Country | UK | Ireland | Australia | New Zealand | American | Canada |
Language | English | Irish English | English | Maori English | English | French English |
Original people | Celtics | The Aborigines | Maori | Indians | Aboriginal | |
Capital | London ... | Dublin | Canberra | Wellington | Washington D. C. | Ottawa |
Largest country | 6th | 2th | ||||
Government | parliamentary democracy & constitutional monarchy | Washminster 3 | Parliament 3 | Constitution Federal system | Washminster | |
The united Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Contain 50 or more countries
Commonwealth of Nations (50) → European Union (28)
England
London capital cultural, business, financial center
Celtics original people
Roman Empire combine the small kingdoms into a united one called England
Anglo-Saxon
Viking and Danish
Norman
Charles the First’s attempt to overrule parliament civil war
Scotland
Edinburgh capital
Glassgow largest
Gaelic
Wales
Cardiff capital
Welsh
Northern Ireland “The Six Counties”
Belfast capital
Conflict ethnically distinct from the majority of British people
Geographically North and South of Ireland
Religiously Protestant and Catholics
Most Irish people remained Catholics, while most British people had become Protestant
1921 the southern 26 counties formed an independent “free state”, while the 6 north-
eastern counties remained a part of the UK
Jurisdiction : the Republic of Ireland Great Britain
its own elected executive government of ten ministers
Government
The process of stated-building has been one of evolution rather than revolution
Both a parliamentary democracy and a constitutional monarchy
Queen is the official head of state
Governor- General fulfill the role of monarch in Australia, Canada, New Zealand
Israel and Britain are the only two counties without written constitutions of the sort with most countries have
Monarchy
The oldest institution of government
The “divine right of kings” authority from God
Civil war between republican “Roundheads” led by Oliver Cromwell
King should not exercise absolute power
→ symbolize the tradition and unity of the British state
Queen non-political
1. Head of the executive
2. An intergral part of the legislature
3. Head of the judiciary
4. Commander in chief of the armed forces and “supreme governor” of the Church
of England
Parliament
First used officially in 1236 to describe the gathering of feudal barons and representatives
from counties and towns
1689 William of Orange the Bill of Rights
→ Function : pass laws, vote for taxation, examine government, debate the major issues
Consist of the Queen, the House of Lords, the House of Commons
(sovereign) (The real center of British political life)
The House the Lords : the Lords Spiritual & the Lords Temporal
Serve their country
Do not receive salaries and many do not attend Parliament at all
The House of Commons : 646 Members of Parliament (MPs)
Most belong to political parties : Labour, the Conservatives, the Liberal Democrats
Election
650 constituencies
5 years general election
Economy
6th largest economy
A member of the G7,G8,G-20, the World Trade Organization
By the 1880s the British economy was dominant in the world
Decline
1. War debt
2. The independence of colonies
3. Substantial and expensive military presence
4. Failure to invest sufficiently industry
Britain has seen a relative shrinking of the importance of secondary industry and a spectacular growth in tertiary or service industries
Literature
time | writer | Work | |
Early time | Anglo-Saxon times | Beowulf old English | |
Geoffrey Chaucer | The Canterbury Tales Middle English | ||
| monarchy Thomas Malory | Le Morte D’Arthur (Death of Arthur) | ||
Elizabethan Drama (the Renaissance) | Marlowe | The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus | |
William Shakespeare | tragedy | Romeo and Juliet Hamlet Othello King Lear Macbeth | |
comedy | The Taming of the Shrew A midsummer Night’s Dream Twelfth Night The Tempest | ||
17th | Francis Bacon | Essays | |
John Milton | Paradise Lost | ||
18th | Jonathan Swift | Gulliver’s Travels | |
Daniel Defoe | Robinson Crusoe | ||
Romantic Period | William Wordsworth Samuel Taylor Coleridge | Lyrical Ballads “Declaration of Independence” | |
George Gordon,Lord Byron John Keats Percy Bysshe Shelley | Brought the Romantic Movement | ||
19th | Jane Austen | Sense and Sensibility Pride and Prejudice Emma | |
Charlotte Bronte | Jane Eyre | ||
Emily Bronte | Wuthering Heights | ||
Charles Dickens | Oliver Twist Robert Louis Stevenson | ||
Thomas Hardy | Tess of the D’Urbervilles | ||
20th | D. H. Lawrence | Sons and Lovers | |
E. M. Forster | Howard’s End | ||
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