The United Kingdom is located off the northwestern coast of Europe and consists of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. It has a total land area of 244,100 square kilometers and its capital and largest city is London. The UK is a parliamentary democracy and constitutional monarchy currently led by Prime Minister David Cameron and Queen Elizabeth II. It has a population of over 61 million people and has a highly developed economy, though its global influence has declined since World War 2.
2. Where is the UK?
• The UK is situated north-west of the
European continent between the
Atlantic Ocean and the North Sea. It
has a total land area of 244,100
square kilometers, of which nearly
99% is land and the remainder inland
water. From north to south it is
about 1,000 kilometers long.
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3. What is the official name of the UK?
• The official name of the UK is the "United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern
Ireland".
• What countries make up the UK?
• The name refers to the union of what were
once four separate nations:
England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland (though
most of Ireland is now independent. Only
Northern Ireland is part of the UK now).
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4. The United Kingdom is made up of:
•
•
•
•
•
England - The capital is London.
Scotland - The capital is Edinburgh .
Wales - The capital is Cardiff.
Northern Ireland - The capital is Belfast.
England, Scotland and Wales together form
Great Britain.
• Great Britain and Northern Ireland together
form the "United Kingdom of Great Britain
and Northern Ireland" (UK)
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5. United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Capital
(and largest city)
London
Official languages
English
Recognised regional languages
Irish, Ulster Scots, Scottish Gaelic , Scots, Welsh, Cornish
Ethnic groups
• 92.1% White (mainly of British Isles descent, with minorities of
other descent)
4.0% South Asian
2.0% Black
1.2% Mixed
0.4% Chinese
0.4% Other
Demonym
• British, Briton
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6. United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Government
• Parliamentary democracy and constitutional
monarchy
Monarch
Queen Elizabeth II
Legislature
Parliament
Sovereign
Monarch Queen Elizabeth II
Upper House
House of Lords
Lower House
House of Commons
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7. • The current Prime Minister , David
Cameron, leader of the Conservative
Party, was appointed on 11 May 2010.
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8. Formation
Acts of Union 1707
Act of Union 1800
Anglo-Irish Treaty
EU accession
1 May 1707
1 January 1801
12 April 1922
1 January 1973
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9. Area
Total
Water (%)
• 2009 estimate
• 2001 census
• Density
244,820 km2 (79th)
94,526 sq mi
1.34
Population
61,113,205 (22nd)
58,789,194
246/km2 (48th)637/sq mi
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10. GDP (PPP)
2008 estimate
Per capita
Total
$2.228 trillion (7th)
$36,357 (18th)
GDP (nominal)
2008 estimate
Total $2.680 trillion (6th)
Per capita
$43,733 (20th)
Currency
Pound sterling (GBP)
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12. Flag of the United Kingdom
Name
Union Flag or "Union Jack"
Use
Civil and state flag
Proportion
1:2
Adopted
1 January 1801 Flag of the United Kingdom
Design
• A white- fabricated symmetric red cross on a
blue field with a white- fabricated
counterchanged saltier of red and white.
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13. Flag of the United Kingdom
• The United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Northern Ireland uses as its national flag the
royal banner known as the Union Flag
or, popularly, Union Jack. The current design
of the Union Flag dates from the union of
Ireland and Great Britain in 1801. It consists of
the red cross of Saint George (patron saint of
England), edged in white, superimposed on
the Cross of St Patrick (patron saint of
Ireland), which are superimposed on the
Saltire of Saint Andrew (patron saint of
Scotland).
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14. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Northern Ireland
• The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern
Ireland(commonly known as the United Kingdom, the
UK, or as Britain) is a sovereign state located off the
northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island
country, spanning an archipelago including Great
Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small
islands. Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK with
a land border, sharing it with the Republic of Ireland.
Apart from this land border, the UK is surrounded by the
Atlantic Ocean, the North Sea, the English Channel and
the Irish Sea. The largest island, Great Britain, is linked
to France by the Channel Tunnel.
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15. The United Kingdom is a constitutional
monarchy and unitary state consisting of
four countries: England, Northern
Ireland, Scotland and Wales. It is governed
by a parliamentary system with its seat of
government in London, the capital, but
with three devolved national
administrations in Belfast, Cardiff and
Edinburgh, the capitals of Northern
Ireland, Wales and Scotland respectively.
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16. The UK has fourteen overseas territories, all remnants
of the British Empire, which at its height in 1922
encompassed almost a quarter of the world's land
surface, the largest empire in history. British influence
can continue to be observed in the language, culture
and legal systems of many of its former colonies.
The UK is a developed country, with the world's sixth
largest economy by nominal GDP and the seventh
largest by purchasing power parity. It was the world's
first industrialised country and the world's foremost
power during the 19th and early 20th centuries,but the
economic cost of two world wars and the decline of its
empire in the latter half of the 20th century diminished
its leading role in global affairs.
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17. The UK nevertheless remains a major power
with strong
economic, cultural, military, scientific and
political influence. It is a nuclear weapons state
and has the third highest defence spending in
the world. It is a Member State of the European
Union, holds a permanent seat on the United
Nations Security Council, and is a member of the
Commonwealth of
Nations, G8, G20, OECD, NATO, and the World
Trade Organization.
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18. History
• On 1 May 1707, the Kingdom of Great Britain was
created by the political union of the Kingdom of
England (which included Wales) and the Kingdom
of Scotland. This event was the result of the
Treaty of Union that was agreed on 22 July 1706,
and then ratified by both the Parliament of
England and Parliament of Scotland each passing
an Act of Union in 1707. Almost a century later,
the Kingdom of Ireland, already under English
control by 1691, merged with the Kingdom of
Great Britain to form the United Kingdom with
the passing of the Act of Union 1800.
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19. •Although England and Scotland had been separate
states prior to 1707, they had been in personal union
since the Union of the Crowns in 1603, when James VI
King of Scots had inherited the throne of the Kingdoms
of England and Ireland and moved his court from
Edinburgh to London.
Territories that were at one time part of the
British Empire.
In its first century, the United Kingdom played an
important role in developing Western ideas of the
parliamentary system as well as making significant
contributions to literature, the arts, and science.
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20. The UK-led Industrial Revolution transformed the
country and fueled the growing British Empire.
During this time, the UK, like other great powers
was involved in colonial exploitation, including the
Atlantic slave trade, although with the passing of
the Slave Trade Act in 1807 the UK took a leading
role in combating the trade in slaves.
After the defeat of Napoleon in the Napoleonic
Wars, the UK emerged as the principal naval
power of the 19th century and remained an
eminent power into the mid-20th century.
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21. The British Empire expanded to its maximum
size by 1921, gaining the League of Nations
mandate over former German and Ottoman
colonies after World War I. One year later, the
BBC, the world's first large-scale international
broadcasting network, was created.
An election victory for Sinn Féin in 1918, followed
by a war of independence in Ireland led to the
partition of the island in 1921 followed by
independence for the Irish Free State in 1922
with Northern Ireland opting to be part of the UK.
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22. As a result, in 1927, the formal name
of the UK was changed to its current
name, the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Northern Ireland. The
Great Depression broke out at a time
when the UK was still far from having
recovered from the effects of the
World War I.
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23. Infantry of the Royal Irish Rifles during the Battle of
the Somme. More than 885,000 British soldiers
lost their lives on the battlefields of World War I.
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24. The Battle of Britain was a turning
point in the Second World War.
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25. The United Kingdom was one of the Allies of
World War II. Following the defeat of its
European allies in the first year of the
war, the United Kingdom continued the fight
against Germany in the aerial campaign
known as the Battle of Britain. After the
victory, the UK was among the powers to
help plan the postwar world. World War II
left the United Kingdom financially damaged.
However, Marshall Aid and costly loans
taken from both the United States and
Canada helped the UK on the road to
recovery.
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