Hello lovely people,
If you’re new here, hi, I’m Jessica. I’m British and I live in the United Kingdom and,
even if you do too, you might not know the difference so today I’m going to be running
you through why exactly we’re such a confusing country.
- [cough] Religion [cough]
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Today I’ll be aided by this helpful graphic from Wikimedia
YEah
I'll leave a link in the description as well
Thank you
That was meant to make it look less confusing for you, not more.
We’ll start in the middle and then move outwards because that’s what conquering
invaders do and that’s how this whole mess was created…
- I feel guilty already.
This is England. It used to be a number of countries but around the 10th century they
realised that was a bit much and also there was a guy called Æthelstan who was great
at organising stuff and not dying long enough to make a difference.
This is Wales. Although it is its own country with its own flag and language and traditions,
England has always enjoyed pretending it isn’t and, like a much larger sibling, can be quite
a bully about it.
Remarkably, despite centuries of oppression, Welsh people managed to retain
some of their national identity, which had first emerged after the Romans withdrew in
the 5th century. At one time Wales had its own Kings and they even vaguely liked Æthelstan
(him again) because they chose to pay tribute to him… although this could have been just
so he would stop getting people to smack them over the head with sticks. The history books
are unclear.
Wales was first conquered by England in 1282 by Edward I but independence was briefly restored
in the early 15th century. But… they were annexed and incorporated within the English
legal system under the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542 thanks to Henry VIII, who was
himself partly Welsh and yes, was the one who had six wives. At the time bringing English
law to Wales was received well by Welsh gentry, who already spoke English and wanted to be
treated equally in law with English citizens, and not hugely well by Welsh peasants, who
were treated… like peasants who didn’t speak English. This was known as ‘The Kingdom
of England’ but we now say ‘England and Wales’ because even the government are trying
to be better people.
Many horrible things happened to Wales and to Welsh people in an attempt to crush down
their distinctive culture and language but admirably, with a population of currently
only around 3 million, they’ve managed to hold their own and keep their traditions alive.
No thanks to the English.
- you’re going to hear that a lot.
English people have a lot of guilt.
We then move on to the third country that makes up Great Britain: Scotland.
Another independent country that England ate and then… felt mildly bad about. But not
bad enough to actually let it go and do its own thing.
Scotland emerged as an independent sovereign state in around the 5th century and continued
to be such, often going to war with England, until the early 18th century because a hundred
years prior the English Queen had died without children and was thus succeeded by her Scottish
cousin (see my Mary Queen of Scots video for more on that- link in the card above) meaning
the monarchs became ‘King of England and Scotland’. They only kept this up for a
bit because it was confusing having two different countries to rule and the English government
like to take things that aren’t theirs. Scotland entering into this political union
in 1707 created the new Kingdom of Great Britain.
- That’s the centre bit of this diagram.
There we go: ‘Great Britain’. GB. That wasn’t so hard, right?
Is just that one island!
Yeah… it’s about to get more confusing.
The ‘United Kingdom’ was created in 1801 when the aforementioned Great Britain entered
into a political union with the Kingdom of Ireland. Now, Ireland the island (yes the
whole thing) was already a Kingdom of the English Monarch, much like Scotland, but from
even earlier…
King Henry II of England had invaded Ireland and given the section of it he won to his
son John in 1177. John was the Lord of Ireland and… was also a 10-year-old. When John succeeded
to the English throne in 1199, he remained Lord of Ireland thereby bringing the kingdom
of England and the lordship of Ireland into union. Not that the Irish were very happy
about it. Although the island was supposed to be ruled by the English monarch from the
mid 13th century the area they controlled shrank drastically because they were too scared
to actually go over there to do something about it.
Didn’t stop them taxing everyone
though. At the end of the 14th century King Richard II went to go sort it out but lost
his English throne in the process and that was the last time a medieval king of England
visited Ireland.
Smart move.
In 1542, King Henry VIII of England (yes, him again with the wives),
was made King of Ireland and the
English began establishing control over the island by confiscating land from Irish people
and hitting them over the head with sticks.
- history is so friendly
The Kingdom of Ireland was considered a client state of England (and then ‘Great Britain’
when Scotland was smushed with England). A ‘client state’ means a state that is economically,
politically, or militarily subordinate to another more powerful state in international
affairs. Basically everyone under England.
Sorry. There will be some others popping up
so keep that in mind.
It was ruled by the monarch of Great Britain via a viceroy, who ruled in their stead (basically
saying whatever the monarch told him to say)
- and it was always a ‘him’.
It did however have its own laws, aristocracy and state church… the ‘Protestant Church
of Ireland’.
Which wasn’t great since most of the population were Catholic. This was the cause of many
wars that broke out since not only is it pretty awful when someone comes, takes over your
country and tells you what to do, it’s particularly awful if they bring religion into it. Catholics
were officially discriminated against in the Kingdom of Ireland which lead to several violent
conflicts.
In 1800 the Parliament of Ireland passed
the Acts of Union by which it abolished itself and the Kingdom, instead establishing the
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland on the first day of 1801.
So there you go. The United Kingdom. Both of these Islands, plus all these other little ones
6,000 islands!
minus the Isle of Man (the tiny island in the middle that likes to do its own thing-
but we’ll get to that in a minute), became one thing: United.
- [awkward beat]
Except not really because that’s not how history works! Or geography. Or anthropology.
You can’t just hit someone on the head with a stick and expect that they’ll then willingly
do whatever you say forever.
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland lasted from 1801 until 1921 and was marked
by a period of rapid industrialisation and expansion for the British empire where it
became the foremost world power. My parents used to spend their geography classes in primary
school colouring a quarter of the world in pink apparently.
- my parents weren’t born before 1920, the school system in Britain is just incredibly
slow to change.
However, the British weren’t great when it came to looking after their own subjects
as shown by the Great Irish Famine from 1845 to 1849 when around a million people died
and a million more emigrated from Ireland, causing the island’s population to fall
by 25%. The famine was exacerbated by government inaction and lead to an increase in desire
for Irish self-governance and eventually the Irish War of Independence, which resulted
in most of Ireland seceding from the Union and forming the Irish Free State in 1922.
Why not all of Ireland? Well… that’s a long and complex issue that someone more qualified
than me will be happy to explain to you in another video.
Find an Irish person.
But to cut short an incredibly lengthy explanation: This top bit of the island to the left is
called ‘Northern Island’ and the bottom, larger part is the Republic of Ireland. And
this means that the United Kingdom was renamed ‘The United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Northern Island’ in 1927.
Although, this long title is rarely used and instead we tend to refer to our
country-that-is-actually-a-number-of-countries
as ‘The UK’.
So in summary:
Great Britain is the island on the right, it’s made up of England, Wales and Scotland.
Ireland is the island on the left, it’s made up of Ireland and Northern Ireland.
The United Kingdom is the political unit of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
The British Islands are The United Kingdom plus three tiny islands:
The Isle of Man, which is a self governing British crown dependency of around 80,000
people between the island of Ireland and the island of Great Britain, and-
- fun fact! In 1881 the Isle of Man’s parliament became the first national legislative body
in the world to give women the right to vote in a general election... although they excluded
married women.
Jersey, another small island and British crown dependency- but slightly bigger with just
over 100,000 people and a LOT closer to France than it is to the British mainland.
And Guernsey, 60,000 people who are only marginally further away from France.
The three islands (along with Sark and Alderney but they’re both really small) are, again,
not part of the UK, even though they’re British.
The ‘British Isles’ is a collective term used for Great Britain, Ireland and the over
6,000 small islands surrounding them.
And to anyone from the Republic of Ireland who is offended by the inclusion of Ireland
the island in the British Isles… I see your pain but also: the islands are grouped together.
Granted, ‘British Isles’ is itself an antiquated colonial term that should have
ceased to apply to Ireland once it withdrew from the Act of Union in 1922 but yet, like
many things from the British empire- The Union Jack, afternoon tea, racism and general warmth
towards the Queen-
- one of these things is not like the other.
It continues.
The word ‘British’ is the issue because, although it can be used to describe all of
the islands and countries that sit within English, Welsh, Scottish and Irish sovereignty…
The Republic of Ireland is not within Great Britain…
Which is called ‘Great Britain’ because during the Middle Ages the name Britain was
also applied to a small part of France (because the King of England was actually French) that
is now known as Brittany. As a result ‘Great Britain’ came into use in reference specifically
to the bigger island bit.
By the way, I’m posting this before the UK election on the 12th December 2019 and
Scottish independence has been a hot topic so maybe by the time you’re watching this
the UK looks different…
I really hope you’ve enjoyed this video. It was surprisingly hard to talk through whilst
attempting not to offend anyone.
Does the area you live in have any interesting naming quirks you want to explain? Are you
Are you Dutch?
- I feel like my geography classes lied to me about the difference between Holland and
The Netherlands.
Thank you for watching and I’ll see you in my next video!
That's just my face.
[Clara laughs after successfully winding Jessica up]
Clara: I'm looking forward to learning about the difference which I clearly don't know...
Ok
Clara: off I go
Bye friend!
Clara: byeee