Britain

Britain is an island off the north-west coast of Europe, north of France. The Romans called it Britannia.

Terms:

Britain: the large island north of France. It has three kingdoms: England, Wales and Scotland. The English, Welsh and Scottish are all British, because they are from the island of Britain. Only the English are English. Britain is also called Great Britain (same thing).

United Kingdom: UK for short, is made up of Northern Ireland and the three kingdoms of Britain. But people often say Britain when they mean the UK.

The British Isles means the two islands of Britain and Ireland together.

Britain, which was at the edge of the world in Roman times, became the centre of the world in the 1800s when it was the seat of the British Empire.

Through its empire, it has spread its ways of doing things to other countries. Its language, English, is now the most widely known language in the world. Its way of life of big cities and big business in place of farms and small towns has taken over the world.

Its people settled in America, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Kenya, Zimbabwe and South Africa. They wiped out the people in North America and Australia and brought African slaves to North America and the Caribbean.

As an island, the warships of its navy are far more important than its army. By the 1700s it had the best navy in the world.

Today Britain is no longer the top power in the world, as it was in the years between Napoleon and Hitler (1815-1939). It still has an excellent military, but no longer the most powerful.

With the rise of the European Union, Britain has divided loyalties between Europe and America. So far it has never had to choose. But if it came to a choice right now, it would probably choose America, a daughter nation which saved its neck in the Second World War.

Britain as an island has been spared the worst of the European wars that have taken place down through the ages. Julius Caesar, Napoleon and Hitler were not able to take over the island. It has not seen a foreign enemy on its soil in almost a thousand years. The last time was in 1066 when William the Conqueror took over England.

Britain has been less war-torn than most of Europe. It has not had civil war or revolution since the 1600s. The government itself has not been successfully overturned since 1485. True, a king was put to death in 1649, but the king’s men won in the end.

Unlike France, Britain has progressed not by killing its kings but by slow, bit-by-bit change down through the years. This might seem too slow for some, but it is faster in the long run because the country is always moving forwards, never back.

Britain was backward in science and invention till the 1500s but then became one of the leading countries, giving us Francis Bacon, Newton, Darwin and the industrial revolution.

See also:

• The British
• Are the British human?
• British Empire
• English
• Christianity
• Hitler
• France
• A guide to Anglos
• prime ministers
  • Churchill
  • Margaret Thatcher
  • Gordon Brown