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poligny@webear.com Last updated on Enero 28, 2000
Touristic Countries
Copyright Poligny 1997/2000
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland consists of the before separated kingdoms of England and Scotland which with the principality of Wales are known as Great Britain and six counties of Northern Ireland who choose to remain within the Unighted Kingdom in 1921 when Southern Ireland withdrew to become the Irish Free State (since 1949 the Republic of Ireland or Eire). It also has several islands around the main territory or further as Bermudas, Man (near Ireland), Caiman (near Jamaica), Chanel Islands north of the french coast, Santa Elena some 1931kms west of Africa, and the mainland belonguing of Gibraltar.
The UK has 49m inhabitants, the capital is London 7m; large cities: Birmingham 1.1m, Leeds 0.7m, Glasgow 0.7m, Sheffield 0.5m..Head of kingdom Queen Elizabeth II (feb 1952), head of state=Prime Minister. The legislative power lies in two chambers, the Commons of 651p elected for 5 years and the Lords1222p (peers) part of them hereditary and part elected for life by the queen.
Even if traces of early settlements started at the Paleolitic era, the first real occupation was by Celts who came from the mainland. The Roman occupation started in AD 30.At the 5th century, after the decline of Roman Empire, the Anglo Saxons colonized the UK but both failed to go north and west where the Celtic civilization has persisted up to our days. The Danes, as part of a large Viking move from the 9th to the 11th century, conquered part of the easter costs of the UK. Normans conquered England in 1066 from the northern coasts of France.
The United Kingdom is the third most densely populated nation in Europe after the Netherlands and Belgium. Medical care is provided for free or for a minimum charge under the National Health Service. The best known english painters are Hogarth, Gainsborough, Turner, Constable, Blake, Bacon and Moore which in London can be seen at the National Gallery and the Tate Gallery. The Albert Hall and the Royal Festival Hall, as well as the Royal Ballet are worth visiting concert and dance centers of the world in London. In Scotland the major event in the arts is the 3-week annual Edinburgh International Festival of Music, Drama, and Art at the end of the summer.
Within Britain significant differences have long persisted between the highland and lowland zones. These zones may be demarcated by drawing an imaginary line from the Tyne River in the northeast to Exeter in the southwest. All the land to the south is the lowland zone, and all to the north and west, including Wales, Scotland, and Ireland, is the highland zone. There is a marked contrast in climate and culture between the two. The lowland was more accessible and open to influences from Europe, while the highland was more isolated and thus more conservative and inward-looking.
The Romans who stayed mainly in lowland brought with them the Christianism and at the 5th century Saint Ninian missionized in Scotland and Saint Patrick in Ireland. The Vikings, or Norsemen, raided all around northwestern Europe and made their most important settlement across the English Channel in Normandy. The duchy of Normandy became the most highly organized and militarily efficient state in Europe.
The Normans decided the future of England. Norman influence was already gaining ground under the last English king, Edward the Confessor, to whom the Norman duke William regarded himself as heir. On Edward's death (1066) William invaded England to claim the throne from the half-Danish Harold II. Harold was defeated at the Battle of Hastings. The Norman conqueror assumed the English crown as William I.
The Norman conquest brought England close to continental Europe in terms of cross-Channel relations with Normandy, France, and the Low Countries. However, the Norman genius for military and political organization meant that England was at last tightly pulled together under an enforced unity and rendered secure from outside invasion. It could now work out its own destiny.
Spain was determined to keep other Europeans out of the New World. Moreover, its efforts to suppress the revolt against Spanish rule in the Netherlands posed a direct threat to nearby England, especially since the Spanish king, Philip II, supported revolt against Elizabeth I. These factors precipitated a long war between England and Spain from 1585 to 1604. The defeat of the Sanish Armada of 1588 increased the self-confidence of the Elizabethans and gave a patriotic inspiration to the brilliant Elizabethan Age. This was expressed creatively in literature and the arts, in a general cultural renaissance, and in scientific development, particularly in cosmography and navigation. The work of William Shakespeare and others made the Elizabethan era one of the most creative periods in the history of drama.
Plantation in Ireland served as a blueprint for colonization in North America. After the war with Spain ended (1604), the London Company was founded, and Jamestown was established (1607) in Virginia. Efforts in New England were begun, but development there awaited the arrival of the Pilgrims in 1620 and the larger settlement of Puritans in the 1630s.
The accession (1603) of the Stuart, James VI of Scotland, to the English throne as James I brought the personal union of the Scottish and English crowns. Although institutional union of the two kingdoms did not occur until 1707, the whole of Great Britain was now united under a Scottish dynasty. It proved almost impossible, however, to hold the kingdoms together on one course. They differed in religion, even within each country, and this exacerbated political differences and produced conflicts, civil war, and rebellions at intervals throughout the 17th century.
England was largely Anglican. Scotland had been won over to the Calvinist Reformation by John Knox and emerged predominantly Presbyterian. Ireland remained Catholic, except for the now-Scottish Presbyterian northeast.
The surrounding sea has historically given England a security unknown to continental European countries. Invasions have been attempted, notably in 1588, 1805, and 1940, but English defense was aided by its protective moat formed by the English Channel and the North Sea.
The first and main place that tourists go in the UK is London. It is a city with strong character and lots of charming places. If you are there for shopping you would probably be at a hotel near Piccadilly Circus or New or Old Bond street. There you have the best known stores in the world and are within walking distance of them. Shop hours are from 8am to 5pm, so if you loose much time on lunch you will not have enough time left for purchases. The best byes in the UK are woolen goods, general garnments,umbrellas of course, HI FI equipment, smoked salmon, psion computers, church shoes, Burberry's raincoats,and finally some tea at Fortnum and Mason where at the upper floor you can have lunch with roast beef and a fashion show. On Savile Row you have Scotland Yard but also the most renown tailors of London and the world.Theatres are also excellent and a must. For more sofisticated buyers it is the world center for ancient silver goods and sometimes for modern art paintings.
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