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Great Britain (commonly shortened to Britain) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-west coast of continental Europe, consisting of the countries England, Scotland, and Wales. With an area of 209,331 km 2 (80,823 sq mi), it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island, and the ninth-largest island in the world.
The Acts of Union 1707 declared that the Kingdom of England and Kingdom of Scotland were "United into One Kingdom by the Name of Great Britain". [p] [22] The term "United Kingdom" has occasionally been used as a description for the former Kingdom of Great Britain, although its official name from 1707 to 1800 was simply "Great Britain". [23]
The Kingdom of Great Britain, officially known as Great Britain, [4] was a sovereign state in Western Europe from 1707 [5] to the end of 1800. The state was created by the 1706 Treaty of Union and ratified by the Acts of Union 1707, which united the kingdoms of England (including Wales) and Scotland to form a single kingdom encompassing the whole island of Great Britain and its outlying ...
The Acts of Union 1707 refer to both England and Scotland as a "part" of a united kingdom of Great Britain. [23] The Acts of Union 1800 use "part" in the same way to refer to England and Scotland. However, they use the word "country" to describe Great Britain and Ireland respectively, when describing trade between them. [24]
The Kingdom of Great Britain came into being on 1 May 1707, as a result of the political union of the Kingdom of England (which included Wales) and the Kingdom of Scotland under the Treaty of Union. This combined the two kingdoms into a single kingdom and merged the two parliaments into a single parliament of Great Britain.
A campaign by the lawyer Daniel O'Connell, and the death of George III, led to the concession of Catholic emancipation in 1829, allowing Roman Catholics to sit in the Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Catholic emancipation was not O'Connell's real goal, which was the repeal of the act of union with Great Britain.
The formation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland has involved personal and political union across Great Britain and the wider British Isles. The United Kingdom is the most recent of a number of sovereign states that have been established in Great Britain at different periods in history, in different combinations and ...
Britain most often refers to: Great Britain , a large island comprising the countries of England, Scotland and Wales The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland , a sovereign state in Europe comprising Great Britain and the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland.