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CULTURE AND CIVILISATION

The Anglo-American Space

PART I

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

Geographical Background

The first thing that strikes when one looks at the map of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (for this is the full political title of the country) is that it is in fact an archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean situated off the coast of north-west Europe. Surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the North Sea to the East, the English Channel to the South, the largest island i.e., Great Britain is divided into the historical provinces of England, Scotland and Wales.

Map of the British Isles

Map of the UK

England

England stretches from the English Channel (that separates the island

from the European continent) to the Scottish Border represented by the Cheviot Hills (the scene of many battles between the Scots and the English) and it is subdivided into the South, the Midlands and the North. The South (from the English Channel to the River Severn in the west and the Bay of Wash in the east) is distinguished by its green pastures, natural beauty, green-shouldered hills, churches, cathedrals, schools and universities. The Midlands (from the SevernWash line to the Mersey estuary in the west and the Humber estuary in the east) display a mixture of large industrial areas (the so-called Black Country in the West Midlands, developing since the eighteenth-century Industrial Revolution) and farming land (the counties of Shropshire and Worcestershire). The North (from the Mersey-Humber line to the Cheviot Hills) is characterised by the same contrast between green pastures and beautiful hilly countryside, and large industrial towns and coal mining areas.

Scotland

Scotland, a once independent kingdom, which lost its political

independence and was united to England in 1707, covers the northern, mainly mountainous part of the island (the Grampian Mountains), and it is subdivided into the Highlands and the Lowlands. Along its rocky, highly-indented shores[1], there are three large archipelagos, i.e., the Inner and Outer Hebrides, the Orkney Islands, and the Shetland Islands. The Highlands and the Islands are thinly populated; people lead a hard and lonely life and many of them still speak Erse, a Scottish form of Gaelic, a Celtic dialect. [1] The small estuaries of the Scottish coastline, where most of the Scottish rivers (the Forth, the Clyde, etc.) flow into the ocean are called firths.

Wales

Wales, a rebellious region in the past, united to England under

the first Tudors (Henry VII and Henry VIII), stretches in the eastern part of the island, in a largely mountainous area (the Cambrian Mountains). One fifth of its inhabitants speak both English and Welsh, which is also a Celtic dialect.

Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland (also called Ulster), a province of Celtic origin torn

by religious (the Catholic Irish versus the Protestant English) and political unrest, it lies across the Irish Sea, in the north-east of Ireland. Several other islands should be included to complete the picture of the British archipelago, i.e., the Isle of Man and Anglesey in the Irish Sea, the Isle of Wight in the south, Jersey and Guernsey, also called the Channel Islands, off the European coast, and the Scilly Islands in the south-west of Cornwall (the largest peninsula of Great Britain). The Isle of Man and the Channel Islands are not part of the United Kingdom, but self-governing Crown Dependencies that possess their own administrative structures.

British Insularity

Benefited by the warm Atlantic Current (Gulf Stream), the climate is more temperate than would otherwise be the case, with mild winters and warm summers. However, the weather of the British Isles is one long series of exceptions to its own traditional rules, with spring days in winter and winter days in spring, autumn days in summer and exquisite, summer days at the end of autumn. The insular position may also account for the peoples character: restrained, reserved, with a conservative mentality marked by a preference for traditional habits and structures (e.g. talking about the weather; carrying an umbrella and a jacket on a warm day because it might rain or turn cold; the five oclock tea; etc.); other features of the British people: unemotional, private, independent individuals, with a respect for the eccentric and personal initiative, and a certain tendency to aggressiveness and stubbornness; dry sense of humour based on understatement, self-criticism, use of language subtleties. As for the countrys history, the sea has turned the English into a seafaring nation, able to roam the oceans of the world and to build up a great maritime empire. The sea provided potential security from foreign invasions from the continent, but also imminent danger from enemies from the north (and not only).

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