A brief introduction to the United Kingdom

A brief introduction to the United KingdomThe full name of the country we are studying is the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The UK once was a very powerful country, which possessed many colonies, located all around the world and covering almost one fifth of the entire land of the world. Thus it was called the “the-sun-never-sets” empire, meaning that at any time there was UK’s land under sunshine. The glorious days were gone. In the second industrial revolution, UK developed comparatively slowly in contrast with Germany and USA, who soon overtook UK in economy. Besides, UK was greatly damaged in the two world wars, inevitably giving its power crown to USA, who became overwhelmingly powerful and has dominated the world ever since. However, its imperial effects are still obvious, which we can see from the Commonwealth of nations, a loose organization linking UK with its former colonies, and UK’s population structure, of which 1 in 20 are of non-European ethnicity, usually coming from its former colonies.The UK is now an island country to the west of European continent of medium size, and comprises four parts: England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, each having a distinct culture, economy, history, religion and so on. Its capital London is its center of politics, economy, culture and population.England is the largest nation of the UK. It’s a highly urbanized country. English history has been one of invasions. Before the 1st century BC, Britain was made up of tribal kingdoms of Celtic people. Then it was invaded by Roman Empire in 43 AD, which dominated Britain for 400 years. Then again it came under threat from outside, this time from Germanic peoples: the Angles and the Saxon, who successfully invaded and occupied Britain. In fact they are the forefathers of the English. In the late 8th century, it was invaded by Vikings, who failed. Next Normans invaded it and succeeded and imported a ruling class without settling England to any great extent, ruling England for 300 years. After that the throne came back to the English. In 17th century, the bourgeois revolution broke out, England becoming the first capitalist country in the world, of constitutional monarchy. Scotland has a different history, but related to England’s. Scotland was neither conquered by the Romans, nor by the Anglo-Saxons, although they tried to. In the 9th century, it was invaded by Vikings, which pressured Scottish to unite as a singular Scottish state. In 1707 by agreement of the English and Scottish parliaments, Scotland joined the union. Wales is the smallest among the three nations. In 1536, Wales was brought legally, administratively and politically into the UK by an act of the British parliament.Northern Ireland is the smallest of the four nations, both in size and population. Though small, it’s significant because of the political troubles there. In 1921 Ireland was divided into the Republic Ireland and Northern Ireland, of which the latter is part of UK. The division was accompanied by a long and bloody conflict, which was as the result of Ireland’s colonial history. Ireland had been ruled by Britain for 700 years, which was a history of Irish being abused, massacred, exiled, systematically repressed and deprived. In 1921 through the efforts of Irish, Irish independence became inevitable. However, there was a problem. Most Irish people are Catholicsand descendants of Celtic people, but in one part a large population was British and Protestants, who didn’t want to be a part of an independent Ireland, wishing to remain a part of Britain. These conflicting demands resulted in that the southern 26 counties formed independent Ireland, while the northeastern 6 counties remained a part of the UK. Following this was many years of violence and clashes. In a word, the problem of Northern Ireland is troublesome.The UK is arguably the oldest representative democracy in the world, with roots that can be traced over a thousand years. It’s the first capitalist country in the world, as mentioned above. The process in which UK became capitalist is as follows：By the 13th century, the Great Council came into being, a gathering of leading, wealthy barons which met several times a year to give money to the king. Actually, it was the embryonic form of modern parliament. Later in order to make ends meet, the king had to widen the Great Council to include the House of Lords and the House of Commons, which we collectively call Parliament. The Commons quickly gained in political strength. Later it had an increasing say and acquired law-making rights by 15th century. In 1640s, the civil war broke out, rooted in the dispute over the power of the King VS the Parliament. Thinking that Parliament had no real political right to exist and that parliament was a barrier to the right of king, Charles I tried to dissolve it, which led to the civil war. The Roundheads, on the side of Parliament, defeated the royalist armies and executed Charles I, founding a republic. Later through many regime changes, William took over the throne, which is called the “glorious revolution”. He declared governing without parliamentary to be illegal. In 1689, Parliament passed the Bill of Rights, which marked the beginning of constitutional monarchy. In this way, the UK stepped into the era of capitalism. Now the UK is both a parliamentary democracy and a constitutional monarchy. The official head of state is the Queen, but her powers are traditional and symbolic. The Prime Minister is the real leader of the country. The UK has no written constitution. Parliament is supreme in the UK, having the power to change the terms of the Constitution. It’s the real center of British political life.Periodic national elections are important in the western model of democracy, so does the UK. British people elect parliament representatives to represent themselves. The parliament representatives usually belong to a political party. The party that has a majority of representatives forms the government, with its party leader as the Prime Minister. A government can’t stand for over 5 years except in exceptional circumstances. In the UK there are 3 major national parties: the Conservative Party and the Labor Party and the Liberal Democrats.By the 1880s, UK’s economy was dominant in the world, but now it heavily declines, ranking sixth in the world. Now UK’s economy can be divided into three main areas: primary industries, secondary industries and tertiary industries, respectively accounting for 13%, 22% and 65% of national wealth.The UK’S literature has always been prosperous. It has many famous writers, for example Shakespeare and John Milton, and many excellent literary works.The UK’s education system is advanced, contributing to its advanced economy. There are many kinds of schools in the UK, for example grammar schools andcomprehensive schools, state schools and private schools. In higher education, the UK boasts many famous universities, of which Oxford and Cambridge are the best ones. The UK also has many exams to admit students, for example GCSE, GCE-A and GNVQs.The UK’s foreign relationships are complicated. Its contemporary foreign policy is greatly influenced by its history and geopolitical traits. The Prime Minister and Cabinet decide on its general direction, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office mainly involved. And the Treasury plays an important role. It’s a permanent member of the UN Security Council. The UK is a member of the Commonwealth of Nations and a member of EU, which is the most important for the UK.The UK’s media comprises newspaper, radio and TV. The UK has one of the world’s oldest established newspaper industries. The Observer, weekly, is the world’s oldest national newspaper. Other famous newspapers include the Times, the UK’s oldest daily newspaper, the Guardian and so on. The tabloids are a feature of UK’s newspaper industry. TV and radio are very important to UK’s national life with 97% of households having a TV and virtually everyone having a radio. However, there are only five television channels and satellite TV is not as popular and widely used as in the USA. The British Broadcasting Corporation, founded in 1927 and later moving into TV, is a world-famous broadcaster. Besides, media are very important to British politics.The UK has many sports. Football is British favorite, Football Association of high quality and globally famous. Tennis is a popular game there, with Wimbledon as a world-famous tennis event attracting many excellent tennis players to take part in it. Cricket is also popular there. Golf was invented in Scotland, very popular. Besides, horse racing, hunting and equestrianism are British favorites, too. The UK has many holidays and festivals. Christmas is the biggest and best loved British holiday and festival. Easter is the most important Christian festival. Bonfire is a truly English holiday. The Battle of the Boyne and St Patrick’s Day are two important festivals in Northern Ireland. Halloween is a Scottish festival, which marks the arrival of the winter half of the year.Here, that’s all. A brief introduction to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is over. In a word, with its language-English-being most widely used in the world, the UK is a great country.。