Britain Explored

Britain explored

Geography of Britain

Highland and lowland Britain

Britain is unpredictable in climate and varied in scenery. In particular, there is a dramatic contrast between highland and lowland Britain. The most precise distinction is geological.

North – West

• The rocks of most of the north and west of Great Britain are harder and older than those of the south and east.
• These older rocks are covered by large areas of moorland (Lake District, the Pennines, and much of Scotland and Wales where the soils are poor, thin, and stony).
• These areas are wetter and harder to reach.
• As a result, these areas of the British Isles are thinly populated (except where coal or iron have been discovered).

South – East

• The south and east are rarely flat: here, there aren’t high continuous moorlands but bands of hills which alternate with areas of lowland.
• The soils are generally deeper and richer.
• The climate is drier.
• So, the human settlement in these areas is dense and more spread.

Population: Although Britain is densely populated, there are large areas which contain fewer than 100 people per square kilometer (much of Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland). Densities of more than 500 people per square kilometer are only found in the main industrial areas (Midlands and South-East England). There are only five cities with a population over 500,000 (although Manchester, Liverpool, and Newcastle exceed this figure if neighboring towns are included).

The weather: Britain is as far north as Canada’s Hudson Bay or Siberia. Average temperatures in England and Wales vary from 4°C in January to 16°C in July and August. In Scotland, averages are one or two degrees cooler, and an average July day is about as warm as Marseilles in December. The wind brings rain from the Atlantic to the hills of the west: this means that the western parts of Britain are wetter than the east, which is fairly sheltered. London is drier than continental cities such as Hamburg. Its weather may be unpredictable, but it is not particularly wet.

Land use: Over three-quarters of Britain’s land is used for farming, but less than 2 per cent of the working population works on farms. These farms produce nearly half of the food that Britain needs, including 85% of its wheat, nearly all of its milk and eggs, and nearly half of its sugar.

Great Britain and the United Kingdom

“Great Britain” is a geographical expression, but “The United Kingdom” is a political expression. Great Britain is, in fact, the biggest of the group of islands which lie between the North Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. It is approximately two and a half times the size of Ireland, the second largest. Together they are called the British Isles. The British Isles today are shared by two separate and independent states. The smaller of these is the Republic of Ireland, with its capital in Dublin. The larger, with London as its capital, is the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. This long title is the result of a complicated history.

The island of Great Britain contains three “nations” which were separate at earlier stages of their history: England, Scotland, and Wales. Wales had become part of the English administrative system by the sixteenth century. Scotland was not completely united with England until 1707. The United Kingdom is a name which was introduced in 1801 when Great Britain became united with Ireland. When the Republic of Ireland became independent of London in 1922, the title was changed to its present form.

“Britain” and “British” have two meanings. They sometimes refer to Great Britain alone, and sometimes to the UK including Northern Ireland.

Scottish history

There were constant wars between England and the quite separate Kingdom of Scotland from the eleventh to the sixteenth centuries. Some important events in Scottish history are:

• 1603: James VI of Scotland became also James I of England when Queen Elizabeth I of England died without children.
• 1651: Scotland was united with England and Wales although it kept its own parliament.
• 1707: England and Scotland were joined by an Act of Union which abolished the Scottish parliament.
• 1715 and 1745: Rebellions by “Jacobites” who wanted a Catholic king. The English parliament had invited the Dutch Protestant William of Orange to rule Britain. In 1745 the Jacobite hope was Prince Charles Edward Stuart “Bonny Prince Charlie”.
• 1746: Bonny Prince Charlie was finally defeated at Culloden, near Inverness. The people of the Highlands were forced to emigrate to make room for sheep farms.
• Today: Since 1999 Scotland has had its own parliament in Edinburgh, with a wide range of responsibilities such as education and health.

Welsh history

• 1301: After defeating the native princes of Wales, King Edward I of England named his son “Prince of Wales”.
• 1536: Wales was brought into the English system of national and local government by an Act of Union.
• 1850: South Wales became heavily industrialized in the nineteenth century.
• Today: Since 1999 Wales has had its own National Assembly in Cardiff.

Welsh and Gaelic

Most of Britain was inhabited by Celts until the fourth century. Their languages were not related to English. In the fourth century, the Anglo-Saxons invaded Britain from Northern Germany and Denmark, and their language formed the basis of the English we speak today. Two Celtic languages survive there: Welsh and Gaelic. Welsh is spoken by half a million people, 20 per cent of the population of Wales. Gaelic is used in the Republic of Ireland, where it is the first official language, and in Scotland.

Irish history

• 1155: King Henry II of England was made king of all Ireland by the Pope.
• 1541: King Henry VIII of England, self-declared head of a new English Protestant church, was recognized as King of Ireland by the English parliament. Later, his daughter Elizabeth I broke the power of the Irish kings.
• 1609: In a further move against Irish Catholics, their land was given to tens of thousands of Protestants from England and the Scottish Lowlands.
• 1689: The Dutch Protestant William of Orange had been invited by the English parliament to become King of England instead of the current king, James II, who was a Catholic. James still claimed to be king of Ireland, but the Protestants in Ulster fought against him.
• 1690: William of Orange finally defeated James II in Ireland at the Battle of the Boyne. Since then, there has been no Catholic king or queen in Britain.
• 1703: By this time, only 14 per cent of Irish land was still owned by Catholics.
• 1800: Act of Union between Great Britain and Ireland.
• 1845-1849: The Great Famine. Repeated failure of the Irish potato harvest caused death and suffering. Between 1840 and 1900, the population of Ireland fell from 8.5 million to 4.5 million. Two million people emigrated to the United States, Canada, and Australia. In the same period, the population of England doubled.
• 1922: Partition of Ireland. The Catholic South became the Irish Free State with its parliament in Dublin. The Protestant North continued to be part of the United Kingdom, but with its own local parliament in Belfast.
• 1969: The British army was sent to Northern Ireland after disturbances between Protestants and Catholics.
• 1998: The Good Friday Agreement was signed between the British and Irish governments and the political parties in Northern Ireland to create an elected National Assembly for Northern Ireland, including representatives of both the Protestant and the Catholic communities.

The constitution

The system of government: The constitution has 3 branches: Parliament, which makes laws, the Government, which “executes” laws, and the law courts, which interpret laws. Although the Queen is officially head of all three branches, she has little direct power.

Parliament has 2 parts: the House of Commons and the House of Lords. Members of the House of Commons are elected by the voters of about 650 constituencies. They are known as MPs, or Members of Parliament. The Prime Minister, or leader of the Government, is also an MP.