population is more than 48 million which makes up 85% of the country’s whole population. The importance of England is so great in Britain that some foreigners just say “England” when they mean Britain. The same is true of the custom of speaking of the British people as the English who are the majority in the United Kingdom. London is the capital city. London is the largest city located in the south of the country. It’s dominant in Britain in all sorts of ways: government, finance, and culture. It’s the cultural and business centre and the headquarters of the vast majority of Britain’s big companies. It’s not only the financial centre of the nation, but also one of the three major international financial centers in the world, and so on. (Zhu, 4) London combines the functions of Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, or New
York, Washington and Los Angeles, in one city. London is a huge weight in Britain’s economic and cultural life, and to some extent the rest of the country lives in its shadow.
London and Tower Bridge
Scotland is the second largest both in area and population. It has an area of about 78 822 square kilometers, less than 30% of the whole island, with a population of more than 5 million, less than one-tenth of the total population. Scotland is in the north of Great Britain. It has three natural zones :the Highlands in the north； the Central lowlands； the south Uplands (higher
or inland parts of a country) Edinburgh is the capital city. The largest city is Glasgow. Scotland was not conquered by the Romans, though they did try to, and for a while occupied as far as the edge of the northern highland zone. Nor was most of Scotland conquered by the Anglo-Saxons, although an Angle Kingdom was established in the southeast—hence Edinburgh’s Germanic name. Scotland has a great tradition of innovation in the arts, philosophy and science. Scotland superficially fully integrated into the UK, but concealed beneath this is a still-strong Scottish identity.
Wales is in the west of Great Britain. Capital: Cardiff. It is the smallest of the three both in area and population. Its area, 20 776 square
kilometers, makes up less than 9% while its population, over 2.8 million, does not exceed 5% of the whole. What is remarkable is that despite the nearness and long-standing political integration with England, Wales retains a powerful sense of its difference from England. It also retains its own language, Welsh. This is a Celtic tongue completely different from English, spoken by 19% of the population, a much higher proportion than those who speak Gaelic in Scotland. All Welsh-speakers are also fluent in English. Tourism is now an important industry. Legal system and its education system are exactly the same as in England.
Ireland had been an independent kingdom before the Anglo-Norman
th
invaders came in the 13 century.
During the English bourgeois revolution, Oliver Cromwell invaded the island and this started the immigration of the English protestant settlers. The Irish people opposed the annexation and fought to regain their independence. Their successful struggle finally led to the establishment of the Republic of Ireland in 1921 (with the southern 26 counties). Since most of the English protestant settlers refused to separate themselves from their home country, they occupied the northeast corner.( with the 6 north-eastern counties), about 14 000 square kilometers, of the island and kept it within the United Kingdom which thus became known as the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
Northern Ireland (often called