United Kingdom, Great Britain, England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales... CONFUSED???

NEXT, watch some of my other videos about life and customs in England and the UK:

TRANSCRIPT

Hi, everyone. In this lesson we're going to look at the geography of the United Kingdom and we're also going to look at some culture related to all the different terms we use to describe Great Britain, England... All these different words, when do we use them? So we're going to break it down and look at that.

Let's start with the name. The official name is United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, but often we just say "UK" because it's such a long country name, so we just say UK. I drew a map. My map is not to scale. And I tried my best, but it was hard to do it with the pens on the board, so we're going to show you a correct map. We've got England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. And the dotted line shows where Northern Ireland ends. This part is part of the United Kingdom; this part is not. More on that later.

So, the UK is a sovereign state or we could say a sovereign country. This means that they make all their own laws, and they govern themselves. So, the UK is a sovereign state or a sovereign country. But the reason that's confusing is that we... When we're talking or when we're describing a place in the world, we talk about Scotland, England, Wales, and Ireland as being countries. So, you think: "Is...? If the UK is a country, are Scotland, England, Wales, and Ireland also a country?" Well, they are, but they don't make their own laws. So, we have a word for it and we can call them "constituent countries". We can say England is a constituent country of the United Kingdom. We can say Scotland is a constituent country of the United Kingdom, etc. Okay.

Now it gets more confusing because when we're talking about the UK, we can say it's made up of those countries - Scotland, England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. We can also say it's made up of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Great Britain is this land mass, this island shape, here; and Northern Ireland is part of the land mass, the island of Ireland. So, if we put this bit and this bit together, we get the United Kingdom.

Great Britain has three constituent countries. Remember, this is Great Britain, Scotland, England, and Wales make up Great Britain. Britain... Now we're getting smaller. This is Britain, England, and Wales. So, I can say: "I'm from Britain", because I'm from... I was born about here in London, so I can say: "I'm from Britain".

Now, we have another term called "The British Isles". The British Isles is a geographic term, so we use it to describe a place on the map. And the British Isles would include everything we see here. Actually, perhaps except these islands. These islands are called Jersey and Guernsey, and they're closer to France. But the British Isles could describe everything here in a geographic sense. And I wasn't able to draw all the islands, but there's actually over 6,000 islands up in Scotland, some down here as well. So, many, many islands.

But the trouble with that term, to say the British Isles is that some people in Ireland don't like that term to describe... To include them because it makes it sound like Ireland, it's British, even though Ireland is independent. Ireland is a sovereign country by itself. So some people object to calling this the British Isles.

If you do object to calling it the British Isles, you can say the North Atlantic-I can never say this word-Archipelago. Archipelago. And this means, like, collection of islands. And the place in the world is in the North Atlantic. Right. […]

[Pontie]

Jade has become my favorite in this channel. She's a genuine charm to teach, she's smart definitely my number 1.

[pch]

Can we just take a moment to appreciate that this was all done in one take? Even for native inhabitants, this is a seriously confusing subject. For example, I never knew Britain and Great Britain weren't synonyms.

[henrimacaulay]

Really good try! Scots law is different and always has been. Also the people of Scotland are sovereign - not the monarch. Always have been. Scots language is not a dialect - it is as old as old English and both developed at the same time. Scotland also has Gaelic which is far older than Scots or English and has roots in indo european protolanguage. Other that all that - you did really well explaining it all!

[evancortez]

Well, speaking as a citizen of a former British colony, I would have to say this video is very informative and opened my eyes to a lot of things I never realized before. British people no matter where they are from, England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland - have a lot to be proud of.

[pishedbloke]

I've had my Scottish pounds rejected by shops in London which was quite annoying.

[GuilhermeTeacher]

You're an excellent teacher. I greatly appreciate your work. Please keep it up!

[unknown-jrxe]

Great Britain = England + Wales + Scotland
UK = England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland
Ireland = Republic of Ireland + Northern Ireland
British Isles = England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland + Republic of Ireland

Btw ma’am, I don’t understand the one with “Britain = England + Wales” what is that supposed to mean? Scotland should be there.

[StewartBlues]

Also Scotland makes it's own laws!

[yousefalghamdi]

that is a great and charm lesson, actually your channel is one of the most important channel here in YouTube.

best wish for you, ,

[cameronmacleod]

Scottish law is differeant from English it was part of th treaty of Union!

[herminesuchyan]

I have never seen such a perfect explanation about a country.Thank you very much..

[joshadams]

As a non-r-dropping American, I chuckled to hear you say what sounded like “the island of island”.

[mark]

The United Kingdom comprises of the Four Home Nations - England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Scotland and Northern Ireland operate separate legal systems to the legal system that covers England and Wales. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have devolved legislatures that have limited powers to pass laws over devolved matters. England is governed by Parliament at Westminster and for some English this is a rather controversial arrangement...

In 1277 Edward I invaded Wales and by 1283 the country had been subjugated and annexed to the Kingdom of England. Since then the title Prince of Wales has been bestowed on the eldest son of the reigning Monarch. Edward I turned his gaze north to the Kingdom of Scotland and looked to take the country in order to satiate his imperial ambitions. He saw his chance in 1290 following the sudden death of Alexander III in 1287 and his heir, Margaret of Norway, who died in 1290. This left the country without a King or Queen (Interregnum). During the interregnum there were various competing claims, most notably those of Robert Bruce and John Balliol, to the Throne of Scotland and eager to resolve the succession crisis the Scottish Nobles turned to Edward. Edward judged that Balliol (the great x3 grandson of David I) had the strongest claim to the Crown and Balliol was crowned King of Scotland in 1292. The Scottish Nobles soon recognised that Scotland had become a vassal state of the English. The Scots did not like that and they ousted Balliol in 1296. Although there were numerous conflicts between England and Scotland the Kingdom of Scotland remained sovereign.

In 1542 Henry VIII was proclaimed King of Ireland and England and Ireland were united. The union, which had been plagued with violence and conflict, was to last until 1921 when London passed the Government of Ireland Act. It was another year before the Irish Free State was declared and six counties in the north decided to remain part of the UK.

On the death of Elizabeth I, daughter of King Henry VIII, in 1603 King James VI of Scotland, son of Mary Queen of Scots and Lord Darnley, ascended to the Throne of England thus uniting the Kingdom of Scotland and the Kingdom of England and Ireland. This event is known as the Personal Union of the Crowns. Although James VI (he was known as James I in England) ruled over both Kingdoms they remained separate legal and political entities. James was the first Monarch to be recognised as King of Great Britain. In 1605 a dastardly Catholic plot to assassinate the King, by blowing up the Houses of Parliament, was foiled and to this day we celebrate this on 5th November by burning an effigy of Guy Fawkes one of the conspirator. "Remember, remember the 5th of November, gunpowder treason and plot. I know of no reason why gunpowder and treason should ever be forgot".

In 1707 Anne Queen of Great Britain, the last of the Stewart Monarchs (the Royal House of Scotland) signed the Acts of Union which united the Kingdoms politically with power being centred on London.

You should never refer to Northern Ireland, Wales or Scotland as England - this will cause grave offence amongst some. The British Isles refers to the archipelago, but again we don't particularly use this term. The rules are thus - when referencing the whole country it's safe to us the term UK (for most) and when referencing one of the Home Nations you use the name for example Scotland.

[ameliemuller]

I'm doing a presentation on this exact topic so your video helped me a lot! Thank you :)

[shawnkovac]

wow! great video! thanks for the info! beautiful video! hello from 'across the pond' too! (from the USA)
I just learned today that all this was one big mess. and you explain it nicely, Jade! thanks again!!

[thedrammed]

Scotland has its own separate legal system, it makes its own laws, it always has.

[Posraldescu]

This is the best explanation I've ever heard about this topic, thanks a lot.

[andiemorgan]

Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have separate governing bodies that have legislative power over their regions.
Scotland even has a different education and legal system.

[HadiLePanda]

Awesome, learned a lot about the UK :)

[edp]

At 11:20 : THANK YOU, JADE. The naming of the Olympic team representing what I thought of as the United Kingdom was confusing to me. It seemed to be incorrect to name the team "Great Britain", since that is a geographic term, being the name of the largest island in the British isles archipelago. It seemed to be that it should be "team UK". However, it hadn't occurred to me what the situation was for athletes from Northern Ireland. Understanding a bit about the 20th century history of Ireland (the island), and how there came to be Northern Ireland, and the Republic of Ireland, it seems appropriate that athletes from Northern Ireland have the option to choose their team. Team GB seems a correct name.