Lecture #1 gb's Geography

Great Britain lies off the north-west coast of Mainland Europe. It includes Great Britain (England Wales and Scotland) and Northern Ireland. With some 57 million people, it is relatively densely populated the climate is temperate but subject to frequent changes.

The British Isles are the biggest archipelago in Europe. It includes 2 big isles Great Britain and Ireland, which are separated by the Irish sea and 5000 small ones, among them there are three groups: Orkney, Shetland and Hebrides islands. The British archipelago is separated from Sweden, Norway and Germany by the North Sea and from France by the English Channel and the Strait of Dover

Covering an area of some 142,500sq km, Britain is nearly 500 km across at the widest point, and almost 1,000 km long. The capital, London, has a population of around 8 million. Other major cities include Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool, Cardiff, Glasgow and Belfast.

English is the official language, although the Welsh language has equal status in Wales. Many other languages are spoken by the ethnic minority communities, which make up around 3 million people.

The rose is a national flower of England; the rose is associated with Lancashire.

The Union flag incorrectly called the Union Jack combines the crosses of St. George (England), St. Andrew (Scotland), and St Patrick (Ireland). (The name Jack refers to the jack-stuff on naval vessels.)

Britain comprises Great Britain (England, Wales and Scotland) and Northern Ireland. Its full name is the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, often abbreviated to the United Kingdom or UK.

The British Isles comprises several political units. In addition to the United Kingdom, the British Isles includes the Irish Republic, and the crown dependencies of the Isle of Man in the Irish Sea and the Channel Islands which lie between Great Britain and France. Although the Isle of Man and Channel Islands are not part of the United Kingdom, they have special relationship with it, though they maintain their own legislative systems, bank notes and coins and system of law.

With an area of some 242,000 sq km, Great Britain is just less then 1,000 km from the south coast to the extreme north of Scotland and just less than 500 km across.

The People

People from UK are called The British or Britons. Depending on where in Britain they come from, they may also be called «English», «Scottish» (or «Scotts») «Welsh» or «Northern Irish»

The total population of the UK is 55,486,800 (1991 census figures): it will probably reach about 60 million by the year 2030, then start to fall.

Population density: 588 people per sq mile (230 people per sq km).

Britain is relatively densely populated country: it is more than twice as densely populated as France (100 people per sq km) and nine times as densely populated as the USA (27 people per sq km)

The populations of the various countries are as follows:

Population (Mid-1991) '000

England 48,208

Wales 2,891

Scotland 5,107

Northern Ireland 1,594

England is an extremely densely populated country, with about 427 people per sq km.

A third of the people live in the South East of the country, in London and the «Home Counties» (the region around London).

Geography

Physical geography:

Britain is an island with a mild climate: not too hot or cold, not too wet or dry. The weather is often dull and damp with too little sunshine. The frequent moderate winds make it feel colder than it really is. There are no great differences of climate between the sections of the UK, except that the west has more rain than the east, and the northern mountains, particularly in Scotland, have much more rain and snow. More generally, the southern part of England and Wales are a little warmer, sunnier and less misty than the rest. There is plenty of rain in Britain, particularly in the west. In summer, daytime temperatures do not rise above 25 C.

The south of Britain is mostly low-lying land, with hills and agricultural land; the north of England, Wales and Scotland are mostly covered in moorlands and mountains. England, unlike the largely mountainous countries of Wales and Scotland, is mainly lowland, except for 6 hilly regions: the Pennines, called the «Backbone of England» dividing the north –west of England from the north east; the Lake District in the north west; the Yorkshire Dales, running to the east coast of Yorkshire; the moorlands of Cornwall and Devon in the south west; and the border areas with Scotland and Wales respectively. Elsewhere the ranges of hills are relatively low, while the East Midlands and East Anglia are notably flat and featureless. In Scotland and Wales the greater part of the population is concentrated in the more lowland areas, particularly the area between Glasgow and Edinburgh, and in the eastern an south eastern parts of Wales.

The highest mountains in Britain are only about 1,300 meters high (Ben Nevis in Scotland is Britain's highest point), but they are real rocky mountains, because of Britain's latitude.

Snow lies on Ben Nevis for the year or more; but in the south of England, snow only lies for a few days each winter, and sometimes never at all.

Britain's longest rivers are the Severn (220 miles) and the Thames (215 miles).

These rivers are connected with a net of channels which played an important role in the past. The biggest lakes of Britain are Loch- Nay (400sq. Km.) in Northern Ireland and Loch- Ness and Loch- Lomond in Scotland.

Human and economic geography:

Industry in Britain produces 1/3 of GDP. It mainly uses the imported raw materials. The characteristic feature of the country's industry is a quick growth of modern branches, which apply new technologies, equipment and methods of management, such as electronics, chemical industry and machine building

The main industrial regions of Britain are in the north, near the cities of Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds, Newcastle, Sheffield and Birmingham. These regions became important in the XIX century, because of their rich mineral resources (coal, iron etc.).

The main economic centre in today's Britain is London- the most important city for service sector industries (financial services etc.). London's dominant position has been strengthened by the needs of modern times. For 100 years the central government has extended its responsibilities, partly by undertaking functions, which were not performed at all before. With many local problems local representatives go to London to see central government officials. The main newspapers and publishers have their offices in London, so too do the advertisers and producers of TV programs. Like France England suffers from excessive concentration of cultural life as well as business in a giant capital.

The London area is one of the most prosperous areas in Europe, and average incomes are higher here than in the rest of Britain. Unemployment is lowest in the London region too, as the service sector is constantly creating more jobs.

When people speak of the industrial north they think mainly of Lancashire and Yorkshire. Between the great port of Liverpool in the west and the smaller port of Hull in the east the big cities of Manchester, Sheffield, Leeds and Bradford, along with some 20 big factory towns and many smaller ones, form a great industrial belt. Some of the buildings there are still black from smoke, some have been cleaned, and some demolished. Outside the towns the farmland is interrupted by coalmining villages, some still working. But many of the mines have been closed, their heaps of spoil grassed over. Further to the north-east, Newcastle upon Tyne is the centre of another industrial area, which is based on coal, iron, steel and shipbuilding. Not far to the south of Lancashire, Birmingham is the centre of the West Midlands conurbation. This is as big as Manchester's and a vast variety of industries, particularly engineering. All through the east midlands there are other manufacturing towns, big and small, as well as coalmines.

Wales.

Wales was conquered by England 700 years ago and incorporated into a single political and administrative system with England in the XVI century. However the Welsh sense of difference survived. A cultural self-consciousness was awakened in the mid XIX century, through a revival of literature in Welsh and the literary and music festivals for which Wales became famous. It was also awakened through higher education which emphasized Welsh identity. There are only 2, 9 million Welsh, and they have struggled to maintain their identity in the 2nd half of the XX century. They have had to do this not only against the political might of London but also the erosion of Welsh culture through English radio and TV. Because of fears that the Welsh language might disappear completely, its study has become compulsory in Welsh schools and there is now Welsh radio & TV. Its survival is the most notable way in which the Welsh keep their special identity.

Scotland.

Scotland has stronger feelings than Wales about its over bearing neighbor, yet it was never conquered by England. But English attacks were so bad that in 1320 the Scottish clergy declared for: «for as long as even 100 of us remained alive, we shall never consent to subject ourselves to the dominion of the English». Scottish nationalism was born. In 1707 England & Scotland were formally united as Great Britain. But the Scots kept their own legal system, religion and administration and still keep them now. The government in London insisted on this union for political reasons and the Scotts couldn't refuse for economic reasons. The Scottish parliament was suspended and the new parliament of Great Britain was assembled in Westminster.

Parts of south-western Scotland are full of thriving farm, favoured by a mild climate. But even in this area most of the land is too high for easy cultivation. 2/3 of Scotland's people live in the industrial belt which stretches from the picturesque Clyde estuary in the south-west, across the country's narrowest part to the River Forth and Edinburgh, then up the east coast to the great fishing port of Aberdeen, which now also serves as the mainland centre for the North Sea's oil industry.

The most interesting and beautiful part of Scotland - and of the whole of Britain – is the north and west, or the region commonly called the «highlands an islands». Great sea-lochs, or fjords, not unlike those of Norway, alternate with wild and empty hills, and on some of the lochs there are farms which can only be reached by boat.

Northern Ireland.

The inhabitants of this large and beautiful island are mainly Celtic in origin. In 1801 a new law added island to the UK. Eventually the island was partitioned in 1922 the greater part became an independent state. In the politics of Northern Ireland the main factors has always been the hostility between Protestants and Catholics. From 1972 UK governments have tried to find a political solution to the Northern Irish problems, that is, a solution acceptable to most Catholic and most Protestants. Several devices have been tried with little or no success.

Northern Ireland's economy is based partly on farming partly on the heavy industries of Belfast. With the decline of the shipbuilding is now serious unemployment.