UK (Great Britain)

Great Britain (Scottish Gaelic: Breatainn Mhòr, Welsh: Prydain Fawr) is the largest island of the British Isles, the largest island in Europe and the eighth-largest island in the world. more...

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It lies to the northwest of Continental Europe, with Ireland to the west, and makes up the largest part of the territory of the state known as the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. It is surrounded by over 1,000 smaller islands and islets.

The historic nations of England, Scotland and the principality of Wales are mostly situated on the island, along with their capital cities, London, Edinburgh and Cardiff respectively.

Geographical definition

Great Britain is the largest island of the British Isles. It lies to the northwest of Continental Europe, with Ireland to the west, and makes up the larger part of the territory of the United Kingdom. It is surrounded by 1000 smaller islands and islets. It occupies an area of 209,331 km² (80,823 square miles)

It is the third most populous island after Java and Honshū.

Great Britain stretches over about ten degrees of latitude on its longer, north–south axis. Geographically, the island is marked by low, rolling countryside in the east and south, while hills and mountains predominate in the western and northern regions. Before the end of the last ice age, Great Britain was a peninsula of Europe; the rising sea levels caused by glacial melting at the end of the ice age caused the formation of the English Channel, the body of water which now separates Great Britain from continental Europe at a minimum distance of 21 miles (34 km).

Political definition

"Great Britain" is the Eastern Island of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Politically, "Great Britain" describes the combination of England, Scotland, and Wales, and therefore also includes a number of outlying islands such as the Isle of Wight, Anglesey, the Isles of Scilly, the Hebrides, and the island groups of Orkney and Shetland, but does not include other outlying islands such as the Isle of Man or the Channel Islands.

Great Britain evolved politically into a union of England and Scotland from a personal union in 1603 with the Union of Crowns under James VI of Scotland. The political union that merged the two countries happened with the Acts of Union in 1707 which merged the parliaments of each nation and thus resulted in the formation of the Kingdom of Great Britain, which covered the entire island. In turn, in 1801, an Act of Union between Great Britain and Ireland created the larger United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (UK). The UK became the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in 1922 following the independence of five-sixths of Ireland as the Irish Free State.

Read more at Wikipedia.org