Are The United Kingdom, Great Britain and England the same places?

 The topic of my today’s blog is whether The United Kingdom, Great Britain and England are the same place. Many people confuse these three places. Some of them think that England and Great Britain are the same countries; the others by saying Great Britain simply understand The United Kingdom. And here the question arises: “Are The United Kingdom, Great Britain and England the same places?” The answer is of course NO, without any doubts. But let’s see how it comes.

 In the north part of the European continent is situated the United Kingdom (UK). The UK is not a single country: it is “A Country of Countries”, which consists of four equal and sovereign nations. The first of these is England shown in orange. England is always confused with the UK because England is the largest among all 4 countries and it is the most famous of the nations. The capital city is London and is situated in England. To the north is Scotland colored in dark green, to the west is Wales shown in red and the forth country in the UK is Northern Ireland, shown in light green. Each country has a local term for population, they have their developed parliament and they all have their own British laws. Usually no one calls those nations, people living in these four countries British, because these four countries actually don’t like each other. They are Northern Irish, Scottish, Welsh and English. Though as the four countries don’t have their own passports, they are all the British citizens of the UK: no matter they like it or not.

 The United Kingdom is called The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Great Britain is shown in purple color, it contains Scotland, Wales and England. It is the greatest island among the British Isles. Great Britain is geographical term. The term Great Britain within the UK is often used for England, Wales and Scotland, with the exclusion of Northern Ireland. Actually England, Wales and Scotland have islands which are not included in Great Britain. For example, the Isle of Wight part of England, the Walsh Isle of Anglesey, the Scottish Hebrides, Shetland Islands, Orkney Islands and the Islands of Clyde. Ireland is the second biggest island in the British Isles. The Island of Ireland consists of two countries: Northern Ireland, which is included in the UK, and Republic of Ireland. Many times when people say that they are Irish, they mean that they are from Republic of Ireland, which is separate country from the UK. However, Republic of Ireland and the UK are members of the European Union.

 But again there are left several questions. For example, “when anyone travels to Canada, why on their money is the Queen of Great Britain?” For answering to this question, we need to know about the British Empire. The British Empire was governing 1/4th of the world’s people. Most of those nations get their independence violently. It’s hard to mention how many nations get independence through diplomacy. However, there are countries that continue to recognize the monarchy. To understand how those countries are connected, we need to understand the Crown. The Crown is a legal entity:“One-Man Corporation”. The physical Crown is in London Tower. According to the British traditions, the corporation is created by God. God accredits its power to the entity called Crown. It is developed, legal corporation, which is able to be controlled by ruling monarch.

  The countries which get their independence through diplomacy such as Canada, Australia, Papua New Guinea, New Zealand, etc., still recognize the monarchy as the head of state, even though that has a little real power within their borders.

  There are three further entities that belong to the Crown and these are called the Crown Dependencies (Isle of Man, Guernsey, and Jersey). They are not considered as independent nations but they have local autonomy by the Crown and also they own British citizenship.

  And the third group of countries is called British Overseas Territories. The former name of these countries was “Crown Colonies”; this term shows the origin of these countries. The Crown Colonies are Gibraltar, the Falkland Irelands, British Virgin Islands; Saint Helena, etc. They are not independent nations; they continue to confide the UK for military and sometimes economic assistance. Everyone born in the border of British Overseas Territories is a British citizen.

I liked this video, this theme, as England is one of my favorite countries in the world and this talk was very informative for me. As this video is from "the best Youtube videos" the name of author is mentioned as a firm, not any individual person. I had to listen this talk several times, as the author was talking very fast and unclear. He states the problem, settles questions, provides the answers to all of them and talks logically. The problem is relevant nowadays as many people confuse it.

Source: Plankton productions (January 30, 2011). United Kingdom, Great Britain, England explained. podcast from Best of YouTube videos.