History of the formation of the United Kingdom
The complex evolution of the states of the British Isles. Those states evolved from the conquests and mergers of earlier states.
The
formation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland has involved
personal and
political union across
Great Britain and the wider
British Isles. The
United Kingdom is the most recent of a number of sovereign states that have been established in Great Britain at different periods in history, in different combinations and under a variety of
polities.
Norman Davieshas counted sixteen different states over the past 2,000 years.
[1]
By the start of the 16th century, the number of states in Great Britain had been reduced to two: the
Kingdom of England (which included Wales and controlled Ireland) and the
Kingdom of Scotland. The once independent
Principality of Wales fell under the control of English monarchs from the
Statute of Rhuddlan in 1284. The
Union of Crowns in 1603, the accidental consequence of a royal marriage one hundred years earlier, united the kingdoms in a
personal union, though full political union in the form of the
Kingdom of Great Britain required a
Treaty of Union in 1706 and
Acts of Union in 1707 (to ratify the Treaty).
The
Act of Union 1800 united the Kingdom of Great Britain with the
Kingdom of Ireland, which had been gradually brought under English control between 1541 and 1691, to form the
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland in 1801. Independence for the
Irish Free State in 1922 followed the partition of the island of
Ireland two years previously, with six of the nine counties of the
province of Ulsterremaining within the UK, which then changed to the current name in 1927 of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
In the 20th century, the rise of
Welsh and
Scottish nationalismand resolution of
the Troubles in Ireland resulted in the establishment of
devolvedparliaments or assemblies for Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.
Background
Formation of the Union
The "disuniting" of the United Kingdom
Notes