Portal:United Kingdom


The United Kingdom Portal

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in north-western Europe, off the coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The UK includes the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland, and most of the smaller islands within the British Isles, covering 94,354 square miles (244,376 km2). Northern Ireland shares a land border with the Republic of Ireland; otherwise, the UK is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, the North Sea, the English Channel, the Celtic Sea and the Irish Sea. It maintains sovereignty over the British Overseas Territories, which are located across various oceans and seas globally. The UK had an estimated population of over 68.2 million people in 2023. The capital and largest city of both England and the UK is London. The cities of Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast are the national capitals of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland respectively.

The UK has been inhabited continuously since the Neolithic. In AD 43 the Roman conquest of Britain began; the Roman departure was followed by Anglo-Saxon settlement. In 1066 the Normans conquered England. With the end of the Wars of the Roses the Kingdom of England stabilised and began to grow in power, resulting by the 16th century in the annexation of Wales and the establishment of the British Empire. Over the course of the 17th century the role of the British monarchy was reduced, particularly as a result of the English Civil War. In 1707 the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of Scotland united under the Treaty of Union to create the Kingdom of Great Britain. In the Georgian era the office of prime minister became established. The Acts of Union 1800 incorporated the Kingdom of Ireland to create the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland in 1801. Most of Ireland seceded from the UK in 1922 as the Irish Free State, and the Royal and Parliamentary Titles Act 1927 created the present United Kingdom.

The UK became the first industrialised country and was the world's foremost power for the majority of the 19th and early 20th centuries, particularly during the Pax Britannica between 1815 and 1914. The British Empire was the leading economic power for most of the 19th century, a position supported by its agricultural prosperity, its role as a dominant trading nation, a massive industrial capacity, significant technological achievements, and the rise of 19th-century London as the world's principal financial centre. At its height in the 1920s the empire encompassed almost a quarter of the world's landmass and population, and was the largest empire in history. However, its involvement in the First World War and the Second World War damaged Britain's economic power, and a global wave of decolonisation led to the independence of most British colonies. (Full article...)

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The Restoration spectacular, or elaborately staged "machine play", hit the London public stage in the late 17th-century Restoration period, enthralling audiences with action, music, dance, moveable scenery, baroque illusionistic painting, gorgeous costumes, and special effects such as trapdoor tricks, "flying" actors, and fireworks. These shows have always had a bad reputation as a vulgar and commercial threat to the witty, "legitimate" Restoration drama; however, they drew Londoners in unprecedented numbers and left them dazzled and delighted. Basically home-grown and with roots in the early 17th-century court masque, though never ashamed of borrowing ideas and stage technology from French opera, the spectaculars are sometimes called "English opera". The expense of mounting ever more elaborate scenic productions drove the two competing theatre companies into a dangerous spiral of huge expenditure and correspondingly huge losses or profits. (Full article...)

James II became King of England, King of Scots, and King of Ireland on 6 February 1685. He was the last Roman Catholic monarch to reign over the Kingdom of England, Kingdom of Scotland, and Kingdom of Ireland. Some of his subjects distrusted his religious policies and alleged despotism, leading a group of them to depose him in the Revolution of 1688 (the "Glorious Revolution"). He was replaced not by his Roman Catholic son, James Francis Edward, but by his Protestant daughter and son-in-law, Mary II and William III, who became joint rulers in 1689. The belief that James—not William III or Mary II—was the legitimate ruler became known as Jacobitism. James did not himself attempt to return to the Throne, instead living the rest of his life under the protection of King Louis XIV of France. His son James Francis Edward Stuart and his grandson Charles Edward Stuart (Bonnie Prince Charlie) attempted to restore the Jacobite line after James's death, but failed. (Full article...)

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United Kingdom

UK-wide
UK geography · UK politics
Selected area-based projects
England (London) · Scotland · Northern Ireland · Wales (Cardiff)
Subject-specific projects
Baronetcies · Clans of Scotland · Cricket · Terry Pratchett's Discworld · Football clubs · Sherlock Holmes · British military history · Peerage

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In the news

10 July 2025 – France–United Kingdom relations
French president Emmanuel Macron and United Kingdom prime minister Keir Starmer announce a joint migration deal for the UK to deport illegal migrants to France in exchange for accepting asylum seekers with British family connections. (DW)
10 July 2025 –
The United Kingdom's National Crime Agency arrests four people for conducting cyberattacks as part of an organized crime ring against national retailers Marks & Spencer, Harrods, and Co-op Food. (AP)
6 July 2025 – Middle Eastern crisis
Liberian-flagged bulk carrier Magic Seas is attacked by the Houthis with small arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades in the Red Sea forcing the crew to abandon ship, according to the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operation. (NOS) (ABC News Australia)
28 June 2025 –
The United Kingdom Border Force seizes 2.4 metric tons of cocaine worth £96 million (US$132 million) from a ship from Panama, reportedly one of the country's largest drug busts. (AP)
23 June 2025 – Gaza war protests
The United Kingdom announces it will ban the direct action protest network Palestine Action on anti-terrorism grounds after the group broke into the RAF Brize Norton base and vandalized two planes. (AP)
20 June 2025 – Middle Eastern crisis
Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi meets with the foreign ministers of the United Kingdom, Germany, France and European Union in Geneva for talks about its nuclear program. (AP)

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