Great Britain is an island located off the western coast of Europe. It is divided into three parts: England, Scotland, and Wales, as well as some surrounding small islands. It is currently controlled by the United Kingdom. The British Isles is the largest island in Europe. Basic introduction Chinese name: British Island Foreign name: Great Britain Geographical location: Northwestern Europe Climate: Maritime climate Area: 209,331 square kilometers Island history, British air war, geographical location, terrain, climate, area, population, products, language, characteristics, Tourism resources, Big Ben, Tower of London, National Museum, Church, Marx Cemetery, Greenwich, China Town, Stamford Town, Scotland, Politics, Heads of State, Island History According to archaeological discoveries, Britain (Island of Great Britain) in the Paleolithic Age , has been inhabited by ancestors, but it has not yet been determined whether they are the ancestors of today's British people. Settled by Celts during the Neolithic Age. Although linguists classify English and German into the Germanic language family of the Indo-European language family, the traces of French brought by the Normans since the invasion of 1066 AD can be seen everywhere in English today. With the retreat of the Roman legions to Gaul (today's France) in 400 AD, the British Isles also entered a dark age that lasted for centuries, during which no documented records have survived. Since the disappearance of Roman rule, the culture of Romanized Britain has persisted for about four hundred years despite the ruthless invasion and migration of barbarians. The Celts came across the sea from Ireland (a tribe called the Scots named the northern part of the British island "Scotland" after their own name). The Saxons and Angles came from Germany, the Vriesans from what is now the Netherlands, and the Jutes from what is now Denmark. The composition of the British flag In 600 AD, the Angles and Saxons controlled most of today's Britain. Only Wales, Scotland and Western Cornwall were still in the hands of the Celts. The new inhabitants were called Anglo-Saxons (from Angles and Saxons). The Angles named the new culture after themselves (the original meaning of England is the land of the Anglos), and also used their Germanic language (English) to replace the native Celtic language and the previously introduced Latin language. Although it was continuously invaded and even completely conquered by military forces, the southern and eastern parts of the British island have since been called England (her people are British and their language is English). In 865, the peace of England was shattered by new invaders. The Danish Vikings who invaded France and Germany formed a large army and turned their attacks on Britain. Within ten years, most of the territory of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom was either captured or surrendered. Only the West Saxons (today's Wessex) were still controlled by Alfred. He was the only one honored as "the Great". ruler of England. England was divided between the Vikings, the West Saxons, and a few other English kingdoms for nearly two hundred years. The Viking areas were governed by Danish law (governed by Danish law), and the large payments they accepted in exchange for peace were called dain gold (donations to the Danes). After the Danes became Christians, they gradually settled down. During this period, the English began to attack the Danes. In 954, the last Viking king was killed in York, and England was unified for the first time by the English king from Wessex. In 1066, the sage (the king's adviser) proposed that Harold, the son of the Earl of Wessex, take the throne. In addition, there were two contenders for the throne: King Herod Hardalad of Norway (meaning the tough one). ruler) and Duke William of Normandy. The Norwegians first landed near York, but were defeated by Harold at the Battle of Stamford Bridge. After Harold's victory, Harold immediately mobilized his army south to fight William at Hangsting. The tug-of-war continued until dusk, and Harold was shot in the eye by a stray arrow, causing fatal wounds. The next year, William conquered England and received the title "Conqueror". In the second half of the Middle Ages, William's successors spent most of their time and national power on a series of wars to expand or retain the lands they had acquired in France. The Hundred Years' War between England and France from 1337 to 1453 consisted of intermittent fighting over the English king's claim to be the legitimate heir to the French throne. In addition, the war was fought over control of the lucrative wool trade and the French king's support for Scottish independence. The early years of the war were characterized by a series of improbabilities, such as the British victory on the battlefield, which was due to their longbowmen knocking down large numbers of richly armored French knights from a long distance. However, the British were unable to end the war, and France recovered. Under the call of Joan of Arc (a peasant girl who claimed to be inspired by God), the French launched a counterattack and ended the war after capturing Bordeaux in 1453. The British could only keep Calais on the European continent (and Didn't control the place for how long). The entire island is governed by the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and most of the territory of the United Kingdom is on the island of Great Britain, so "Great Britain" is sometimes used to refer to the entire United Kingdom. England, Scotland and Wales and their capitals London, Edinburgh and Cardiff are all on the island.

On May 1, 1707, during the reign of Queen Anne, the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of Scotland merged to form the Kingdom of Great Britain. It was not until 1801 that the Kingdom of Great Britain merged with the Kingdom of Ireland to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. In 1922, the Irish Free State became independent from it, and the kingdom became the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The Battle of Britain The British and German air forces staged the world's largest air battle over Britain - the Battle of Britain. In June 1940, fascist German troops swept through Western Europe. The British Expeditionary Force in Europe was defeated at Dunkirk. Although the British army used the "Dynamic Plan" to withdraw their troops to the mainland, they lost all their heavy equipment. The Royal Air Force also lost more than 1,000 aircraft in battles with the Luftwaffe over France. In July of the same year, Hitler formulated the "Sea Lion" plan to invade Britain from the sea. The plan called for "the German Air Force to use all its forces to defeat the British Air Force as soon as possible", seize air supremacy, and cooperate with the navy and army to land on the British mainland. The Luftwaffe deployed approximately 2,400 aircraft in the Battle of Britain, including 1,285 bombers. Its main bases were located in northeastern and northwest France, the Netherlands and Norway. The Battle of Britain defeated Germany's purpose of invading Britain and forcing it to submit, and frustrated Germany's plan to conquer all of Western Europe. This battle was also due to Britain's tenacious performance, which forced Hitler to turn back to deal with the Soviet Union and return to the old path of fighting on two fronts before completely expelling Britain from the war. The Battle of Britain wrote a glorious page in the history of World War II in the fight against fascism. Location Britain is the largest island in the British Isles. It is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Irish Sea to the west, facing the island of Ireland, the Atlantic Ocean to the north, and the English Channel to the south facing France. It is a world independent of the European continent. The closest distance to the mainland is 32 kilometers, located in the Strait of Dover. The island is surrounded by more than 1,000 small islands. The entire island of Great Britain is between 50° and 59° north latitude. It is a long island that is long from north to south and narrow from east to west. The 0° longitude passes right through Greenwich outside London, so its longitude spans east longitude and west longitude, with most of it concentrated in the west longitude, all located in the Eastern Hemisphere. Topography The British Isles was originally part of the European continent. After two crustal movements, the British Isles massif drifted toward the Atlantic Ocean. The North Sea collapsed between the islands and the European continent and became an isolated island. The terrain of Great Britain is high in the north and low in the south, with gentle undulations. The main feature is the glacial terrain.

Because the island is long and narrow, the length of the river is not long. In addition, with abundant rainfall, almost every river mouth is a natural harbor. Climate When most people think of the UK, they only think of words such as cold, damp, rainy and foggy, and this is indeed the case. Because it is an island country and the Gulf Stream carries a large amount of water vapor through the surrounding waters, the probability of rainfall is very high. The average annual rainfall is more than 1,000 millimeters across the island. November and December are the months with the most rainfall. Because the Gulf Stream brings in warm air from the south, the temperature is not too low and is considered warmer than other Nordic countries. Area, population, and products: The British island is six times larger than Taiwan, with a population of about 55.4 million. The distribution is very uneven. Most of the population is concentrated in England, which is in sharp contrast to the sparseness of Scotland. No wonder most people refer to the United Kingdom as England. English is its main language. The UK was once the world's largest industrial country because of its rich media, iron and other minerals. Now it is gradually turning to high-tech industries due to the depletion of coal mines, and it still occupies an important position on the world stage. Language The British island consists of three regions: England occupies the south and center, Wales occupies the western mountainous peninsula, and Scotland occupies the north; of which England is the most important. The British Isles is the largest island in Europe, with a very tortuous coast that is 11,450 kilometers long. English was formed in this geographical environment. English is an Indo-European language. The Indo-European language family is the largest language family in the world and includes most of the languages ??of Europe, America, and Asia. The total number of people who speak Indo-European languages ??is about 1.875 billion, accounting for about half of the world's total population. As early as 1786, the British Sanskrit scholar Sir William Jones pointed out that most languages ??in Europe, India, Persia and other places, including ancient Greek, ancient Latin and ancient Indian, belong to the same " family". At the beginning of the seventh century AD, these small estates merged into seven kingdoms: the Saxons Wessex, Sussex and Essex in the south; the Angles in the northeast and center Mercia, Northumbria, and East Anglia; in the southeast was the Jute kingdom of Kent. Countries competed for supremacy for two hundred years; it was called "the Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy" in British history. Although these three Germanic tribes have their own dialects, these dialects are all Low West Germanic. There are many similarities. Therefore, the three tribes are basically similar in language. They all use a script called Runic.

This kind of writing was common to all ancient Germanic peoples. Its letters are mainly composed of straight lines to facilitate engraving on wood or stone. It is a Nordic inscription developed from ancient Greek and Latin. With the development of human society, the Angles, Saxons and Jutes gradually formed a unified English nation. The dialects they used gradually merged, and a new language emerged called Anglo-Saxon. This is Old English. It was formed through a series of ethnic migrations and conquests in a specific geographical and historical environment. English belongs to the West Germanic branch of the Germanic family of Indo-European languages. Features (1) Located in the center of North Atlantic civilization: Ancient Greek civilization was centered on the Eastern Mediterranean. Although the center of gravity gradually moved westward during the Roman era, it still took the Mediterranean as its category. After the discovery of the New World in 1492, the center of civilization moved to the North Atlantic, with Britain as its center. (2) Located overseas in the Western European continent, it can attack and defend freely: the narrowest point of LINK is only more than 30 kilometers, which allows the UK to participate in European affairs when advancing and protect itself when retreating. Napoleon dominated the European continent, and Hitler swept more than ten European countries, but he still looked away from the British Isles. (3) The busiest shipping route in the world: After the discovery of the New World, ships transported Western European immigrants to the Americas, and transported American native products and raw materials back to Europe for processing, and then shipped the finished products to all parts of the world. The North Atlantic shipping route has therefore become the busiest shipping route in the world. Routes and shipping accounted for half of the world's shipping volume, and British ships and harbors also brought much wealth due to their participation in the work. (4) Rich maritime resources: The British Isles are adjacent to the North Sea, and the sea is vast and shallow. It has been a rich fishing ground since ancient times, supplying food to the British. Since the discovery of oil on the bottom of the North Sea in 1970 AD, in addition to fully supplying the needs of the United Kingdom, there is even a surplus for export. Tourism Resources Big Ben To the north of the Parliament Building on the Thames River, stands a tall clock tower with a large bell, named Big Ben. Every hour, the big clock sounds a heavy and sonorous sound according to Greenwich Mean Time, and the echo of the bell can be heard miles away. In 1859, the bell was supervised by the then British Minister Sir Benjamin Hall. The bell weighed 21 tons and cost 27,000 pounds to cast. Big Ben is regarded as a symbol of London. Anyone who visits London will want to go around the clock tower and stand on the Parliament Bridge to admire this unique building in London. Tower of London The Tower of London was built in 1078. It served as a palace, a court, and later a prison in history. The Tower of London covers an area of ??7.2 hectares and is surrounded by a thick city wall built with huge stones. There are many forts and arrow towers on the city wall, surrounded by a wide and deep moat. The Tower of London is now a museum open to the public. There is a treasure hall in the tower, where visitors can see the crowns of British kings and the gold and silver jewelry collected by the royal family. There are also some fat crows called "Duwu" in the castle in London, which are raised by specially trained people. The Tower of London has a history of thousands of years and is the oldest monument in London, with 2 million visitors every year. At the entrance and exit, visitors can see two guards wearing ancient dynasty uniforms. These "ancient guards" have become the objects of appreciation and photography for tourists. National Museum The British National Museum is located in the center of London, on the north side of Gray Russell Street in the downtown area. It is a large-scale ancient Roman column-style building, majestic and very spectacular. The cultural relics and books and materials collected here are unmatched by any museum in the world. The British Museum was built in 1753 and officially opened six years later. It originally mainly collected books, but later also collected historical relics and ancient works of art from various countries. The Egyptian Pavilion is one of the largest galleries in the museum. There are more than 70,000 pieces on display. In the Greek and Roman pavilions, there are temples dedicated to the goddess Athens in the 5th century AD and busts of ancient Roman emperors. In the West Asian Art Museum, there are ancient Persian cultural relics and two boundary monuments given to nobles by King Hammurabi of the Babylonian era more than 3,700 years ago. The most eye-catching one is the Oriental Art Museum. In addition to cultural relics from Central Asia, South Asia and Japan, most of them are rare treasures from China, with more than 20,000 pieces. The collection of books in the British Museum is also renowned in the world. There are a large number of British and world classic documents, books, manuscripts, and archives, many of which are the only remaining rare books. In addition to English, there are also books in Arabic, Persian, Turkish, Sanskrit, Hindi, Mongolian and Chinese and many other languages. There are more than 60,000 kinds of books and periodicals in China alone. Throughout history, many scholars, celebrities, and political activists have read, researched, and written at the British Library. After Karl Marx, the mentor of the proletarian revolution, moved to London, he worked continuously for decades and finally completed his immortal masterpiece "Das Kapital". Church Westminster Abbey was built by King Edward of England in the 11th century, known as the "Faithful". The main feature of the church is the pair of towers at the entrance door. Since its construction, the church has been the venue for the coronation ceremonies of British kings or queens and the wedding of royal members. Most of the British kings were buried here after their deaths. After the British bourgeois revolution, many famous people also occupied a place in the church after their death. The United Kingdom calls Westminster Abbey the "spire of honor." Now, Westminster Abbey is not only the cemetery of celebrities, but also a rare "history museum". Marx Cemetery On March 14, 1956, British workers and communist parties from various countries worked together to rebuild Marx's tomb.

The new Marx tomb is located in a slightly spacious place in the northeast corner of the cemetery. The tomb is built of granite and is in the shape of a square column, 8 feet high. A 4-foot-tall bronze statue of Marx is placed on the top of the monument. On the front of the tombstone are engraved large golden characters: "Proletarians of the world unite?" Below is engraved Marx's famous saying: "Philosophers only explain the world in different ways, and the problem is to transform the world." Greenwich Greenwich Located on the banks of the Thames in southeast London, it is home to the former Royal Observatory, the National Maritime Museum, the Royal Naval College and beautiful parks. Greenwich has a long-standing reputation. In the past 100 years, maps published by various countries have used the longitude passing through Greenwich in London as the prime meridian. It is the starting point for calculating geographical longitude and the starting point of the "world time zone", and uses its timing instruments to calibrate their own countries. time. Standing on the Greenwich Lookout, you can see the gorgeous scenery of the Thames River at a glance, and you can also have a panoramic view of London. China Town "China Town" is located in the Soho area of ??London, where London's busiest Oxford Street and Regent Street intersect. The British call this tiny area of ??less than 1 square kilometer "China Town", also known as "Chinatown". There are no high-rise buildings or large luxury companies in "Chinatown". Almost all buildings are relatively short. Except for a few shops and bars run by foreigners, "Chinatown" is almost dominated by Chinese people. . Strolling through "China Town", you can see all the shops written in Chinese characters. Most of the Chinese in "China Town" come from Hong Kong and Southeast Asia, and a few come from Shanghai, Beijing, Jiangsu and other places. During the Spring Festival, The "China Town" was decorated with lanterns and colorful decorations. Men, women and children put on new clothes and wished each other "good luck". Young men and women danced dragons and lions, and performed Chinese acrobatics. The scene was full of joy, attracting many local residents and tourists from outside Stamford Town. The hometown of Shakespeare, the world's great theater master, has a population of only 20,000, but the main purpose of tourists coming here is to see the birth, work, life and rest of Shakespeare. Place. Shakespeare's former residence is located on Henry Street. It is a typical two-story wooden house, quaint and solemn. On the right side of the house is the "Shakespeare Center", a modern building that serves as both a library and an archive for the United States and Canada. It was built with private donations. The house that Shakespeare lived in after his marriage was called "Anne Hershey's Cottage", and the interior decoration was still as it was. Shakespeare loved his hometown and was buried in Holy Trinity Church after his death. Scotland is located in Europe. The northwestern part of the British Isles, where the United Kingdom is located, was once an independent country. Even after its merger with England, it retained a great deal of independence and a distinct national tradition. Geographic conditions always have a certain relationship with their historical development, and the Scots are particularly outstanding in this regard. The unique natural conditions have allowed the Scots to maintain a small population and open land, and also allowed the Scots to maintain their bagpipes and music. Skirts, independence and pride. The northwest of Scotland is the famous Scottish Highlands, with its majestic natural scenery: landscapes left over from the Ice Age, rugged mountains, exquisite lakes and boulder-covered fields. Traditional specialty - Scotch whiskey provides important raw materials. There are not many towns in the southeast of the Highlands, which is known as the tourist center of the Highlands. There are majestic mountains, beautiful valleys, tranquil lakes, flowing streams and fields full of heather. Although the southern part of Scotland is mountainous, it is far from being as unruly as the Highlands. The terrain here is similar to that of northern England, and it is a truly peaceful area with grassy hillsides and spacious grounds embracing tranquil streams. Valley. Before 1707, Scotland was once an independent kingdom, occupying about 1/3 of the land area in the northwestern sea of ??Europe and the northern part of the British Isles. Although in diplomatic and military affairs, Scotland was controlled by the United Kingdom in Westminster, London. It is governed by Congress, but it has a very high degree of autonomy in internal legislation and administrative management. It also issues a proprietary currency version. It is the second largest country in the United Kingdom after England. Politics is located in the new Scottish Parliament building under construction in the Old City of Edinburgh. The union of Scotland and England began in 1603, when the original King James VI of Scotland succeeded to the throne and became the King of England, known to the world as James of England. James I of England, and merged the Kingdom of Scotland and England that originally belonged to him into a temporary personal union. On May 1, 1707, the Act of Union was passed, and Scotland officially merged with England into one country, becoming the Kingdom of Great Britain. The original Scottish Parliament before the merger had already been united on March 26. After the dissolution, all management of Scotland was transferred to a single parliament in Westminster, London. The interests of the area were implemented through part of the seats in the parliament held by Scots, and only some legislative-related institutions were retained. Handle them separately.

The Kingdom of Great Britain subsequently underwent several restructurings, eventually becoming what is known today as the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (the official full name of the United Kingdom). In 1998, the British government announced the Scotland Act based on the referendum resolution passed in 1997, confirming that the Scottish Parliament, which had disappeared for nearly three hundred years, would be re-established. The new Scottish Parliament will have the power to govern most internal affairs, plus some room for adjustment of tax rates. The new location of the Parliament was chosen to be Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland and the capital of the Kingdom of Scotland in the past. As of 2004, the new Parliament building is still in full swing. Among the rushed buildings, its avant-garde shape is an anomaly in the quaint old town of Edinburgh. Head of State The head of state of Scotland is the current Queen Elizabeth II of England. She is a direct descendant of King James VI of Scotland (renamed James I after 1603). She is concerned about the legitimacy of the Scottish monarchy. There is no doubt about it. However, regarding the title of Queen Elizabeth, some Scots have different interpretations from the English. The reason is that when the so-called Queen Elizabeth I was reigning, England and Scotland had not yet been united into the same country. For the Scots, the current Queen is their first Queen Elizabeth, so she should be called the First Queen instead of the Second. The Scottish court has made a formal decision regarding the dispute over this title, and the title of Elizabeth II should be uniformly used.