[交流] The Unification of Great Britain

                       The Unification of Great Britain
      When we refer to the United Kingdom, we often say England, but geographically speaking, England is just one of the three parts of Great Britain, Wales and Scotland are the other two parts. But the previous Anglo-Saxons only occupied the south-eastern part of Great Britain, i.e. England. Well, when did Great Britain complete the unification?
      Let’s talk about Wales first. Wales is located on the western part of Great Britain, after the Anglo-Saxon occupied of the fertile south-eastern part of Great Britain, most of the original indigenous people escaped to the southwest and the invaders called them “Wales”, which stands for “stranger” or “outside” in the old English, the name of Wales derived from it, and Wales became the same of place as time went by.
      When King Edward I conquered Wales in 1284, he classified Wales into his own territory by cheated means. At the beginning of the 15th century, anti-British uprisings broke out in Wales but all of them failed. Act of Union was carried out until 1536, Wales and England achieved a real unification.
      Scotland located on the northern part of Great Britain, the people who lived here previously were Scotts from Ireland. They called this part Scotland, it means “the land of Scotts”. People of England wanted to invade Scotland for several times from 1296, but failed all the time, instead, Scotland won its independence in 1323. But in the mid-17th century, after the British expeditionary force led by Oliver Cromwell launched war against Scotland for the first time in September 1650, Scotland was faced with the danger of the annexation. The British occupied Scotland in May 1652 and the Scottish Prince Charlie was forced into exile. Oliver Cromwell announced the formal merger of Scotland to England in April 1654, and Great Britain completed a geographic unification. However, the Scottish Parliament still existed politically, Scotland and England didn’t achieve political unification. The merger bill passed in 1707 declared that Scotland and England achieved unification completely.
      Since then, the Great Britain completed the unification of England, Wales and Scotland, forming the present pattern.