The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is located in the British Isles. It is the most extensive archipelago in Europe. It includes two large islands – Great Britain and Ireland, separated by the Irish Sea, and another 5 thousand small islands, among which three groups of islands in the north stand out: Hybrid, Orkney and Scottish. The territory of the country is 244.1 thousand square kilometers, which is two times less than the largest states in Western Europe – France and Spain.
Great Britain has a complex administrative-territorial division. It consists of 4 historical and geographical regions: England (45 counties and a special administrative unit – Greater London); Wales (8 counties); Northern Ireland (26 counties); Scotland (12 regions); independent administrative units – the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands.
To a certain extent, the rapid economic development of Great Britain was facilitated by an advantageous geographical position. This maritime power, formerly a “great maritime power”, is located on the continental shelf. The British archipelago is separated by the shallow North Sea from the developed countries of Western and Northern Europe (Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Germany), narrow straits of the English Channel (20 km) and Pas-de-Calais (33 km) from France. A rail tunnel runs along the bottom of the English Channel connecting Britain and France, it put an end to the country’s maritime isolation.
The role of the country in the international arena is great. Great Britain has been a member of the UN since 1945, a permanent member of the Security Council, the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) since 1949, a member of the European Union since 1973, the Western European Union since 1954. The UK has been a member of the military-political organization NATO since 1949 and possesses nuclear missile weapons. It plays an important role in such international economic organizations as the Paris Club and the London Club, which regulate the monetary and financial problems of the West and largely determine the policy of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Natural conditions and resources. The natural resource factor had a great influence on the formation of the territorial structure of the economy.
Great Britain has a variety of landforms: the mountainous relief prevails in the north and west, and the plain – in the east. The highest point of the country – Mount Ben Nevis (1343 m) is located in mountainous Scotland. The greatest extent is the Pennine Range, stretched from north to south. A vast hilly plain occupies the southeast and center of the country, and the flattest lowland – Fenland – surrounds Wash Bay. In Scotland, the Mid-Scottish Lowlands stretch between the North and Southern Highlands.
The uk’s climate is temperate, oceanic, very humid with mild winters and mild summers. The British Isles are characterized by frequent fogs and strong winds. The temperate oceanic climate and the influence of the warm North Atlantic Current create favorable conditions for the development of agriculture (in the south-west, plants vegetate all year round). High cultivation of soils is an important factor in increasing crop yields.
Rivers in the British climate are plentiful. The largest are the Thames, Severn, Trent, Mercai.
The importance of the estuaries of rivers extending far into the land, as well as the general large indentation of the coastline, is very important. This allowed the creation of many ports. Rivers as a source of energy are used only in the highlands of Scotland and North Wales.
In general, the country does not have significant reserves of minerals, with the exception of fuel and energy. Coal reserves are estimated at 190-200 billion tons. Total and recoverable reserves amount to about 50 billion tons (first place in Western Europe). The main deposits are located in the Mid-Scottish Lowlands.
In the 60s , oil fields were discovered on the shelf of the North Sea, explored reserves are estimated at 2.4 billion tons, which is about 35% of the oil reserves of the entire shelf of the North Sea (2% of world reserves). About 50 deposits have been found, the largest among them – Brent and Fortis together give 33% of the total production.
In the western part of the North Sea, large deposits of natural gas were discovered in 1959. In 1965, 70 km east of Klinthorps, commercial gas production began. Its total reserves are estimated at 1.2 trillion. Currently, 37 out of 60 natural gas fields are being developed.
The UK has other minerals. Iron ores, mostly phosphorous, of low quality
(22–23% metal content), they are found in Northamptonshire. The total proven reserves are 2.3 billion tons. However, their production has been declining from year to year and is now practically not conducted.
The UK has small reserves of tin in Cornwall, lead-zinc ores in Wales and uranium ores in Scotland.
Kaolin is mined in Cornwall; rock salt in Cheshire and Durham; potassium salts – in Yorkshire.
Population of Great Britain. The main productive force of society is the population. In 2000, the total population of great Britain was 58.6 million people, the natural population growth is 0.1% per year.
The dominant and most numerous nation of Great Britain is the British; they make up 80% of the population (about 46.9 million people). they inhabit England proper, most of Wales and form compact settlements in some areas in the south of Scotland. English is part of the northwestern group of Germanic languages. English is also spoken by the majority of the country’s population of Celtic origin – Scots and Welsh.
Of the Celtic peoples of Great Britain, the most numerous are the Scots, whose number exceeds 5.1 million people (10%). They inhabit mainly the northwestern areas of the island of Great Britain and the Scottish, Orkney and Hebrides islands adjacent to their coast.
The basis of the Scottish language was one of the northern dialects of the Anglo-Saxon language. The Scottish language included many words from the Gaelic it had supplanted, in addition, it was noticeably influenced by the Scandinavian languages.
From the XIV to the XVII century. it was the state language of the Scottish state. With scotland losing its independence, The Scottish language is gradually being replaced by English.
In recent years, a national movement has gained momentum in Scotland. The nationalist ideas of this movement are developed by the Scottish National Party, created in 1928, which is fighting for a democratic solution to the social and national problems of Scotland.
The historical fate and ethnic development of the Welsh (about 2.1 million people, less than 4% of the total population) was different from that of the Scots.
Wales was conquered early by the English; his population was more assimilated than the Scots.
For many years there has been a fierce struggle in Northern Ireland, which joined the British state in 1922, while the rest of Ireland has achieved independence. The United Kingdom then included six counties from the nine Irish provinces of Ulster. The ethnic composition of the population of this area is heterogeneous. About 500,000 indigenous people of the island live here (they are Irish Catholics) and more than 1 million Anglo-Irish and Scottish-Irish. Such a composition of the population was formed here in the XVII-XVIII centuries. during the period of intensified colonization of Ireland by the British government.
Unlike the rest of Ireland, where land was distributed to large English landlords, in Ulster plots of land were allocated to small and medium-sized tenants, englishmen and Scots from the southern part of Scotland.
Thus, Ulster has historically developed three groups of people who differed in religion and culture, and were wary, and sometimes hostile, to each other. The eastern regions of Northern Ireland were occupied by immigrants from Scotland – Presbyterians, the central and northern provinces were inhabited by the Englishmen belonging to the English Church, in the extreme western and border areas with Ireland lived the remnants of the indigenous population – the Irish, Catholics by their religion.
Over time, there has been a rapprochement between the English and Scottish settlers on the basis of common interests, and now they are already opposing the indigenous Irish Catholics with a united front. Power in Northern Ireland is concentrated in the hands of this Protestant majority, and Irish Catholics are discriminated against in a variety of areas. Very often this is presented in the media as a simple religious conflict between Catholics and Protestants. In fact, the causes of the struggle in Northern Ireland represent a complex knot of national, socio-economic and regional contradictions, the roots of which go back centuries.
A fairly large group of the population (about 500 thousand people) in Great Britain are Jews, living mainly in London and other large cities.
After the Second World War, in connection with the great restoration work and the development of productivity, the influx of workers from European countries to England increased. Now in the UK there are 1 million immigrants from various European countries, and the total number of foreign citizens in the UK is over 2.5 million people, or less than 5% of the total population of the country. In addition, between 50,000 and 60,000 temporary workers from Europe arrive in the country each year (most from Italy and now from Eastern Europe). Since the 50s, the flow of immigrants from the Commonwealth countries, from the West Indies, India and Pakistan has increased dramatically. The situation of this category of citizens is very difficult. Most of them are employed in unskilled work, in the service sector, etc.
The growing number of immigrants from the former English colonies had given rise to the question of race relations. The Government, in its special acts, attempts to restrict immigration from its former colonies.
The UK is one of the most densely populated and highly urbanised countries in the world.
On average, there were 246.3 people per 1 sq. km in 2000. However, the population is very unevenly distributed throughout the country. The main part of the inhabitants of Great Britain is concentrated in England, which has the most favorable geographical position and favorable natural conditions. Here, the average density per 1 sq. km exceeds 356 people. Half of the total population of the UK lives in the London-Liverpool belt. The most sparsely populated areas are in Scotland with its harsh natural conditions compared to other parts of the country. The population density here is less than 90 people per 1 sq km, with the population concentrated mainly on the coasts, river valleys and lowlands (especially around Glasgow and Edinburgh).
In 2000, 89.4% of the population lived in cities. The growth rate of the urban population is 0.4% per year. The so-called English metropolis is being formed, uniting the agglomerations of London, Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool and other cities, a total of 30 urban agglomerations. The total area of the metropolis is 50 thousand square kilometers, the population is 30-35 million people.
The average life expectancy is high, for men – 75 years, for women – 80.5 years.
The total number of labor resources is about 30 million people. A positive trend in the economy is that the number of persons engaged in physical and low-skilled labor has decreased, and, on the contrary, the number of people employed in jobs requiring high qualifications has increased.
In 2000, the unemployment rate was 6.3% (1812 thousand people).
The proportion of the population living below the poverty line, according to UN experts, is 10.6%; living below the average income – 50%, 13.1% – have an income of $ 14.4. per day.
Politics. The United Kingdom is a parliamentary monarchy. There is no constitution in the country in the form of a single basic law. Legislative acts adopted by the Parliament and judicial precedents are of constitutional importance.
The head of state – Queen Elizabeth II (since 6.02.1952), who belongs to the Hanoverian dynasty of English monarchs, is the 40th British monarch since the conquest of England by the Normans (1066). The Queen is considered the supreme holder of executive power, the head of the judiciary, the supreme commander of the armed forces, the secular head of the Anglican Church, has the formal right to convene parliament in session, dissolve the House of Commons, sanction bills passed by Parliament, and ratify international treaties. In practice, however, all basic royal prerogatives are exercised by the Cabinet and Parliament.
The state legislature is the parliament, which consists of two chambers. The House of Lords consists of about 1200 hereditary and life peers, Lords – judges of appeal and “spiritual lords” (two archbishops and 24 bishops, the Church of England) and the highest court of appeal. The House of Commons is an elected body consisting of 649 deputies elected for five years by a majoritarian system of relative majority by direct and secret ballot on the basis of universal suffrage.
In the absence of a constitution and the provision of “parliamentary sovereignty”, parliament is not bound by previous decisions and can override acts of constitutional significance. The British courts are deprived of the right to review or repeal acts of Parliament and are obliged to apply not the provisions arising from the international legal obligations of the United Kingdom, but the norms of parliamentary status.
As a result of the general elections in May 1997, the Labour Party (418 seats) received an absolute majority in the House of Commons. The Conservatives have 165 seats, the Liberal Democrats 46, the Ulster Unionist Party 10, the Scottish National Party 6 and the Welsh National Party 4.
The government is formed by the leader of the party that won the majority of seats in the House of Commons in the elections. In 1997, Tony Blair became prime minister. Labour replaced the Conservatives, who had been in power for 18 years.
Political parties. The Conservative Party took shape in 1867 (about 1.5 million members). Domestically, the party pursued broad social and economic reforms, including decentralization and privatization of the economy. In foreign policy terms, conservatives are characterized by a NATO-wide approach to solving international problems. The party shares the concept of “nuclear deterrence”, advocates the preservation of a “special relationship” with the United States, the modernization of the UK’s nuclear potential, and the continuation of the country’s membership in NATO and the EU. On the problems of European integration, differences remain in the ranks of the Conservatives, which complicated the passage through parliament of the Maastricht Agreements, regarded by the majority in the leadership of the party as a worthy compromise that takes into account British national interests.
The Labour Party of Great Britain (LPV) was formed in 1890, unites 6.4 million collective and individual members. As an ideological basis, it puts forward the principles of “democratic socialism”, in economic policy it is committed to the concept of a mixed economy.
The Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) was formed in 1988 through the merger of the liberal and social democratic parties, which since 1981 have acted in the political arena in the alliance, unites about
60 thousand people. The LDP’s political platform is centrist, largely a compromise (between the two main parties) and vague. Its main components: the need for the UK to retain nuclear weapons and the country’s membership in NATO. In domestic matters, the LDP also follows an intermediate line, advocates the fight against unemployment, the priority solution of social problems, the cessation of further denationalization, but in general relies on the market economy and the development of competition.