United Kingdom

The united kingdom (uk) of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state that occupies a number of large and small islands off the west coast of the continent of Europe. The state consists of a political union of four countries, three on the island of Great Britain (England, Scotland and Wales) and one that occupies the northern part of the island of Ireland (Northern Ireland).

The state is a constitutional monarchy, in which the monarch acts as head of state for a number of affiliated territories, including the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands, and for the 15 Commonwealth states that are the remnants of the world's largest empire. The UK was the home of the industrial revolution in the 18th century and ...