For Americans, the best analogy would be that the UK is like the USA, whilst its four consistent countries are like states. There is a long and complicated history that follows the formation of the United Kingdom, but here are the highlights: c. Established by the unification of Anglo-Saxon tribes across modern day England. Ireland joins the union, and once again the name changes. This is the UK that remains to this day. So when was the UK established? The United Kingdom coloured in red with the Republic of Ireland in grey.
The Commonwealth of Nations is a voluntary association of 52 states or countries that were formerly part of the British Empire. This does not include the United States. These are identified as Commonwealth realms. However, they still participate in the partnership. The Commonwealth has no constitution. The Singapore Declaration of Commonwealth Principles, however, states that the Commonwealth is "a voluntary association of independent sovereign states each responsible for its own policies, consulting and co-operating in the common interests of their peoples and in the promotion of international understanding and world peace.
England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. The Commonwealth of Nations The Commonwealth of Nations is a voluntary association of 52 states or countries that were formerly part of the British Empire.
See also:. Trending Here are the facts and trivia that people are buzzing about. Within the U. Non-Brits tweeting about brexit : you need this. Though bound to the Crown and tied together in unity, the individual countries within the U. Welsh , for example, is the official language in Wales even though the official language in the U. Since becoming a republic in the s, the Republic of Ireland which shares a border with Northern Ireland has operated as a sovereign state of its own.
To make things even easier, UK is used as an abbreviation of the whole thing. And what exactly is that whole thing? To review, it is a country made up of the island known both as Britain and Great Britain as well as the portion of the island of Ireland that is the country of Northern Ireland.
Most of the various small islands included in the term British Isles are part of Scotland that is, the Hebrides, the Shetland Islands, and the Orkney Islands or England the Isles of Scilly ; the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands aren't technically part of the UK, but they're self-governing possessions of it.
Just what exactly that means is, we're afraid, outside the scope of this explainer, which, frankly, has to draw a line somewhere. Welcome to another major below!
The terms Britain and Great Britain are, as we said above, synonymous geographical terms referring to the largest of the islands in the British Isles. If this seems somehow unfair to the outsider trying to refer to these various entities accurately, consider this: there is no simple adjective to be made from "United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland," or from "United Kingdom," or from "UK.
And if that adjective applies so handily, can the nouns Britain and Great Britain in a corollary application be denied, practically-speaking? We think not. To further confound matters and all of us, both Britain and Great Britain are used to refer to something also known as the " Commonwealth of Nations " or the "Commonwealth," and formerly as the "British Commonwealth" or the "British Commonwealth of Nations.
We're unashamed to declare here that further details on this association are likewise outside the scope of this explainer.
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