United Kingdom

The United Kingdom brings together four nations, England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, on Great Britain, the north-east of Ireland and many smaller islands from the Scillies to Shetland. The north and west are old, hard and upland: the Scottish Highlands, the Lake District, the Pennines that form England’s spine, and the mountains of Snowdonia. The south and east are lower, with chalk downs, clay vales and the flat Fens. Nowhere is far from the sea, and Atlantic weather keeps the climate mild, damp and changeable.

Rome conquered much of Britain, Angles, Saxons and Vikings followed, and the Normans took England in 1066. Wales was united with England in the sixteenth century, the crowns of England and Scotland were joined in 1603 and their parliaments in 1707, and Ireland entered the union in 1801; most of Ireland left it in 1922. Britain led the Industrial Revolution and ruled an empire that reached every continent before most of its colonies became independent in the twentieth century.

Scotland keeps its own legal system and church, and since 1999 Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have had devolved parliaments or assemblies. Welsh is spoken daily across much of Wales, and Gaelic survives in the Hebrides. Shakespeare, the Beatles and the BBC carried British culture around the globe, and football, rugby, cricket, tennis and golf were all given their rules here. The City of London anchors an economy dominated by services, with manufacturing strongest in aerospace, pharmaceuticals and cars.