15/6/25 - created the uk page
The United Kingdom is a country made up of the islands of Great Britain and the northern portion of the island of Ireland. It's made up of 4 constituent countries: England, Scotland, Northern Ireland & Wales.
These "countries" are not sovereign like, say, Saudi Arabia, but are somewhat seperate entities with their own governments and parliaments (minus England, English matters are directly handled by the more national British Parliament/Westminster) with Scotland having the most independent of the four, being able to control matters of health, education and justice. While Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have their own parliaments, they still directly answer to Westminster (in theory).
EnglandEngland is the largest country inside the UK and often equated to the entire Union, despite there being a clear difference between the two. This is because England houses the capital, has the largest population and industry out of any constituent countries inside the UK.
ScotlandScotland is the second largest country inside the union and was for centuries an independent kingdom (which was for most of its history rivaling England) and the two later came closer together when King James VI of Scotland also became king of England after the previous English queen (Elizabeth I) died childless. It later completely merged with English with the Acts of Union (1707).
WalesWales was conquered by England, parts of its territory being chipped away at through the course of a few centuries. The entirety of Wales was submerged into England by Edward I in 1284 and later gave his son, Edward II, the title of the Prince of Wales in 1301 to show English dominance over Wales. It, legally, remained seperate until the Laws in Wales Acts (1535–1542) where, among other things, Wales had its legal system merge with the English one.
Northern IrelandDuring the 12th and 16th centuries England conquered various parts of Ireland, a majority Catholic island. In the 1600s when the English held full control over the island they encouraged Protestant settlers to move to what is now Northern Ireland to secure English control and diminish native Irish influence. These Protestants had a stronger British identity whereas the Irish Catholics felt they were more Irish than British. This reached a boiling point in 1919 when the Irish Republican Army fought against the UK 3 years before the two parties agreed to a treaty where Northern Ireland remained in the UK and the rest, the south, went independent.