United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (94,526 square miles, population 60,975,000, GDP $2.23 trillion in 2007) is an industrialized country of islands off the northwest coast of the European continent, consisting of four constituent countries: England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. National administrative offices exist in all four countries, but are principally based in London, England. Its 14 overseas territories are the remnants of the British Empire, the largest empire in history, and the British head of state—presently Queen Elizabeth II (b. April 21, 1926)—presides over the Commonwealth of Nations as she does over the United Kingdom (UK) itself.

Terminology and Distinctions

There is a tendency to conflate nonsynonymous terms in relation to the United Kingdom and the British Isles. There are both geographical and political distinctions to make. Great Britain refers to the largest island in the archipelago, on which are located the countries of England, Scotland, and Wales. Ireland is the second-largest island, off the west coast of Great Britain. Britain is a political-cultural term used for the United Kingdom, which includes Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The British Isles include all the islands in the archipelago, and thus encompasses southern Ireland, the sovereign nation sometimes called the Republic of Ireland or Eire.

Citizens of the UK are thus British, but more likely to refer to themselves as English, Welsh, Irish, or Scots. Non-English British citizens may sometimes be [Page 1643]referred to by foreigners as English, and may find the conflation insulting or simply bewildering, as those in the American South feel when all Americans are grouped together as “Yankees.”

Other islands within the United Kingdom include the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands (Guernsey and Jersey). These are Crown dependencies—nations over which the British monarch rules as head of state, but with their own heads of government handling the business of governance.

The Commonwealth of Nations consists of 53 sovereign states in a nonpolitical union, most of which were once part of the British Empire. Of those states, 16 are Commonwealth realms—those nations in which the British monarch is the head of state, often in a purely titular and honorary capacity: Antigua and Barbuda, Australia, the Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Canada, Grenada, Jamaica, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, and the United Kingdom. The remaining members are Bangladesh, Belize, Botswana, Brunei, Cameroon, Cyprus, Dominica, Gambia, Ghana, Guyana, India, Kenya, Kiribati, Lesotho, Malawi, Malaysia, Maldives, Malta, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Nauru, Nigeria, Pakistan, Samoa, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Singapore, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Swaziland, Tanzania, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Uganda, Vanuatu, and Zambia. The scope of the Commonwealth gives an indication as to the overwhelming size and ethnic and cultural heterogeneity of the British Empire at its peak.

Though the British Isles are considered part of the continent of Europe, the British will usually refer to “Europe” or “the Continent” to mean the mainland only, to distinguish it from Britain; “Europe” sometimes also designates the European Union, especially as an object of derision.

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