Country Language Original people Capital Largest country UK English Celtics London ... parliamentary democracy & constitutional monarchy Ireland Irish English Dublin Australia English The Aborigines Canberra 6th New Zealand Maori English Maori Wellington American English Indians Washington D. C. Canada French English Aboriginal Ottawa 2th Government Washminster 3 Parliament 3 Constitution Federal system Washminster
The united Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Contain 50 or more countries
Commonwealth of Nations (50) →European Union (28) England
London capital cultural, business, financial center Celtics original people
Roman Empire combine the small kingdoms into a united one called England Anglo-Saxon Viking and Danish Norman
Charles the First’s attempt to overrule parliament civil war Scotland
Edinburgh capital Glassgow largest Gaelic Wales
Cardiff capital Welsh
Northern Ireland “The Six Counties” Belfast capital
Conflict ethnically distinct from the majority of British people Geographically North and South of Ireland Religiously Protestant and Catholics
Most Irish people remained Catholics, while most British people had become Protestant 1921 the southern 26 counties formed an independent “free state”, while the 6 north- eastern counties remained a part of the UK
Jurisdiction : the Republic of Ireland Great Britain
its own elected executive government of ten ministers
Government
The process of stated-building has been one of evolution rather than revolution Both a parliamentary democracy and a constitutional monarchy Queen is the official head of state
Governor- General fulfill the role of monarch in Australia, Canada, New Zealand
Israel and Britain are the only two counties without written constitutions of the sort with most countries have Monarchy
The oldest institution of government
The “divine right of kings” authority from God
Civil war between republican “Roundheads” led by Oliver Cromwell King should not exercise absolute power
→symbolize the tradition and unity of the British state Queen non-political
1. Head of the executive
2. An intergral part of the legislature 3. Head of the judiciary
4. Commander in chief of the armed forces and “supreme governor” of the Church of England Parliament
First used officially in 1236 to describe the gathering of feudal barons and representatives from counties and towns
1689 William of Orange the Bill of Rights
→Function : pass laws, vote for taxation, examine government, debate the major issues Consist of the Queen, the House of Lords, the House of Commons (sovereign) (The real center of British political life) The House the Lords : the Lords Spiritual & the Lords Temporal Serve their country
Do not receive salaries and many do not attend Parliament at all The House of Commons : 646 Members of Parliament (MPs) Most belong to political parties : Labour, the Conservatives, the Liberal Democrats
Election
650 constituencies
5 years general election
Economy
6th largest economy
A member of the G7,G8,G-20, the World Trade Organization By the 1880s the British economy was dominant in the world Decline
1. War debt
2. The independence of colonies
3. Substantial and expensive military presence 4. Failure to invest sufficiently industry
Britain has seen a relative shrinking of the importance of secondary industry and a spectacular growth in tertiary or service industries
Literature
time Early time writer Anglo-Saxon times Geoffrey Chaucer Thomas Malory Marlowe Work Beowulf old English The Canterbury Tales Middle English Le Morte D’Arthur (Death of Arthur) The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus Romeo and Juliet Hamlet Othello King Lear Macbeth The Taming of the Shrew A midsummer Night’s Dream Twelfth Night The Tempest Essays Paradise Lost Gulliver’s Travels Robinson Crusoe Lyrical Ballads “Declaration of Independence” Brought the Romantic Movement Sense and Sensibility Pride and Prejudice Emma Jane Eyre Wuthering Heights Oliver Twist Robert Louis Stevenson Tess of the D’Urbervilles Sons and Lovers Howard’s End Elizabethan Drama (the Renaissance) tragedy William Shakespeare comedy 17th 18th Francis Bacon John Milton Jonathan Swift Daniel Defoe William Wordsworth Samuel Taylor Coleridge Romantic Period George Gordon,Lord Byron John Keats Percy Bysshe Shelley Jane Austen Charlotte Bronte Emily Bronte Charles Dickens Thomas Hardy 19th 20th
D. H. Lawrence E. M. Forster
英美国家概况知识点整理
