"I know why the sun never sets on the British Empire: God wouldn't trust an Englishman in the dark". Duncan Spaeth

Originally posted by Haydn_17
Im fed up with quite a few americans not knowing anything about us, i know Texas is a state, why dont you realise Wales, scotland and northern island is part of Britian?

Britian is: Wales, Scotland, Northern Islands


[edit on 3-4-2010 by Haydn_17]

Actually your wrong And what are the Northern Islands anyway.


Great Britain is the term used for the island containing the contiguous nations of England, Scotland and Wales.

England, Scotland and Wales together with the province of Northern Ireland, form the country officially known as "The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland" or simply the United Kingdom.

Whilst I support the general premise of this, OP, I do hope some American doesn't come along and gives you a lesson on how to spell 'Britain' and 'Northern Ireland'.

Also, I've long found out that most Americans don't really care anyway, even if they tend to try and use British history as a basis for what evil, cold-blooded bastards we all are. I've been down this route many times myself. I can't count the amount of times I've had to point out to Cardiac Celts whose great-great-grandfather once spent the day in Dublin that the English are rarely to blame in the way that they'd like to. That, in fact, the English are the ones that have been historically #ed over in ways that Celts don't really appreciate.

[edit on 3-4-2010 by Merriman Weir]

Remember Haydn17 is a proud member of the English Defence league so I'm sure he has all his facts correct and history in check, despite providing sources for his historical information

In fact, the Romans first arrived in 55BC but that was the failed invasion from Caesar.

43AD was the conquest from Claudius. Britain was in a state of Celtic warfare at the time, and historical debate surrounds the notion of a Celtic king asking for Roman assistance.

Boudicca, Queen of the Iceni, led the infamous revolt in 60AD. Boudicca is what the female icon of Britannia is based on. Don't know how you can forget to mention her during the Roman occupation.

Legend states a descendent of Noah, was the first inhabitant and populated the Islands (a female descendent, in the Celtic myth, went to Ireland) The first king of the Britons, was Brutus of Troy (that is where the word Briton, apparently comes from) Brutus is the grandson or great grandson of Aeneas.

You've glossed over significant events: The Gun power plot, War of the Roses, Spanish Armada, 100 years war with France, Crusades, Glorious Revolution, the reformation, Commonwealth, Magna Carta, Act of Union, Napoleonic Wars, Restoration of the Monarchy, industrial revolution, assassination of Thomas Beckett, The Reform Act, the Suffragettes, American War of Independence, Colonization of India, scramble for Africa, War of 1812, British East Indian Company, the slavery trade, Jamestown Settlement, Peasant Revolt. I can literally list another 100 significant events.

[edit on 3-4-2010 by infinite]

ok then here is one for you

Use of the term Great Britain

"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.[21]

In 1975 the government affirmed that the term Britain, not Great Britain, could be used as a shortened form of the United Kingdom.[22] British refers, however, to all citizens of the United Kingdom — including Welsh, Scottish, English, and Northern Irish.[23]

So the term "Britain" refers only to the citizens ... not the countries

Look again at the op who refers Britain as being Scotland Wales and Northern Islands.

Gentlemen, gentlemen...

Any American watching the way this thread is developing will be learning a lot more about Britain than we realise.

A lesson on Britain for AMERICANS

I think the lesson is that we're a bunch of idiots who can't even agree on what Britain is, or even spell it, never mind the actual history of it.

Originally posted by infinite
You've glossed over significant events:

To be fair to the OP, he glossed over everything. It's unfair of anyone to expect them to reel off every significant date over the last 2000 years and place everything in context.

Besides everyone has their own view as to what are the more important dates. Walk into any library in England and you'd think that very little happened until WWWI and WWWII and very little has happened since.

Can you imagine the length of this thread if he included anything approaching a consensus regarding importance?

Ok just one thing I have always been confused about. So you say that Great Britian is compose of England, Scotland, And Wales. Would these be considered countries or parts of a country such as a state, but isn't Great Britian also considered a country. Also you say that northern island(or Ireland as i know it) is part of it. Would this be a piece of Ireland, but Ireland not being a whole country itself but split up into different sections? And only northern Ireland but not Ireland as a whole being part of Great Britian. Just kind of confused about that whole situation.

Oh and by the way I applaud you for knowing that Texas is actually a state, so now you pretty much know everything about the US then.