The United Kingdom – Beszéljük az Egyesült Királyságról

The United Kingdom includes the whole island of Great Britain (England, Wales, and Scotland), as well as the northern section of the island of Ireland. The term Britain is occasionally used to refer to the entire United Kingdom. London is the capital and one of the world’s most important commercial, financial, and cultural centres. Birmingham, Liverpool, and Manchester in England, Belfast and Londonderry in Northern Ireland, Edinburgh and Glasgow in Scotland, and Swansea and Cardiff in Wales are among the other significant cities.

The origins of the United Kingdom can be traced back to the reign of Anglo-Saxon king Athelstan, who secured the allegiance of neighbouring Celtic kingdoms in the early 10th century CE and became “the first to rule what previously many kings shared between them,” according to a contemporary chronicle.

During the 1600s, Ireland came under English influence and was legally unified with Great Britain by the Act of Union of 1800. The Republic of Ireland won independence in 1922, but six of Ulster’s nine counties remained under British control as Northern Ireland. Relations between these component states and England have been fraught with contention, outright revolt, and even conflict at times. These tensions began to ease in the late twentieth century, when devolved legislatures were established in Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales.

Despite the establishment of a power-sharing assembly following referendums in both Northern Ireland and the Irish republic, relations between Northern Ireland’s unionists (who favour continued British sovereignty over Northern Ireland) and nationalists (who favour unification with the republic of Ireland) remained tense well into the twenty-first century.

The United Kingdom has made substantial contributions to the global economy, particularly in the fields of technology and manufacturing. However, after World War II, the United Kingdom’s most notable exports have been cultural, such as literature, theatre, cinema, television, and popular music, which draw from all regions of the country. The English language, perhaps Britain’s greatest export, is today spoken in every corner of the world as one of the primary worldwide mediums of cultural and economic interchange.

Through the Commonwealth, the United Kingdom maintains ties with sections of its previous empire. It also has historical and cultural ties with the US and is a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

Furthermore, the United Kingdom joined the European Union in 1973. Many Britons, on the other hand, were occasionally hesitant EU members, clinging to the ideals of Winston Churchill, the great wartime prime minister. Indeed, in a referendum on whether the United Kingdom should stay in the EU in June 2016, 52 percent of British voters voted to leave.

After much wrangling, multiple deadline extensions, months of internal political wrangling, and two changes of prime minister, a deal on “Brexit” (British withdrawal from the EU) was achieved that pleased both the EU and the majority of Parliament. As a result, the United Kingdom became the first country to leave the EU on January 31, 2020.