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The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
was the formal name of the United Kingdom from 1 January 1801
until 12 April 1927. It was formed by the merger of the Kingdom
of Great Britain (itself having been a merger of the Kingdoms
of England and Scotland) and the Kingdom of Ireland.
Following Irish independence on 6 December 1922, when the
1921 Anglo-Irish Treaty came into effect, the name continued
in official use until it was changed to the United Kingdom
of Great Britain and Northern Ireland by the Royal and Parliamentary
Titles Act of 1927. That part of the island of Ireland which
seceded from the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
in 1922 today constitutes the Republic of Ireland.
Northern Ireland is composed of 26 districts, derived from
the boroughs of Belfast and Londonderry and the counties of
Antrim, Armagh, Down, Fermanagh, Londonderry, and Tyrone.
Together they are commonly called Ulster, though the territory
does not include the entire ancient province of Ulster. It
is slightly larger than Connecticut.
Geography
The United Kingdom, consisting of Great Britain (England,
Wales, and Scotland) and Northern Ireland, is twice the size
of New York State. England, in the southeast part of the British
Isles, is separated from Scotland on the north by the granite
Cheviot Hills; from them the Pennine chain of uplands extends
south through the center of England, reaching its highest
point in the Lake District in the northwest. To the west along
the border of Wales-a land of steep hills and valleys-are
the Cambrian Mountains, while the Cotswolds, a range of hills
in Gloucestershire, extend into the surrounding shires.
Important rivers flowing into the North Sea are the Thames,
Humber, Tees, and Tyne. In the west are the Severn and Wye,
which empty into the Bristol Channel and are navigable, as
are the Mersey and Ribble.
Government
The United Kingdom is a constitutional monarchy and parliamentary
democracy, with a queen and a parliament that has two houses:
the House of Lords, with 574 life peers, 92 hereditary peers,
and 26 bishops; and the House of Commons, which has 651 popularly
elected members. Supreme legislative power is vested in parliament,
which sits for five years unless dissolved sooner. The House
of Lords was stripped of most of its power in 1911, and now
its main function is to revise legislation. In Nov. 1999 hundreds
of hereditary peers were expelled in an effort to make the
body more democratic. The executive power of the Crown is
exercised by the cabinet, headed by the prime minister.
Unity
England has existed as a unified entity since the 10th century;
the union between England and Wales, begun in 1284 with the
Statute of Rhuddlan, was not formalised until 1536 with an
Act of Union; in another Act of Union in 1707, England and
Scotland agreed to permanently join as Great Britain; the
legislative union of Great Britain and Ireland was implemented
in 1801, with the adoption of the name the United Kingdom
of Great Britain and Ireland; the Anglo-Irish treaty of 1921
formalized a partition of Ireland; six northern Irish counties
remained part of the United Kingdom as Northern Ireland and
the current name of the country, the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Northern Ireland, was adopted in 1927.
Facts about the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern
Ireland
Sovereign:
Queen Elizabeth II (1952)
Prime Minister:
Gordon Brown (2007)
Current government official statistics
Land area: 93,278 sq mi (241,590 sq km); total area:
94,526 sq mi (244,820 sq km)
Land area Northern Ireland: 5,452 sq mi (14,121 sq
km)
Population (2007 est.): 60,776,238 (growth rate: 0.3%);
birth rate: 10.7/1000; infant mortality rate: 5.0/1000; life
expectancy: 78.7; density per sq mi: 652
Northern Ireland Population: (1998 est.): 1,688,600
Capital and largest city (2003 est.): London, 7,615,000
(metro. area), 7,429,200 (city proper)
Other large cities: Glasgow, 1,099,400; Birmingham,
971,800; Liverpool, 461,900; Edinburgh, 460,000; Leeds, 417,000;
Bristol, 406,500; Manchester, 390,700; Bradford, 288,400
The Belfast metropolitan area has a population of just
under 700,000, and the Belfast City Council area is 115km
(squared) with a population of 274,000.
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