotland.
They also brought Christianity with them and in the fourth century the Christian Church was established.
In 410 AD the Roman forces were withdrawn from Britain to protect Rome from the invading barbarian tribes.
When the Roman power declined, Germanic seafaring tribes called the Angles, the Saxons and the Jutes came to Britain. They established settlements in Britain and enslaved the Britons or sent them to the west and north of Britain. The Anglo-Saxon period started. The Angles and the Saxons became the most powerful tribes and the land was divided into little kingdoms. Their language gradually developed into Old English. This language was not a written one but the songs , stories , poems and epics have been handed down orally from generation to generation.
In 787 the Vikings began their invasion from Denmark which was to leave a lasting impression on Britain. They were fierce pagan seafaring warriors who brought with them their own customs and laws.
They raided mercilessly coastal towns in Britain and defeated all Anglo-Saxons kingdoms except one – Wessex . A treaty was signed between the Danish and Wessex kings . It divided England, with the east declared to be Danish territory. The power was regained after about 200 years and the Anglo-Saxon dynasty lasted until the year 1066.
The period of Medieval England (1066-1483) started in 1066 when William of Normandy came defeated the Anglo-Saxon king Harold at the Battle of Hastings. Land was handed to the rich French who came to live in England. The power of these Norman Barons increased and they together with the Church began to challenge the king’s absolute power. The king was forced to sign the Magna Carta in 1215 which significantly reduced the king’s rights .
The most important things that happened in this time were the Hundred Years’ War, the Black Death and the Peasants’ Revolt. The Hundred Years’ War had a devastating effect on English economy. The Black Death killed about on third of all the population. The peasants wanted a better life and they started a revolt that was turned down but it led to greatly improved conditions for the peasant class .
The Tudor England (1483- 1603 ) started when the war between two royal families for the English Crown ended when Henry VII united the two rival houses, giving origin to the Tudor dynasty. The was is called the War of the Roses because both families had a rose as their symbol .
During Henry’s reign the power of towns and the importance of middle classes became to be felt .
Henry VIII used Parliament to establish himself as the head of the Protestant Church of England with the Act of Supremacy in 1534. It greatly strengthened the importance of this institution that had virtually lost all its importance under Henry VII.
Elizabeth I (1558-1603) was an outstanding ruler. She reconciled both Protestants and Catholics. Her reign is considered by many as the Golden Age of English History, producing not only poets of the stature of Shakespeare and Spenser , but also prosperity to the entire nation . The discovery of America placed Britain at the centre of the world’s trading routes and brilliant naval commanders (especially Sir Francis Drake and Sir Walter Raleigh) enabled England to dominate these trade routes. Parliament was regularly called and consulted.
Convinced of the divine right of kings, the Stuart (1603-1714) kings James I and Charles I followed the medieval notion of monarchy, ignoring parliament. Charles I raised taxes without its permission and prevented it from meeting for 11 years until he needed its help to raise the money to fight the war against Scotland. Relations between King and Parliament became so bad that the civil war broke out in 1642.
The majority of the nobles supported Charles and the majority of the gentry supported Parliament in this fight over who should have sovereign power. After Oliver Cromwell had led the Parliamentarian Roundheads to victory in 1648, Charles I was executed for treason and Cromwell became Lord Protector. England was now a Republic but the monarchy (together with the Anglican Church and the House of Lords) was restored in 1660.
The Great Fire of London took place in 1666 and it destroyed most of the city.
After the Stuarts the House of Hannover came to throne. The most important ruler of this time was Queen Victoria. During Queen Victoria’s sixty- four year reign ( 1837 -1901) the British Empire, led by an array of great statesmen and supported by great industrial expansion, grew to a size so vast that ‘the sun never sets upon it’. Victoria’s long reign saw many changes in British constitutions and the British ‘way of life’. Her rejection of the amusements and life of the aristocracy enabled the common people to identify themselves with this simple wife and window , which led to a revival of popular support for the monarchy. She stressed the value of family and she had middle-class views and life-style.
The House of Saxe-Coburg Gotha (the Windsors) are the rulers of Birtain from 1901 until now. The current queen is Elizabeth II.
The United Kingdom is one of the most influential countries in the world. Its highly developed industry and education make the country very important. I recommend to everybody to visit the country because the history and culture are very interesting and diverse.