This article is about the current Great British kingdom, for the previous kingdoms, see Kingdom of England, Kingdom of Scotland, Kingdom of Great Britain and United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
The United Kingdom, officially the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and also commonly referred to as the UK, is a country in Western Europe.
History[]
The Kingdom of Great Britain was created in 1707 after the Kingdom of England and Kingdom of Scotland united into one nation. It managed to expand its colonial empire in North America after beat France in the Seven Years' War. However, Great Britain fell into massive debts, so it taxed the Thirteen Colonies. The American colonists decided to rebel against Great Britain and won independence in 1783. Great Britain joined a European coalition against Revolutionary France due to multiple reasons. The United Kingdom would fight in the Napoleonic Wars against Napoleon's First French Empire and win. It extensively expanded its colonial empire in Asia and Africa during the next century. At the start of WW1, the United Kingdom was neutral. However, after Belgium was invaded by Germany, the UK declared war on Germany. It won the war and got some land as a result. Great Britain and France entered WW2 when they declared war on Nazi Germany, which invaded Poland in 1939. France fell in 1940, and the United States sent some supplies to Britain. In 1941, the Soviet Union and the United States entered the war on the Allied side due to German and Japanese aggression. During the Cold War, Great Britain joined NATO to counter the spread of Soviet communism. Also, its empire started to fall apart after WW2. In 2022, Prime Minister Boris Johnson resigned, and Queen Elizabeth II died after a very lengthy 70 year reign, and they were succeeded by Liz Truss and Charles III perspectively.
Constituent Countries[]
- England
- Northern Ireland
- Scotland
- Wales
Crown Dependencies[]
- Guernsey
- Jersey
- Isle of Man
Overseas Territories[]
- Akrotiri and Dhekalia
- Anguilla
- Bermuda
- British Antarctic Territory
- British Indian Ocean Territory
- British Virgin Islands
- Cayman Islands
- Falkland Islands
- Gibraltar
- Montserrat
- Pitcairn Islands
- Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha
- Saint Helena
- Ascension Island
- Tristan da Cunha
- South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands
- Turks and Caicos Islands
Trivia[]
- Almost all of the paintings in the UK are holding a teacup.
Gallery[]
| Countries in WW2 (template) |
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Australia •
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| Countries in the Cold War (template) |
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United States • United Kingdom • France • Norway • Denmark • West Germany • The Netherlands • Belgium • Luxembourg • Spain • Portugal • Iceland • Greece • Turkey • Italy Soviet Union • Polish People's Republic • Czechoslovak Socialist Republic • Hungarian People's Republic • Socialist Republic of Romania • People's Republic of Bulgaria • East Germany |