Great Britain





Great Britain is, geographically, an island located in the north Atlantic
Ocean to the northwest of continental Europe, comprising the main territory
of the United Kingdom. With an area of 229,850 km2 (88,745 sq miles) the
island of Great Britain is the largest of the British Isles -- an
archipelago that also includes Ireland, the Faroe Islands and the Isle of
Man.

Great Britain is also, politically, the entity consisting of the nations of
England, Scotland and Wales, including a number of smaller islands such as
Anglesey, the Isle of Wight, the Hebrides, the Orkney Islands and the
Shetland Islands. Over the centuries, the political entity that is Great
Britain has consisted of a number of independent states (England, Scotland,
and Wales), two kingdoms with a shared monarch (England and Scotland), a
single all-island Kingdom of Great Britain, and since 1801 has been part of
an entity called the United Kingdom.

Origins and nomenclature

The term Great Britain was first widely used during the reign of King James
VI of Scotland, I of England to describe the island, on which co-existed two
separate kingdoms ruled over by the same monarch. Though England and
Scotland each remained legally in existence as a separate state with its own
parliament, collectively they were sometimes referred to as Great Britain.
In 1707, an Act of Union joined both states. That Act used two different
terms to decribe the new all island state, a 'united Kingdom' and the
'Kingdom of Great Britain'. The former is generally though not universally
regarded as a description of the union rather than its name. Most reference
books describe the all-island kingdom that existed between 1707 and 1800 and
the Kingdom of Great Britain.

In 1801, under a new Act of Union this kingdom merged with the Kingdom of
Ireland, over which the monarch of Great Britain had ruled. The new kingdom
was unambiguously called the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. In
1922, twenty-six of Ireland's thirty-two counties left to form a separate
Irish Free State. The remaining truncated kingdom is now known as the United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, which also now includes a
number of Overseas Territories. Though sometimes the term 'Great Britain' is
used when referring to the United Kingdom, with the United Kingdom minus
Northern Ireland being referred to as 'the mainland', this is factually
incorrect; it is simply 'Great Britain'.

Often the terms Britain and British refer to the whole of the UK or its
predecessors, or institutions associated with them, and not just Great
Britain. For example, United Kingdom monarchs are often called "British
monarchs"; United Kingdom Prime Ministers are often called "British Prime
Ministers". Such usage is generally seen as correct. However the use of the
term English for British, as in "Queen of England" is clearly incorrect;
England in a sense of a separate state has not existed since 1707.

The term Islands of the North Atlantic or IONA has also been used more
recently for the British Isles. It was created as a neutral term for use in
efforts to achieve agreement on a more widely acceptable political structure
for Northern Ireland. However, it remains unknown to most of the British
population, and seems likely to achieve little recognition outside of the
narrow political circles in which it was coined.

Why "Great" Britain rather than Britain?

There are in fact two Britains: the island of Britain in the British Isles
and the land of Britain in France. In French these are known as Grande
Bretagne and Bretagne, in English as Great Britain and Brittany. The word
"Great" in this context has its old meaning of "big" as in "she was great
with child" or "Greater London". Likewise, the ending "-y" on the end of
"Brittany" has the meaning "Little", as in "doggy," meaning "small dog", or
"Jimmy", meaning "little Jim".

From about the 16th century to the 20th century, the political and/or
military control of Great Britain and the United Kingdom extended over a
large number of territories all around the world, and all those entities
together were known as "the British Empire."

Territories associated with Great Britain

   * Kingdom of England
   * Kingdom of Scotland
   * Principality of Wales
   * Duchy of Cornwall

Territories elsewhere in the archipilego

   * Ireland
        o Republic of Ireland
        o Northern Ireland
   * Isle of Man