United Kingdom A Country Study Guide

United Kingdom, island country located off the northwestern coast of mainland Europe. The United Kingdom comprises the whole of the island of Great Britain—which contains England, Wales, and Scotland—as well as the northern portion of the island of Ireland. The name Britain is sometimes used to refer to the United Kingdom as a whole. The capital is London, which is among the world’s leading commercial, financial, and cultural centres. Other major cities include Birmingham, Liverpool, Belfast and Londonderry in Northern Ireland, Edinburgh and Glasgow in Scotland, and Swansea and Cardiff in Wales. The United Kingdom has many cities. England is home to London, the biggest city in the United Kingdom and also its capital city. There are also many other big cities in England including Birmingham, Liverpool, Leeds, Bristol and Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Scotland has the big cities of Edinburgh and Glasgow. Cardiff and Swansea are in Wales and Belfast is in Northern Ireland. The United Kingdom had a dominating empire named the British Empire. At its height in 1922, more than 458 million people lived in the British Empire, one-fifth of the Earth's population. Its area was 13,012,000 square miles, almost a quarter of the Earth's land area. The British Empire was often called 'the empire on which the sun never sets', that describes a large empire, because the sun is always shining on at least one of its territories. The book encapsulates more than two thousand five hundred years of history. It includes chapters on the origin and growth of political parties in England and also the impact of major internal and international events on contemporary life in England.