The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain) is a sovereign state located off the north- western coast of continental Europe. The country includes the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands. Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK that shares a land border with another sovereign state—the Republic of Ireland. Apart from this land border the UK is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, the North Sea, the English Channel and the Irish Sea.

Brief information: Area: 243,610 sq. km Cities: capital--London (pop. about million). Other cities--Birmingham, Glasgow, West Yorkshire, Leeds, Sheffield, Liverpool, Bradford, Manchester, Edinburgh, Bristol, Belfast. Terrain: 30% arable, 50% meadow and pasture, 12% waste or urban, 7% forested, 1% inland water Land use: 25% arable, 46% meadows and pastures, 10% forests and woodland, 19% other. Climate: Generally mild. Nationality: Noun--Briton(s). Adjective--British. Population (July 2011 est.): 62,698,362. Major ethnic groups (2001 census): White 92.1% (of which English 83.6%, Scottish 8.6%, Welsh 4.9%, Northern Irish 2.9%), black 2%, Indian 1.8%, Pakistani 1.3%, mixed 1.2%, other 1.6%. Major religions (2001 census): Christian (Anglican, Roman Catholic, Presbyterian, Methodist) 71.6%, Muslim 2.7%, Hindu 1%, other 1.6%, unspecified or none 23.1%. Major languages: English, Welsh, Irish Gaelic, Scottish Gaelic.

The United Kingdom is made up of: England - The capital is London. Scotland - The capital is Edinburgh. Wales - The capital is Cardiff. Northern Ireland - The capital is Belfast.

Tribes in Britain

The first Celtic tribes are believed to have come to the British Isles between 800 and 700 BC. Two centuries later they were followed by the Brythons or ancient Britons after whom the country was called Britain.

But Britain was not conquered until some 90 years later, under Emperor Claudius, in 43 AD. Although the Roman occupation of Britain lasted nearly 400 years, its effects were few. The people did not adopt the Latin language and so Latin did not displace Celtic.

In the middle of the 5th century, three Germanic tribes - The Angles, Saxons and Jute's invaded Britain from the continent. From the 8th century the Anglo-Saxons had to face Scandinavian invaders - the Danes and the Norsemen sometimes refereed to as Vikings - who occupied parts of Britain and made some permanent settlements. The Scandinavian invasions continued till the 11th century.

The period of feudalism started around 1066 and lasted to the 15th century. In this period the modern English nation and language came into being. It was a period of struggle for power between kings and between powerful nobles, a period of frequent wars. But it was also a period in which the development of the wool trade and the early decline of feudalism prepared the way for England's rise as a world power.

The two famous rulers of the House of Tudor were Elizabeth I and Henry VIII.

The first 40 years of the 17th century can be characterized as a period of growing conflict between the King and parliament, representing the interests of the bourgeoisie. The conflict led to the civil war in 1640 which resulted in the abolition of the monarchy and in Cromwell's military rule in the middle of the century. This period ended in the Glorious Revolution which marked the end of the English bourgeois revolution.

The Victorian era which comprised the second half of the 19th century, called after Queen Victoria, was a period in which Britain became the strongest world power: besides being the greatest financial and commercial power, the greatest sea power and the greatest colonial power. In was the era of the greatest colonial expansion.

The 20th century is a period of the decline of Britain as a world power a period of crises of the two world wars, from which Britain emerged as a victor, but greatly weakened. It is characterized by the disintegration of Britain's colonial empire and the effort to adjust Britain to the new situation by joining the other developed capitalist countries of Western Europe in EEC. In the 21 st century Great Britain is a country where people live richer, better and longer than ever before.

The expression "British Isles" is geographical and not political. They are a group of islands off the northwest coast of Europe consisting of Great Britain, the whole of Ireland, the Orkney and Shetland Islands, the Isle of Man, the Inner and Outer Hebrides, the Isle of Wight, the Scilly Islands, Lundy Island, the Channel Islands and many other smaller islands.

Orkney (also known as the Orkney Islands and sometimes The Orkneys) is an archipelago in northern Scotland.

Shetland is a subarctic archipelago of Scotland that lies north and east of mainland Great Britain.

The Isle of Man is a self-governing Crown Dependency of the United Kingdom, located in the Irish Sea between the islands of Great Britain and Ireland, within the British Isles.

The Isle of Anglesey is situated off the north-west coast of Wales.

The Isle of Wight is a county and the largest island of England, located in the English Channel, on average about 2–4 miles (3–6 km) off the south coast of the county of Hampshire, separated from the mainland by a strait called the Solent.

The Isles of Scilly form an archipelago off the southwestern tip of the Cornish peninsula of Great Britain.

The national flower of England is the rose. The flower has been adopted as England’s emblem since the time of the Wars of the Roses - civil wars ( ) between the royal house of Lancaster (whose emblem was a red rose) and the royal house of York (whose emblem was a white rose).

The national flower of Scotland is the thistle, a prickly-leaved purple flower which was first used in the 15th century as a symbol of defence. The Scottish Bluebell is also seen as the flower of Scotland.

The national flower of Wales is the daffodil, which is traditionally worn on St. David’s Day.

The national flower of Northern Ireland is the shamrock, a three- leaved plant similar to clover. An Irish tale tells of how Patrick used the three-leafed shamrock to explain the Trinity. He used it in his sermons to represent how the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit could all exist as separate elements of the same entity. His followers adopted the custom of wearing a shamrock on his feast day.

The Union Flag, popularly known as the Union Jack, is the national flag of the United Kingdom. It is the British flag.