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Location:
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Western Europe, islands including the northern one-sixth of the island of Ireland between the North Atlantic Ocean and the North Sea, northwest of France.
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Area:
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244,820 sq km; note: includes Rockall and Shetland Islands; slightly smaller than Oregon.
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Border Countries:
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Ireland 360 km
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Capital City:
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London
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Main Cities:
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City of Bristol, Derby, City of Kingston upon Hull, Leicester, City of London, Nottingham, Peterborough, Plymouth, Portsmouth, Southampton, Stoke-on-Trent, York
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Population:
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60,609,153; July 2006 est.
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Currency:
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British Pound (GBP)
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Languages:
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English, Welsh (about 26% of the population of Wales), Scottish form of Gaelic (about 60,000 in Scotland)
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Religions:
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Christian (Anglican, Roman Catholic, Presbyterian, Methodist) 71.6%, Muslim 2.7%, Hindu 1%, other 1.6%, unspecified or none 23.1% (2001 census)
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The flag of United Kingdom: The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland uses as its national flag the Royal Banner commonly known as the Union Flag or, popularly, Union Jack. The current design of the Union Flag dates from the union of Ireland and Great Britain in 1801. It consists of the red cross of Saint George (patron saint of England), edged in white, superimposed on the diagonal red cross of Saint Patrick (patron saint of Ireland), which are superimposed on the Saltire of Saint Andrew (patron saint of Scotland). Its correct proportions are 1:2. However, the version officially used by the British Army modifies the proportions to 3:5. While appearing symmetric, the flag is slightly different if flipped, as a mirror image. the flag can be placed upside down, if it is mirrored, but rotating it 180 degrees will have no change. Placing the flag upside down is considered to be lèse majesté and is offensive to some, however it can be deliberately flown upside down by the military as a distress signal. While this is rarely done these days it was used by groups under seige during the Boer War and during campaigns in India in the late 18th century.
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (usually shortened to the United Kingdom, the UK, or Britain) is a country and sovereign state that is situated in west Northern Europe. Its territory and population are primarily situated on the island of Great Britain and in Northern Ireland on the island of Ireland, with additional settlements on numerous smaller islands in the surrounding seas. The United Kingdom is bounded by the Atlantic Ocean, and its ancillary bodies of water, including the North Sea, the English Channel, the Celtic Sea, and the Irish Sea. The mainland is linked to France by the Channel Tunnel and Northern Ireland shares a land border with the Republic of Ireland.
The United Kingdom is a political union made up of four constituent countries: England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. The United Kingdom also has several overseas territories, including Bermuda, Gibraltar, Montserrat and Saint Helena among others. The dependencies of the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands, while possessions of the Crown and part of the British Isles, are not part of the United Kingdom. A constitutional monarchy, the United Kingdom is a Commonwealth Realm, sharing the same person — Queen Elizabeth II — with the fifteen other Realms as monarch and head of state.
A member of the G8, the United Kingdom is a highly developed country with the fifth largest economy in the world, estimated at US $1.8 trillion. It is the third most populous state in the European Union with a population of 60.2 million and is a founding member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) and the United Nations (UN), where it holds a permanent seat on the Security Council. The UK is also one of the world's major nuclear powers.
After the end of the British Empire, the UK retains influence throughout the world because of the extensive use of the English language as well as through the world-spanning Commonwealth of Nations, headed by Queen Elizabeth II.
The present United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the latest of several unions formed over the last 300 years. The Kingdom of Scotland and the Kingdom of England had existed as separate states with their own monarchs and political structures since the 9th century. The once independent Principality of Wales fell under the control of English monarchs from the Statute of Rhuddlan in 1284, becoming itself part of the Kingdom of England by the Laws in Wales Act 1535. With the Act of Union 1707, the independent states of England and Scotland, having been in personal union since 1603, agreed to a political union as the Kingdom of Great Britain.
The Act of Union 1800 united the Kingdom of Great Britain with the Kingdom of Ireland, which had been gradually brought under English control between 1541 and 1691, to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Independence for the now Republic of Ireland in 1922 followed the partition of the island of Ireland two years previously, with six of the nine counties of the province of Ulster remaining within the UK, which then changed to the current name in 1927.
The dominant industrial and maritime power of the 19th century, the United Kingdom is often credited with being the nation that "created the modern world", by playing a leading role in developing Western ideas of property, capitalism, and parliamentary democracy as well as making significant contributions to literature, the arts, and science and technology. At its zenith, the British Empire stretched over one-quarter of the Earth's surface and encompassed a third of its population, making it the largest empire in history. The first half of the 20th century, however, saw the Empire's strength seriously depleted from the effects of World War I and World War II. The second half witnessed the dismantling of the Empire and the United Kingdom rebuilding itself into the modern, prosperous, and technologically advanced nation it is today.
The United Kingdom has been a member of the European Union since 1973. The attitude of the present government towards further integration with this organisation is mixed, with the Conservative Party favouring a return of some powers and competencies to the state. The government has yet to choose whether to adopt the Euro currency. Plans are to hold a referendum on the issue if and when five economic tests indicate that entry into the Eurozone would be beneficial.
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The flag is a piece of cloth, often flown from a pole or mast, generally used for signalling or identification. The design of a flag displayed in another form is also referred to as a flag. The first flags were used to assist military coordination on battlefields, and flags have evolved into a general tool for rudimentary signalling and identification, especially in environments where communication is similarly challenging (such as the maritime environment where semaphore is used).
National flags are potent patriotic symbols with varied wide-ranging interpretations, often including strong military associations due to their original and ongoing military uses. Flags are used in messaging or advertising, or for decorative purposes, though at this less formal end the distinction between a flag and a simple cloth banner is blurred. The study of flags is known as vexillology, from the Latin vexillum meaning flag or banner.
Although flag-like symbols have been used by ancient cultures for thousands of years, the origin of flags in the modern sense is a matter of dispute. Some believe flags originated in China, while others hold that the Roman Empire's vexillum was the first true flag. Originally, the standards of the Roman legions were not flags, but symbols like the eagle of Augustus Caesar's Xth legion; this eagle would be placed on a staff for the standard-bearer to hold up during battle. But a military unit from Scythia had for a standard a dragon with a flexible tail which would move in the wind; the legions copied this; eventually all the legions had flexible standards — our modern-day flag.
During the Middle Ages, flags were used mainly during battles to identify individual leaders: in Europe the knights, in Japan the samurai, and in China the generals under the imperial army.
From the time of Christopher Columbus onwards, it has been customary (and later a legal requirement) for ships to carry flags designating their nationality; these flags eventually evolved into the national flags and maritime flags of today. Flags also became the preferred means of communications at sea, resulting in various systems of flag signals; see International maritime signal flags.
Beginning in the 17th century, European knights were replaced by centralized armies, and flags became the means to identify not just nationalities but also individual military units. Flags became much more elaborate, and were seen as objects to be captured or defended. Eventually these flags posed too much danger to those carrying them, and by World War I these were withdrawn from the battlefields, and have since been used only at ceremonial occasions.
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