Great Britain I Vypracovala Mgr Silvie Reitharov The

Great Britain I Vypracovala: Mgr. Silvie Reitharová

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland the UK consists of Great Britain and Northern Ireland Great Britain consists of England Scotland Wales

The Capitals and Big Cities Union Jack the capital of UK, GB and England is LONDON the capital of Scotland is Edinburgh the capital of Wales is Cardiff the capital of N. Ireland is Belfast other main big cities in England are Birmingham, Leeds and Liverpool. those three cities create an industrial triangle of the country the largest city of Scotland is Glasgow

General Information. population: languages: currency: system of government: head of the state: About 60 million £ 1 - one pound sterling Constitutional Monarchy English, Welsh and Gaelic (spoken in Scotland Ireland) Queen Elizabeth II

Basic Geographical Facts The UK covers an area of about 244 thousand square kilometers. It lies between 50° North latitude, and the prime meridian of 0° passes through the old observatory in Greenwich. No point of the country is more than 121 km from the sea MOUNTAINS: England is mostly flat country. The only mountains occupy the middle of the land, the Pennines, often called the spine of England. Scotland Wales are much more mountainous and hilly countries. The highest mountain of Great Britain is situated in Scotland. It is called Ben Nevis and is 1342 m high

Islands Besides the largest islands GB and Ireland we should mention The Hebrides The Orkneys The Shetlands The Isles of Scilly (in Golf Stream, with warm climate) Isle of Man Channel Islands- (bilingual - English and French both are official languages there)

Rivers the longest and most important rivers in England are the Thames and the Severn the most important river in Scotland is the Clyde

n n n Lakes Lake District is a National Park in the north-west of England The largest lake is called Windermere In Scotland the word for lake is „loch“ The largest is called Loch Lomond The most famous is called Loch Ness – it is well known for its legendary „Monster“

The history of the inhabitants n n n n in history people of different origin lived in the island we have to mention them simply in the following order: The Celts The Romans The Anglo-Saxons The Vikings The Normans

A Bit about the Inhabitants The first people who settled the island were probably the CELTS. They were divided into many tribes and worshiped many gods. Their priests were called Druids. The tribe of Britons was probably one of the strongest ones and we can believe the Island has its name after them However we don’t know much information about them, because Britain had no written history before 55 B. C. We know they were very brave and in battles they painted their bodies.

n n In 43 A. D. the Romans began an invasion. They massacred the Celts and occupied the country for nearly 400 years. However the Celtic social system was not completely destroyed. The Romans left the country in the fifth century, after the fall of the Roman Empire.

There was a Celtic revival after the Romans left, but it was not long. In the second half of the fifth century there were new attacks from Germany, mostly led by Angles, Saxons and Jutes They settled on the east and south-east coast and began to spread across the island. Later the Anglo-Saxons divided into several kingdoms By 800 England was split up into seven kingdoms

At the beginning of the 9 th century the Danes and the Norsemen - known as the Vikings attacked England The English kings stopped them almost successfully However the Vikings fought bravely and the inhabitants of the island suffered a lot

In 1066 William of Normandy, known as William the Conqueror, came from Normandy (part of France) He defeated the English king at the Battle of Hastings and was crowned as English king William I So the period of Norman occupation started English was forgotten as an official language for several hundred years But as the time went by, new kings, who were born in England for next generations, came back to English language and to Anglo-Saxon culture and social system. However it has been influenced by all the previous cultures and languages