5

FORWARD




When you study the language of a country for a reasonable period
of time you feel the need to find out some information about the
culture, literature or history of that nation. These notes about
important issues in the history of The United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Northern Ireland and The United States of America will
offer the students a better understanding of the people whose language
they study. It is just a staring point in their further studies of the
English speaking world.



6



I. VARIETIES OF ENGLISH

The British and Americans are divided by a common language.
George Bernard Shaw

If there are people who claim that Chinese rather than English is
the language that has the largest number of speakers in the world,
English is the most widely spread language on earth, as it is practically
spoken on all continents, either as mother tongue or first language or as
a second language (often an official language in the respective
countries) by hundreds of millions of people. Nowadays English is the
planets language for commerce, technology, military and increasingly,
empowerment. According to a recent report from the British Council,
within a decade or so a 2 billion people will be studying English and
about half the world some 3 billion people will speak it. From
Caracas to Karachi parents look for English-language schools for their
children. While governments from Tunisia to Turkey are pushing
English, recognizing that along with computers and mass migration, the
language is the turbine engine of globalization.
Linguistically speaking, it is a whole new world. Non-native
speakers of English now outnumber native speakers 3 to 1, according
to English-language expert David Crystal who mentions that there has
never before been a language that has been spoken by more people as
a second language than a first. Be it called global language or
international language the number of English users is growing and
growing: it has topped 350 millions in Asia alone that is the
combined populations of USA, Britain and Canada and the number
of Chinese children studying English, about 100 million, outnumbers
by far the number in Britain. The new English-speakers are not just
passively absorbing the language they are shaping it. All languages
are works in progress. But Englishs globalization, unprecedented in
the history of languages, will revolutionize it in ways we can only
begin to imagine Crystal suggests that in the future there could be a
tri-English world, one in which you could speak a local English



7
based dialect at home, a national variety at work or school, and
international Standard English to talk to foreigners.
A language so widely geographically spread cannot be expected
to be the same in places of thousands of kilometers apart. In other
words we cannot imagine that people in Sydney, Harare, Vancouver,
Toronto, Los Angeles, The Falkland Islands, Dar es Salaam,
Johannesburg, Glasgow, York or London speak the same kind of
English. The differences are not always proportional to the distances
since General American usually abbreviated GA, is much closer to
standard British English than some of the northern accents spoken on
the very island of Britain. In many cases, the interaction between
English and one or several local languages gave birth to so-called
Pidgins. Differences between the varieties of English pertain not only
in the vocabulary or grammar but also to pronunciation as well.
Researchers are starting to study non-native speakers mistakes. In a
generations time, teachers might no longer be correcting students for
saying a book who or a person which, and the Asians and not
only-trouble with pronouncing the the sound might not matter so
much. International pilots already pronounce the word three as tree in
radio dispatches, since tree is more widely comprehensible.
Still, there is a constant concern for different official bodies and
institutions in various countries to preserve the unity and even the purity
of the language by standardizations. If this is easier to achieve at the level
of the written language, difficulties are by far greater in the case of the
spoken language. The need for a standardized, more or less universally
acceptable and recognizable variant, is needed since English is not only
the official language of many countries in the world but also the most
widely used language in international conferences, meeting, etc, being the
main language used by NATO and UN organizations, and having become
since World War II a kind of lingua franca of contemporary world.
Despite or perhaps because of all the new Englishes cropping up, it is
the British and American versions that still carry prestige. In these two
countries English has been institutionalized longer than anywhere else
and its standard varieties have held an unchallenged position as reference
models for teaching of English throughout the world. The UK and USA
share some important characteristics: the most important of these is that
both countries are overwhelmingly nonlinguistic in their official



8
orientation, even though throughout their history they have always been
multilingual. Another similarity is that the standard varieties of English in
the USA and the southern Britain each have well codified norms. The
phonetic, phonological, lexical and syntactic differences between the two
national varieties have long been recognized and described. Neither the
UK nor the USA has ever had a legally sanctioned official or national
language. It has been suggested that this reflects a cultural and
philosophical view of the freedom of the individual in language choice. In
the case of USA, neither the Declaration of Independence nor the
American Constitution specified an official language, although the
documents were written in English. It is only recently (1985) that a
constitutional amendment was put before Congress, urging that English
should be the official language of the USA and that Congress should have
the power to enforce this legislation.
The English language was brought to America by masses of
Englishmen who settled along the Atlantic coast in the 17
th
century.
The territory that now forms The United States of America witnessed
three great periods of immigrations:
the first period that started with the settlement of Jamestown
and ended in 1790, when the last colony ratified the Federal
Constitution after the War of Independence or the American
Revolution as it is generally called. Out of the about 4,000,000 people
that reached the new territory 90 per cent came from Britain.
the second period, which closed with the Civil War, about 1860,
covered the expansion of the former thirteen colonies west of
Appalachian Mountains, first into the south and the northwest then to
the Pacific coast. Out of the about 3,000,000 people half came from
Ireland and half from Germany.
the third period, which ended before the world War II brought
immigrants from the Scandinavian countries and especially from
southern and eastern Europe.
From the linguistic point of view, the first period is the most
important because it brought to North America the language that is
spoken by the majority of its population.
The first colonists found themselves surrounded by new things
and situations and they did not have the words to express them. So,



9
they often applied an existing English word to a slightly different
thing. A pond designated not only an artificial pool but also a small
lake; corn was used for maize; to squat means not only to crouch but
also to settle on land without the owners permission. Some of the
new meanings were adopted by British English e.g. to squat/ squatter.
There are changes that have no historical or other explanations.
The English biscuit is called a cracker in US, the English high boot is
a boot in America, and the English boot is a shoe; nevertheless, an
American calls the boy who shines his shoes a boot-black, while an
Englishman calls him a shoe-black.
We can speak of differences in point of meanings of words where
we have either the same word but two meanings, or the same meaning
but two words; of pronunciation or grammar. In the preface to
Websters New World Dictionary of American Language we are
pointed out that at their widest, the real distinctions between literate
American English and literate British English are quite insufficient to
impede seriously the communication of ideas. When they do impede,
the impediment is caused less by difficulties in understanding than by
a deliberate desire to understand.
Here is a number of variations between the everyday vocabulary
of Britain and that of the United States.

UK word USA word
full stop period
note bill [unit of purer currency]
maths math
autumn fall
bank holiday legal holiday [the day when offices are closed]
drawing pin thumb tack [small pointed thing used to pin papers
onto walls]
tick check
zed zee [the name of the final letter of the Alphabet]
pissed off pissed [angry]
waist coat vest
tights (panty) hose
trousers pants
trainers sneakers



10
braces suspenders
dressing gown bathrobe [item of clothing worn in house at Night]
hand bag purse
dummy pacifier [what you put in a babys mouth]
nappy diaper
pavement sidewalk
pedestrian crossing crosswalk [place to cross a street on foot]
shop store
chemist drug store
bill check [payment in a restaurant]
off license liquor store [place where alcoholic drinks are
bought]
town centre downtown
post mail
postcode zip code
reverse charge collect call
free phone toll free [free telephone call paid by the company]
.co.uk .com [company on the www]
car automobile
bonnet hood
boot trunk
number plate license plate
aerial antenna
spanner wrench [metal tool for tightening nuts and bolts]
windscreen windshield
wing, mud guard fender
motorway freeway
flyover overpass [road passing over another]
lorry truck
petrol gasoline
petrol station gas station
lay-by pull-off [area to stop off a major road]
skip dumper [metal container in street for unwanted
items]
single one way [ticket for one journey]
return round trip [ticket for two journeys; out and back]
railway railroad
jam jelly
jelly jell-O
crisps chips
chips French fries



11
jug pitcher [a large vessel for water or juice]
sweets candy
swiss roll jelly roll [rolled up cake with jam/jelly in the
middle]
mince ground meat
porridge oatmeal
Muesli granola
insect bug
flat apartment
tap faucet
rubbish bin trash can
torch flashlight
ground floor first floor
first floor second floor
lift elevator
cinema movie theatre
semi detached house duplex
programme show
match game
cricket baseball
mobile cellular, cell
queue line
1939-1945 1941-1945 [the dates of the second World War]

One Word two Meanings

UK usage USA usage
Asian person of Indian, Pakistani,
Bangladeshi origin
Philippine origin
person of Vietnamese,
Korean, Japanese,
ass a donkey human posterior
bathroom a room containing a bath or shower a room containing a toilet
homely pleasant ugly
mad not sane angry
mean stingy aggressive
momentarily for a short time soon
presently soon now
semi semi-detached house tractor-trailer
smart well-dressed clever
wash-up wash ditches after a meal wash face and hands



12
These lists are extremely long but sometimes misleading. Some of
the entries on the American side of such lists are widely known in
England while others known as British expressions are used in
America. Thomas Pyles says that: frequently it is simply a matter
of degree, a question of a word or a phrase being somewhat more
familiar in one country than in the other (p. 9). If we compare
American and British idioms we find that a few of them are similar in
form but different in meaning: black eye (AE rejection; BE bruised
eye); green goods (AE forged money; BE fresh vegetables); long
nines (AE cheap cigars; BE long pipes).
Most American idioms are bold, full of imagination and of
humor. Here we mention the following ones: as mad as a wet hen, as
tight as a drum [dead drunk], like a cow on ice, to look like a million
dollars, to salt the cow to catch the calf, sudden death [very strong
drink], scorpion bite [whisky of a very bad quality], a long drink of
water [a very tall person], to sprinkle the flowers [to give bribes], the
biggest frog in the pond [a local chief], to hand in ones accounts [to
die], to lose ones shirt [to lose ones temper], hes so dumb you can
sell him the Brooklyn Bridge [hes a perfect fool], to live close to
ones belly/ to walk on ones shoestrings [to be very poor], to mend
ones fences [to strengthen ones political position] and the list could
go on and on.
The differences existing between American English and British
English must not be exaggerated; they are less numerous and important
than certain people especially non-native speakers but not only might
think. We should remember the anecdotic words of Bertrand Russell:
The ordinary American believes that if a lord were to be awakened in
the middle of the night to be told that his castle is on fire, the shock
would make him lapse immediately into natural American.

The English language in Canada, Australia New Zealand, Asia
and South Africa
English and French are the official languages of Canada, and all
regions are institutionally bilingual. Some 67 per cent of Canadians
are monolingual English speakers, 16,5 per cent are monolingual
French, about 15 per cent are English-French bilinguals and 1.5 per
cent have a mother tongue neither English nor French. Of the



13
Canadians whose mother tongue is neither English nor French, almost
all speak English, not French as their second language. With two
official languages and numerous third languages, Canada is very rich
in varieties of English. Anyway, the densely populated areas in
Canada are very close to the border of the United States and that is
why Canadian English resembles American English very much. Still
there are fashionable private schools as well as some universities that
encourage the use of British English usage.
The classical examples of Briticisms used in Canada are braces,
meat-pie, summer holidays, sweets, tin, tram, and those of
Americanisms are to guess, rooster, side-walk, store. Canada has a
very wide territory so they are not to be heard all over the country
because neither British English nor American English has exerted a
general or uniform influence. It has been noticed that young
Canadians are much more receptive than their elders to American
speech as ell as American media and other cultural aspects. Compared
to many nations Canada is relatively tolerant linguistically and this
tolerance leads to linguistic diversity.

The Status of English in Australia
English is the national language, regularly used by 98.6 per cent
of the population over the age of 5. A unique development and
diversification of English is due to several features of the Australian
situation: its geographic isolation, its social origin as a penal colony,
and its recent wave of non-speaking immigrants. For the last two
centuries, Australia has had the highest proportion of monolingual
English speakers than any country in the world aside from England
itself. For most of the population English is the first and only
language. The languages other than English that are spoken in
Australia include surviving languages of the aboriginal population
(aborigines today constitute only one per cent of the Australian
population and those who still speak an Aboriginal language natively
are largely located in remote areas, primarily in the Northern
Territory), and languages of non- English speaking immigrants. The
teaching of English as a second language is a small industry, with
extensive government support programs, providing initial ESL
instruction to most newly arriving immigrants.



14
Australian English lacks geographic differentiations but has a
sticking presence of social differentiations. Both features are traceable
to its history: most early settlement in Australia disseminated from a
single original point: Sydney. Places such as Hobart, Newcastle or
Brisbane were all established as penal outstations from Sydney, rather
than direct from England. There were frequent intersettlement transfers
of convicts and soldiers. The social divisions between convicts and
guards in the early period perpetuated sociolinguistic diversity.
The English spoken in Australia differs from that spoken in
Britain not only in vocabulary but mostly in pronunciation. In
Australian English there are a number of words that have been
borrowed from the native languages of Australia and New Zealand:
kangaroo, boomerang that have become international words
billabong (small, swift-flowing steam of the North-east), bush
(woodland, untilled district), humpy (natives hut), larrikin (rowdy
street loafer), yabber (language, to speak), ropeable (angry), diggings
(mine, goldfield), fossick (to search), jackaroo (a trainee manager who
is learning every aspect of the job), offsider (assistant), rouseabout
(handyman), to barrack (to cheer), dinkum (honest, genuine; in
Lincolnshire fair dinkum means fair play), skerrick (small amount).
There are also certain specifically Australian idioms such as my
biggest boner (my greatest mistake), to be in the gun (to be criticized), to
stage a barrel party (to hold an informal meal), youll be right (youll be
all right), youll be in strife (youll be in trouble), to give away (to give
up), you wouldnt read about it (its marvelous, its incredible), to fine
up (to become fine of the weather), to rabble (to behave in a disorderly
manner), to whip the cat (to cry over spilt milk), etc.
It is the spoken English that differs. The diphthong [ei] becomes
[ai], the vowel in final unstressed syllables is generally [] not [i] as it
is in Standard British English in words like basket, palace, riches,
wanted. Likewise there is a shift from [a:] to [] in Australian English
in words with the prefix trans- such as transport or transfer.
The English spoken in New Zealand is not very different from
Australian English; it maintained itself closer to British English. [An
increased nationalism starting by 1973 materialized in the legal
recognition of a distinct national anthem in 1977 and of a national flag
only in 1981; a substitution of general NZ English in all contexts did
not survive.] It has not adopted many native words, the few are



15
nowadays obsolete. New Zealand is one of the worlds most
monolingual nations. English is the first language of 95 per cent of its
about 4 million population. Maori are the largest minority group,
constituting about 12 per cent of the population. Now less than 25 per
cent of Maori people can speak their language fluently. Even in
isolated rural areas it has virtually been replaced by English.

English in Africa
In the East African region of Kenya and Tanzania a complex
multilingual situation exists. It comprises over 100 indigenous languages
in Tanzania and about 40 in Kenya. In Kenya English is the official
language of civil service correspondence and of the legal system, the
language of the armed forces and police and generally of all modern
sectors of socioeconomic activity including the commercial and
industrial sectors. The leading papers are published in English. In
Tanzania English is functioning as official in some peripheral areas but
it is the language of instruction in post-primary education including
universities . In both Kenya and Tanzania, English is the language of
diplomacy and of all international communication. In Kenya the
importance of English increased after independence while in Tanzania
the attitude is mixed, varying from warm acceptance to indifference. The
English spoken here, mainly by the older generations, is very close to
standard British English, mostly to a formal literary variety of English
lacking the colorful English idiomatic expressions. The large number of
high cost private and international schools especially in Kenya where
many of the teachers are expatriate native speakers of English could be
an explanation. Still, among middle class teenage groups a new variety
of English seems to emerge, which is influenced by American English as
a result of the influence of popular music and of American movies and
discotheque jargon. In Kenya the use of English is a marker of good
education and of modernity.
Southern Africa included English speaking countries South
Africa, Lesotho, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Zambia and Malawi and the
Portuguese-speaking countries of Angola and Mozambique. Part of
the reason for the dominance of English as a common language is that
all language policies in the region recognize and promote English as
the official language.



16
In South Africa the English language has to compete with
Afrikaans the variety of Dutch spoken there . The English language
spoken in South Africa borrowed elements mostly from the Dutch.
Such Africanderisms are baas (master, boss), bosch (bush), brak (soil
or water containing a great quantity of soda or salt), dorp (village),
kopje (hill), sluit (ditch), vlei (valley) etc.
We find American English words too: store, cookies.
In south Asia English is spoken in India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri
Lanka, Nepal and Bhutan. The origins of South Asian English lie in
Britain. The first regular British contact came in 1600 with the formation
of the British East India Company. During the period of British
sovereignty from 1765 until the independence in 1947, English gradually
became the medium of administration and education throughout the
subcontinent. In India however, the conflict between the supporters of
English, Hindi and regional languages led in the 1960s to a three
language formula, in which English was introduced as the chief
alternative to the local state language. It now has the status of an
associate official language, with Hindi the official language. In the south
English is preferred ho Hindi: in Pakistan it is an associated official
language but it has no official status in the other countries although it is
universally used as the medium of international communication.
In the South-east Asia and the South Pacific there is a mixture of
American and British English. In Singapore in the 1950s a bilingual
educational system was introduced with English used as a unifying
medium alongside Chinese, Malay or Tamil. English remained the
language of government and the legal system. In Malaysia the
situation is different: in 1957 the year of independence, Buhasa
Malaysia was adopted as the national language and the role of English
accordingly became more restricted. In Hong Kong, English has
always had a limited use in the territory, associated with government,
military, law, business and the media. Chinese (Cantonese) is the
mother tongue of over 98 per cent of the population.
We are going to speak very briefly about the so-called hybrid
colonial languages, the Pidgin English in the Far East, Beach-la-mar
on the islands of the Pacific, Chinook in the Guiana and Kroo English
in the west of Africa as they dont seem to have a future, most
probably they will disappear in the course of time. The name Pidgin is
the corrupted pronunciation of the word business (as pronounced by a



17
Chinaman who has not learned English); Pidgin English means
business English. It can be heard along the Chinese coast, among the
uneducated Japanese and in the islands of the Pacific. Beach-la-mar is
a kind of jargon used in commercial exchanges in the region of the
Western Pacific. Kroo English [kroo is the name of Negroes on the
coast of Liberia], is widely spread in Liberia and New Guinea; its
vocabulary is based on English mixed with Portuguese words. These
hybrid languages have a stock of mixed words and are characterized
by an extreme simplification of grammar, substitution of [l] for [r] as
[r doesnt exist in Chinese; [v] is replaced by [b], etc; compounds and
phrases are often coined on the spot. They are based on the poor
English brought to these territories by the British sailors and the local
words and phrases and pronunciation. It was compared with the baby-
talk which adults impose on babies, being considered sub-language.
In the end we can summarize the complex situation of English
around the world by adopting the suggestion of the US linguist Braj
Kachru, that of the three concentric circles, representing different
ways in which the language has been acquired and is currently used.
the inner circle refers to the traditional bases of English, where
it is the primary language: it includes the USA, UK, Ireland, Canada,
Australia and New Zealand.
the outer or extended circle involves the earlier phases of the
spread of English in non-native settings, where the language has
become part of a countrys chief institutions, and play an important
second language role in a multilingual setting: it includes Singapore,
India, and over fifty other territories.
the expanding circle involves those nations which recognize the
importance of English as an international language, although English
has no special administrative status. It includes China, Japan, Greece,
Poland, Romania and a steadily increasing number of other states,
where English is taught as a foreign language.




18



II. BRITAIN: THE FOUR LANDS


Great Britain is an island lying to the northwest of Continental
Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest
European island. With a population of about 59.6 million people in
mid-2008, it is the third most populated island on Earth. Great Britain
is surrounded by over 1000 smaller islands and islets. The island of
Ireland lies to its west.
The entire island is territory of the sovereign state the United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and most of the
United Kingdoms territory is in Great Britain. The term Great Britain
is sometimes used inaccurately to refer to the United Kingdom as a
whole. Most of England, Scotland, and Wales are on the island, as are
their capital cities, London, Edinburgh, and Cardiff. Great Britain is
made up of three countries; England, Scotland and Wales. They used
to be separate countries, each with its own language and government.
Great Britain is the largest island in Europe. Each country includes
several small islands: the Isle of Wight, the Scilly Isles (England),
Anglesey (Wales) and the islands groups of Hebrides, Orkneys and
Shetlands (Scotland). The Channel Islands in the English Channel and
the Isle of Man in the Irish Sea are independent.
The Kingdom of Great Britain resulted from the political union of
the kingdoms of England and Scotland on 1 May, 1707 under Queen
Anne. It existed until 1801 when the Kingdom of Great Britain and
the Kingdom of Ireland were united. This resulted in the United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. This in turn became the United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in 1922 with the
secession of the Irish Free State.
Great Britain refers to the majority of the United Kingdom of
Great Britain and Northern Ireland (UK). It refers to the largest island
only, or to England, Scotland and Wales as a unit (though these three
countries also include many smaller islands). It does not include
Northern Ireland.



19
In 1975 the government affirmed that the term Britain, not Great
Britain, could be used as a shortened form of the United Kingdom.
British refer, however, to all citizens of the United Kingdom
including Welsh, Scottish, English, and Northern Irish.
The earliest known name of Great Britain is Albion from either
the Latin albus meaning white (referring to the white cliffs of Dover,
the first view of Britain from the continent) or the island of the
Albiones, first mentioned in the Massaliote Periplus by Pytheas. The
name Britain descends from the Latin name for Britain, Brittania or
Brittnia, the land of the Britons. Brittania was used by the Romans
from the 1st century BC for the British Isles taken together. England
has existed as a unified entity since the 10th century; the union
between England and Wales, begun in 1284 and was formalized in
1536 with an Act of Union; in another Act of Union in 1707, England
and Scotland agreed to permanently join as Great Britain; the
legislative union of Great Britain and Ireland was implemented in
1801, with the adoption of the name the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland; the Anglo-Irish treaty of 1921 formalized a
partition of Ireland; six northern Irish counties remained part of the
United Kingdom as Northern Ireland and the current name of the
country, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland,
was adopted in 1927.
Stonehenge and other examples of prehistoric culture are all that
remain of the earliest inhabitants of Britain. Celtic peoples followed.
Roman invasions of the 1st century B.C. brought Britain into contact
with continental Europe. When the Roman legions withdrew in the 5th
century A.D seven large Anglo-Saxon kingdoms were established, and
the original Britons were forced into Wales and Scotland. It was not
until the 10th century that the country finally became united under the
kings of Wessex. Following the death of Edward the Confessor
(1066), a dispute about the succession arose, and William, Duke of
Normandy, invaded England, defeating the Saxon king, Harold II, at
the Battle of Hastings (1066). The Norman Conquest introduced
Norman French law and feudalism.
On 20 October 1604 King James (who had succeeded separately
to the two thrones of England and Scotland) proclaimed himself as



20
King of Great Brittaine, France and Ireland, a title that continued to be
used by many of his successors. However, England and Scotland each
remained legally in existence as separate countries with their own
parliaments until 1707, when an Act of Union joined both parliaments.
That act used two different terms to describe the new all-island nation, a
United Kingdom and the Kingdom of Great Britain. However, the
former term is regarded by many as having been a description of the
union rather than its formal name at that stage. Most reference books
therefore, describe the all-island kingdom that existed between 1707 and
1800 as the Kingdom of Great Britain.
In 1801, under a new Act of Union, this kingdom merged with the
Kingdom of Ireland, over which the monarch of Great Britain had
ruled. The new kingdom was called the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland. In 1922, 26 of Irelands 32 counties attained
dominion status within the British Empire, forming a separate Irish
Free State. The remaining truncated kingdom is named the United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

The Four Lands
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Its
inhabitants account for more than 83% of the total UK population,
while its mainland territory occupies most of the southern two-thirds
of the island of Great Britain. England is bordered by Scotland to the
north, Wales to the west and the North Sea, Irish Sea, Celtic Sea,
Bristol Channel and English Channel. The capital is London, the
largest urban area in Great Britain, and the largest urban zone in the
European Union by many measures.
England became a unified state in the year 927 and takes its name
from the Angles, one of the Germanic tribes who settled there during the
5th and 6th centuries. It has had a significant cultural and legal impact
on the wider world being the place of origin of the English language, the
Church of England, and English law, which forms the basis of the
common law legal systems of countries around the world. In addition,
England was the birth place of the Industrial Revolution, thus being the
first country in the world to industrialize. It is home to the Royal
Society, which laid the foundations of modern experimental science.



21
England has the worlds oldest parliamentary system, and consequently,
other constitutional, governmental and legal innovations that stemmed
from England have been widely adopted by other nations.
The Kingdom of England (including Wales) continued as a
separate state until 1 May 1707, when the Acts of Union resulted in
political union with the Kingdom of Scotland to create the united
Kingdom of Great Britain. In 1800, Great Britain was united with
Ireland through another Act of Union and became the United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. In 1922, the Irish Free State
was created, and the Royal and Parliamentary Titles Act in 1927
officially established the United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Northern Ireland, which exists today.
Englands land area is 50,319 square miles (130,325 square
kilometers), or slightly smaller than Louisiana in the United States.
Most of England consists of rolling hills, but it is more
mountainous in the north with a chain of low mountains, the Pennines,
dividing east and west. There is also an area of flat, low-lying
marshland in the east, the Fens, much of which has been drained for
agricultural use.
England has a temperate climate, with plentiful rainfall all year
round. Temperatures rarely fall below 23F (-5C) or rise above 86F
(30C), although they can be quite variable. The prevailing wind is from
the south-west, bringing mild and wet weather from the Atlantic Ocean.
It is driest in the east and warmest in the south, which is closest to the
European mainland. Snowfall can occur in winter and early spring.
Englands best-known river is the Thames, which flows through
London. At 215 miles (346 km), it is the longest river in England.


The City of London is a business and commercial center, ranking alongside New
York City as the leading center of global finance



22
The capital city of England is London, which is the largest city in
Great Britain, and the largest city in the European Union by most
measures. The ancient City of London still retains its tiny medieval
boundaries; but the name London has long applied more generally
to the whole metropolis which has grown up around it. An important
settlement for around two millennia, London is today one of the
worlds leading business, financial and cultural centers, and its
influence in politics, education, entertainment, media, fashion, and the
arts all contribute to its status as one of the major global cities.


The City of Birmingham

Birmingham is the second largest, both in terms of the city itself
and its urban conurbation. A number of other cities, mainly in central
and northern England, are of substantial size and influence. These
include: Manchester, Leeds, Liverpool, Newcastle, Sheffield, Bristol,
Coventry, Leicester, Nottingham, and Hull.

Scotland (Gaelic: Alba) is a country that is part of the United
Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain,
it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the
North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and
the North Channel and Irish Sea to the southwest. In addition to the
mainland, Scotland consists of over 790 islands including the
Northern Isles and the Hebrides.



23
The main land of Scotland comprises the northern third of the
land mass of the island of Great Britain, which lies off the northwest
coast of Continental Europe. The total area is 78,772 km2 (30,414 sq
mi), comparable to the size of the Czech Republic, making Scotland
the 117th largest country in the world. Scotlands only land border is
with England, and runs for 96 kilometers (60 mi) between the basin of
the River Tweed on the east coast and the Solway Firth in the west.
The Atlantic Ocean borders the west coast and the North Sea is to the
east. The island of Ireland lies only 30 kilometers (19 mi) from the
southwestern peninsula of Kintyre; Norway is 305 kilometers (190
mi) to the east and the Faroes, 270 kilometers (168 mi) to the north.


Loch Tummel in Perth and Kinross.

The territorial extent of Scotland is generally that established by
the 1237 Treaty of York between Scotland and England and the 1266
Treaty of Perth between Scotland and Norway. Important exceptions
include the Isle of Man, which having been lost to England in the 14th
century is now a crown dependency outside of the United Kingdom;
the island groups Orkney and Shetland, which were acquired from
Norway in 1472; and Berwick-upon-Tweed, lost to England in 1482.
The geographical centre of Scotland lies a few miles from the
village of Newtonmore in Badenoch. Rising to 1,344 meters (4,409 ft)
above sea level, Scotlands highest point is the summit of Ben Nevis,
in Lochaber, while Scotlands longest river, the River Tay, flows for a
distance of 190 kilometers (118 mi).



24

Edinburgh, the countrys capital and second largest city, is one
of Europes largest financial centers. Edinburgh was the hub of the
Scottish Enlightenment of the 18th century, which transformed
Scotland into one of the commercial, intellectual and industrial
powerhouses of Europe. Glasgow, Scotlands largest city was once
one of the worlds leading industrial cities and now lies at the centre
of the Greater Glasgow conurbation. Scottish waters consist of a large
sector of the North Atlantic and the North Sea, containing the largest
oil reserves in the European Union.
The population of Scotland in the 2001 census was 5,062,011. This
has risen to 5,168,500 according to June 2008 estimates. This would
make Scotland the 112th largest country by population if it were a
sovereign state. Although Edinburgh is the capital of Scotland it is not
the largest city. With a population of just over 584,000 this honor falls to
Glasgow. Indeed, the Greater Glasgow conurbation, with a population of
over 1.1 million, is home to over a fifth of Scotlands population.
The Central Belt is where most of the main towns and cities are
located. Glasgow is to the west, while Edinburgh and Dundee lie on
the east coast. Scotlands only major city outside the Central Belt is
Aberdeen, on the east coast to the north. Apart from Aberdeen, the
Highlands are sparsely populated, although the city of Inverness has
experienced rapid growth in recent years. In general only the more
accessible and larger islands retain human populations, and fewer than
90 are currently inhabited. The Southern Uplands are essentially rural
in nature and dominated by agriculture and forestry. Because of
housing problems in Glasgow and Edinburgh, five new towns were
created between 1947 and 1966. They are East Kilbride, Glenrothes,
Livingston, Cumbernauld, and Irvine.



25
Scotland has three officially recognized languages: English, Scots
and Scottish Gaelic. Almost all Scots speak Scottish Standard English,
and in 1996 the General Register Office for Scotland estimated that
30% of the population are fluent in Scots. Gaelic is mostly spoken in
the Western Isles, where a large number of people still speak it;
however, nationally its use is confined to just 1% of the population.
There are many more people with Scottish ancestry living abroad
than the total population of Scotland. In the 2000 Census, 9.2 million
Americans self-reported some kind of Scottish descent. It is estimated
that there are more than 27 million descendants of the Scots-Irish
migration now living in the U.S. In Canada, the Scottish-Canadian
community accounts for 4.7 million people. About 20% of the original
European settler population of New Zealand came from Scotland.
The Kingdom of Scotland was an independent sovereign state
before 1 May 1707 when it entered into a political union with the
Kingdom of England to create the united Kingdom of Great Britain.
This union resulted from the Treaty of Union agreed in 1706 and
enacted by the twin Acts of Union passed by the Parliaments of both
countries, despite widespread protest across Scotland. Scotlands legal
system continues to be separate from those of England, Wales, and
Northern Ireland and Scotland still constitutes a distinct jurisdiction in
public and in private law. The continued independence of Scots law,
the Scottish education system, and the Church of Scotland have all
contributed to the continuation of Scottish culture and Scottish
national identity since the Union. Although Scotland is no longer a
separate sovereign state, issues surrounding devolution and
independence continue to be debated. After the creation of the
devolved Scottish Parliament in 1999, the first ever pro-independence
Scottish Government was elected in 2007 when the Scottish National
Party formed a minority administration after talks of a coalition with
other parties broke down.
In 1603, James VI King of Scots inherited the throne of the
Kingdom of England, and became King James I of England, and left
Edinburgh for London. With the exception of a short period under the
Protectorate, Scotland remained a separate state, but there was
considerable conflict between the crown and the Covenanters over the



26
form of church government. After the Glorious Revolution, the
abolition of episcopacy and the overthrow of the Roman Catholic
James VII by William and Mary, Scotland briefly threatened to select
a different Protestant monarch from England. On 22 July 1706 the
Treaty of Union was agreed between representatives of the Scots
Parliament and the Parliament of England and the following year twin
Acts of Union were passed by both parliaments to create the united
Kingdom of Great Britain with effect from 1 May 1707.
The Scottish Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution made
Scotland into an intellectual, commercial and industrial powerhouse.
After World War II, Scotland experienced an industrial decline which
was particularly severe. Only in recent decades has the country
enjoyed something of a cultural and economic renaissance. Economic
factors which have contributed to this recovery include a resurgent
financial services industry, electronics manufacturing, (see Silicon
Glen), and the North Sea oil and gas industry.
Scotlands head of state is the monarch of the United Kingdom,
currently Queen Elizabeth II (since 1952).


Bi-lingual road signs are becoming increasingly
common throughout the Scottish Highlands

Although Scotland has a long military tradition that predates the
Treaty of Union with England, its armed forces now form part of the
British Armed Forces, with the notable exception of the Atholl
Highlanders, Europes only legal private army. In 2006, the infantry
regiments of the Scottish Division were amalgamated to form the
Royal Regiment of Scotland. Other distinctively Scottish regiments in
the British Army include the Scots Guards, the Royal Scots Dragoon
Guards and the Scottish Transport Regiment, a Territorial Army
Regiment of the Royal Logistic Corps.



27
Three frontline Royal Air Force bases are also located in
Scotland. These are RAF Lossiemouth, RAF Kinloss and RAF
Leuchars, the last of which is the most northerly air defence fighter
base in the United Kingdom.


A piper playing the Great Highland Bagpipe

Wales is located on a peninsula in central-west Great Britain. Its
area is about 20,779 km2 (8,023 sq mi) about the same size as
Massachusetts, Israel, Slovenia or El Salvador and about a quarter of
the area of Scotland. It is about 274 km (170 mi) north-south and
97 km (60 mi) east-west. Wales is bordered by England to the east and
by sea in the other three directions: the Mr Hafren (Bristol Channel)
to the south, Celtic Sea to the west, and the Irish Sea to the north.
Altogether, Wales has over 1,200 km (746 mi) of coastline. There are
several islands off the Welsh mainland, the largest being Ynys Mn
(Anglesey) in the northwest.
The main population and industrial areas are in South Wales,
consisting of the cities of Cardiff (Caerdydd), Swansea (Abertawe)
and Newport (Casnewydd) and surrounding areas, with another
significant population in the north-east around Wrexham (Wrecsam).
Much of Waless diverse landscape is mountainous, particularly
in the north and central regions. The mountains were shaped during



28
the last ice age The highest mountains in Wales are in Snowdonia
(Eryri), and include Snowdon (Yr Wyddfa), which, at 1,085 m
(3,560 ft) is the highest peak in Wales. The 14 (or possibly 15) Welsh
mountains over 3,000 feet (914 m) high are known collectively as the
Welsh 3000s, and are located in a small area in the north-west. The
Brecon Beacons (Bannau Brycheiniog) are in the south (highest point
Pen-y-Fan 886 m/2,907 ft, and are joined by the Cambrian Mountains
in Mid Wales, the latter name being given to the earliest geological
period of the Paleozoic era, the Cambrian.
Wales has three National Parks: Snowdonia, Brecon Beacons and
Pembrokeshire Coast. It also has four Areas of Outstanding Natural
Beauty. These areas include Anglesey, the Clwydian Range, the
Gower peninsula and the Wye Valley. The Gower peninsula was the
first area in the whole of the United Kingdom to be designated as an
Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, in 1956.
Much of the coastline of South and West Wales is designated as
Heritage Coast. The coastline of the Glamorgan Heritage Coast, the
Gower peninsula, Pembrokeshire, Carmarthenshire, and Ceredigion is
particularly wild and impressive. The modern border between Wales
and England was largely defined in the 16th century, based on
medieval feudal boundaries.
Wales has a population estimated at three million and is officially
bilingual, with both Welsh and English having equal status; the
majority use English as their first language.
Once a Celtic land, and considered one of the Celtic nations today, a
distinct Welsh national identity emerged in the early fifth century, after
the Roman withdrawal from Britain. The 13th-century defeat of
Llewelyn by Edward I completed the Anglo-Norman conquest of Wales
and brought about centuries of English occupation. Wales was
subsequently incorporated into England with the Laws in Wales Acts
1535-1542, creating the legal entity known today as England and Wales.
However, distinctive Welsh politics developed in the 19th century, and
in 1881 the Welsh Sunday Closing Act became the first legislation
applied exclusively to Wales. In 1955 Cardiff was proclaimed as
national capital and in 1999 the National Assembly for Wales was
created, which holds responsibility for a range of devolved matters.



29
The capital Cardiff is Wales's largest city with 317,500 people.
For a period it was the biggest coal port in the world and, for a few
years before World War One, handled a greater tonnage of cargo than
either London or Liverpool. Two-thirds of the Welsh population live
in South Wales, with another concentration in eastern North Wales.
Many tourists have been drawn to Waless wild... and picturesque
landscapes. From the late 19th century onwards, Wales acquired its
popular image as the land of song, attributable in part to the revival
of the eisteddfod tradition. Actors, singers and other artists are
celebrated in Wales today, often achieving international success.
Cardiff is the largest media centre in the UK outside of London.

Cymru
Cymru is the native name for the country, while Cymro (singular)
and Cymry (plural) is the name for its people. This is likely derived from
a (reconstructed) Brythonic word Combroges/Combrogos/ Combrogi
meaning compatriots. The name competed for a long time in Welsh
literature with the older name Brythoniaid (Britons/Brythons). Only after
1100 did the former become as common as the latter.
The Latin name for Wales is Cambria and an archaic English name
is Cymric both deriving from the Brythonic. The names Cumbria and
Cumberland are also derived from the Brythonic, as these areas
remained Brythonic-speaking much longer than the rest of England.

Nationalist Revival
In the 20th century, Wales saw a revival in its national status.
Plaid Cymru was formed in 1925, seeking greater autonomy or
independence from the rest of the UK. In 1955, the term England and
Wales became common for describing the area to which English law
applied, and Cardiff was proclaimed as capital city of Wales. The
Welsh Language Society was formed in 1962, in response to fears that
the language may soon die out.
Constitutionally, the United Kingdom is de jure a unitary state
with one sovereign parliament and government in Westminster.
Referenda held in Wales and Scotland in 1997 chose to establish a
limited form of self-government in both countries. In Wales, the
consequent process of devolution began with the Government of



30
Wales Act 1998, which created the National Assembly for Wales
(Cynulliad Cenedlaethol Cymru). Powers of the Secretary of State for
Wales were transferred to the devolved government on 1 July 1999,
granting the Assembly responsibility to decide how the Westminster
government's budget for devolved areas is spent and administered.
Devolved responsibilities include agriculture, economic development,
education, health, housing, industry, local government, social services,
tourism, transport, and the Welsh language. The National Assembly is
not a sovereign authority and has no primary legislative powers,
which the Westminster Government retains, but since the Government
of Wales Act 2006 came into effect in 2007, the National Assembly
can request powers to pass primary legislation as Assembly Measures
on specific issues. The UK Parliament could, in theory, overrule or
even abolish the National Assembly for Wales at any time.
The Assembly consists of 60 members, known as Assembly
Members (AM). Forty of the AMs are elected under the First Past the
Post system, with the other 20 elected via the Additional Member
System via regional lists in 5 different regions. The largest party elects
the First Minister of Wales, who acts as the head of government. The
Welsh Assembly Government is the executive arm, and the Assembly
has delegated most of its powers to the Assembly Government. The
new Assembly Building designed by Lord Rogers was opened by
Queen Elizabeth II on St Davids Day (1 March) 2006.
The Welsh Language Act 1993 and the Government of Wales Act
1998 provide that the Welsh and English languages be treated on a basis
of equality. However, even English has only de facto official status in
the UK and this has led political groups like Plaid Cymru to question
whether such legislation is sufficient to ensure the survival of the Welsh
language. English is spoken by almost all people in Wales and is
therefore the de facto main language. However, northern and western
Wales retain many areas where Welsh is spoken as a first language by
the majority of the population and English is learnt as a second
language. 21.7% of the Welsh population is able to speak or read Welsh
to some degree (based on the 2001 census), although only 16% claim to
be able to speak, read and write it, which may be related to the stark
differences between colloquial and literary Welsh. According to a



31
language survey conducted in 2004, a larger proportion than 21.7%
claim to have some knowledge of the language. Today there are very
few truly monoglot Welsh speakers, other than small children, but
individuals still exist who may be considered less than fluent in English
and rarely speak it. There were still many monoglots as recently as the
middle of the 20th century. Road signs in Wales are generally in both
English and Welsh; where place names differ in the two languages, both
versions are used (e.g. Cardiff and Caerdydd), the decision as to
which is placed first being that of the local authority.
During the 20th century a number of small communities of
speakers of languages other than English or Welsh, such as Bengali or
Cantonese, have established themselves in Wales as a result of
immigration. This phenomenon is almost exclusive to urban Wales.
The Italian Government funds the teaching of Italian to Welsh
residents of Italian ancestry. These other languages do not have legal
equality with English and Welsh, although public services may
produce information leaflets in minority ethnic languages where there
is a specific need, as happens elsewhere in the United.
Northern Ireland is a country that is a part of the United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and it is situated in the
north-east of the island of Ireland. It shares a border with the Republic
of Ireland to the south and west. At the time of the 2001 UK Census,
its population was 1,685,000, constituting between a quarter and a
third of the islands total population and about 3% of the population of
the United Kingdom.
Northern Ireland consists of six of the traditional nine counties of
the historic Irish province of Ulster. It was created as a distinct
subdivision of the United Kingdom on 3 May 1921 under the
Government of Ireland Act 1920, though its constitutional roots lie in
the 1800 Act of Union between Great Britain and Ireland. For over 50
years it had its own devolved government and parliament. These
institutions were suspended in 1972 and abolished in 1973. Repeated
attempts to restore self-government finally resulted in the establishment
of the present-day Northern Ireland Executive and Northern Ireland
Assembly. Northern Ireland was for many years the site of a violent and
bitter ethno-political conflict The Troubles between those claiming
to represent nationalists, who are predominantly Roman Catholic, and



32
those claiming to represent unionists, who are predominantly Protestant.
Unionists want Northern Ireland to remain part of the United Kingdom,
while nationalists wish it to be politically united with the rest of Ireland.
Since the signing of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998, most of the
paramilitary groups involved in the Troubles have ceased their armed
campaigns. The issue of identity in Northern Ireland is a complicated
one. In general, Unionists consider themselves British and Nationalists
see themselves as Irish, though these identities are not necessarily
mutually exclusive. The all-island Kingdom of Ireland (1541-1801)
merged into the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland in 1801
under the terms of the Act of Union, under which the kingdoms of
Ireland and Great Britain merged under a government and parliament
based in London. In the early 20th century, Unionists led by Sir Edward
Carson opposed the introduction of Home Rule in Ireland. Unionists
were in a minority on the island of Ireland as a whole, but were a
majority in the northern province of Ulster. The six counties, containing
an overall unionist majority, would later form Northern Ireland.
The island of Ireland was partitioned in 1921 under the terms of
the Government of Ireland Act 1920. Six of the nine Ulster counties in
the north-east formed Northern Ireland and the remaining three
counties (including County Donegal, despite it having a large
Protestant minority as well as it being the most northern county in all
of Ireland) joined those of Leinster, Munster and Connacht to form
Southern Ireland. Whilst Southern Ireland had only a brief existence
between 1921 and 1922, a period dominated by the Anglo-Irish War
and its aftermath, Northern Ireland was to continue on.
The Ireland Act of 1949 gave the first legal guarantee to the
Parliament and Government that Northern Ireland would not cease to be
part of the United Kingdom without consent of the majority of its citizens.
The Troubles, starting in the late 1960s, consisted of about thirty
years of recurring acts of intense violence between elements of Northern
Irelands nationalist community (principally Roman Catholic) and
unionist community (principally Protestant) during which 3,254 people
were killed. The conflict was caused by the disputed status of Northern
Ireland within the United Kingdom and the discrimination against the
nationalist minority by the dominant unionist majority. The violence was
characterized by the armed campaigns of paramilitary groups, including



33
the Provisional IRA campaign of 1969-1997 which was aimed at the end
of British rule in Northern Ireland and the creation of a new all-
Ireland, thirty-two county Irish Republic.
The Troubles were brought to an uneasy end by a peace process
which included the declaration of ceasefires by most paramilitary
organizations and the complete decommissioning of their weapons,
the reform of the police, and the corresponding withdrawal of army
troops from the streets and from sensitive border as agreed by the
signatories to the Belfast Agreement. This reiterated the long-held
British position, which had never before been fully acknowledged by
successive Irish governments, that Northern Ireland will remain within
the United Kingdom until a majority votes otherwise.
As part of the United Kingdom, people from Northern Ireland are
British citizens. They are also entitled to Irish citizenship by birth
which is covered in the 1998 Belfast Agreement between the British
and Irish governments, which, provides that: it is the birthright of all
the people of Northern Ireland to identify themselves and be accepted
as Irish or British, or both, as they may so choose, and accordingly
[the two governments] confirm that their right to hold both British and
Irish citizenship is accepted by both Governments and would not be
affected by any future change in the status of Northern Ireland.
As a result of the Agreement, the Constitution of Ireland was
amended so that people born in Northern Ireland are entitled to be
Irish citizens on the same basis as people from any other part of the
island of Ireland.
This does not however, account for the complex identities within
Northern Ireland, given that many of the population regard themselves
as Ulster or Northern Irish, either primarily, or as a secondary
identity. A 2008 survey found that 57% of Protestants described
themselves as British, while 32% identified as Northern Irish, 6% as
Ulster and 4% as Irish. Compared to the same survey carried out in
1998 this shows a fall in the percentage of Protestants identifying as
British and Ulster, and a rise in those identifying as Northern Irish.
The 2008 survey found that 61% of Catholics described themselves as
Irish, with 25% identifying as Northern Irish, 8% as British and 1% as
Ulster. These figures were largely unchanged from the 1998 results.



34


The Union Flag (also known as the Union Jack) represents the United Kingdom.
This is the only flag with official status in Northern Ireland



Former Governmental Coat of Arms of Northern Ireland 1925-72



Belfast City Hall

The dialect of English spoken in Northern Ireland shows
influence from Scotland, with the use of such Scots words as wee for
little and aye for yes. The Irish language (Gaeilge) is the native
language of the whole island of Ireland. It was spoken predominantly
throughout what is now Northern Ireland before the settlement of
Protestants from Great Britain in the 17th century. Most placenames
throughout Northern Ireland are anglicized versions of their Gaelic
originals. These Gaelic placenames include thousands of lanes, roads,
townlands, towns, villages and all of its modern cities. In Northern
Ireland the Irish language has long been associated with Irish
nationalism. The language was seen as a common heritage and indeed
the object of affection by many prominent 19th century Protestant
republicans and Protestant unionists. There are three main dialects in



35
the island of Ireland Ulster, Munster and Connacht. Speakers of
each dialect often find others difficult to understand. Speakers in
Northern Ireland speak the Ulster dialect.

Other Languages
There are an increasing number of ethnic minorities in Northern
Ireland. Chinese and Urdu are spoken by Northern Irelands Asian
communities; though the Chinese community is often referred to as
the third largest community in Northern Ireland, it is tiny by
international standards. Since the accession of new member states to
the European Union in 2004, Central and Eastern European languages,
particularly Polish, are becoming increasingly common.




36



III. HISTORY OF THE UNITED KINGDOM

The British Isles have a rich history going back thousands of
years.
History is an interweaving of events and people, and its not just
about kings and queens, its about ordinary people and how events
influenced them, and on occasions how they influenced events.

Birth of the United Kingdom
410 to 1066 Anglo Saxon Britain Viking raids
The breakdown of Roman law and civilization was fairly swift
after the Roman army departed in 410 AD. To counter the raids from
continental pirates, Vikings, Picts and Scots towns would bring in
mercenaries from Europe to defend them from attack. These
mercenary soldiers were Angles and Saxons from northern Germany.
The deal was that the mercenaries brought their families with
them, and got paid with land which they could farm. Eventually the
Anglo Saxon mercenaries realized that they were stronger than their
employers and appear to have taken over the running of areas
themselves.
The new Anglo Saxon invaders slowly colonized northwards and
westwards, pushing the native Celts to the fringes of Britain. Roman
Britain was replaced by Anglo Saxon Britain, with the Celtic peoples
remaining in Cornwall, Wales and Scotland. The Anglo Saxon areas
eventually combined into kingdoms, and by 850 AD the country had
three competing kingdoms.
Next came another wave of Viking attacks. The net effect was
that the English king, Ethelred the Unready, found his kingdom under
attack on all coasts by Norsemen. On Ethelred's death in 1016, the
Viking leader Cnut was effectively ruling England. But on Cnut's
death, the country collapsed into a number of competing Earldoms
under a weak king, Edward the Confessor.



37
There were two major influences on English life during this
whole period of English history, at opposite ends of the aggression
spectrum. One was the coming of Christianity to Britain, brought by
Irish monks. The other was the Viking raider. And it was the Viking
raider that paradoxically allowed William to conquer Britain.
When Edward the Confessor died, the Vikings saw a chance to
regain a foothold in Britain, and landed an army in Yorkshire in 1066.
Harold marched north to take on the Vikings under Harald of Norway
and Tostig (King Harolds brother).He defeated the Norsemen near
York, but while celebrating his victory, learnt that William of
Normandy had landed in southern England.
Within 13 days he had marched his army some 240 miles from
Yorkshire to Sussex, where the Normans were camped near Hastings.
The ensuing Battle of Hastings was won by the Normans who were
fresh, and had better archers and cavalry. Harold died with an arrow
through his eye. William was crowned William I in London on
Christmas Day 1066.

The Norman kings consolidate their hold on Britain
The Tower of London was built with the express aim of showing
the inhabitants of London who was in charge now. William continued
with a demonic round of castle building across the whole country. The
uniqueness of the Norman conquest in British history is that not only
did the ruler change, but also the whole of the ruling class changes,
and there was even a new language. The English nobility lost their
lands, and the new landowners built castles like Warwick and
Windsor that survive to this day. By the time William died in 1087
around 100 major castles had been built.
Henry II is known for his ordering the murder of the Archbishop
of Canterbury, Thomas Becket, in Canterbury Cathedral stabbed at
the high alter in 1170.



38
Wars in France, revolt in England, Civil War in England
After Henry II, English in started running into problems, either
with the Barons, the people or from pretenders to the throne.
King John was defeated by the barons and only kept the throne by
signing the Magna Charta, which stated that the king was not above
the law, that he only ruled by the will of the people, and that if he
broke his part of the contract, then the people had the right to
overthrow the king. The whole episode amounted to a civil war, and
was probably not as cozy as the painting on the left depicts.
Between 1370 and 1413, Kings were dethroned; Peasants revolted
and the House of Lancaster seized the throne. Henry Vs reign was
brief and colourful (1413 to 22).
The consequence of the loss of the French territories was that the
Royal House of Lancaster became discredited. A series of coups and
counter-coups, intrigue and murder gripped the throne. A litany of
kings came and went between the battle of St Albans in 1455 and the
battle of Bosworth in 1485. The result was a new royal house the
Tudors. Henry VII seized the throne on winning the battle of
Bosworth and England was to enter a new period of history.

The Tudors Henry VII, Henry VIII, Mary and Elizabeth
Henry VIII, who came to the throne in 1509, was a man who left
his stamp on history. His six marriages in search of a male heir led to
two daughters (Mary and Elizabeth) and a son Edward (who died
young). Henrys need for a divorce led to a row with the pope who
refused to grant Henry one. Henry countered by dissolving the Roman
Catholic Church in Britain, and setting up the Church of England.
A Church of England with Henry at the head could then allow Henry
to divorce his wife. He divorced the two European wives, Anne of Cleeves
and Catherine of Aragon. Henry was a tyrant and a despot. Completely
ruthless he let nothing and nobody get in his way. Cardinal Woolsey was
banished, Thomas Cromwell and Thomas More were executed.
One other bonus for Henry from his split with Rome was that he
gained control of the monasteries the monastic buildings and land
were sold off after the dissolution of the monasteries in 1538. Many of
the buildings fell into decay, and they lost their farmlands for ever.



39
Henrys elder daughter Mary was a Catholic and a militant
Catholic at that. Her efforts as queen to restore Catholicism to England
made her the most unpopular queen in British history, and the means
that she used to pursue her aims earned her the nickname bloody
Mary. There were 283 Protestant martyrs burnt at the stake in her reign.
Among the martyrs were Cranmer (Archbishop of Canterbury), Ridley
(Bishop of London) and Latimer (a leading preacher).
A loveless marriage to the King of Spain produced no children.
So when Mary died she was succeeded by her Protestant half-sister
Elizabeth.
Elizabeths reign brought in one of the most glorious eras of British
history. Exploration, colonization, victory in war, and growing world
importance are some of her accomplishments. The Arts flourished, this
was the age of Shakespeare and Bacon. But as with her sister, plots
against the queen were mounted Mary Queen of Scots, was finally
executed in 1587 the Earl of Essex, a former favourite, was executed
for leading a revolt in 1601. And the wars against Spain and in Ireland
were expensive she was 400,000 in debt when she died.
The Spanish wars had crippled the English exchequer, inflation
soared, and in 1601 Elizabeth had to go to Parliament to get more
money. Sensing hostility, as Parliament was angry about the privileges
she had granted her favourites, she gave way graciously, and gave a
Golden Speech which became in later years a model for the
relationship between monarch and the nation with obligations on
both sides.
A few months later came news of the defeat of the long running
battle against the rebels in Ireland. But by now Elizabeths health had
declined, and she was dying. The choice of successor was not
straightforward, as she was the last of Henry VIIIs children and none
of them had any children themselves. Elizabeth delayed making her
choice of successor until she was on her death bed. Her successor
would be James Stuart, King of Scotland, and son of Mary Queen of
Scots, whom Elizabeth had executed as a traitor.



40
James I, Charles I and the descent into Civil War, the King
executed, Cromwell rules
James Stuart was a Scottish Catholic who believed in the Divine
Right to rule as he pleased. This brought him into conflict with the
English Parliament. The failed Catholic Gunpowder Plot to blow up
Parliament in 1605 led to anti catholic riots. The failure of both James
and his son Charles I to understand the English tradition of
parliamentary liberty led eventually to civil war.
James died unlamented in 1625. Charles I immediately came in to
conflict with Parliament. He tried to rule without summoning
parliament for 11 years, but eventually ran out of money, and
summoned Parliament in 1640.
Parliament refused him money, and the country split between
supporters of the king and supporters of parliament The first major
Engagement of the Civil War was at Edgehill in the Cotswolds on
1642. Indecision among the Royalists and the moulding of the New
Model army by the parliamentarians led to Parliament gaining the
upper hand, and by 1645 Cromwell won the decisive Battle of
Naseby. Charles was captured and put on trial for treason in 1649. He
refused to recognise the court, but was regardless found guilty. 59
republicans signed the death warrant. Oliver Cromwell and the army
emerged as the power in the land. Cromwell dissolved parliament with
the words Depart I say, and let us have done with you. In the name of
God, go! It was the start of Englands only period of dictatorship
Cromwell was unable to find anything to replace the monarchy. When
he died in 1658 his son Richard succeeded him, but he was not a man
to rule Britain, and in 1660 Charles II was restored to the throne his
father had died for.

Restoration Charles II, James II, William III and Anne
Cromwells failure to put in place a workable alternative to the
monarchy resulted in the country bringing back from exile the
monarchy in the form of Charles II, son of the beheaded Charles I.
Soon after Charles succession Britain had two major catastrophes
the Plague in 1665: 70,000 died in London alone and the Great Fire
of London the following year.



41
However it was the succession that concerned the country.
Charles produced no legitimate heirs, and it was his Catholic brother
James II who succeeded him in 1685. Britain had briefly been
republic, but it was now back to Protestant and Catholic kings.
James II reign proved disastrous, he antagonized the government
by suspending the anti Catholic laws, then arresting 6 bishops.
Leading politicians turned to James II Protestant daughter Mary and
her husband William of Orange and offered them the throne. William
landed with an army. James fled to Ireland, where he was eventually
defeated in battle by William.
The United Kingdom of Great Britain came into being on 1 May
1707, as a result of the political union of the Kingdom of England
(which included Wales) and the Kingdom of Scotland. The terms of
the union had been agreed in the Treaty of Union that was negotiated
the previous year and then ratified by the parliaments of Scotland and
England each approving Acts of Union.
Though previously separate states, England and Scotland had
shared monarchs since 1603 when James VI of Scotland become
James I of England on the death of the childless Elizabeth I, an event
known as the Union of the Crowns. Queen Anne, (reigned 1702-14),
who had favored deeper political integration between the two
kingdoms, became the first monarch of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain. The union was valuable from a security standpoint, since it
meant that the European powers could no longer use Scotland for
backdoor invasions of England.
Though now a united kingdom, certain aspects of the former
independent kingdoms remained separate in line with the terms in the
Treaty of Union. Scottish and English law remained separate, as did
the Presbyterian Church of Scotland and the Anglican Church of
England, as well as the separate systems of education.

The House of Hanover ruled Britain 1714-1815
Queen Anne died in 1714, and the Elector of Hanover, George
Louis, became king as George I. There were a lot of better qualified
people available to be king of England unfortunately most of them
were Catholic. George I was a German who did not speak a word of



42
English, but was Protestant. So started the rule of the House of
Hanover, under whom Britain achieved wealth and peace over the
next century Parliament became more powerful, and the leading
politician was Walpole who was prime minister until 1742. He
avoided the expense of war, and Britain prospered. During his reign,
the rising power of Prussia led to two major conflicts in Europe, the
War of the Austrian Succession from 1740-1748, and the Seven Years
War from 1756-1763. Both spilled over into the American colonies,
and when the latter ended, Britain gained all of Canada and France
was destroyed as a colonial power in North America.
Although British sea power proved decisive in the wars, the
French navy had become a serious challenger by the middle of the
18th century and an invasion of Britain nearly took place in 1759.
After the death of George II in 1760, his grandson became king as
George III at the age of 22. Unlike his two predecessors, he was born
in Britain and English was his first language.The coming of George III
to the throne brought the first British born king for 50 years and a king
who was to reign for the next 50 years. They were exciting times,
marred only by the loss of the American Colonies. Britain won new
territories in Canada and India, but lost the oldest settlement of all,
with the declaration of independence by the American colonies in
1776 and the final surrender at Yorktown in 1781 The loss of the
American colonies brought about changes in Britain with the
appointment of Pitt the Younger as prime minister, whose legislative
programme was to bring about the end of royal power.
At home the industrial revolution was in full swing. Coal fires lit
the night sky as they powered steam engines in factories. But in
Europe, French power was manifesting itself following the French
revolution in 1789. Nelson's victory at Trafalgar ensured the Britain
ruled the seas, but French troops controlled Europe.

British Empire
The Seven Years War, which began in 1756, was the first war
waged on a global scale, fought in Europe, India, North America, the
Caribbean, the Philippines and coastal Africa. The signing of the Treaty
of Paris (1763) had important consequences for Britain and its empire.
In North America, Frances future as a colonial power there was



43
effectively ended with the ceding of New France to Britain (leaving a
sizeable French-speaking population under British control) and
Louisiana to Spain. Spain ceded Florida to Britain. The British victory
over France in the Seven Years War therefore left Britain as the
worlds dominant colonial power.
The loss of the Thirteen Colonies, at the time Britains most
populous colonies, marked the transition between the first and second
empires, in which Britain shifted its attention to Asia, the Pacific and
later to Africa. The growth of trade between the newly independent
United States and Britain after 1783 confirmed the view that political
control was not necessary for economic success.
On 22 August 1770, James Cook discovered the eastern coast of
Australia while on a scientific voyage to the South Pacific. In 1778,
Joseph Banks, Cooks botanist on the voyage, presented evidence to
the government on the suitability of Botany Bay for the establishment
of a penal settlement, and in 1787 the first shipment of convicts set
sail, arriving in 1788.
At the threshold to the 19th century, Britain was challenged again
by France under Napoleon, in a struggle that, unlike previous wars,
represented a contest of ideologies between the two nations.
The British government had somewhat mixed reactions to the
outbreak of the French Revolution in 1789, and when war broke out
on the Continent in 1792, it initially remained neutral. But the
following January, Louis XVI was beheaded. This combined with a
threatened invasion of the Netherlands by France spurred Britain to
declare war. For the next 23 years, the two nations were at war except
for a short period in 1802-1803. Britain alone among the nations of
Europe never submitted to or formed an alliance with France.
Throughout the 1790s, the British repeatedly defeated the navies of
France and its allies, but were unable to perform any significant land
operations. An Anglo-Russian invasion of the Netherlands in 1799
accomplished little except the capture of the Dutch fleet.
It was not only Britains position on the world stage that was
threatened: Napoleon threatened invasion of Britain itself, and with it,
a fate similar to the countries of continental Europe that his armies had
overrun.




44
19th century
The second stage in the development of the United Kingdom took
effect on 1 January 1801, when the Kingdom of Great Britain merged
with the Kingdom of Ireland to form the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland.
The legislative union of Great Britain and Ireland was completed
under the Act of Union 1800, changing the countrys name to United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.

Napoleonic wars
During the War of the Second Coalition (1799-1801), Britain
occupied most of the French and Dutch colonies (the Netherlands had
been a satellite of France since 1796), but tropical diseases claimed the
lives of over 40,000 troops. When the Treaty of Amiens ended the war,
Britain was forced to return most of the colonies. The peace settlement
was in effect only a cease fire, and Napoleon continued to provoke the
British by attempting a trade embargo on the country and by occupying
the German city of Hanover (a fief of the British crown). In May 1803,
war was declared again. Napoleons plans to invade Britain failed due to
the inferiority of his navy, and in 1805, Lord Nelsons fleet decisively
defeated the French and Spanish at Trafalgar, which was the last
significant naval action of the Napoleonic wars.
United Kingdom possessed the greatest industrial capacity in
Europe, and its mastery of the seas allowed it to build up considerable
economic strength through trade to its processions from its rapidly
new expanding Empire. That sufficed to ensure that France could
never consolidate its control over Europe in peace or threaten British
colonies outside the continent thanks to Britains naval supremacy.
The Spanish uprising in 1808 at last permitted Britain to gain a
foothold on the Continent. The Duke of Wellington and his army of British
and Portuguese gradually pushed the French out of Spain and in early
1814, as Napoleon was being driven back in the east by the Prussians,
Austrians, and Russians, Wellington invaded southern France. After
Napoleons surrender and exile to the island of Elba, peace appeared to
have returned, but when he escaped back into France in 1815, the British
and their allies had to fight him again. The armies of Wellington and Von
Blucher defeated Napoleon once and for all at Waterloo.



45
Victorian Era
The Victorian era of the United Kingdom is a term commonly
used to refer to the period of Queen Victorias rule between 1837 and
1901 which signified the height of the British Industrial Revolution
and the apex of the British Empire.
Britain emerged from the Napoleonic Wars a very different
country than it had been in 1793. As industrialization progressed,
society changed, becoming more urban and less rural.
The exhaustion of Europe after the Napoleonic Wars kept any
major conflicts from occurring for over three decades. Prussia,
Austria, and Russia, as absolute monarchies, were committed to a
policy of stamping out liberalism and revolution in Europe wherever it
might occur, but Britain declined to participate in this, instead
intervening in Portugal in 1826 to defend a constitutional government
there and recognizing the independence of Spains American colonies
in 1824. The British also intervened in 1827 on the side of the Greeks,
who had been waging a war of independence against the Ottoman
Empire since 1824.
William IV succeeded his brother in 1830 and ruled for seven
years. When he died in 1837, his niece Victoria became queen. Her
long reign would see Britain reach the zenith of its economic and
political power. Exciting new technologies such as steam ships,
railroads, photography, and telegraphs appeared, making the world
much faster-paced. Britain again remained mostly inactive in
Continental politics, and it was not affected by the wave of revolutions
in 1848. The Great London Exhibition of 1851 clearly demonstrated
the countrys preeminence in the world.

Empire expands
In 1867, Britain united most of its North American colonies as the
Dominion of Canada, giving it self-government and responsibility for
its own defence, although Canada did not have an independent foreign
policy until the 1920s. Several of the colonies briefly refused to join
the Dominion despite pressure from both Canada and Britain;
Newfoundland held out until 1949.
The second half of the 19th century saw a huge expansion of
Britains colonial empire in Asia and Africa. In the latter continent,
there was talk of the Union Jack flying from Cairo to Cape Town,



46
which only became a reality at the end of World War I. Having
possessions on six continents, Britain had to defend all of its empire
with a volunteer army, for it was the only power in Europe to have no
conscription.
Ever since Britain had taken control of South Africa from the
Netherlands in the Napoleonic Wars, it had run afoul of the Dutch
settlers there, which led to the Boer (farmer in the Afrikaner language)
War in 1899-1902, when the British attempted to consolidate all the
local republics into a single colony. The Boers waged a guerilla war,
which gave the British regulars a difficult fight, although weight of
numbers, superior equipment, and often brutal tactics eventually brought
about victory. The war had been costly in human life, and was widely
criticized in Europe, the French being among the loudest opponents of
Britains war effort. The Boer republics were thus unified, and in 1910
gave way to the self-governing Union of South Africa.

20th century
Queen Victoria died in 1901 and her son Edward VII became king,
inaugurating the Edwardian Era, which was characterized by great and
ostentatious displays of wealth in contrast to the somber Victorian Era.
With the event of the 20th century, things such as motion pictures,
automobiles, and airplanes were coming into use. The new century was
characterized by a feeling of great optimism. Edward died in 1910, to be
succeeded by George V. The Edwardian Era barely lasted longer than its
namesake, for it all came crashing down in the summer of 1914, just as
Europe was at the zenith of its power in the world.

World War I
In June 1914, the Austrian archduke Franz Ferdinand was
assassinated by a Serbian nationalist, leading to war between those two
countries. The system of alliances caused a local conflict to engulf the
entire continent. Great Britain was part of the Triple Entente with France
and Russia while the German Empire, the Austrian-Hungarian Empire,
so-called Central Powers, were allied.
Britain did not enter at first, but in August the Germans invaded
Belgium, and as Britain was still bound by an 1839 treaty to protect that
country, it declared war on Germany and its allies. The British and
French launched repeated assaults on the German trench lines in 1915-
1916, which killed and wounded hundreds of thousands, but failed to



47
accomplish anything significant. By 1916, with few still willing to
volunteer for the army, Britain had to introduce conscription for the first
time. The navy continued to dominate the seas, fighting the German fleet
to a draw in the great 1916 Battle of Jutland. But a sensational defeat
inflicted on a British squadron off the coast of South America by the
Germans in November 1914 marked the first time since the War of 1812
that Britain had lost a naval engagement outright.

World War II and rebuilding
The United Kingdom, along with the British Empires crown
colonies, especially British India, declared war on Nazi Germany in
1939, after the German invasion of Poland. Hostilities with Japan
began in 1941, after it attacked British colonies in Asia. The Axis
powers were defeated by the Allies in 1945.
The UK at the time was poor, relying heavily on loans from the
United States of America (which were finally paid off in February
2007) to rebuild its damaged infrastructure. Rationing and
conscription dragged on into the post war years, and the country
suffered one of the worst winters on record. Nevertheless, morale was
boosted by events such as the marriage of Princess Elizabeth in 1947
and the Festival of Britain.
As the 1950s wore on, the UK had lost its place as a superpower
and could no longer maintain its large Empire. This led to
decolonization and a withdrawal from almost all of its colonies by 1970.

From Empire to Commonwealth
Between 1867 and 1910, the UK had granted Australia, Canada,
and New Zealand Dominion status (near complete autonomy within
the Empire). They became charter members of the British
Commonwealth of Nations (known as the Commonwealth of Nations
since 1949), an informal but closely-knit association that succeeded
the British Empire. Beginning with the independence of India and
Pakistan in 1947, the remainder of the British Empire was almost
completely dismantled. Today, most of Britain's former colonies
belong to the Commonwealth, almost all of them as independent
members. There are, however, 13 former British colonies, including
Bermuda, Gibraltar, the Falkland Islands, and others, which have
elected to continue their political links with London and are known as
British Overseas Territories.



48



IV. THE POLITICAL BRITISH SYSTEM

The United Kingdom is a Constitutional monarchy. That means
that the sovereign reigns but does not rule the country. There always
has been an English monarchy except for a short period of time
between 1649 and 1660 when England became a republic under the
protectorship of Oliver Cromwell.
The monarchy is based on: hereditary principle
According to the Act of Settlement of 1700-only Protestant
descendants of Princess Sophia, granddaughter of James I of England,
may succeed to the throne.
The monarch is formally: head of state, head of the executive,
head of the judiciary, head of the legislature, commander-in-chief of
the armed forces, supreme governor of the Church of England and
head of the Commonwealth The king or the queen is politically
neutral: acts only on the advice of political ministers; cannot make
laws, impose taxes, spend public money, act unilaterally; performs
executive and legislative duties like the opening and dissolving of
Parliament, signing bills, holding of audiences with the Prime
Minister, carrying out of international duties as head of state.
The official duties of the monarch are numerous: the Sovereign
summons, prorogues and dissolves Parliament and formally appoints
the officials like: Government ministers, judges, officers in the armed
forces, governors, British ambassadors, high commissioners and
bishops of the Church of England as well as the Prime Minister. The
Monarch must also give Royal Assent to bills passed by Parliament,
although if assent were refused a constitutional crisis and the abolition
of monarchy would almost certainly result.
The Parliament is the most important authority in Britain It first
met in the 13
th
century. The term was officially used in 1236-to
describe the assembly of barons and representatives from the towns
and counties of England summoned by the King if extraordinary
taxation was required.



49
By the 15
th
century, Parliament had acquired the right to make
laws. Parliament is the legislature and the supreme authority. The
executive consists of:
The Government: the Cabinet and other ministers responsible
for national policies.
government departments responsible for national administration
local authorities responsible for local services.
Public corporation responsible for operating particular
nationalized industries or other bodies subject to ministerial contro.
The judiciary determines common law and interprets statutes, and
is independent both of the legislature and the executive.
Parliament consists of the Monarch, the House of Lords and the
House of Commons.

The House of Lords, currently comprising 750 peers, consists of
the following members:
The Lords Spiritual: the Archbishops of Canterbury and York
and 24 senior bishops of the Church of England.
The Lords Temporal:
a) all hereditary peers and peeresses those for whom the
title of Lord or Lady passes from one generation to the
next in strict succession-(limited to 92 in 1999);
b) all life peers and peeresses those peers that are appointed
by the Monarch for the duration of their life , usually in
recognition of distinguished service in public life, but
whose descendants do not benefit from the title (about
570);
c) the Law Lords or the Lords of Appeal senior judges who
are created life peers to assist the House of Lords in its
judicial duties it is the highest court of appeal in the UK.
there are about 113 women entitled to sit in the House of
Lords (including Mrs. Margaret Thatcher who was made a
Baroness after resigning as prime minister).
the house is presided over by the Lord Chancellor.
Members of the House of Lords lose the right to vote into
parliamentary elections or to stand as a candidate in such elections.



50
However they may serve as ministers of a Government and a certain
number of ministers in the House of Lords is necessary to promote the
policies of the Government there. The Lord Chancellor (who is also a
Cabinet minister and head of the judiciary) presides over the House,
seated on the Woolsack, a wide red seat stuffed with wool symbolizing
Englands prosperous wool trade during the Middle Ages.
The house of Lords has no real power but acts as an advisory
council for the House of Commons. The Lords can suggest
amendments to a bill proposed by the Commons, but after two
rejections they are obliged to accept it.
a Bill is a proposal for a new law, or a proposal to change an
existing law that is presented for debate before Parliament;
Bills are introduced in either the House of Commons or House
of Lords for examination, discussion and amendment;
when both Houses have agreed on the content of a Bill it is
then presented to the reigning monarch for approval (known as Royal
Assent);
once Royal Assent is given a Bill becomes an Act of
Parliament and is law;
different types of Bills can be introduced by: the government,
individual MPs or Lords or private individuals or organizations;
there are three different types of Bill: Public, Private and
Hybrid Bills [these mix the characteristics of Public and Private Bills;
the changes to the law proposed by a Hybrid Bill would affect
the general public but would also have a significant impact for
specific individuals or groups [The Bills passed concerning the
construction of the Channel Tunnel are examples of Hybrid Bills];
there is also another kind of Public Bill called Private
Members Bills [they are Public Bills introduced by MPs and Lords
who arent government ministers];
the Lords work in Parliaments second chamber the House of
Lords and complement and operate alongside the business of the House
of Commons. It is one of the busiest second chambers in the world;
the expertise of its Members and flexibility to scrutinize an
issue in depth means the Lords makes a significant contribution to
Parliaments work;



51
the UK public does not elect Members of the Lords.
Making laws
making laws takes up the bulk of the House of Lords time;
Its Members are involved throughout the process of proposing,
revising and amending legislation;
some Bills introduced by the Government begin in the Lords,
to spread the workload between the two Houses.
Judicial work
the House of Lords is the highest court in the land: the supreme
court of appeal a group of full-time judges known as Law Lords
carries out this judicial work.
Checking the work of government
Lords check the work of the Government by questioning and
debating decisions made by ministers and government departments.
Specialist committees
there are permanent committees investigating work relating to
Europe, science and technology, economics and the constitution;
occasionally one-off committees are set up to deal with issues
outside these areas;
an Act of Parliament creates a new law or changes an existing
law.
Putting the Act into force
an Act may come into force immediately, on a specific starting
date, or in stages;
the practical implementation of an Act is the responsibility of
the appropriate government department, not Parliament [for example,
laws relating to transport issues would come under the administration
of the Department for Transport];
Parliament or its committees may investigate how the
government implements the Act and would consider any future Bills
that amended or replaced it.
Changes to Acts
future changes to the law happen through the passing of
another Act or delegated legislation;
an Act can also be repealed so that its provisions no longer
apply;



52
Parliamentary committees examine UK laws and recommend
the removal of out of date legislation.
Text of Acts as passed
texts of Acts of Parliament as originally passed by Parliament
since 1988 are available on the Office of Public Sector Information
(OPSI) website;
the Parliamentary Archives has copies of original Acts from
1497.
The House of Commons is an assembly of 651 Members of
Parliament, or MPs, elected by universal adult suffrage. The House is
presided by the Speaker, an office which has been in continuous
existence since 1377. The Speaker is responsible for relations with the
crown, the House of Lords and other authorities as well as keeping
order in debates with strict impartiality. The Speaker is elected by the
House itself but cannot vote or make speakers.
the Government party sits on the Speakers right;
the members of opposition sit on his left;
all members of the House of Commons are paid a salary
(unlike the members of the House of Lords are not paid salaries but
may claim allowances based on attendance);
if every MP turned up at the House of Commons at the same
time there wouldnt be enough seats for all of them to sit down!
The Parliamentary System
general elections are by secret ballot;
voting is not compulsory in Britain;
British, Commonwealth and Irish Republic citizens may all
vote provided:
they are residents in Britain
aged 18 or over
registered in a constituency
not subject to disqualifications (certain mentally, ill
patients; persons convicted of corrupt or illegal election practices)
Each political party puts up one candidate for each constituency
/the one who wins the most votes is elected MP for that area. This
system is known as the simple majority or first past the post.




53
The Political Parties
There are few political parties, main ones being the
Conservative Party, the Labour Party and the Liberal Democrats.
Among other minor parties we mention: Green Party, Scottish
National Party, Plaid Cymru (the Welsh National Party), the Protestant
Northern Irish parties, Sinn Fein (the Catholic Northern Irish Party).
The Conservative Party mainly represents the middle and upper
classes [a sizeable percentage of skilled and unskilled workers have
always voted Conservatives] particularly strong in southern England
while the Labour Party traditionally gathered its support from the Trade
Unions, the working class and some middle class backing (intellectuals
and academics) with its electoral strongholds: south Wales, Scotland and
the Midlands and industrial cities of Northern England.
The party system
nearly all MPs represent political parties;
the party with the most MPs after a general election usually
forms the Government;
the next largest party becomes the official Opposition;
if an MP does not have a political party, they are known as an
'Independent.
Members of the House of Lords are organized on a party basis in
much the same way as the House of Commons but with important
differences: Members of the Lords do not represent constituencies and
many are not members of a political party.
Lords who do not support one of the three main parties are
known as Crossbenchers or Independent Peers;
there is also a small number who are not affiliated to any of the
main groups;
MPs from the same party tend to sit together in the House of
Commons Chamber. Because the Chamber is a rectangular shape, the
Government and the Opposition can face each other. The Government
sits on the benches to the right of the Speaker. The official Opposition
and MPs from other parties sit on the benches to the left of the Speaker.
Frontbenchers and Backbenchers
in both the Commons and the Lords, Government ministers and
Opposition shadow ministers sit on the front benches and are known
as frontbenchers;



54
MPs and Members of the Lords who do not hold ministerial
positions sit towards the back of the Chamber and are known as
backbenchers.
Independent MPs and Crossbench and Independent Lords
MPs and Members of the Lords do not have to belong to a
political party;
Instead, MPs can sit as Independents;
Lords can sit as Crossbenchers or Independents.
Crossing the Floor
members of either the House of Commons or House of Lords
can change political party at any time - known as crossing the floor;
the term comes from the fact that, traditionally, Members of
Parliament from opposing parties sit on opposite sides of the Chamber;
therefore, a Member who changes party usually has to cross the
floor of the House to sit on the other side of the Chamber;
the term is used to signify the changing of allegiance.
The Prime Minister
the leader of the party who wins the elections is made Prime
Minister;
his first job: to choose his cabinet consisting of the most
important ministers in the government. About 100 members of his party
in both Houses are appointed ministers and other officials. At the same
time the Opposition forms a shadow cabinet with corresponding
shadow ministers, who try to make things as difficult as possible for the
Government spokespeople. The ministers may be questioned and held
accountable for government actions and decisions.
The office of prime minister has become like an all-powerful
presidency.
A greater emphasis today is on prime ministerial government
rather than the traditional constitutional notions of Cabinet
government. Usually the Prime Minister takes policy decisions with
the agreement of the Cabinet.
Generally the maximum duration of a Parliament is 5 years,
although Prime Ministers have the faculty to dissolve Parliament and
call a General Election when they wish. If an MP resigns or dies there
is a by-election-that is, an election in the relevant constituency only.



55



V. THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA THE NEW LANDS

The United States of America is a federal republic made up of
fifty states and the District of Columbia. Its 9,529,063 square
kilometers nearly forty times the size of the United Kingdom make
it the fourth largest country in the world.
In the east it is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean and in the west by
the Pacific Ocean; approximately 4,500 km of immensely varied land
separate the east coast from the west coast. If you travel from east to
west you cross no less than four time zones: Eastern Time (New York
City), Central Time (Chicago), Mountain Time (Denver) and Pacific
Time (Los Angeles). Each zone is an hour apart, so when it is 6pm in
New York it is only 3 pm in Los Angeles.
In the north the USA borders Canada and in the south it borders
Mexico.
Forty-eight states are conterminous each state borders with at least
one other state ; the remaining two states of Alaska (which has become
part of the Union in 1959) and the eight islands of Hawaii (the fiftieth
state to be created in the same year), are situated near the Arctic Circle
and 3,200 km away in the Pacific Ocean respectively. The United States
also includes the island territories of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands,
both located in the Atlantic Ocean. The smallest state is Rhode Island
(capital: Providence) with an area of 3,139 sq. km, the largest being
Alaska (capital: Juneau) with its 1,530,693 sq. km. The second smallest
state is Delaware (capital: Dover) which covers an area of 5,294 sq. km,
the second largest state being Texas (691,027 sq. km.) its capital being
Austin. The District of Columbia, the site of the capital city,
Washington, has an area of 179 sq km.
Very broadly, the regions of the United States can be divided up
in four main areas: The south, The Pacific coast states, the north
central region (containing the Midwest) and the northeast.





56
A. The Northeast
The north-eastern region is made up of the six states of New
England (Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode
Island and Connecticut), the Mid-Atlantic states (Delaware, New
Jersey, Maryland, New York and Pennsylvania, as well as the District
of Columbia). Both of these sub regions are heavily populated and
are among the most heavily industrialized areas in the USA. The
northeast is also the wealthiest region in the country, with incomes
exceeding the national average by about 10 per cent.
Boston is an important seaport and manufacturing centre situated
in Massachusetts. Two of the most important world centers of
learning, Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, are in Cambridge, near Boston.
New York with its some 8 million people is the most heavily
populated city in the U.S. and it comprises five boroughs: Bronx,
Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens and Staten Island. It is a famous arts,
media and show business centre. Washington DC situated at the head
of the Potomac River, is the federal capital of the United States.
Philadelphia, the fifth largest American city and the site of the signing
of the American Declaration of Independence and the American
Constitution, the first capital of the Union in 1790, is situated in the
state of Pennsylvania.

B. The North Central Region
It is midway between the Appalachian and Rocky Mountains. It
comprises the states of the Great lakes (Illinois, Indiana, Michigan,
Ohio, Minnesota and Wisconsin) and those of the Midwest (Iowa,
Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota and North Dakota). This
region is an area of great diversity in terms of climate, soil and
resources. The vast stretches of rich, flat farming land the Central
Plains of the Midwest being one of the worlds most productive
agricultural areas and an excellent water system have allowed this
area to become the most important economic region in the country.
Midwest is nicknamed the breadbasket of America because of its vital
contribution to food production. In addition to Lake Michigan, the
four lakes bordering with Canada (Lakes Superior, Huron, Erie and



57
Ontario) are estimated to contain about half the worlds fresh water
and a network of transportation routes around the lakes is the greatest
freshwater navigation system in the world. The main industrial centers
are concentrated along the Great Lakes; Detroit is still the automobile
capital of the world. Its nickname is Motortown or Motown-the latter
is also the name of the world famous record label; Chicago, the third
most populated city in America is the commercial and business capital
of Illinois as well as an important inland port. We should also mention
that the first steel structured skyscraper was built here in 1889, and it
now possesses one of the tallest skyscrapers in the world-the
110storey (443) Sears Tower.
The Northern Central Region also includes the Rocky Mountain
States or interior west states of Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada,
Utah and Wyoming. Despite occupying almost one fifth of United
States territory, it only accounts for 3% of the population. Although
much of the landscape of this area has changed over recent years,
many parts of it remain sparsely populated and poorly irrigated. It is
no coincidence that most of the commercial centers (like Salt Lake
City in Utah) of this arid and semi-arid region are located in oases.
Tourism, mining and irrigation development are the areas main
sources of Industry.

C. The Pacific Coast States
Apart from Washington, Oregon and the golden states of
California, this region also includes Alaska and Hawaii. Lying on the
extreme north western point of North America, the last frontier state
of Alaska is rich in mountains at 6,194 m Mount McKinley (named
after US President William McKinley) is the highest peak in North
America; rivers and lakes. It is the largest state in the USA: one
third of its territory lies within the Arctic Circle and has permanent
frost. In 1867 Alaska was purchased from Russia.
Hawaii annexed in 1898 consists of a group of eight main islands.
It is noted for its cultivation of sugar cane and pine apple crops, but
tourism is probably its most important source of income. The U.S.
Pacific Fleet has its naval base and headquarters in Hawaii at Pearl
Harbor.



58
California the third largest state after Alaska and Texas is the
most densely populated state in America. Although predominantly
white, California has the highest percentages of Spanish speakers,
American Indians, Chinese, Philippines, Japanese, Koreans and
Vietnamese. The number of blacks and Asian Indians living in the
state is the second highest in America. As the changes in climate and
landscape testify, California is a land of immensely contrasts.
Magnificent beaches and mountain ranges (particularly the Sierra
Nevada) contrast with the famous canyons and deserts.
Los Angeles is the largest urban centre in the USA, home to
Hollywood and the largest conglomeration of television studios in the
world. Situated on a number of hills, San Francisco or Frisco is an
important shipping centre and home to one of the most socially
cosmopolitan ethnic populations of the United States. Each ethnic
group has carved out an enclave within the city; San Franciscos
Chinatown is said to contain the largest concentration of Chinese
people outside Asia.

D. The South
This region is at its turn divided into two sub-regions: the Southern
States and the South-western States. The first is made up of Alabama,
Arkansas, Florida (purchased from Spain in 1819), Georgia, Kentucky,
Louisiana (purchased from France for $15 million in 1803), Mississippi,
North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia.
Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana are often referred
collectively as the Deep South. These southern states are extremely
diverse in terms of landscape. The sunbelt as the warm climate of this
region is referred to, is much warmer than the snowbelt of the north.
Cotton, sugar cane and rice are growing here. One hundred miles from
the Gulf of Mexico on the east bank of the Mississippi River stand New
Orleans one of the most romantic and picturesque cities of America,
home to the blues and New Orleans jazz.
The states of Arizona (containing the magnificent Grand Canyon),
New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas make up what are commonly
referred to as the Southwestern states. In 1848, Texas-a state which is
bigger than any European country along with California and New
Mexico were annexed to the U.S. after a brief war with Mexico.



59
Despite often difficult climatic conditions much of this region is
arid and suffers from a lack of rainfall many people have achieved a
high standard of living. By the 1959s, Texas had become the nations
major petroleum producer. An important aerospace research and
development centre, Houston is the largest city and the fourth most
populated city in the United States. Dallas, the eighth largest
American city is an important banking and financial centre for the
south west region as well as a leading and computer sciences centre.

History and Major Events
The history of the United States has been an experiment in
democracy for more than 200 years. Issues that were addressed in the
early years continue to be addressed and resolved today: big
government versus small government, individual rights versus group
rights, unfettered capitalism versus regulated commerce and labor and
engagement with the world versus isolationism .
The expectations for American democracy have always been
high, and the reality has sometimes been disappointing, yet the nation
has grown and prospered, through a continual process of adaptation
and compromise.
The First Americans crossed the land bridge from Asia and were
believed to have stayed in what is now Alaska for thousands of years;
they then moved south into the land that was to become the United States.
They settled along the Pacific Ocean in the Northwest, in the
mountains and deserts of the Southwest, and along the Mississippi
River in the Middle West.
The first famous explorer was Christopher Columbus of Genoa;
his trips were financed by Queen Isabella of Spain. Columbus landed
on islands in the Caribbean Sea in 1492, but he never saw the
mainland of the future United States.
John Cabot of Venice came five years later on a mission for the
king of England; his journey was quickly forgotten, but it provided the
basis for British claims to North America. The 1500s were the age of
Spanish exploration in the Americas, Juan Ponce de Len landed in
what is now Florida in 1513, Hernando De Soto reached Florida in
1539 and continued as far as the Mississippi River. In 1540, Francisco
Vazquez de Coronado set out north from Mexico, which Spain had



60
conquered in 1522, in search of the mythical Seven Cities of Cibola;
he never found them, but his travels took him as far as the Grand
Canyon in Arizona, as well as into the Great Plains.
The Spanish were pushing up from the south, the northern portion
of the present-day United States was slowly being revealed through
the journeys of other Europeans; these included Giovanni da
Verrazano, Jacques Cartier, and Amerigo Vespucci, for whom the
continent America would be named. The first permanent European
settlement in what was to become the United States was established
by the Spanish in the middle 1500s at St. Augustine in Florida, but it
would not play a part in the formation of the new nation. That story
took place in settlements farther north along the Atlantic coast in
Virginia, Massachusetts, New York, and the 10 other areas colonized
by a growing tide of immigrants from Europe.
Most settlers who came to the British colonies in the 1600s were
English, others came from The Netherlands, Sweden, Germany,
France, and later from Scotland and Northern Ireland. They had
various reasons to flee their homelands among which we mention: to
escape war, political oppression, religious persecution or a prison
sentence; some left as servants who expected to work their way to
freedom; black Africans were sold into slavery and arrived in
shackles. By 1690, the population was 250,000 and less than 100
years later; it had climbed to 2.5 million.
All along this time 13 distinct colonies developed.
New England including Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode
Island developed an economy based on wood products, fishing,
shipbuilding, and trade; the middle colonies including New York
and Pennsylvania had a milder climate and more varied terrain, both
industry and agriculture developed there, and society was more varied
and cosmopolitan (In New York one could find Bohemians, Danes,
Dutch, English, French, Germans, Irish, Italians, Norwegians, Poles,
Portuguese, Scots, and Swedes).
The Southern colonies Virginia, Georgia, and the Carolinas
had a long growing season and fertile soil, and the economy was
primarily agricultural; there were both small farmers and wealthy
aristocratic landowners who owned large plantations worked by
African slaves.



61
The settlement of the American colonies was directly sponsored
not by the British government, but by private groups; all except
Georgia emerged as companies of shareholders or as proprietorships
chartered by the king. Some were governed rigidly by company
leaders, but in time, all developed a system of participatory
government based on British legal precedent and tradition.
Britain's 13 North American colonies matured during the 1700s.
They grew in population, economic strength, and cultural attainment and
at the same time they were experienced in self-government. Yet it was
not until 170 years after the founding of the first permanent settlement at
Jamestown, Virginia, that the new United States of America emerged as
a nation. The war between Britain and France in the 1750s was fought
partly in North America; Britain was victorious and soon initiated
policies designed to control and fund its vast empire.
These measures imposed greater restraints on the American
colonists' way of life. The Royal Proclamation of 1763 restricted the
opening of new lands for settlement; the Sugar Act of 1764 placed
taxes on luxury goods, including coffee, silk, and wine, and made it
illegal to import rum; the Currency Act of 1764 prohibited the printing
of paper money in the colonies; the Quartering Act of 1765 forced
colonists to provide food and housing for royal troops while the Stamp
Act of 1765 required the purchase of royal stamps for all legal
documents, newspapers, licenses, and leases.
Colonists objected to all these measures, but the Stamp Act sparked
the greatest organized resistance. The main issue, in the eyes of a
growing number of colonists, was that they were being taxed by a distant
legislature in which they could not participate (taxation without
representation), so in October 1765, 27 delegates from nine colonies
met in New York to coordinate efforts to get the Stamp Act repealed.
They passed resolutions asserting the individual colonies right to
impose their own taxes. Samuel Adams of Massachusetts was the
most effective of all; he wrote newspaper articles and made speeches
appealing to the colonists democratic instincts and also helped
organize committees throughout the colonies that became the basis of
a revolutionary movement.



62
By 1773, the movement had attracted colonial traders who were
angry with British attempts to regulate the tea trade. In December, a
group of men sneaked on to three British ships in Boston harbor and
dumped their cargo of tea overboard. To punish Massachusetts for the
vandalism, the British Parliament closed the port of Boston and
restricted local authority; the new measures, rather than isolate one
colony, they rallied the others. All the colonies except Georgia sent
representatives to Philadelphia in September 1774 to discuss their
present unhappy state.
Colonists felt a growing sense of frustration and anger over
British encroachment on their rights. There was not unanimity of
thought on what should be done: loyalists wanted to remain subjects
of the king while the moderates favored compromise to produce a
more acceptable relationship with the British government and the
revolutionaries wanted complete independence. They began
stockpiling weapons and mobilizing forces waiting for the day when
they would have to fight for it.
the American Revolution its war for independence from
Britain began as a small skirmish between British troops and armed
colonists on April 19, 1775;
the British had set out from Boston, Massachusetts, to seize
weapons and ammunition that revolutionary colonists had collected in
nearby villages.
The first shots of the American Revolution fired at Lexington,
Massachusetts where they met a group of Minutemen, who got that
name because they were said to be ready to fight in a minute. These
intended only a silent protest, and their leader told them not to shoot
unless fired on first. The British ordered the Minutemen to disperse, and
they complied; as they were withdrawing, someone fired a shot so the
British troops attacked the Minutemen with guns and bayonets. Fights
broke out at other places along the road as the British soldiers in their
bright red uniforms made their way back to Boston; more than 250
"redcoats" were killed or wounded while the Americans lost 93 men.
Calls for independence intensified in the coming months. The
radical political theorist Thomas Paine helped crystallize the argument
for separation; in a pamphlet called Common Sense, which sold



63
100,000 copies, he attacked the idea of a hereditary monarchy. Paine
presented two alternatives for America: either it continued submission
under a tyrannical king and outworn system of government or fight for
liberty and happiness as a self-sufficient, independent republic.
The Second Continental Congress appointed a committee, headed
by Thomas Jefferson of Virginia, to prepare a document outlining the
colonies grievances against the king and explaining their decision to
break away. This Declaration of Independence was adopted on July 4,
1776 (the 4th of July has since been celebrated as Americas
Independence Day).
The Declaration of Independence announced the birth of a new
nation; it drew upon French and British political ideas, especially
those of John Locke in his Second Treatise on Government,
reaffirming the belief that political rights are basic human rights and
are thus universal.
But declaring independence did not make Americans free. British
forces routed continental troops in New York, from Long Island to
New York City succeeding in defeating the Americans at Brandywine,
Pennsylvania, and occupying Philadelphia thus forcing the
Continental Congress to flee. On the other hand, the American forces
were victorious at Saratoga, New York, and at Trenton and Princeton
in New Jersey.
George Washington continually struggled to get the men and
materials he desperately needed. Decisive help came in 1778 when
France recognized the United States and signed a bilateral defense
treaty (France wanted to weaken the power of Britain, its long-time
adversary). The fighting that began at Lexington, Massachusetts,
continued for eight years across a large portion of the continent;
battles were fought from Montreal, Canada, in the north to Savannah,
Georgia, in the south.
A huge British army surrendered at Yorktown, Virginia, in 1781,
yet the war dragged on with inconclusive results for another two years
when a peace treaty was finally signed in Paris on April 15, 1783. The
Treaty of Paris acknowledged the independence, freedom, and
sovereignty of the 13 former American colonies, now states.



64
The 13 American colonies became the 13 United States of
America in 1783. Before the war ended, they ratified a framework for
their common efforts; these Articles of Confederation provided for a
union, but an extremely loose and fragile one. George Washington
called it a rope of sand as: there was no common currency, there
was no national military force; many states still had their own armies
and navies; there was little centralized control over foreign policy; the
states negotiated directly with other countries and there was no
national system for imposing and collecting taxes.
There were problems among the colonies too. Thus, the disputes
between Maryland and Virginia over navigation rights on the Potomac
River, which formed their common border, led to a conference of five
states in Annapolis, Maryland, in 1786. Alexander Hamilton, a delegate
from New York, said that what was needed was a rethinking of the
Confederation. He and the other delegates proposed holding a
convention. With the support from Washington, unquestionably the
most trusted man in America, they won over those who thought the idea
was too bold The gathering in Philadelphia in May 1787 was
remarkable; the 55 delegates elected to the convention had experience in
colonial and state government, they were knowledgeable in history, law,
and political theory; although most of them were young, the group also
included the elderly Benjamin Franklin. Two notable Americans were
not there: Thomas Jefferson was in Paris as American ambassador to
France, and John Adams was in London as ambassador to Great Britain.
George Washington was sworn in as the first president of the
United States on April 30, 1789. He had been in charge of organizing
an effective military force during the Revolution-now he was in
charge of building a functioning government. He worked with
Congress to create departments of State, Treasury, Justice, and War.
The heads of those departments would serve as presidential advisors,
his cabinet. A Supreme Court composed of one chief justice and five
associate justices was established, together with three circuit courts
and 13 district courts. Policies were developed for administering the
western territories and bringing them into the Union as new states.
Washington served two four-year terms and then left office, setting a
precedent that eventually became law.



65
The next two presidents, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson,
represented two schools of thought on the role of government; this
divergence led to the formation of the first political parties in the
Western world: the Federalists, led by Adams and Alexander
Hamilton, Washingtons secretary of the Treasury. They represented
trade and manufacturing interests; they feared anarchy and believed in
a strong central government that could set national economic policies
and maintain order and who had the most support in the North and the
Republicans, led by Jefferson, generally represented agricultural
interests. They opposed a strong central government as they believed
in states' rights and the self-sufficiency of farmers and had the most
support in the South.
For about 20 years, the young nation was able to thrive in relative
peace; its policy was to be friendly and impartial to all other nations
but it was not immune from political developments, particularly in
Britain and France, which were at war. The British navy seized
American ships headed to France, and the French navy seized
American ships headed to Britain. Various diplomatic negotiations
averted hostilities during the 1790s and early 1800s, but the United
States would have to defend its interests. War with Britain came in
1812 most of the fighting taking place mostly in the Northeastern
states and along the east coast. One British expeditionary force
reached the new capital of Washington, in the District of Columbia; it
set fire to the executive mansion causing President James Madison
to flee and left the city in flames. In the end the U.S. army and navy
won enough decisive battles to claim victory: after two and a half
years of fighting, and with a treasury depleted by a separate war with
France, Britain signed a peace treaty with the United States. The U.S.
victory ended once and for all any British hopes of reestablishing
influence south of the Canadian border.
The United States doubled in size with the purchase of the
Louisiana Territory from France ($15 million) in 1803 and Florida
from Spain in 1819. From 1816 to 1821, six new states were created
and in 1848, Texas, California and New Mexico became American
territories, after a brief war with Mexico. Between 1812 and 1852, the
population tripled and the young nations size and diversity became a



66
land of contrasts. In 1867 Alaska was purchased from Russia and in
1898 Hawaii was annexed. The United States was a country of both
civilized cities built on commerce and industry, and primitive frontiers
where the rule of law was often ignored; it was a society that loved
freedom but permitted slavery but the Constitution tried to hold all
these different parts together. The very existence of the Union was in
danger and the North and South went to war in April 1861. The
Southern states had claimed the right to secede and had formed their
own Confederacy and their forces fired the first shots while the
Northern states, under the leadership of President Lincoln, were
determined to stop the rebellion and preserve the Union as; the North
had more than twice as many states and twice as many people; it had
abundant facilities for producing war supplies, as well as a superior
railway network. The South had more experienced military leaders
and had the advantage of fighting mostly on its own territory. For four
years, ground battles involving tens of thousands of soldiers and
horses were fought in Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Tennessee,
and Georgia while naval battles were fought off the Atlantic coast and
on the Mississippi River. In that area, Union forces won an almost
uninterrupted series of victories while in Virginia, by contrast, they
met defeat after defeat in their attempts to capture Richmond, the
Confederate capital.
Britain and France had been planning to recognize the
Confederacy but they delayed their decisions, and the South never
received the aid it desperately needed. Several months later, President
Lincoln issued a preliminary Emancipation Proclamation that freed all
slaves living in Confederate states and authorized the recruitment of
African Americans into the Union army. The North was no longer
fighting just to preserve the Union; it was fighting to end slavery. The
Union forces gained momentum in 1863 with victories at Vicksburg in
Mississippi and Gettysburg in Pennsylvania; by April 1865, huge
Union armies under the command of General Ulysses S. Grant had
surrounded Robert E. Lee in Virginia. Lee surrendered, and the
American Civil War was over.
The Terms of Surrender were generous. The rebels are our
countrymen again, Grant reminded his troops. In Washington,



67
President Lincoln was ready to begin the process of reconciliation; he
never got the chance as in less than a week after the South
surrendered, he was assassinated by a Southerner embittered by the
defeat. The task would fall to Lincolns vice president, Andrew
Johnson, a Southerner who favored quick and easy Reconstruction.
Johnson issued pardons that restored the political rights of many
Southerners. By the end of 1865, almost all former Confederate states
had held conventions to repeal the acts of secession and to abolish
slavery. All except Tennessee refused to ratify a constitutional
amendment giving full citizenship to African Americans.
The Republicans in Congress decided to implement their own
version of Reconstruction and they enacted punitive measures against
former rebels and prevented former Confederate leaders from holding
office. They divided the South into five military districts administered
by Union generals; denied voting rights to anyone who refused to take
a loyalty oath to the Union and strongly supported the rights of
African Americans. President Johnson tried to block many of these
policies and was impeached.




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VI. AMERICAN POLITICAL SYSTEM

America, the federal republic made up of fifty states and the
District of Columbia is one of the oldest democracies in the world.
The government of this highly diversified nation is based on a written
document called the Constitution drawn up in 1787 and ratified a year
later by the representatives of the original thirteen colonies. It is
considered to be a landmark in the development of constitutional and
governmental law. Being the oldest written national constitution
currently in force, it defines the basic organs of government and their
legal duties, responsibilities and jurisdiction. Deriving in large part
from the English Magna Charta, the American Bill of Rights, adopted
in 1791 consisted of a series of ten Amendments to the US
Constitution. These amendments sought to guarantee the rights of the
individual (freedom of speech, religion, the press), against possible
federal tyranny. A further sixteen amendments have been added to the
Constitution since 1791. Despite numerous revisions, the basic
principles underlying the present system of government can be traced
back to the original document drawn up more than hundred years
earlier. The notion of popular consent (whereby the government is
answerable to the people) had been gaining ground in Europe
throughout the 17th and 18th centuries, but this doctrine was resisted
by the ancient regime (Old Rule, Old Order, or simply Old (or
Ancient) Regime Power in the Ancient Rgime relied on three
pillars: the monarchy, the clergy and the aristocracy), and a well
established social order. Many of the settlers in the American colonies
had left Europe in order to escape religious or political persecution. As
time passed, the descendants of these early settlers gradually forged a
new identity for themselves; the idea of basing a political order on the
consent of the governed seemed perfectly natural.
Another important notion accepted by Americans was that
government should be confined within prescribed limits by the rule of
law. Colonists believed that there were certain natural rights which



69
government could not justifiably interfere with. In addition to these
two fundamental principles of popular consent and prescribed
limitations, a third was to be of equal importance in the eyes of early
American political thinkers: the sovereignty of the national or
federal government.

The Constitution
Unlike Britain but like most nation states, the American political
system is clearly defined by basic documents. The Declaration of
Independence of 1776 and the Constitution of 1789 form the
foundations of the United States federal government. The Declaration
of Independence establishes the United States as an independent
political entity, while the Constitution creates the basic structure of the
federal government. Both documents are on display in the National
Archives and Records Administration Building in Washington, D.C.
The US Constitution has proved to be a remarkably stable
document. If one accepts that the first 10 amendments were in effect
part of the original constitutional settlement, there have only been 17
amendments in over 200 years. One of the major reasons for this is
that quite deliberately on the part of its drafters the Constitution is
a very difficult instrument to change. First, a proposed amendment has
to secure a two-thirds vote of members present in both houses of
Congress. Then three-quarters of the state legislatures have to ratify
the proposed change (this stage may or may not be governed by a
specific time limit).
At the heart of the US Constitution is the principle known as
separation of powers, a term coined by the French political,
enlightenment thinker Montesquieu. This means that power is spread
between three institutions of the state the executive, the legislature
and the judiciary and no one institution has too much power and no
individual can be a member of more than one institution.
This principle is also known as checks and balances, since each
of the three branches of the state has some authority to act on its own,
some authority to regulate the other two branches, and has some of its
own authority, in turn, regulated by the other branches.



70
Not only is power spread between the different branches; the
members of those branches are deliberately granted by the
Constitution different terms of office which is a further brake on rapid
political change. So the President has a term of four years, while
members of the Senate serve for six years and members of the House
of Representatives serve for two years. Members of the Supreme
Court effectively serve for life.
The great benefit of this system is that power is spread and
counter-balanced and the founding fathers the 55 delegates who
drafted the Constitution clearly wished to create a political system
which was in sharp contrast to, and much more democratic than, the
monarchical system of absolute power then in force in Britain. The
great weakness of the system is that it makes government slow,
complicated and legalistic which is a particular disadvantage in a
world unlike that of 1776 in which political and economic
developments are fast-moving.

Politics of the United States
The United States is a presidential, federal republic, in which the
President of the United States (the head of state and head of
government), Congress, and judiciary share powers reserved to the
national government, and the federal government shares sovereignty
with the state governments. Federal and state elections generally take
place within a two-party system, although this is not enshrined in law.
The executive branch is headed by President and is independent
of the legislature. Legislative power is vested in the two chambers of
Congress, the Senate and the House of Representatives. Judicial
power is exercised by the judicial branch (or judiciary), composed of
the Supreme Court and lower federal courts. The judiciarys function
is to interpret the United States Constitution as well as federal laws
and regulations. This includes resolving disputes between the
executive and legislative branches. The federal government of the
United States was established by the Constitution. American politics
has been dominated by two parties, the Democratic Party and the
Republican Party, since the American Civil War, although other
parties have also existed.



71
Major differences between the political system of the United States
and that of most other developed democracies are the power of the
Senate as the upper house of the legislature, the wide scope of power of
the Supreme Court, the separation of powers between the legislature and
the executive government, and the dominance of the two main parties
the United States being one of the worlds developed democracies in
which third parties have the least political influence.

Federal, state and local governments
The federal entity created by the Constitution is the dominant
feature of the American governmental system. However, some people
are also subject to a state government, and all are subject to various
units of local government. The latter include counties, municipalities,
and special districts.
This multiplicity of jurisdictions reflects the country's history.
The federal government was created by the states, which as colonies
were established separately and governed themselves independently of
the others. Units of local government were created by the colonies to
efficiently carry out various state functions. As the country expanded,
it admitted new states modeled on the existing ones.

State government
States governments have the power to make laws on all subjects
that are not granted to the national government or denied to the states
in the U.S. Constitution. These include education, family law, contract
law, and most crimes. Unlike the national government, which only has
those powers granted to it in the Constitution, a state government has
inherent powers allowing it to act unless limited by a provision of the
state or national constitution.
Like the national government, state governments have three
branches: executive, legislative, and judicial. The chief executive of a
state is its popularly elected governor, who typically holds office for a
four-year term (although in some states the term is two years). Except
for Nebraska, which has unicameral legislature, all states have a
bicameral legislature, with the upper house usually called the Senate and
the lower house called the House of Representatives, the House of



72
Delegates, Assembly or something similar. In most states, senators serve
four-year terms, and members of the lower house serve two-year terms.
The constitutions of the various states differ in some details but
generally follow a pattern similar to that of the federal Constitution,
including a statement of the rights of the people and a plan for organizing
the government. State constitutions are generally more detailed, however.

Local government
There are 87,000 local governments, including 3,034 counties,
19,498 municipalities, 16,500 townships, 13,500 school districts, and
35,000 other special districts which deal with issues like fire
protection. To a greater extent than on the federal or state level, the
local governments directly serve the needs of the people, providing
everything from police and fire protection to sanitary codes, health
regulations, education, public transportation, and housing.
About 28% of the people live in cities of 100,000 or more
population. City governments are chartered by states, and their
charters detail the objectives and powers of the municipal government.
For most big cities, cooperation with both state and federal
organizations is essential to meeting the needs of their residents.
Types of city governments vary widely across the nation.
However, almost all have some kind of central council, elected by the
voters, and an executive officer, assisted by various department heads,
to manage the citys affairs.
There are three general types of city government: the mayor-council,
the commission, and the council-manager. These are the pure forms;
many cities have developed a combination of two or three of them.
Mayor-Council: This is the oldest form of city government in the
United States and, until the beginning of the 20th century, was used by
nearly all American cities. Its structure is similar to that of the state and
national governments, with an elected mayor as chief of the executive
branch and an elected council that represents the various neighborhoods
forming the legislative branch. The mayor appoints heads of city
departments and other officials, sometimes with the approval of the
council. He or she has the power of veto over ordinances the laws of the
city and frequently is responsible for preparing the citys budget. The



73
council passes city ordinances, sets the tax rate on property, and apportions
money among the various city departments. As cities have grown, council
seats have usually come to represent more than a single neighborhood.
The Commission: This combines both the legislative and
executive which function in one group of officials, usually three or
more in number, elected city-wide. Each commissioner supervises the
work of one or more city departments. One is named chairperson of
the body and is often called the mayor, although his or her power is
equivalent to that of the other commissioners.
Council-Manager: The city manager is a response to the
increasing complexity of urban problems, which require management
expertise not often possessed by elected public officials. The answer
has been to entrust most of the executive powers, including law
enforcement and provision of services, to a highly trained and
experienced professional city manager.
The city manager plan has been adopted by a large number of cities.
Under this plan, a small, elected council makes the city ordinances and
sets policy, but hires a paid administrator, also called a city manager, to
carry out its decisions. The manager draws up the city budget and
supervises most of the departments. Usually, there is no set term; the
manager serves as long as the council is satisfied with his or her work.

County government
The county is a subdivision of the state, sometimes but not
always containing two or more townships and several villages. New
York City is so large that it is divided into five separate boroughs,
each a county in its own right. On the other hand, Arlington County,
Virginia, the United States smallest county, located just across the
Potomac River from Washington, D.C., is both an urbanized and
suburban area, governed by a unitary county administration. In other
cities, both the city and county governments have merged, creating a
consolidated citycounty government.



74
Suffrage
Suffrage is nearly universal for citizens 18 years of age and older.
All 50 states, as well as the District of Columbia, contribute to the
electoral vote for President. However, the District, and other U.S.
holdings, like Puerto Rico and Guam, lacks the states representation
in Congress. These constituencies do not have the right to choose any
political figure outside their respective areas. Each commonwealth,
territory, or district can only elect a non-voting delegate to serve in the
House of Representatives.
Voting rights are sometimes restricted as a result of felony
conviction, but such laws vary widely by state. Election of the
president is an indirect suffrage: Voters vote for electors, who in turn
vote for President. In theory, these electors vote as they please, but in
modern practice they do not vote against the wishes of their
constituencies (though they have abstained from voting in protest).

Political parties
Since the 1790s the country has been run by two major parties.
The United States does not have a parliamentary system, in which
governing coalitions are formed after elections, so coalitions are
formed before elections under the umbrella of the party organizations.
In the absence of a parliamentary system, third parties cannot thrive.
Since the Civil War, the two major parties have been called the
Republican and Democratic parties. Many minor or third political
parties appear from time to time. They tend to serve a means to
advocate policies that eventually are adopted by the two major
political parties. At various times the Socialist Party, the Farmer-
Labor Party and the Populist Party for a few years had considerable
local strength and then faded away. At present the Libertarian Party is
the most successful third party.
Most officials in America are elected from single-member
districts and win office by beating out their opponents in a system for
determining winners called first-past-the-post the one who gets the
plurality wins, (which is not the same thing as actually getting a
majority of votes). This encourages the two-party system.



75
To an extent quite extraordinary in democratic countries, the
American political system is dominated by two political parties: the
Democratic Party and the Republican Party (often known as the Grand
Old Party or GOP). These are very old and very stable parties the
Democrats go back to the 1824 and the Republicans were founded in
1854. The Democratic Party is sometimes represented as a donkey,
while the Republican Party is sometimes featured as an elephant.

Organization of American political parties
American political parties are more loosely organized than those
in other countries. The two major parties, in particular, have no formal
organization at the national level that controls membership, activities,
or policy positions, though some state affiliates do. Thus, for an
American to say that he or she is a member of the Democratic or
Republican Party, is quite different from a Britons stating that he or
she is a member of the Labor party. In the United States, one can often
become a member of a party, merely by stating that fact. In some
U.S. states, a voter can register as a member of one or another party
and/or vote in the primary election for one or another party, but such
participation does not restrict ones choices in any way; nor does it
give a person any particular rights or obligations with respect to the
party, other than possibly allowing that person to vote in that partys
primary elections (elections that determine who the candidate of the
party will be). A person may choose to attend meetings of one local
party committee one day and another party committee the next day.
The sole factor that brings one closer to the action is the quantity and
quality of participation in party activities and the ability to persuade
others in attendance to give one responsibility.
Party identification becomes somewhat formalized when a person
runs for partisan office. In most states, this means declaring oneself a
candidate for the nomination of a particular party and intent to enter that
partys primary election for an office. A party committee may choose to
endorse one or another of those who is seeking the nomination, but in the
end the choice is up to those who choose to vote in the primary, and it is
often difficult to tell who is going to do the voting. The result is that
American political parties have weak central organizations.



76

The Presidency
Although the founding fathers wanted to avoid a political system
that in any way reflected the monarchical system then prevalent in Britain
and for a long time the Presidency was relatively weak, the vast expansion
of the federal bureaucracy and the military in the 20th century has in
current practice given a greater role and more power to the President than
is the case for any single individual in most political systems.
The President is both the head of state and the head of
government, as well as the military commander-in-chief and chief
diplomat. He presides over the executive branch of the federal
government, a vast organization numbering about 4 million people,
including 1 million active-duty military personnel. Within the
executive branch, the President has broad constitutional powers to
manage national affairs and the workings of the federal government
and he may issue executive orders to affect internal policies.
The President may sign or veto legislation passed by Congress
and has the power to recommend measures to Congress. The Congress
may override a presidential veto but only by a two-thirds majority in
each house.
The President has the power to make treaties (with the advice
and consent of the Senate) and the power to nominate and receive
ambassadors. The President may not dissolve Congress or call special
elections, but does have the power to pardon criminals convicted of
offences against the federal government, enact executive orders, and
(with the consent of the Senate) appoint Supreme Court justices and
federal judges.
The President is elected for a fixed term of four years and may
serve a maximum of two terms. Elections are always held on the first
Tuesday after the first Monday in November to coincide with
Congressional elections.
The President is not elected directly by the voters but by an
Electoral College representing each state on the basis of a combination
of the number of members in the Senate (two for each state regardless
of size) and the number of members in the House of Representatives
(roughly proportional to population). The states with the largest



77
number of votes are California (55), Texas (34) and New York (31).
The states with the smallest number of votes there are six of them
have only three votes. The District of Columbia, which has no voting
representation in Congress, has three electoral votes. In effect,
therefore, the Presidential election is not one election but 51.
The total Electoral College vote is 538. This means that, to
become President, a candidate has to win at least 270 electoral votes.
The voting system awards the Electoral College votes from each state
to delegates committed to vote for a certain candidate in a winner
take all system, with the exception of Maine and Nebraska (which
award their Electoral College votes according to Congressional
Districts rather than for the state as a whole). In practice, most states
are firmly Democrat for instance, California and New York or
firmly Republican for instance, Texas and Tennessee. Therefore,
candidates concentrate their appearances and resources on the so-
called battleground states, those that might go to either party. The
three largest battleground or swing states are Florida (27 votes),
Pennsylvania (21) and Ohio (20).
This system of election means that in theory a candidate can win the
largest number of votes nationwide but fail to win the largest number of
votes in the Electoral College and therefore fail to become President.
Indeed, in practice, this has happened three times in US history, most
recently in 2000. If this seems strange (at least to non-Americans), the
explanation is that the founding fathers who drafted the American
Constitution did not wish to give too much power to the people and so
devised a system that gives the ultimate power of electing the President
to members of the Electoral College. The same Constitution, however,
enables each state to determine how its members in the Electoral College
are chosen and since the 1820s states have chosen their electors by a
direct vote of the people. The United States is the only current example
of an indirectly elected executive president.
The President may be impeached by a majority in the House and
removed from office by a two-thirds majority in the Senate for
treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.



78
Since 1939, there has been an Executive Office of the President (EOP)
which has consistently and considerably expanded in size and power.
Today it consists of some 1,600 staff and costs some $300M a year.
The position of Vice-President is elected on the same ticket as that
of the President and has the same four-year term of office. The Vice-
President is often described as a heart beat away from the Presidency
since, in the event of the death or incapacity of the President, the Vice-
President assumes the office. In practice, however, a Vice-Presidential
candidate is chosen (by the Presidential candidate) to balance the ticket
in the Presidential election (that is, represent a different geographical or
gender or ethnic constituency) and, for all practical purposes, the
position only carries the power accorded to it by the President which is
usually very little (a major exception has been Dick Cheney under
George W Bush). The official duties of the Vice-President are to sit as a
member of the Cabinet and as a member of the National Security
Council and to act as ex-officio President of the Senate.
Although the President heads the executive branch of
government, the day-to-day enforcement and administration of federal
laws is in the hands of the various federal executive departments,
created by Congress to deal with specific areas of national and
international affairs. The heads of the 15 departments, chosen by the
President and approved with the advice and consent of the Senate,
form a council of advisors generally known as the Presidents
Cabinet. This is not a cabinet in the British political sense: it does
not meet so often and does not act so collectively.
The first US President was George Washington, who served from
1789-1797, so that the current President Barrack Obama is the 44th to
hold the office.
The Presidency is often referred to by the media as the White
House, the West Wing, and the Oval Office.

The House of Representatives
The House of Representatives is the lower chamber in the
bicameral legislature known collectively as Congress. The founders of



79
the United States intended the House to be the politically dominant
entity in the federal system and, in the late 18th and early 19th
centuries, the House served as the primary forum for political debate.
However, subsequently the Senate has been the dominant body.
The House consists of 435 members, each of whom represents a
congressional district and serves for a two-year term. House seats are
apportioned among the states by population according to each
decennial census. Typically a House constituency would represent
around 500,000 people.
Members of the House are elected by first-past-the-post voting in
every state except Louisiana and Washington, which have run-offs.
Elections are always held on the first Tuesday after the first Monday
in November in even numbered years. Voting in congressional
elections especially to the House is generally much lower than
levels in other liberal democracies. In a year when there is a
Presidential election, turnout is typically around 50%; in years when
there is no Presidential election (known as mid-terms), it usually falls
to around one third of the electorate.
In the event that a member of the House of Representatives dies
or resigns before the end of the two-year term, a special election is
held to fill the vacancy.
The House has four non-voting delegates from American Samoa
(1981), the District of Columbia (1971), Guam (1972) and the Virgin
Islands (1976) and one resident commissioner for Puerto Rico (1976),
bringing the total formal membership to 440.
Much of the work of the House is done through 19 standing
committees which perform both legislative and investigatory functions.
Each chamber of Congress has particular exclusive powers. The
House must introduce any bills for the purpose of raising revenue.
However, the consent of both chambers is required to make any law.
Activity in the House of Representatives tends to be more partisan
than in the Senate.



80
The House and Senate are often referred to by the media as
Capitol Hill or simply the Hill.

The Senate
The Senate is the upper chamber in the bicameral legislature
known collectively as Congress. The original intention of the authors
of the US Constitution was that the Senate should be a regulatory
group, less politically dominant than the House. However, since the
mid 19th century, the Senate has been the dominant chamber and
indeed today it is perhaps the most powerful upper house of any
legislative body in the world.
The Senate consists of 100 members, each of which represents a
state and serves for a six-year term (one third of the Senate stands for
election every two years).
Each state has two Senators, regardless of population, and, since
there are 50 states, then there are 100 senators. This equality of Senate
seats between states has the effect of producing huge variations in
constituency population (the two senators from Wyoming represent less
than half a million electors, while the two senators from California
represent 34M people) with gross over-representation of the smaller
states and serious under-representation of racial and ethnic minorities.
Members of the Senate are elected by first-past-the-post voting in
every state except Louisiana and Washington, which have run-offs.
Elections are always held on the first Tuesday after the first Monday
in November in even numbered years.
In the event that a member of the Senate dies or resigns before the
end of the six-year term, no special election is held to fill the vacancy.
Instead the Governor of the state that the Senator represented
nominates someone to serve until the next set of Congressional
elections when a normal election is held to fill the vacancy.
Much of the work of the Senate is done through 16 standing
committees which perform both legislative and investigatory functions.
Each chamber of Congress has particular exclusive powers. The
Senate must give advice and consent to many important Presidential



81
appointments. However, the consent of both chambers is required to
make any law.
Activity in the Senate tends to be less partisan and more
individualistic than in the House of Representatives. Senate rules
permit what is called a filibuster when a senator, or a series of
senators, can speak for as long as they wish and on any topic they
choose, unless a supermajority of three-fifths of the Senate (60
Senators, if all 100 seats are filled) brings debate to a close by
invoking what is called cloture (taken from the French term for
closure). The Senate and House are often referred to by the media as
Capitol Hill or simply the Hill.




82



VII. EDUCATION IN UK AND US

Education in the United Kingdom
Each of the countries of the United Kingdom have separate
systems under separate governments: the UK Government is
responsible for England, and the Scottish Government, the Welsh
Assembly Government and the Northern Ireland Executive are
responsible for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, respectively.
While the systems in England, Wales and Northern Ireland are more
similar, the Scottish system is quite different.
Education in England is overseen by the Department for Children,
Schools and Families and the Department for Business, Innovation
and Skills. At a local level the local authorities take responsibility for
implementing policy for public education and state schools.
Full-time education is compulsory for all children aged between 5
and 16 (inclusive). Students may then continue their secondary studies
for a further two years (sixth form), leading most typically to an A
level qualification, although other qualifications and courses exist,
including GNVQ (General national vocation qualification), and the
International Baccalaureate. The leaving age for compulsory
education was raised to 18 by the Education and Skills Act 2008. The
change will take effect in 2013 for 17 year olds and 2015 for 18 year
olds. State-provided schools are free of charge to students, and there is
also a tradition of independent schooling, but parents may choose to
educate their children by any suitable means.
Higher education typically begins with a 3-year Bachelor's
Degree. Postgraduate degrees include Masters Degrees, either taught
or by research, and Doctor of Philosophy, a research degree that
usually takes at least 3 years. Universities require a Royal charter in
order to issue degrees, and all but one are financed by the state with a
low level of fees for students.



83
Primary and secondary education
The school year begins usually on the 1st of September
(sometimes the 2nd or 3rd if the 1st falls on a weekend). Education is
compulsory for all children from the term after their fifth birthday to
the last Friday in June of the school year in which they turn 16. This
will be raised in 2013 to the year in which they turn 17 and in 2015 to
the year in which they turn 18.

The state-funded school system
State-run schools and colleges are financed through national taxation,
and take pupils free of charge between the ages of 3 and 18. The schools
may levy charges for activities such as swimming, theatre visits and field
trips, provided the charges are voluntary, thus ensuring that those who
cannot afford to pay are allowed to participate in such events.
Approximately 93% of English schoolchildren attend such schools.
A significant minority of state-funded schools are faith schools,
which are attached to religious groups, most often the Church of
England or the Roman Catholic Church. There are also a small
number of state-funded boarding schools, which typically charge for
board but not tuition.
Nearly 90% of state-funded secondary schools are specialist
schools, receiving extra funding to develop one or more subjects in
which the school specializes.

School years
In the vast majority of cases, pupils progress from primary to
secondary levels at age 11; in some areas either or both of the primary
and secondary levels are further subdivided. A few areas have three-tier
education systems with an intermediate middle level from age 9 to 13.
State-funded nursery education is available from the age of 3, and
may be full-time or part-time. If registered with a state school
attendance is compulsory beginning with the term following the
childs fifth birthday. Children can be enrolled in the reception year in
September of that school year thus beginning school at age 4 or 4.5.
Unless the student chooses to stay within the education system school
attendance ends on the last Friday in June during the academic year in
which a student attains the age of 16.



84
Under the National Curriculum system, all pupils undergo
Standard Assessment Tests (SATs = The SAT Reasoning Test
(formerly Scholastic Aptitude Test and Scholastic Assessment Test) is
a standardized test for college admissions in the United States.)
towards the ends of Key Stage 2 in core subjects, but not foundation
subjects, where teacher assessment is used. They normally take GCSE
exams in the last two years of Key Stage 4, but may take other Level 2
qualifications, such as GNVQ. Former tests at the end of Key Stage 3
were abandoned after the 2008 tests, when severe problems emerged
concerning the marking procedures. Now at Key Stages 1 and 3,
assessment is by teacher assessment against the National Curriculum
Attainment Targets for all subjects. Tests results for schools are
published, and are an important measure of their performance.
Years 12 and 13 are often referred to as lower sixth form and upper
sixth form respectively, reflecting their distinct, voluntary nature and
situation as the A level years. Some independent schools still refer to
years 7 to 11 as first form to fifth form, reflecting earlier usage. Even
more historically, this arose from the system in public schools, where
all forms were divided into Lower, Upper, and sometimes Middle
sections. Year 7 is equivalent to Upper Third Form, Year 8 would
have been known as Lower Fourth, and so on. Some independent
schools still use this way of counting the years.

Curriculum
All maintained schools in England are required to follow the
National Curriculum, which is made up of twelve subjects. The core
subjects English, Mathematics and Science are compulsory for all
students aged 5 to 16. The other foundation subjects are compulsory at
one or more Key Stages: Art & Design, Citizenship, Design &
Technology, Geography, History, Information & Communication
Technology, Modern Foreign Languages, Music, Physical Education.
In addition, other statutory subjects are not covered by the
National Curriculum, including Religious Education in all year
groups, and Career education, Sex education and Work-related
learning at secondary age. School governance.



85
Almost all state-funded schools in England are maintained
schools, which receive their funding from local authorities and are
required to follow the national curriculum. In such schools, all
teachers are employed under the nationally-agreed School Teachers'
Pay and Conditions Document.
Since 1998, there have been 4 main types of maintained school in
England:
community schools (formerly county schools), in which the LA
employs the schools staff, owns the schools lands and buildings
and has primary responsibility for admissions.
voluntary controlled schools, which are, almost always, church
schools, with the lands and buildings often owned by a charitable
foundation. However, the LA employs the schools staff and has
primary responsibility for admissions.
voluntary aided schools, linked to a variety of organizations.
They can be faith schools (often the Church of England or the
Roman Catholic Church), or non-denominational schools, such as
those linked to London Livery Companies. The charitable
foundation contributes towards the capital costs of the school, and
appoints a majority of the school governors. The governing body
employs the staff and has primary responsibility for admissions.
foundation schools, in which the governing body employs the
staff and has primary responsibility for admissions. The school
land and buildings are owned by the governing body or by a
charitable foundation. The Foundation appoints a minority of
governors.
All state-funded schools are regularly inspected by the Office for
Standards in Education (Ofsted), which publishes reports of the
quality of education at each school. Schools judged by Ofsted to be
providing an inadequate standard of education may be placed in
special measures, which may include replacing the governing body
and senior staff.

Secondary schools by intake
English secondary schools are mostly comprehensive and can be
divided into 8 types (with some overlap) based on the ability range of
their intake:



86
super-selective: almost all of the intake from the top 10%.
These are the few highly selective grammar schools that dominate
school performance tables.
selective: almost all of the intake from the top 25%. These
include grammar schools in areas where the tripartite system
survives.
comprehensive (plus): admit children of all abilities, but
concentrated in the top 50%. These include partially selective
schools and a few high-status faith schools in areas without
selection.
comprehensive: intake with an ability distribution matching the
population. These schools are most common in rural areas and
small towns with no nearby selection, but a few occur in urban
areas.
comprehensive (minus): admit children of all abilities, but with
few in the top 25%. These include comprehensive schools with
nearby selective schools skimming the intake.
secondary modern: hardly any of the intake in the top 25%, but
an even distribution of the rest. These include non-selective
schools in areas where the tripartite system survives.
secondary modern (minus): no pupils in the top 25% and 10-
15% in the next 25%. These schools are most common in urban
areas where alternatives of types 1-5 are available.
sub-secondary modern: intake heavily weighted toward the low
end of the ability range.
This ranking is reflected in performance tables, and thus the
schools attractiveness to parents.

Independent schools
Approximately 7% of English schoolchildren attend privately run
independent schools, which are sometimes called public schools.
Education at independent schools is usually chargeable. Such schools,
some of which are boarding schools, cover primary and secondary
education and charge between 2500 and 30000 per year. Some
schools offer scholarships for those with particular skills or aptitudes
or bursaries to allow less well-off students to attend.



87
Some schools are single sex, however a growing number are co-
educational. Independent schools usually take children between age 3-
11 transferring to 11-18. Some of the more famous schools such as
Eton and Harrow take boys at 13 years of age. Many students must
pass the Common Entrance Exam at 11 or 13 to gain entry into highly
selective schools.

Education otherwise than by schooling
The Education Act requires parents to ensure their children are
educated either by attending school or otherwise. Small but increasing
numbers of parents are choosing the otherwise option. This style of
education is often referred to as Elective Home Education. Parents do
not need permission to educate their own children. There is no
requirement to follow the National Curriculum or to give formal lessons.
Parents do not need to be qualified teachers, or to follow school hours or
terms. Parents who choose to educate their children otherwise than at
school have to finance the education provision themselves.

Further education
Students at both state schools and independent schools take the
GCSE examinations, which mark the end of compulsory education.
Above school leaving age, the independent and state sectors are
similarly structured. In the 16-18 age group, sixth-form education is
not compulsory.
Students will typically study in either the Sixth Form of a School,
a Sixth form college, or a further education college. These courses can
also be studied by adults over 18. This sector is referred to as Further
Education. All 16-18 students are encouraged (this is only mandatory
in some institutions) to study Key Skills in Communication,
Application of Number and Information Technology.

Universities in the United Kingdom
Students normally enter University from 18 onwards and study
for an Academic Degree. All undergraduate education outside the
private University of Buckingham is largely state financed, with a
small contribution from top-up fees. The state does not control
syllabuses, but it does influence admission procedures. Unlike most



88
degrees, the state still has control over teacher training courses, and
uses Ofsted inspectors to maintain standards. The typical first degree
offered at British universities is the Bachelors degree (typically three
years). Many institutions now offer an undergraduate Masters degree
as a first degree, typically lasting four years. During a first degree
students are known as undergraduates. The difference in fees between
undergraduate and traditional postgraduate Masters degrees (and the
possibility of securing LEA funding for the former) makes taking an
undergraduate Masters degree as a first degree a more attractive
option, although the novelty of undergraduate Masters degrees means
that the relative educational merit of the two is currently unclear.
Some universities offer a vocationally-based Foundation degree,
typically two years in length for those students who hope to continue
to take a first degree but wish to remain in employment.

Postgraduate education
Students who have completed a first degree are eligible to
undertake a postgraduate degree, which includes:
Masters degree (typically taken in one year);
Doctorate degree (typically taken in three years);
Postgraduate education is not automatically financed by the
State, and so admission is in practice highly competitive.

Adult education
Adult education, Continuing education or Lifelong learning is
offered to students of all ages. These can include the vocational
qualifications mentioned above and also: One or two year access
courses to allow adults access to university.
The Open University runs a distance learning program which can
result in a Degree. The Workers Educational Association offers large
numbers of semi-recreational courses, with or without qualifications, are
made available by Local Education Authorities under the guise of Adult
Education, such as holiday languages, crafts and yacht navigation.

Education in the United States
Education in the United States is mainly provided by the public
sector, with control and funding coming from three levels: federal,



89
state, and local. Child education is compulsory. A sub-type of
compulsory education is public education. Public education is
universal at the primary and secondary levels (known inside the
United States as the elementary and high school levels). At these
levels, school curricula, funding, teaching, and other policies are set
through locally elected school boards with jurisdiction over school
districts. School districts are usually separate from other local
jurisdictions, with independent officials and budgets. Educational
standards and standardized testing decisions are usually made by state
governments. The ages for compulsory education vary by state,
beginning at ages five to eight and ending at the ages of fourteen to
eighteen. A growing number of states are now requiring compulsory
education until the age of 18.
Compulsory education requirements can generally be satisfied by
educating children in public schools, state-certified private schools, an
approved home school program or in an orphanage. In most public
and private schools, education is divided into three levels: elementary
school, middle school (sometimes called junior high school), and high
school (sometimes referred to as secondary education). In almost all
schools at these levels, children are divided by age groups into grades,
ranging from kindergarten (followed by first grade) for the youngest
children in elementary school, up to twelfth grade, the final year of
high school. The exact age range of students in these grade levels
varies slightly from area to area.
Post-secondary education, better known as college in the United
States, is generally governed separately from the elementary and high
school system, and is described in a separate section below.

School grades
Most children enter the public education system around ages five
or six. The American school year traditionally begins in August or
September, after the traditional summer recess. Children are assigned
into year groups known as grades, beginning with preschool,
following by kindergarten and culminating in twelfth grade. Children
customarily advance together from one grade to the next as a single
cohort or class upon reaching the end of each school year in May or



90
June, although developmentally disabled children may be held back a
grade and gifted children may skip ahead early to the next grade.
Basically, the USA education system comprises of 12 grades of
study over 12 calendar years of primary and secondary education before
graduating and becoming eligible for college admission. After pre-
kindergarten and kindergarten, there are five years in primary school.
After completing five grades, the student will enter secondary school to
get the high school diploma after successful completion of twelve grades.
Thus, Americans are more likely to say First Grade rather than
Grade One. Typical ages and grade groupings in public and private
schools may be found through the U.S. Department of Education
Many different variations exist across the country. Those who
complete high school and would like to attend college or university
must attend undergraduate school. These are schools that offer either
a two-year degree or a four-year degree in a specific course of study.
The course of study is called the major, which comprises of the main
or special subjects. The next level of education system in the US is
graduate school. After getting the undergraduate degree, the education
can be continued for next two levels. The first one is, studying to get
masters degree as an extended specialized study of the subject taken
up in the under graduation course. It is of two years duration. The next
level is to pursue PhD that leads to a doctorate degree. The minimum
duration for this is about three years and may vary up to even seven to
eight years depending upon the specialized and chosen topic and the
ability of students in presenting their thesis.

Preschool
There are no mandatory public prekindergarten or crche programs
in the United States. The federal government funds the Head Start
preschool program for children of low-income families, but most
families are on their own with regard to finding a preschool or childcare.

Elementary and secondary education
Schooling is compulsory for all children in the United States, but
the age range for which school attendance is required varies from state
to state. Most children begin elementary education with kindergarten
(usually five to six years old) and finish secondary education with



91
twelfth grade (usually eighteen years old). In some cases, pupils may
be promoted beyond the next regular grade. Some states allow
students to leave school between 14 and 17 with parental permission,
before finishing high school; other states require students to stay in
school until age 18.
Most parents send their children to either a public or private
institution. According to government data, one-tenth of students are
enrolled in private schools. Approximately 85% of students enter the
public schools, largely because they are free. Most students attend
school for around six hours per day, and usually anywhere from 175
to 185 days per year. Most schools have a summer break period for
about two and half months from June through August. Parents may
also choose to educate their own children at home; 1.7% of children
are educated in this manner.

Elementary school
Elementary school is a school of kindergarten through fifth grade
(sometimes, the first eight grades or up to fourth grade or sixth grade),
where basic subjects are taught. Elementary school provides and often
remains in one or two classrooms throughout the school day, with the
exceptions of physical education (P.E. or gym), library, music,
and art classes. Typically, the curriculum within public elementary
education is determined by individual school districts. The school
district selects curriculum guides and textbooks that are reflective of a
states learning standards and benchmarks for a given grade. Learning
Standards are the goals by which states and school districts must meet
adequate yearly progress.

Secondary education
As part of education in the United States, secondary education
usually covers grades 6, 7, 8, 9, or 10 through 12.

Junior and senior high school
Middle school and Junior high school are any school intermediate
between elementary school and senior high school. It usually includes
sixth, seventh and eighth grade; for junior high, ninth grade. Middle
school is often used instead of junior high school when demographic



92
factors increase the number of younger students. At this time, students
are given more independence as choosing their own classes. Usually,
starting in ninth grade, grades become part of a students official
transcript. Future employers or colleges may want to see steady
improvement in grades and a good attendance record on the official
transcript.
Generally, at the high school level, students take a broad variety
of classes without special emphasis in any particular subject. Curricula
vary widely in quality and rigidity; for example, some states consider
65 (on a 100-point scale) a passing grade, while others consider it to
be as low as 60 or as high as 75.
The following subjects are fairly universally required in the
United States:
Science (usually two years minimum, normally biology,
chemistry and physics).
Mathematics (usually two years minimum, normally including
algebra, geometry, algebra II, and/or precalculus/trigonometry).
English (usually four years minimum, including literature,
humanities, etc).
Social Science (usually three years minimum, including various
history, government/economics courses).
Physical education (at least one year).

Electives
Many high schools offer a wide variety of Elective courses,
although the availability of such courses depends upon each particular
schools financial resources and desired curriculum emphases.
Common types of electives include:
Visual arts (drawing, sculpture, painting, photography, film).
Performing arts (drama, band, chorus, orchestra, dance).
Technology education (Shop; woodworking, metalworking,
automobile repair, robotics).
Computers (word processing, programming, graphic design).
Athletics (cross country, football, baseball, basketball, track
and field, swimming, tennis, gymnastics, water polo, soccer,
wrestling, cheerleading, Volleyball, lacrosse, ice hockey, field hockey,
boxing, skiing/snowboarding).



93
Publishing (journalism/student newspaper, yearbook/annual,
literary magazine).
Foreign languages (Spanish, French are common; Chinese,
Latin, Greek, German, Italian, Arabic, and Japanese are less common).
Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps.

Advanced courses
Many high schools provide Advanced Placement (AP) or
International Baccalaureate (IB) courses. These are special forms of
honors classes where the curriculum is more challenging and lessons
more aggressively paced than standard courses. AP or IB courses are
usually taken during the 11th or 12th grade of high school.

Home schooling
There were 1.5 million children that were home schooled in 2007,
up 74% from 1999 when the U.S. Department of Education first
started keeping statistics. This was 2.9% of all children. Many select
moral or religious reasons for home schooling their children. The
second main category is unschooling, those who prefer a non-standard
approach to education. Parents often form groups to help each other in
the homeschooling process, and may even assign classes to different
parents, similar to public and private schools.

Grading scale
In schools in the United States children are continually assessed
throughout the school year by their teachers, and report cards are issued
to parents at varying intervals. Generally the scores for individual
assignments and tests are recorded for each student in a grade book,
along with the maximum number of points for each assignment. At any
time, the total number of points for a student when divided by the total
number of possible points produces a percent grade, which can be
translated to a letter grade. Letter grades are often but not always used
on report cards at the end of a marking period, although the current
grade may be available at other times (particularly when an electronic
grade book connected to an online service is in use). Although grading
scales usually differ from school to school, the most common grade
scale is letter grades A through F derived from a scale of 0-100



94
or a percentile. In some areas, Texas or Virginia for example, the D
grade (or that below 70) is considered a failing grade. In other
jurisdictions, such as Hawaii, a D grade is considered passing in
certain classes, and failing in others.

Standardized Testing
All American states must test students in public schools statewide to
ensure that they are achieving the desired level of minimum education.
The SAT and ACT are the most common standardized tests that
students take when applying to college.

Extracurricular Activities
A major characteristic of American schools is the high priority
given to sports, clubs and activities by the community, the parents, the
schools and the students themselves. Extracurricular activities are
educational activities not falling within the scope of the regular
curriculum but under the supervision of the school. These activities can
extend to large amounts of time outside the normal school day; home-
schooled students, however, are not normally allowed to participate.
Student participation in sports programs, drill teams, bands, and spirit
groups can amount to hours of practices and performances. Most states
have organizations that develop rules for competition between groups.
These organizations are usually forced to implement time limits on
hours practiced as a prerequisite for participation. Sports programs and
their related games, especially football and/or basketball, are major
events for American students and for larger schools can be a major
source of funds for school districts. In addition to sports, numerous non-
athletic extracurricular activities are available in American schools, both
public and private. Activities include musical groups, marching bands,
student government, school newspapers, science fairs, debate teams, and
clubs focused on an academic area or cultural interests.

College and University
Post-secondary education in the United States is known as college or
university and commonly consists of four years of study at an institution
of higher learning. There are 4,352 colleges, universities, and junior
colleges in the country. In 2008, 36% of enrolled students graduated from



95
college in four years. 57% completed their undergraduate requirements in
six years, at the same college they first enrolled in.
Like high school, the four undergraduate grades are commonly
called freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior years (alternatively
called first year, second year, etc.). Students traditionally apply to
receive admission into college, with varying difficulties of entrance.
Schools differ in their competitiveness and reputation; generally, the
most prestigious schools are private, rather than public. Once admitted,
students engage in undergraduate study, which consists of satisfying
university and class requirements to achieve a bachelors degree in a
field of concentration known as a major. (Some students enroll in double
majors or minor in another field of study.) The most common method
consists of four years of study leading to a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.), a
Bachelor of Science (B.S.), or sometimes another bachelors degree such
as Bachelor of Fine Arts (B.F.A.), Bachelor of Social Work (B.S.W.),
Bachelor of Engineering (B.Eng.,) or Bachelor of Philosophy (B.Phil.)
Five-Year Professional Architecture programs offer the Bachelor of
Architecture Degree (B.Arch.) Professional degrees such as law,
medicine, pharmacy, and dentistry, are offered as graduate study after
earning at least three years of undergraduate schooling or after earning a
bachelors degree depending on the program. These professional fields
do not require a specific undergraduate major, though medicine,
pharmacy, and dentistry have set prerequisite courses that must be taken
before enrollment.

Costs
The vast majority of students (up to 70 percent) lacks the
financial resources to pay tuition up front and must rely on student
loans and scholarships from their university, the federal government,
or a private lender. All but a few charity institutions charge all
students tuition, although scholarships (both merit-based and need-
based) are widely available. Generally, private universities charge
much higher tuition than their public counterparts, which rely on state
funds to make up the difference. Because each state supports its own
university system with state taxes, most public universities charge
much higher rates for out-of-state students.



96

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4. David, Christopher: British Culture: An Introduction,
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5. Farndon, John: British History, Miles Kelly Publishing Ltd,
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