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The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the parliamentary constitutional monarchy occupying the island of Great Britain, the small nearby islands (but not the Isle of Man or the Channel Islands), and the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland. Usually, it is shortened to the United Kingdom or the UK, or Britain. [5]
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 United Kingdom lies between latitudes 49° and 61° N, and longitudes 9° W and 2° E. Northern Ireland shares a 310-mile (499 km) land boundary with the Republic of Ireland. [136] The coastline of Great Britain is 11,073 miles (17,820 km) long, [139] though measurements can vary greatly due to the coastline paradox. [140]
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 United Kingdom is a founding member of the United Nations and one of five permanent members of the UN Security Council. [1] [2]As the fifth largest provider of financial contributions to the United Nations, the UK provided 5 percent of the UN budget in 2015, [3] and 6.7 percent of the peacekeeping budget. [4]
The Roman province of Britannia in 410. During the Roman occupation of Britain, the area of present-day England and Wales was administered as a single unit, except for the land to the north of Hadrian's Wall – though the Roman-occupied area varied in extent, and for a time extended to the Antonine/Severan Wall.
[156] [157] In Britain it is commonly understood as being a politically neutral geographical term, although it is sometimes used to refer to the United Kingdom or Great Britain alone. [ 158 ] [ 159 ] [ 160 ] [ 156 ] In the 2016 Oxford Dictionary Plus Social Sciences , Howard Sargeant describes the British Isles as "A geographical rather than a ...
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.