Welcome to the United Kingdom (and a whole
lot more) explained by me, C. G. P. Grey
The United Kingdom, England, Great Britain?
Are these three the same place? Are they different
places? Do British people secretly laugh those
who use the terms wrongly? Who knows the answers
to these questions? I do and I'm going to
tell you right now.
For the lost: this is the world, this is the
European continent and this is the place we
have to untangle.
The area shown in purple is the United Kingdom.
Part of the confusion is that the United Kingdom
is not a single country but is instead a country
of countries.
It contains inside of it four co-equal and
sovereign nations
The first of these is England — shown here
in red. England is often confused with the
United Kingdom as a whole because it's the
largest and most populous of the nations and
contains the de facto capital city, London.
To the north is Scotland, shown in blue and
to the west is wales, shown in white.
And, often forgotten even by those who live
in the United Kingdom, is Northern Ireland
shown in orange.
Each country has a local term for the population.
While you can call them all 'British' it's
not recommended as the four countries generally
don't like each other.
The Northern Irish, Scottish and Welsh regard
the English as slave-driving colonial masters
— no matter that all three have their own
devolved Parliaments and are allowed to vote
on English laws despite the reverse not being
true — and the English generally regard
the rest as rural yokels who spend too much
time with their sheep.
However, as the four constituent countries
don't have their own passports, they are all
British Citizens, like it or not.They are
British Citizens of the United Kingdom — whose
full name by the way is the United Kingdom
of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
So where's Great Britain hiding?
Right here: the area covered in black is Great
Britain. Unlike England, Scotland, Wales and
Northern Ireland, Great Britain is a geographical
rather than a political term.
Great Britain is the largest island among
the British Isles.
Within the United Kingdom, the term 'Great
Britain' is often used to refer to England,
Scotland and Wales alone with the intentional
exclusion of Northern Ireland.
This is mostly, but not completely true, as
all three constituent countries have islands
that are not part of Great Britain such as
The Isle of Wight, part of England, the Welsh
Isle of Anglesey and the Scottish Hebrides,
The Shetland Islands, Orkney Islands, Islands
of the Clyde.
The second biggest island in the British Isles
is Ireland.
It is worth noting that Ireland is not a country.
Like Great Britain, it is a geographical,
not political, term.
The Island of Ireland contain on it two countries,
Northern Ireland — which we have already
discussed — and the Republic of Ireland.
When people say they are 'Irish' they are
referring to the Republic of Ireland which
is a separate country from the United Kingdom.
However, both the Republic of Ireland and
the United Kingdom are members of the European
Union even though England often likes to pretend
that it's an Island in the mid-atlantic rather
than 50km off the cost of France. But that's
a story for another time.
To review:
The two largest islands in the British Isles
are Ireland and Great Britain. Ireland has
on it two countries — the republic of ireland
and northern ireland, while Great Britain
(mostly) contains three: England, Scotland
and Wales. These last three, when combined
with northern Ireland form the United Kingdom.
There are still many unanswered questions.
Such as, why, when you travel to Canada is
there British Royalty on the money?
To answer this, we need to talk about Empire.
You can't have gone to school in the English-speaking
world without having learned that the British
Empire once spanned a 1/4th the worlds land
and governed nearly a 1/4th its people.
While it is easy to remember the part of the
empire that broke away violently...
We often forget how many nations gained independence
through diplomacy, not bloodshed.
These want-to-be nations struck a deal with
the empire where they continued to recognize
the monarchy as the head of state in exchange
for a local, autonomous parliament.
To understand how they are connected, we need
to talk about the crown.
Not the physical crown that sits behind glass
in the tower of London and earns millions
of tourist pounds for the UK but the crown
as a complicated legal entity best thought
of a a one-man corporation.
Who created this corporation?
God Did.
According to British Tradition all power is
vested in God and the monarch is crowned in
a Christian ceremony.
God however — not wanted to be bothered
with micromanagement — conveniently delegates
his power to an entity called the crown. While
this used to be the physical crown in the
tower of london — it evolved over time into
a legal corporation sole able to be controlled
only by the ruling monarch.
It's a useful reminder that the United Kingdom
is still technically a theocracy with the
reigning monarch acting as both the head of
state and the supreme governor of the official
state religion: Anglicanism.
Such are the oddities that arise when dealing
with a 1,000 year-old Monarchy.
Back to Canada and the rest. The former colonies
that gained their independence through diplomacy
and continue to recognize that authority of
the crown are known as the Commonwealth Realm.
They are, in decreasing order of population:
Canada, Australia, Papua New Guinea, New Zealand,
Jamaica, The Solomon Islands, Belize, The
Bahamas, Barbados, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent
and the Grenadines, Grenada, Antigua and Barbuda,
Saint Kitts and Nevis, and Tuvalu.
All are independent nations but still recognize
the monarchy as the head of state even though
it has little real power within their borders.
There are three further entities that belong
to the crown and these are the Crown Dependencies:
he Isle of Man, Jersey, Guernsey.
Unlike the Commonwealth Realm, they are not
considered independent nations, but are granted
local autonomy by the crown and British Citizenship
by the United Kingdom — though the UK does
reserve the right to over-rule the laws of
there local assemblies.
Are we all done "now"?
Almost, but not quite. There are still a couple
of loose threads, such as this place:
The tiny city of Gibraltar on the Southern
Cost of Spain famous for its rock, its monkeys
and for causing diplomatic tension between
the United Kingdom and Spain.
Or what about the Falkland Islands? Which
caused so much tension between the United
Kingdom and Argentina that they went to war
over them.
These places belong in the last group of crown
properties know as: British Overseas Territories.
But their former name — crown colonies — gives
away their origins.
They are the last vestiges of the British
Empire.
Unlike the Commonwealth Realm, they have not
become independent nations and continue to
rely on the United Kingdom for military and
(sometimes) economic assistance. Like the
Crown Dependencies, everyone born in their
borders is a British Citizen.
The Crown colonies are, in decreasing order
of population: Bermuda, Cayman Islands,Turks
and Caicos Islands, Gibraltar, The British
Virgin Islands, Akrotiri and Dhekelia, Anguilla,
Saint Helena, Ascension Islands, Tristan da
Cunha, Montserrat, British Indian Ocean Territory,
South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands,
Falkland Islands, British Antarctic Territory,
Pitcairn Islands. For our final Venn diagram,
the United Kingdom is a country situated on
the British Isles and is part of The Crown
which is controlled by the monarchy.
Also part of the crown and the British Isles
are the crown dependencies. The independent
nations of the former empire that still recognize
the crown are the Commonwealth Realm and the
non-independent remnants of the former empire
are the British Overseas Territories.
Thank you very much for watching.
This page was last edited on 14 March 2024, at 23:19
