The Bastian...: The People, Culture, and Political System of The United Kingdom

Prologue

The Great Britain or The United Kingdom is one the most powerful states in the world. She does have an important portion in the United Nations as one of the United Nations Security Council’s big five. Her roles as the hegemon of the world’s politics economic and colonization makes her the only superpower at the 18^th-19^th century. Although her role as the hegemon was replaced by the United States after the end of the second World War, it did not make The United Kingdom weaker. In this paper I would like to give an exposition in the British History, people, culture, and the political system.

Historical Background

It was the Celtic people who first established early settlements in the island of the Britain. The Celtic inhabitants at that time were pre-literate hunters. In 55-54 BC The Romans were successful in occupying the island of Britain. The Romans were the responsible to bring civilization into the Celtics who were only pre-literate hunters. But after the Romans withdrew from the island in the 5AD Britain fell easy prey to the invading Saxons, Hordes of Angels, and the other nations and tribe from the Scandinavia. But the invasion had only given little effect on Scotland and Wales. Before 10^th century there were seven large Kingdoms constructed through the wars that occurred within the withdrawal of the Romans. But in the year of 887 King Alfred The Great (King of Wessexin England) defeated the occupying Scandinavian in the island (The Danish Vikings). That was one of the reasons that made him a very influencing person and a hero at that time. From the age of Alfred The Great, The Kingdom of Wessex continued to prosper until in the year of 1066 (The death of Edward The Confessor) dispute arose within the succession to the throne of the Wessex. This domestic dispute was used by William The Conqueror from Normandy (France) to invade England. The total conquer happened when William The Conqueror defeated The Saxons at the battle of Hastings. It was the Norman who brought the Norman French Law and the system of feudalism. The unification of the England and Scotland happened in 1707 then united with Ireland in 1801. But in 1921 there was Anglo-Irish treaty which parted the southern Ireland from the United Kingdom.

The People

The people who live within the United Kingdom consist of several minor races and a major race. The majority of the race are the whites (English 83,6%, Scottish 8,6%, Welsh 4,9%, Northern Ireland 2,9%) Black 2%, Indian 1,8%, Pakistani 1,3%, mixed 1,2%, other 1,6%. Besides the differences between races, the distinction between religion also appears in the British social construction. There are several number of religious groups that can be found in the United Kingdom. The Majority is Christianity which consists of Anglican, Roman Catholic, Presbyterian, Methodist (71,6%). There are also minor religious groups such as Muslim (2,7%), Hinduism (1%), others (1,6%). The rest of them are the people who do not care about the religion.

The languages used in United Kingdom are English, Welsh, and Scottish. English is surely the most used language in United Kingdom (as it is in international system) The second is Welsh, then followed by Scottish. The total population of the United Kingdom is 61 Million with 10.65 births/1,000 population birth rate and 10.02 deaths/1,000 population death rate.

The Government

The Sovereign of the United Kingdom is Queen Elizabeth the Second since 1952. The head of the government is The Prime Minister Gordon Brown since 2007. The United Kingdom Government type is constitutional monarchy democracy which means there limitations to the King’s Power (started / stimulated by the Magna Carta in 1215 signed by King John) The power balances and checks are located into two different house. The House of Lords and The House of Commons. The main role of the House of Lords is only to revise legislations after its power got stripped in 1911. The British political system is quite unique because there weren’t any significant and radical change just like what happened in France before and after the revolution and post-napoleonic era. There were only redefinition and soft evolution that happened in United Kingdom, this can be seen that in most states there are a national holiday that mostly related to the some political changes. But such things does not exist in United Kingdom.

International Disputes

The most recent international disputes happened between the government of the United Kingdom and the Government of Spain about “shared sovereignty” that was rejected by the people of Gibraltar. The United Kingdom did agree that there should be more autonomous political system in Gibraltar, but Spain was against British Policy at that time. And this “incident” created little dispute between the British and the Spanish. There are also some talks with the Argentina Government about the inhabitant of the Falkland Island (that became serious dispute in 1965) which leaded to the deadlock situations between United Kingdom and Argentina.