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Lecture 1 Topic: the name of the country and its symbols

List of questions:

1. History of the name

2. National symbols

Literature:

1. Нестеров Н.М. Страноведение: Великобритания. Ростов на Дону, «Феникс», 2006.

2. Михайлов Н.Н. Лингвострановедение Англии. М., «Академия», 2003.

3. Артемова А.Ф. Великобритания. Книга для чтения по страноведению. М, «АСТ: Восток-Запад», 2006.

4. Томахин Г.Д. По странам изучаемого языка. М., «Просвещение», 1998.

5. M. Pugh A History of Britain. Oxford, 2001.

6. M. Vaughan-Rees In Britain. Lnd., 1999.

1. History of the name

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is an insular country situated on the British Isles, lying off the north-west coast of the continent of Europe. The British Isles are composed of about 4000 islands of different size. The largest of the British Isles is Great Britain which contains England, Scotland, and Wales. The second largest of the British Isles is Ireland. It is shared by two independent states. The larger part of Ireland is the Republic of Ireland, an independent state with its capital in Dublin. Northern Ireland, which occupies north-eastern part of Ireland, remains a part of the United Kingdom with London as its capital.

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a highly centralized and unitary state – the country which has acquired this official name since 1922. The United Kingdom is an entity of more than 300 years old – the state which emerged from the union of the ancient separate kingdoms of England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland.

The formation of the United Kingdom took centuries and involved a lot of armed struggle and blood shedding. The union of England with Wales dates from 1301, when Edward I’s son was announced the first Prince of Wales. But only in 1485 a Welsh Prince Henry Tudor became king (Henry VII) of England. And it was his son Henry VIII who formally incorporated Wales in 1535 (the first Act of Union).

The union of England and Scotland dates from 1603 when king of Scotland James VI inherited the crown of England after the death of childless Elisabeth I. “Great Britain” was first officially used in 1604 when James I was proclaimed “King of Great Britain”. Though England and Scotland were ruled by the same monarch they remained separate kingdoms with their own parliaments. England and Scotland joined in the Act of Union in 1707, their parliaments also being untied. Since then the country and the island on which it is situated has been known as Great Britain or, officially the United Kingdom of Great Britain.

Ireland used to be Britain’s oldest colony; it conquering started as early as the 12th century. In 1155 King Henry II of England was made King of all Great Britain and Ireland by the Pope of Rome. Though hard resistance never ceased and numerous revolts and rebellions were made up and down from time to time, Irish legislature and parliament were abolished by the Act of Union in 1801. In the same year a new national flag – Union Jack – was established and the country’s official name became the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. A new wave of national liberation movement in Ireland inspired by the October Revolution in Russia was quite a successful one. And in 1921 – 1926 Irish counties withdrew from the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland forming the Irish Free State (renamed to the Republic of Ireland in 1949). Only 6 northern counties remained under British control thus giving addition to the country’s official name The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Though that is the official name of the country it is often called unofficially the UK, Great Britain, Britain or England, as the largest part of Great Britain. It is sometimes also referred to by its old romantic name – Albion.