England? The United Kingdom? Great Britain? Scotland? Irelan
Por: Luciana F.
05 de Março de 2017

England? The United Kingdom? Great Britain? Scotland? Irelan

Inglês British English

 

I wrote this text when I realised that many of my students didn't know where the English language is spoken. Regarding this particular countries, students get further confused by their peculiar political division. This is intended to provide an objective and simplified explanation. I've recently come across a funny video on the topic of Brexit (Britain exit from the European Union) which I linked at the end of this article. There you can see how confusing the political division of the UK can be!

 

Let’s start by understanding what existed before independence in the Republic of Ireland:

Until 1922,  Ireland, Great Britain, and other smaller islands in the region constituted the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, or simply the United Kingdom. The UK was then formed by England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland.

 

Now let’s understand what exists today:

In 1927, five years after large parts of southern Ireland became independent from the UK ( and therefore became the Republic of Ireland with its own capital located in Dublin), the UK changed its name to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Currently, it is comprised of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland (the capital of which is Belfast).

 

To simplify, take a look at the map below:

 To sum up:

 England + Scotland + Wales  = Great Britain

 England + Scotland + Wales + Northern Ireland = the United Kingdom (UK)

 The Republic of Ireland = an independent country (coloured white on the map)

 

 

Now, from that you may ask: is the UK a country made up of other countries?

In some respects, there are degrees of independence among all countries that constitute the UK. In their relations with other nations of the world, however, they act as one single country. It must be noted that the term Great Britain is sometimes used to refer to the UK as a whole, which can be confusing.

An observation: On the map above, the area inside the circle surrounding Great Britain contains other smaller islands that belong to the member countries of Great Britain. The Isle of Man, however, is an exception to this, as it is a self-governing British Crown dependency.

 

The Commonwealth: have you heard of it?

The Commonwealth of Nations is an organisation of 53 independent states that were mostly former territories of the former British Empire. It is not a political union; instead, it represents only a cooperative union in aspects such as democracy, human rights, social and economic development, etc. Elizabeth II, Head of State in the United Kingdom, is also Head of the Commonwealth. Among the 53 constituent countries, there are 16 that form part of the Commonwealth realms (e.g. Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and Jamaica) and also have Queen Elizabeth as their monarch (Head of State).

 

Link to a video about Brexit and how confusing the political division of the UK is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=daB7np-RtOM

 

 

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em 29 de março de 2017

Professora Luciana,
Gostaria que se a senhora puder,enviasse a forma correta ( semantica e sintaxe) de meu texto em inglês .Muito obrigado. Frederick

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em 29 de março de 2017

I understood anything teacher,because my inglish(?) yet is poor.I would (?) like study this text (?) Whith you teacher someday.I houpe this it (is?) hapen (?).Thank you ,from (?)yours (?) futere (?) student
Frederick Chitarra.

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