About England
Table
of contents
Table of contents
Entry about England
I. History
II. Government and politics
III. Geography
IV. Climate
V. Economics
VI. Demography
VII. Culture
VIII. Language
IX. Religion
X. People
Utillized literature
Entry. England (Old English: Englaland,
Middle English: Engelond) is the largest and most populous constituent country
of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Its inhabitants
account for more than 83% of the total population of the United Kingdom, while
the mainland territory of England occupies most of the southern two-thirds of
the island of Great Britain and shares land borders with Scotland to the north
and Wales to the west. Elsewhere, it is bordered by the North Sea, Irish Sea,
Celtic Sea, Bristol Channel and English Channel.
England became a unified
state in the year 927 and takes its name from the Angles, one of the Germanic
tribes who settled there during the 5th and 6th centuries. The capital of
England is London, the largest urban area in Great Britain, and the largest
urban zone in the European Union by most, but not all, measures.
England ranks amongst the
world's most influential and far-reaching centres of cultural development. It
is the place of origin of the English language and the Church of England, and
English law forms the basis of the legal systems of many countries; in
addition, London was the centre of the British Empire, and the country was the
birthplace of the Industrial Revolution. England was the first country in the
world to become industrialised. England is home to the Royal Society, which
laid the foundations of modern experimental science. England was the world's
first modern parliamentary democracy and consequently many constitutional,
governmental and legal innovations that had their origin in England have been
widely adopted by other nations.
The Kingdom of England
was a separate state, including the Principality of Wales, until 1 May 1707,
when the Acts of Union resulted in a political union with the Kingdom of
Scotland to create the Kingdom of Great Britain.
I. Bones and flint tools found in
Norfolk and Suffolk show that Homo erectus lived in what is now England about
700,000 years ago. At this time, England was joined to mainland Europe by a
large land bridge. The current position of the English Channel was a large
river flowing westwards and fed by tributaries that would later become the
Thames and the Seine. This area was greatly depopulated during the period of
the last major ice age, as were other regions of the British Isles. In the
subsequent recolonisation, after the thawing of the ice, genetic research shows
that present-day England was the last area of the British Isles to be
repopulated, about 13,000 years ago. The migrants arriving during this period
contrast with the other of the inhabitants of the British Isles, coming across
lands from the south east of Europe, whereas earlier arriving inhabitants came
north along a coastal route from Iberia. These migrants would later adopt the
Celtic culture that came to dominate much of western Europe.
Roman conquest of Britain
By AD 43, the time of the main Roman invasion, Britain had already been
the target of frequent invasions, planned and actual, by forces of the Roman
Republic and Roman Empire. It was first invaded by the Roman dictator Julius
Caesar in 55 BC, but it was conquered more fully by the Emperor Claudius in 43
AD. Like other regions on the edge of the empire, Britain had long enjoyed
trading links with the Romans, and their economic and cultural influence was a
significant part of the British late pre-Roman Iron Age, especially in the
south. With the fall of the Roman Empire 400 years later, the Romans left
England.
Anglo-Saxons
The History of Anglo-Saxon England covers the history of early mediaeval
England from the end of Roman Britain and the establishment of Anglo-Saxon
kingdoms in the 5th century until the Conquest by the Normans in 1066.
Fragmentary knowledge of Anglo-Saxon England in the 5th and 6th centuries
comes from the British writer Gildas (6th century) the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (a
history of the English people begun in the 9th century), saints' lives, poetry,
archaeological findings, and place-name studies.
The dominant themes of the seventh to tenth centuries were the spread of
Christianity and the political unification of England. Christianity is thought
to have come from three directions—from Rome to the south, and Scotland and
Ireland to the north and west.
From about 500, England was divided (it is believed) into seven petty
kingdoms, known as the Heptarchy: Northumbria, Mercia, East Anglia, Essex,
Kent, Sussex, and Wessex.
The Anglo-Saxon kingdoms tended to coalesce by means of warfare. As early
as the time of Ethelbert of Kent, one king could be recognised as Bretwalda
("Lord of Britain"). Generally speaking, the title fell in the 7th
century to the kings of Northumbria, in the 8th to those of Mercia, and in the
9th, to Egbert of Wessex, who in 825 defeated the Mercians at the Battle of
Ellendun. In the next century his family came to rule all England.
Kingdom of England
Originally, England (or Englaland) was a geographical term to describe
the part of Britain occupied by the Anglo-Saxons, rather than a name of an
individual nation-state. It became politically united through the expansion of
the kingdom of Wessex, whose king Athelstan brought the whole of England under
one ruler for the first time in 927, although unification did not become
permanent until 954, when Edred defeated Eric Bloodaxe and became King of
England.
In 1016 England was conquered by the Danish king Canute the Great, and
became the centre of government for his short-lived empire which included
Denmark and Norway. In 1042 England became a separate kingdom again with the
accession of Edward the Confessor, heir of the native English dynasty.
However,the political ties and direction of England were changed forever by the
Norman Conquest in 1066.
The Kingdom of England (including Wales) continued to exist as an
independent nation-state right through to the Acts of Union.
Middle Ages
The next few hundred years saw England as a major part of expanding and
dwindling empires based in France, with the "Kings of England" using
England as a source of troops to enlarge their personal holdings in France for
many years (Hundred Years' War) ; in fact the English crown did not relinquish
its last foothold on mainland France until Calais was lost during the reign of
Mary Tudor (the Channel Islands are still crown dependencies, though not part
of the UK).
In the 13th century, through conquest Wales (the remaining Romano-Celts)
was brought under the control of English monarchs. This was formalised in the
Statute of Rhuddlan in 1284, by which Wales became part of the Kingdom of
England by the Laws in Wales Acts 1535–1542. Wales shared a legal identity with
England as the joint entity originally called England and later England and
Wales.
An epidemic of catastrophic proportions, the Black Death first reached
England in the summer of 1348. The Black Death is estimated to have killed
between a third and two-thirds of Europe's population. England alone lost as
much as 70% of its population, which passed from seven million to two million
in 1400. The plague repeatedly returned to haunt England throughout the 14th to
17th centuries. The Great Plague of London in 1665–1666 was the last plague
outbreak.
Reformation
During the English Reformation in the 16th century, the external
authority of the Roman Catholic Church in England was abolished and replaced
with Royal Supremacy and ultimately describes the establishment of a Church of
England, outside the Roman Catholic Church, under the Supreme Governance of the
English monarch. The English Reformation differed from its European counterparts
in that it was a political, rather than purely theological, dispute at root.
The break with Rome started in the reign of Henry VIII.
The English Reformation paved the way for the spread of Anglicanism in
the church and other institutions.
Civil War
The English Civil War was a series of armed conflicts and political
machinations that took place between Parliamentarians and Royalists from 1642
until 1651. The first (1642–1645) and second (1648–1649) civil wars pitted the
supporters of King Charles I against the supporters of the Long Parliament,
while the third war (1649–1651) saw fighting between supporters of King Charles
II and supporters of the Rump Parliament. The Civil War ended with the
Parliamentary victory at the Battle of Worcester on 3 September 1651.
The Civil War led to the trial and execution of Charles I, the exile of
his son Charles II and the replacement of the English monarchy with the
Commonwealth of England (1649–1653) and then with a Protectorate (1653–1659) :
the personal rule of Oliver Cromwell. After a brief return to Commonwealth
rule, in 1660 The Crown was restored and Charles II accepted Convention
Parliament's invitation to return to England. During the interregnum the
monopoly of the Church of England on Christian worship in England came to an
end, and the victors consolidated the already-established Protestant Ascendancy
in Ireland. Constitutionally, the wars established a precedent that British
monarchs could not govern without the consent of Parliament although this would
not be cemented until the Glorious Revolution later in the century.
Great Britain and the United Kingdom
Although embattled for centuries, the Kingdom of England and Kingdom of
Scotland had been drawing increasingly together since the Protestant
Reformation of the 16th century and after 1603, when the two countries became
linked by a personal union, being ruled by the same Stuart dynasty. Following a
number of attempts to unite the Kingdoms, on 1 May 1707, the Acts of Union
resulted in a political union between the states creating the Kingdom of Great
Britain.The Kingdom of Ireland later joined this union to form the United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Ireland changed its name to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern
Ireland in 1927 to reflect its reduced territory following the secession of
southern Ireland as the Irish Free State in 1922.
Throughout these changes, England (including Wales) retained a separate
legal identity from its partners, with a separate legal system (English law)
from those in Northern Ireland (Northern Ireland law) and Scotland (Scots law).
(See subdivisions of the United Kingdom)
Wales had already been made part of the Kingdom of England by the Statute
of Rhuddlan in 1284, and it was legally incorporated into England by the Wales
and Berwick Act 1746, making laws passed in England automatically applicable to
Wales. This was reversed by the Welsh Language Act 1967, which thus effectively
gave Wales a separate identity from England. Since then, legal and political
terminology refers to "England and Wales". The county of
Monmouthshire has long been an ambiguous area, its legal identity passing
between England and Wales at various periods. In the Local Government Act 1972
it was made part of Wales.
The Wales and Berwick Act 1746 also referred to the formerly Scottish
burgh of Berwick-upon-Tweed. The border town changed hands several times and
was last conquered by England in 1482, but was not officially incorporated into
England. Contention about whether Berwick was in England or Scotland was ended
by the union of the two in 1707. Berwick remains within the English legal
system and so is regarded today as part of England though there has been some
suggestion in Scotland that Berwick should be invited to 'return to the fold'.
The Isle of Man and the Channel Islands are Crown dependencies and are
not part of England or of the United Kingdom.
II. There has not been a Government of
England since 1707, when the Kingdom of England merged with the Kingdom of
Scotland to form the Kingdom of Great Britain, although both kingdoms have been
ruled by a single monarch since 1603. Before the Acts of Union of 1707, England
was ruled by a monarch and the Parliament of England.
Following the
establishment of devolved government for Scotland and Wales in 1999, England
was left as the only country within the United Kingdom still governed in all
matters by the UK government and the UK parliament in London. (Those, like
Mebyon Kernow, who claim that Cornwall should be viewed as having a distinct
national identity and who campaign for a Cornish assembly along Welsh lines may
dispute this claim.)
Since Westminster is the
UK parliament but also legislates on matters that affect England alone,
devolution of national matters to parliament/assemblies in Scotland, Wales and
Northern Ireland has refocused attention on the anomaly called the West Lothian
question. The "Question" is that Scottish and Welsh MPs continue to
be able to vote on legislation relating only to England in the post devolution
era while English MPs have no equivalent right to legislate on devolved
matters. (Of course, Scottish and Welsh MPs are also unable to vote on devolved
issues affecting their own constituencies.) This 'problem' is exacerbated by an
over-representation of Scottish MPs in the government, sometimes referred to as
the Scottish mafia; as of September 2006, seven of the twenty-three Cabinet
members represent Scottish constituencies, including the Chancellor of the
Exchequer, Home Secretary and Defence Secretary. In addition, Scotland
traditionally benefited from moderate malapportionment in its favour,
increasing its representation to a degree disproportionate to its population.
In 2004 the Scottish Parliament (Constituencies) Act 2004 was passed which
rectified this to a degree, reducing the number of MPs representing Scottish
constituencies from 73 to 59 and brought the number of voters per constituency
closer to that in England. This change was implemented in the 2005 General
Election.
There are calls for a
devolved English Parliament, and certain English parties go further by calling
for the dissolution of the Union entirely. However, the approach favoured by
the current Labour government was (on the basis that England is too large to be
governed as a single sub-state entity) to propose the devolution of power to
the Regions of England. Lord Falconer claimed a devolved English parliament
would dwarf the rest of the United Kingdom.
In terms of national
administration, therefore, England's affairs are managed by a combination of
the UK government, the UK parliament and England-specific quangos such as
English Heritage.
III. England comprises the central and
southern two-thirds of the island of Great Britain, plus offshore islands of
which the largest is the Isle of Wight. It is bordered to the north by Scotland
and to the west by Wales. It is closer to continental Europe than any other
part of Britain, divided from France only by a 24-statute mile (52 km or 21 nautical
mile) sea gap. The Channel Tunnel, near Folkestone, directly links England to
the European mainland. The English/French border is halfway along the tunnel.
Much of England consists of rolling hills, but it is generally more
mountainous in the north with a chain of low mountains, the Pennines, dividing
east and west. Other hilly areas in the north and Midlands are the Lake
District, the North York Moors, and the Peak District. The approximate dividing
line between terrain types is often indicated by the Tees-Exe line. To the
south of that line, there are larger areas of flatter land, including East
Anglia and the Fens, although hilly areas include the Cotswolds, the Chilterns,
the North and South Downs, Dartmoor and Exmoor.
The largest natural harbour in England is at Poole, on the south-central
coast. Some regard it as the second largest harbour in the world, after Sydney,
Australia, although this fact is disputed (see harbours for a list of other
large natural harbour).
IV. England has a temperate climate,
with plentiful rainfall all year round, although the seasons are quite variable
in temperature. However, temperatures rarely fall below −5 °C (23 °F) or
rise above 30 °C (86 °F). The prevailing wind is from the south-west, bringing
mild and wet weather to England regularly from the Atlantic Ocean. It is driest
in the east and warmest in the south, which is closest to the European
mainland. Snowfall can occur in winter and early spring, although it is not
that common away from high ground.
The highest temperature recorded in England is 38.5 °C (101.3 °F) on
August 10, 2003 at Brogdale, near Faversham, in Kent. The lowest temperature
recorded in England is −26.1 °C (−15.0 °F) on January 10, 1982 at
Edgmond, near Newport, in Shropshire.
V. England's economy is the second
largest in Europe and the fifth largest in the world. It follows the
Anglo-Saxon economic model. England's economy is the largest of the four
economies of the United Kingdom, with 100 of Europe's 500 largest corporations
based in London. As part of the United Kingdom, England is a major centre of
world economics. One of the world's most highly industrialised countries,
England is a leader in the chemical and pharmaceutical sectors and in key
technical industries, particularly aerospace, the arms industry and the
manufacturing side of the software industry.
London exports mainly manufactured goods and imports materials such as
petroleum, tea, wool, raw sugar, timber, butter, metals, and meat. England
exported more than 30,000 tons of beef last year, worth around
£75,000,000, with France, Italy, Greece, the Netherlands, Belgium and
Spain being the largest importers of beef from England.
The central bank of the United Kingdom, which sets interest rates and
implements monetary policy, is the Bank of England in London. London is also
home to the London Stock Exchange, the main stock exchange in the UK and the
largest in Europe. London is one of the international leaders in finance and
the largest financial centre in Europe.
Traditional heavy and manufacturing industries have declined sharply in
England in recent decades, as they have in the United Kingdom as a whole. At
the same time, service industries have grown in importance. For example,
tourism is the sixth largest industry in the UK, contributing 76 billion pounds
to the economy. It employs 1,800,000 full-time equivalent people—6.1% of the
working population (2002 figures). The largest centre for tourism is London,
which attracts millions of international tourists every year.
As part of the United Kingdom, England's official currency is the Pound
Sterling (also known as the British pound or GBP).
VI. With 50,431,700 inhabitants, or 84%
of the UK's total, England is the most populous nation in the United Kingdom;
as well as being the most ethnically diverse. England would have the fourth
largest population in the European Union and would be the 25th largest country
by population if it were a sovereign state.
The country's population is 'ageing', with a declining percentage of the
population under age 16 and a rising one of over 65. Population continues to
rise and in every year since 1901, with the exception of 1976, there have been
more births than deaths. England is one of the most densely populated countries
in Europe, with 383 people per square kilometre (992/sq mi), making it second
only to the Netherlands.
The generally accepted view is that the ethnic background of the English
populace, before 19th- and 20th century immigration, was a mixed European one
deriving from historical waves of Celtic, Roman, Anglo-Saxon, Norse, and Norman
invasions, along with the possible survival of pre-Celtic ancestry. Genetic
studies have shown that the modern-day English gene pool contains more than 50%
Germanic Y-chromosomes.
The economic prosperity of England has also made it a destination for
economic migrants from Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Republic of
Ireland. This was particularly true during the Industrial Revolution.
Since the fall of the British Empire, many denizens of former colonies have
migrated to Britain including the Indian sub-continent and the British
Caribbean. A BBC-published report of the 2001 census, by the Institute for
Public Policy Research stated that the vast majority of immigrants settled in
London and the South East of England. The largest groups of residents born in
other countries were from the Republic of Ireland, India, Pakistan, Germany,
and the Caribbean. Although Germany was high on the list, this was mainly the
result of children being born to British forces personnel stationed in that
country.
About half the population increase between 1991 and 2001 was due to
foreign-born immigration. In 2004 the number of people who became British
citizens rose to a record 140,795—a rise of 12% on the previous year. The number
had risen dramatically since 2000. The overwhelming majority of new citizens
come from Africa (32%) and Asia (40%), the largest two groups being people from
India and Pakistan. One in five babies in the UK are born to immigrant mothers,
according to official statistics released in 2007. 21.9% of all births in the
UK in 2006 were to mothers born outside the United Kingdom compared with just
12.8% in 1995.
In 2006, an estimated 591,000 migrants arrived to live in the UK for at
least a year, while 400,000 people emigrated from the UK for a year or more,
with Australia, Spain, France, New Zealand and the U.S. most popular
destinations. Largest group of arrivals were people from the Indian
subcontinent who accounted for two-thirds of net immigration, mainly fuelled by
family reunion. One in six were from Eastern European countries. They were
outnumbered by immigrants from New Commonwealth countries.
The European Union allows free movement between the member states. While
France and Germany put in place controls to curb Eastern European migration,
the UK and Ireland did not impose restrictions. Following Poland's entry into
the EU in May 2004 it is estimated that by the start of 2007 about 375,000
Poles have registered to work in the UK, although the total Polish population
in the UK is believed to be 750,000. Many Poles work in seasonal occupations
and a large number is likely to move back and forth including between Ireland
and other EU Western nations. A quarter of Eastern European migrants, often
young and well-educated, plan to stay in Britain permanently. Most of them had
originally intended to go home but have changed their minds after living there
English Heritage is a governmental body with a broad remit of managing
the historic sites, artefacts and environments of England. London's British
Museum, British Library and National Gallery contain some of the finest
collections in the world.
The English have played a significant role in the development of the arts
and sciences. Many of the most important figures in the history of modern
western scientific and philosophical thought were either born in, or at one
time or other resided in, England. Major English thinkers of international
significance include scientists such as Sir Isaac Newton, Francis Bacon,
Charles Darwin and New Zealand-born Ernest Rutherford, philosophers such as
John Locke, John Stuart Mill, Bertrand Russell and Thomas Hobbes, and
economists such as David Ricardo, and John Maynard Keynes. Karl Marx wrote most
of his important works, including Das Kapital, while in exile in Manchester,
and the team that developed the first atomic bomb began their work in England,
under the wartime codename tube alloys.
VIII.
Language
Places in the
world where English language is spoken. Countries are dark blue where English
is an official language, de facto official language, or national language.
Countries are light blue where it is an official, non-primary language or non-official
primary language.
Beowulf is one of
the oldest surviving epic poems in what is identifiable as a form of the
English language.As its name suggests, the English language, today spoken by
hundreds of millions of people around the world, originated as the language of
England, where it remains the principal tongue today (although not officially
designated as such). An Indo-European language in the Anglo-Frisian branch of
the Germanic family, it is closely related to Scots and the Frisian languages.
As the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms merged into England, "Old English"
emerged; some of its literature and poetry has survived.
Used by
aristocracy and commoners alike before the Norman Conquest (1066), English was
displaced in cultured contexts under the new regime by the Norman French
language of the new Anglo-Norman aristocracy. Its use was confined primarily to
the lower social classes while official business was conducted in a mixture of
Latin and French. Over the following centuries, however, English gradually came
back into fashion among all classes and for all official business except
certain traditional ceremonies, some of which survive to this day. Although,
Middle English, as it had by now become, showed many signs of French influence,
both in vocabulary and spelling. During the Renaissance, many words were coined
from Latin and Greek origins; and more recent years, Modern English has
extended this custom, willing to incorporate foreign-influenced words.
It is most
commonly accepted that—thanks in large part to the British Empire, and now the
United States—the English language is now the world's unofficial lingua franca,
while English common law is also the foundation of many legal systems
throughout the English-speaking countries of the world. English language
learning and teaching is an important economic sector, including language
schools, tourism spending, and publishing houses.
Additional
languages
UK legislation
does not recognise any language as being official, but English is the only
language used in England for general official business. The other national
languages of the UK (Welsh, Irish, Scots and Scottish Gaelic) are confined to
their respective nations, except Welsh to some degree.
The only
non-Anglic native spoken language in England is the Cornish language, a Celtic
language spoken in Cornwall, which became extinct in the 19th century but has
been revived and is spoken in various degrees of fluency, currently by about
2,000 people. This has no official status (unlike Welsh) and is not required for
official use, but is nonetheless supported by national and local government
under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. Cornwall County
Council has produced a draft strategy to develop these plans. There is,
however, no programme as yet for public bodies to actively promote the
language. Scots is spoken by some adjacent to the Anglo-Scottish Border, and
Welsh is still spoken by some natives around Oswestry, Shropshire, on the Welsh
border.
Most deaf people
within England speak British sign language (BSL), a sign language native to
Britain. The British Deaf Association estimates that 250,000 people throughout
the UK speak BSL as their first or preferred language, but does not give
statistics specific to England. BSL is not an official language of the UK and
most British government departments and hospitals have limited facilities for
deaf people. The BBC broadcasts several of its programmes with BSL
interpreters.
Different
languages from around the world, especially from the former British Empire and
the Commonwealth of Nations, have been brought to England by immigrants. Many
of these are widely spoken within ethnic minority communities, with Bengali,
Hindi, Sinhala, Tamil, Punjabi, Urdu, Gujarati, Polish, Greek, Turkish and
Cantonese being the most common languages that people living in Britain
consider their first language. These are often used by official bodies to
communicate with the relevant sections of the community, particularly in large
cities, but this occurs on an "as needed" basis rather than as the
result of specific legislative ordinances.
Other languages
have also traditionally been spoken by minority populations in England,
including Romany.
Despite the
relatively small size of the nation, there are many distinct English regional
accents. Those with particularly strong accents may not be easily understood
elsewhere in the country. Use of foreign non-standard varieties of English
(such as Caribbean English) is also increasingly widespread, mainly because of
the effects of immigration.
IX. Due to immigration in the
past decades, there is an enormous diversity of religious belief in England, as
well as a growing percentage that have no religious affiliation. Levels of
attendance in various denominations have begun to decline[citation needed].
England is classed largely as a secular country even allowing for the following
affiliation percentages : Christianity: 71.6%, Islam: 3.1%, Hindu: 1.1%, Sikh:
0.7%, Jewish: 0.5%, and Buddhist: 0.3%, No Faith: 22.3%.The EU Eurobarometer
poll of 2005 shows that only 38% of people in the UK believe in a god, while
40% believe in "some sort of spirit or life force" and 20% do not
believe in either.
Christianity
Christianity
reached England through missionaries from Scotland and from Continental Europe;
the era of St. Augustine (the first Archbishop of Canterbury) and the Celtic
Christian missionaries in the north (notably St. Aidan and St. Cuthbert). The
Synod of Whitby in 664 ultimately led to the English Church being fully part of
Roman Catholicism. Early English Christian documents surviving from this time
include the 7th century illuminated Lindisfarne Gospels and the historical
accounts written by the Venerable Bede. England has many early cathedrals, most
notably York Minster (1080), Durham Cathedral (1093) and Salisbury Cathedral
(1220), In 1536, the Church was split from Rome over the issue of the divorce
of King Henry VIII from Catherine of Aragon. The split led to the emergence of
a separate ecclesiastical authority, and later the influence of the
Reformation, resulting in the Church of England and Anglicanism. Unlike the
other three constituent countries of the UK, the Church of England is an
established church (although the Church of Scotland is a 'national church'
recognised in law).
The 16th century
break with Rome under the reign of King Henry VIII and the Dissolution of the
Monasteries had major consequences for the Church (as well as for politics).
The Church of England remains the largest Christian church in England; it is
part of the Anglican Communion. Many of the Church of England's cathedrals and
parish churches are historic buildings of significant architectural importance.
Other major
Christian Protestant denominations in England include the Methodist Church, the
Baptist Church and the United Reformed Church. Smaller denominations, but not
insignificant, include the Religious Society of Friends (the
"Quakers") and the Salvation Army—both founded in England. There are
also Afro-Caribbean Churches, especially in the London area.
The Roman
Catholic Church re-established a hierarchy in England in the 19th century.
Attendances were considerably boosted by immigration, especially from Ireland
and more recently Poland.
The Church of
England is still the official state church.
Other religions
Throughout the
second half of the 20th century, immigration from many colonial countries,
often from South Asia and the Middle East have resulted in a considerable
growth in Islam, Sikhism and Hinduism in England. Cities and towns with large
Muslim communities include Birmingham, Blackburn, Coventry, Bolton, Bradford,
Leicester, London, Luton, Manchester, Oldham and Sheffield. Cities and towns
with large Sikh communities include London, Slough, Staines, Hounslow,
Southall, Reading, Ilford, Barking, Dagenham, Leicester, Leeds, Birmingham,
Wolverhampton and others.
The Jewish
community in England is mainly in the Greater London area, particularly the
north west suburbs such as Golders Green; although Manchester, Leeds and
Gateshead also have significant Jewish communities.
X. The ancestry of the English,
considered as an ethnic group, is mixed; it can be traced to the mostly Celtic
Romano-Britons, to the eponymous Anglo-Saxons, the Danish-Vikings that formed
the Danelaw during the time of Alfred the Great and the Normans, among others.
The 19th and 20th centuries, furthermore, brought much new immigration to
England.
Ethnicity aside,
the simplest view is that an English person is someone who was born in England
and holds British nationality, regardless of his or her racial origin. It has,
however, been a notoriously complicated, emotive and controversial identity to
delimit. Centuries of English dominance within the United Kingdom has created a
situation where to be English is, as a linguist would put it, an
"unmarked" state. The English frequently include themselves and their
neighbours in the wider term of "British", while the Scots and Welsh
tend to be more forward about referring to themselves by one of those more
specific terms. This reflects a more subtle form of English-specific patriotism
in England; St George's Day, the country's national day, is barely celebrated.
The celebrations have increased year on year over the past five years.
Modern
celebration of English identity is often found around its sports, one field in
which the British Home Nations often compete individually. The English
Association football team, rugby union team and cricket team often cause
increases in the popularity of celebrating Englishness.
The
utillized literature
1.
“Wikipedia”, the free encyclopedia.