Re: note to uk.people.gothic readers

Grave wrote:

> > The United Kingdom, however didn't exist before the Acts of Union in
> > 1707 (with Britain and Scotland) and 1800 (which included Ireland) -
>
> why'd they bother signing a union if they'd already invaded and decided to
> stay sort of thing? and more to the point, who signed on behalf of the irish
> & the scots?

The 1707 Act Of Union between Scotland and England was a negotiated
agreement between two independent states and did not as such involve
military invasion or conquest. The parliaments of England and Scotland
both passed similar acts... much as the separate member states of the
European Union have each passed similar legislation regarding human
rights, the single currency and the EU constituton (or not).

England and Scotland had already been sharing the same monarch (a
'united kingdom') since 1603 when James VI of Scotland also became king
of England when his cousin Queen Elizabeth died.

Presumably both national parliaments thought the Act Of Union would have
benefits for their country... the Scots, for example, were keen to use
English subsidies to help get out of the financial mess left by a failed
Scottish attempt to colonise Panama. The English wanted to confirm a
Protestant line of royal succession.

The 1800 Act of Union that merged the Kingdom of Ireland (although
Ireland had not actually had its own monarch since 1318) and the Kingdom
of Great Britain was similarly passed by both national parliaments. The
passage of the Act in Ireland was assisted by the mass bribery of
members of the Irish parliament by the British. However, the Irish did
get a disproportionately high level of representation in the UK
parliament and the expectation of Catholic Emancipation.

> (really, i'm not arguing here, i'm keen to learn) also surely theres more
> than one united kingdom around the world isnt there.
> who gave you the right to use capital letters?

In some cases, such as international identity stickers on cars, the
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is represented by
the letters 'GB' rather than 'UK'. There are plenty of different federal
unions of states in the world (eg Brazil, Mexico), presumably they are
not all known as 'US' just to avoid confusion.


Constantine
x


["Each section of the British Isles has its own way of
laughing, except Wales, which doesn't" - Stephen Leacock]
.

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