The Difference between the United Kingdom, Great Britain and England Explained

From my blog:
http://blog.cgpgrey.com/

Full script available here:
http://blog.cgpgrey.com/the-difference-between-the-united-kingdom-great-britain-england-and-a-whole-lot-more/

Welcome to the United
Kingdom and a whole lot

more explained by me, C. G. P. Grey.

The United Kingdom,
England, Great Britain:

Are these three the same
place?

Are they different places?

Do British people secretly laugh
at those who use the

terms incorrectly?

Who knows the answers to these
questions?

I do, and I'm going to
tell you right now.

For the lost, this is
the world,

this is the European continent,
and this is the place we have

to untangle.

The area shown in purple
is the United Kingdom.

Part of the confusion is
that the United Kingdom is

not a single country but
is, instead,

a country of countries.

It contains inside of
it, four co-equal and

sovereign nations.

The first of these is England,
shown here in red.

England is often confused
with the United Kingdom as

a whole because it's the largest
and most populous

of the nations and contains the
de facto capital city, London.

To the north is Scotland
shown in blue,

and to the west is Wales shown
in white.

And, often forgotten, even by
those who live in the United
Kingdom,

is Northern Ireland shown in orange.

Each country has a local
term for the population.

While you can call them
all British,

it's not recommended as the four
countries generally don't

like each other.

The Northern Irish,
Scottish,

and Welsh regard the English as
slave-driving colonial masters,

no matter that all three have
their own devolved parliaments

and are allowed to vote on

English laws despite the
reverse not being true,

and the English generally
regard the rest as rural

yokels who spend too much
time with their sheep.

However, as the four constituent
countries don't have their own passports,

they are all British citizens,

like it or not.

They are British citizens
of the United Kingdom,

whose full name, by the
way, is The United Kingdom

of Great Britain and
Northern Ireland.

So where is Great Britain
hiding?

Right here.

The area covered in black is
Great Britain.

Unlike England, Scotland, Wales,
and Northern Ireland,

Great Britain is a geographical
rather than a political term.

Great Britain is the largest
island among the British Isles.

Within the United Kingdom,
the term Great Britain is

often used to refer to
England, Scotland,

and Wales alone with the
intentional exclusion of

Northern Ireland.

This is mostly, but not
completely true,

as all three constituent
countries have islands

that are not part of Great
Britain,

such as the Isle of Wight, part
of England, the Welsh Isle of

Anglesey, the Scottish
Hebrides,

The Shetland Islands, the Orkney
Islands,

and the Islands of the Clyde.

The second biggest island
in the British Isles is Ireland.

It's worth noting at this point
that Ireland is not a country.

Like Great Britain, it
is a geographical,

not political, term.

The island of Ireland contains
on it two countries:

Northern Ireland, which we have already discussed,

and the Republic of Ireland.

When people say they are
Irish,

they are referring to the
Republic of Ireland,

which is a separate country from
the United Kingdom.

However, both the Republic
of Ireland and the United

Kingdom are members of
the European Union,

even though England, in
particular,

likes to pretend that it's an
island in the Mid Atlantic

rather than 50 kilometers
off the coast of France.

But that's a story
for another time.

To review: The two largest
islands in the British

Isles are Ireland
and Great Britain.

Ireland has on it two
countries,

The Republic of Ireland and
Northern Ireland,

while Great Britain mostly
contains three, England,

Scotland, and Wales.

These last three when
combined with Northern

Ireland form the
United Kingdom.

There are still many
unanswered questions,

such as, why when you travel to
Canada is there British

royalty on the money?

To answer this, we need
to talk about empire.

You can't have gone to
school in the English

speaking world without
having learned that the

British Empire once
spanned a fourth of the

world's land and governed
nearly a fourth of the

world's people.

While it's easy to
remember the parts of the

British Empire that broke
away violently,

we often forget how many nations
gained independence

through diplomacy, not
bloodshed.

These want-to-be-nations struck
a deal with the

Empire where they continue to
recognize the monarchy

as the head of state in
exchange for a local,

autonomous parliament.

To understand how they are
connected,

we need to talk about The Crown,
not the physical crown that sits

behind glass in the Tower
of London and earns

millions of tourist pounds
for the UK,

but The Crown as a complicated
legal entity best thought of as

a one-man corporation.

Who created this corporation?

God did.

According to British tradition,
all power is vested in God,

and the monarch is crowned in
a Christian ceremony.

God, however, not wanting to be
bothered with micromanagement,

conveniently delegates his power
to an entity called The Crown.

While this used to be the
physical crown in the Tower of
London,

it evolved over time into a legal corporation, sole,

able to be controlled only

by the ruling monarch.

It's a useful reminder
that the United Kingdom is

still technically a
theocracy with a reigning

monarch acting as both
the head of state and the

supreme governor of the
official state religion,

Anglicanism.

Such are the oddities that
arise when dealing with a

1,000-year-old monarchy.

Back to Canada
and the rest.

The former colonies that gained
their independence

through diplomacy and
continue to recognize the

authority of The Crown are
known as the Commonwealth Realm.

They are, in decreasing
order of population:

Canada, Australia, Papua
New Guinea, New Zealand,

Jamaica, The Solomon
Islands, Belize, The

Bahamas, Barbados, Saint
Lucia, Saint Vincent and

the Grenadines, Grenada,
Antigua and Barbuda,

Saint Kitts and Nevis, and
Tuvalu.

All are independent nations but
still recognize the monarchy as

the head of state even though it has little real power within

their borders.

There are three further
entities that belong to

The Crown, and these are the
Crown Dependencies:

The Isle of Man, Jersey, and
Guernsey.

Unlike the Commonwealth Realm,
they are not considered

independent nations but are granted local autonomy by

The Crown and British

citizenship by the United
Kingdom,

though the UK does reserve the
right to overrule the laws of

their local assemblies.

Are we done now?

Almost, but not quite.

There are still a couple
of loose threads,

such as this place: the tiny
city of Gibraltar on the

southern coast of Spain, famous
for its rock, its monkeys,

and for causing diplomatic
tension between

the United Kingdom and Spain.

But what about the Falkland
Islands which caused so much

tension
between the United Kingdom

and Argentina that they
went to war over them?

These places belong in
the last group of Crown

Properties known as
British Overseas Territories.

But their former name,
Crown Colonies,

gives away their origin.

They are the last vestiges
of the British Empire.

Unlike the Commonwealth
Realm, they have not

become independent nations
and continue to rely on

the United Kingdom for
military and sometimes

economic assistance.

Like the Crown
Dependencies, everyone

born within their borders
is a British citizen.

The Crown Colonies are,
in decreasing order of

population, Bermuda, the
Cayman Islands,

The Turks and Caicos Islands,
Gibraltar, The British

Virgin Islands, Akrotiri
and Dhekelia, Anguilla,

St. Helena, The Ascension
Islands, Tristan da Cunha,

Montserrat, The British
Indian Ocean Territory,

The South Georgia and
South Sandwich Islands,

The Falkland Islands, The
British Antarctic Territory,

and the Pitcairn Islands.

For our final Venn
diagram,

the United Kingdom is a country
situated on the British

Isles that is part of The
Crown which is controlled

by the monarchy.

Also part of The Crown and
the British Isles are the

Crown Dependencies.

The independent nations
of the former Empire that

still recognize The Crown
are the Commonwealth Realm,

and the non-independent remnants

of the former empire are the
British Overseas Territories.

Thank you very
much for watching.