Kingdom of Great Britain

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Kingdom of Great Britain
Kingdom of Great Britain
1707-1801
Union Jack
Coat of Arms of the United Kingdom # Coat of arms of the Kingdom of Great Britain, the Commonwealth of England, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
flag coat of arms
Motto : French Dieu et mon droit 'God and my law'
Official language English (de facto)
Capital London
Seat of government Westminster (de facto)
State and form of government Unified state , constitutional monarchy , parliamentary system of government ( Westminster system )
Head of state British monarchy
Head of government Prime Minister (from 1721)
surface 230,977 km² (1801) km²
population 16,345,646 (1801)
currency Pound Sterling
National anthem God Save the King (unofficial)
Time zone UTC ± 0 GMT
Great Britain 1789
Great Britain 1789
Template: Infobox State / Maintenance / NAME-GERMAN

The Kingdom of Great Britain was created on May 1, 1707 through the amalgamation of the Kingdoms of England and Scotland (→  Act of Union 1707 ). A joint parliament and government in the City of Westminster administered the land. Scotland and England had been linked in personal union since 1603 . Before that, Wales had already become part of England (→  Laws for the Incorporation of Wales 1535–1542 ).

In 1707 a " British monarchy " replaced the English and Scottish monarchies, which had previously been ruled by the same person through the personal union. The Parliament of Scotland and the Parliament of England were dissolved. The new Parliament of Great Britain was created in their place. Both countries received seats in the House of Commons and in the House of Lords . With 45 MPs in the House of Commons and 16 Representative Peers in the House of Lords, Scotland was able to send fewer representatives than its share of the population. From 1714 there was a personal union with Kurhannover , also called Great Britain – Hanover .

As early as 1707, the Kingdom of Great Britain included numerous colonies in North America (the thirteen colonies from which the United States of America emerged ) and the Caribbean ( Barbados , Jamaica ). There were numerous trading companies for the purpose of settlement and economic development of claimed areas. The kingdom expanded its colonial space and sphere of influence to include areas in North America ( Canada ), Australia , West Africa and the Indian subcontinent ( Calcutta , Ceylon ), and thus converted the British Empire , which was to reach its peak in the 19th century its second phase. It had to cope with the detachment of the USA through the lost American War of Independence , but was able to lay the foundation stone to replace the Spanish colonial empire as the first world power of the modern age and assert itself against other emerging sea ​​powers in Europe such as the Kingdom of France or the Netherlands .

There was no agreement at the legislative level on the official name of the state. In the Act of Union 1707, a United Kingdom of Great Britain is mentioned in some places . On the other hand, in the Union with Scotland (Amendment) Act 1707 (which regulates the formalities of the union) and in the Protestant Religion and Presbyterian Church Act 1707 (which establishes the unchanged status of the Church of Scotland ), the Kingdom of Great Britain ("Kingdom of Great Britain" ) the speech.

The Kingdom of Great Britain was replaced on January 1, 1801 by the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland .

See also

Web links

Commons : Kingdom of Great Britain  - album with pictures

Remarks

  1. ↑ Alexander Murdoch: England, Scotland, and the Acts of Union (1707). In: The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Retrieved on June 19, 2021 : “On 1 May 1707 England and Scotland (since 1603 a union of crowns) became the 'United Kingdom of Great Britain'. The new united kingdom was to be represented by a 'union' flag and governed by a British parliament at Westminster and a shared head of state (with the contentious issue of monarchical succession now settled in favor of the protestant house of Hanover). "
  2. ↑ A new Scottish Parliament was set up on July 1, 1999 after the people of Scotland approved the decentralization law in a vote on September 12, 1997.
  3. ^ Act on Union with Scotland. Verassungen.eu, 2005, accessed on June 23, 2021 .
  4. ↑ Union with Scotland (Amendment) Act 1707. legislation.gov.uk, 2021, accessed June 23, 2021 .
  5. ^ Protestant Religion and Presbyterian Church Act 1707. legislation.gov.uk, 2021, accessed June 23, 2021 .