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Title: ENGLAND


1
ENGLAND
2
Maintenance
  • History
  • Etymology and usage
  • Government and politics
  • Geography
  • Economics
  • Culture
  • Cuisine
  • Sport
  • Language
  • Religion
  • Education
  • Transport
  • National
  • symbols

3
History
  • 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, Great Britain 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.
  • Stonehenge, a Neolithic and
  • Bronze Age megalithic monument in
  • Wiltshire, thought to have been erected
  • c.20002500 BC.

4
Etymology and usage
  • England is named after the Angles, the largest of
    the Germanic tribes
  • who settled in England in the 5th and 6th
  • centuries, and who are believed to have
    originated in the
  • peninsula of Angeln, in what is now Denmark and
    northern
  • Germany. (The further etymology of this tribe's
    name remains
  • uncertain, although a popular theory holds that
    it need be
  • sought no further than the word angle itself, and
    refers to a
  • fish-hook-shaped region of Holstein.)
  • The Angles' name has had various spellings. The
    earliest
  • known reference to these people is under the
    Latinised version
  • Anglii used by Tacitus in chapter 40 of his
    Germania, written
  • around 98 AD. He gives no precise indication of
    their
  • geographical position within Germania, but states
    that, with
  • six other tribes, they worshipped a goddess named
    Nerthus,
  • whose sanctuary was situated on "an island in the
    Ocean".

5
Government and politics
  • There has not been a Government of England since
    1707, when the Acts of Union 1707,
  • putting into effect the terms of the Treaty of
    Union that had been agreed the previous year,
  • joined the Kingdom of England with the Kingdom of
    Scotland to form the united Kingdom of
  • Great Britain. Prior to this, England was ruled
    by a monarch and the Parliament of England.
  • However, 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
  • matters by the UK government and the UK
    parliament in London.
  • 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 why Scottish and Welsh MPs
    should continue to be able to vote on
  • legislation relating only to England while
    English MPs have no equivalent right to legislate
    on
  • devolved matters. This constitutional arrangement
    resulted in the Labour government only
  • winning a 2004 vote to impose higher tuition fees
    on students in England due to the support
  • of Scottish Labours MPs. This "question" is also
    exacerbated by the large number of
  • Scottish MPs in the government, a group sometimes
    disparagingly called the Scottish mafia,
  • and by having a Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, who
    represents a Scottish constituency that
  • is unaffected by the policy decisions he takes.

6
  • There are calls for a devolved English
    parliament, such as by former
  • minister Frank Field MP, and there is opinion
    poll evidence of public
  • support for the idea. Some minor English parties
    go further, calling for
  • the dissolution of the Union. 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. The
  • Conservative Party, on the other hand, are
    considering proposals to
  • ban Scottish MPs from voting on English only
    legislation in
  • Westminster.
  • Today, therefore, England's affairs are managed
    by a combination of
  • the UK government, the UK parliament, and
    England-specific quangos
  • such as English Heritage.

7
Politics
  • The Palace of Westminster, the seat of the
    Parliament of the United Kingdom.

A total of 529 of the current 646 MPs in the
House of Commons represent English
constituencies, which will rise to 533 out of 650
at the next general election. At the 2005 General
Election, the Conservative Party won more votes
than any other single party, with 35.7 of the
vote. However, Labour won a majority of England's
MPs, having 284 MPs elected, on the basis of just
35.4 of the popular vote with the Conservative
Party winning just 194 MPs. The Liberal Democrats
were the third party winning 47 MPs with 22.5 of
the vote, and the only other MPs elected were one
for Respect and a Kidderminster Hospital
campaigner.
8
Subdivisions and local government
  • The upper-tier subdivisions of England are the
    nine Regions of England or
  • European Union government office regions. A
    London
  • referendum in 1998 on the question of having a
    directly elected
  • assembly and directly elected mayor produced a
    large majority in
  • favour and it was intended that other regions
    would also be given
  • their own elected regional assemblies. However, a
    rejection by a
  • referendum in 2004 of a proposed assembly in the
    North East region
  • stopped this idea in its tracks. During the
    campaign, a common
  • criticism of the proposals was that England did
    not need "another tier
  • of bureaucracy".
  • Below the regional level, London consists of 32
    London boroughs and the rest
  • of England has either county councils and
    district councils or unitary
  • authorities. At the lowest level, much of England
    is divided into parishes
  • though parishes are prohibited from existing in
    Greater London.

Manchester Town Hall
9
Geography
  • 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
    mainland 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 mainland
  • Europe. 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, and the
  • North and South Downs.
  • 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 harbours).

10
A view of Borrowdale from Grayrigg Forest in the
Lake District
11
Climate
The rolling terrain of the North York Moors
  • 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 10 August 2003 at Brogdale, near
    Faversham,
  • in Kent. The lowest temperature recorded in
    England is -26.1 C
  • (-15.0 F) on 10 January 1982 at Edgmond, near
    Newport, in
  • Shropshire.

12
Major rivers
The River Avon under the Pulteney Bridge in Bath,
Somerset
England has a number of important rivers
including the Severn (the longest river and
largest river basin in Great Britain), Tees,
Thames, Trent, Humber, Tyne, Wear, Ribble, Ouse,
Mersey, Dee, Aire, Avon and Medway
Major conurbations
A view of Sheffield, one of England's largest
cities
  • London is by far the largest urban area in
    England and one of the largest and
  • busiest cities in the world. Other cities, mainly
    in central and northern England,
  • are of substantial size and influence. The list
    of England's largest cities or
  • urban areas is open to debate because, although
    the normal meaning of city is "a
  • continuously built-up urban area", this can be
    hard to define, particularly because
  • administrative areas in England often do not
    correspond with the limits of urban
  • development, and many towns and cities have, over
    the centuries, grown to form
  • complex urban agglomerations. Various definitions
    of cities can be used. For the official
  • definition of a UK (and therefore English) city,
    see City status in the United Kingdom.

13
  • CapitalLondon
  • Official languages English
  • Ethnic groups 
  • 90 White, 5.3 South Asian,
  • 2.7 Black, 1.6 Mixed race,
  • 0.7 Chinese, 0.6 Other
  • GovernmentConstitutional
  • monarchy
  • MonarchQueen Elizabeth II  
  • Prime MinisterGordon Brown MP
  • Area130,395 km2
  • Population 51,092,000 

14
Economics
  • England's economy is the among the largest in 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.55 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.

15
The City of London is a major business and
commercial centre, ranking alongside New York
City and Tokyo as the leading centre of global
finance.
16
Culture
  • England has a vast and influential culture that
    encompasses elements both old
  • and new. The modern culture of England is
    sometimes difficult to identify and
  • separate clearly from the culture of the wider
    United Kingdom, so intertwined
  • are its composite nations. However the English
    traditional and historic culture
  • remains distinct albeit with substantial regional
    differences.
  • 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 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, Michael Faraday, Charles
  • Darwin and New Zealand-born Ernest Rutherford,
    philosophers such as John
  • Locke, John Stuart Mill, Herbert Spencer,
    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.

17
The British Museum, London.
18
Architecture
The Broadway Tower is a folly, or mock tower in
Worcestershire
  • England has played a significant part in the
    advancement of
  • Western architecture. It is home to the most
    notable medieval
  • castles and forts in the world, including Warwick
    Castle, the
  • Tower of London and Windsor Castle (the largest
    inhabited
  • castle in the world and the oldest in continuous
    occupation). It
  • is known for its numerous grand country houses,
    and for its
  • many medieval and later churches and cathedrals.
  • English architects have contributed to many
    styles over the
  • centuries, including Tudor architecture, English
    Baroque, the
  • Georgian style and Victorian movements such as
    Gothic
  • Revival. Among the best-known contemporary
    English
  • architects are Norman Foster and Richard Rogers.

19
Cuisine
Sunday roast consisting of roast beef, roast
potatoes, vegetables and Yorkshire pudding
  • Although highly regarded in the Middle Ages,
    English cuisine
  • later became a source of fun among Britain's
    French and
  • European neighbours, being viewed until the late
    20th century
  • as crude and unsophisticated by comparison with
    continental
  • tastes. However, with the influx of non-European
    immigrants
  • (particularly those of south and east Asian
    origins) from the
  • 1950s onwards, the English diet was transformed.
    Indian and
  • Chinese cuisine in particular were absorbed into
    British
  • culinary life, with restaurants and takeaways
    appearing in
  • almost every town in Britain, and 'going for an
    Indian
  • becoming a regular part of British social life. A
    distinct hybrid
  • food style composed of dishes of Asian origin,
    but adapted to
  • British tastes, emerged and was subsequently
    exported to
  • other parts of the world. Many of the well-known
    Indian
  • dishes in the western world, such as Tikka Masala
    and Balti,
  • are in fact dishes of this sort.

20
Sport
England's new Wembley Stadium. It is the most
expensive stadium ever built.
The Wimbledon Championships, a Grand Slam
tournament, is held in Wimbledon, London every
June/July.
  • Modern sports were codified in
  • England during the 19th century,
  • among them cricket, rugby union and
  • rugby league, football, tennis and
  • badminton. Of these, association
  • football, cricket and rugby remain the
  • country's most popular spectator
  • sports.

21
Language
English
  • Places in the world
  • where English is
  • spoken. Countries
  • where it is the
  • majority language
  • are dark blue
  • countries where it is
  • an official but not
  • majority language
  • are light blue.

22
  • 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.

23
Other languages
  • There is no UK legislation in respect of language
    use within
  • England, but English is the only language used in
    England for
  • general official business. 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 there are over 100,000 Welsh
  • speakers in London and areas such as Oswestry on
    the Welsh
  • border

24
Beowulf is one of the oldest surviving epic poems
in what is identifiable as a form of the English
language.
  • Other languages have also traditionally
  • been spoken by minority populations
  • in England, including Romany. The use
  • of Yiddish by the Jewish population has
  • dwindled, although an increasing
  • number are able to speak Hebrew.

25
Religion
  • 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. 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
  • religion 14.6. 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.

26
Christianity
Canterbury Cathedral in Kent, the centre of the
Church of England and the worldwide Anglican
Communion.
  • 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.

27
Education
  • There is a long history of the promotion of
    education in England in schools, colleges and
  • universities. England is home to the oldest
    existing schools in the English speaking
  • world The King's School, Canterbury and The
    King's School, Rochester, believed to be
  • founded in the 6th and 7th century respectively.
    At least eight existing schools in
  • England were founded in the first millennium.
    Sherborne School was granted a royal
  • charter in 1550, but may have been the site of a
    school since the 8th century. Most of
  • these ancient institutions are now fee-paying
    schools, however some state schools are
  • also very old, most notably Beverley Grammar
    School founded in 700. The oldest
  • surviving girls' school in England is Red Maids'
    School founded in 1634. The most famous
  • schools in England are now fee-paying
    institutions, including Winchester College
  • (founded 1382), Eton College (1440), St Paul's
    School (1509), Rugby School (1567) and
  • Harrow School (1572).
  • England is also home to the two oldest
    universities in the English speaking world
    Oxford
  • University (12th century) and Cambridge
    University (early 13th century). There are now
  • more than 90 universities in England.
  • Primary and secondary education in England is
    administered by the Department for
  • Children, Schools and Families. Schools are of
    two main types state schools funded
  • through taxation and free to all, and private
    schools (also known as "public" or
  • "independent" schools) funded through fees.
    Standards are monitored by regular

28
Christ Church, University of Oxford.
The chapel of King's College, Cambridge
University.
29
Transport
The government department overseeing transport is
the Department for Transport.
Heathrow Terminal 5. London Heathrow Airport has
the most international passenger traffic of any
airport in the world.
A Eurostar high speed train.
30
National symbols
Saint George slaying the dragon, by Paolo
Uccello, c. 1470.
The two main symbols of England are the St
George's Cross (the English flag), and the Three
Lions coat of arms of England. Other national
symbols exist, but have varying degrees of
official usage, such as the oak tree and the
rose. England's National Day is St George's Day
(Saint George being the patron saint), which is
on 23 April
31
St. George's Cross
  • The St. George's Cross is a red cross on a white
    background and is the flag of England.
  • It is believed to have been adopted for the
    uniform of English soldiers during the
  • Crusades of the 11th, 12th and 13th centuries.
    From about 1277 it became the national
  • flag of England.
  • St. George's Cross was originally the flag of
    Genoa and was adopted by England and the
  • City of London in 1190 for their ships entering
    the Mediterranean to benefit from the protection
    of the
  • powerful Genoese fleet. The maritime Republic of
    Genoa was rising and going to become, with its
    rival
  • Venice, one of the most important powers in the
    world. The English Monarch paid an annual tribute
    to
  • the Doge of Genoa for this privilege. The cross
    of St George would become the official Flag of
    England.
  • A red cross acted as a symbol for many Crusaders
    in the 12th and 13th centuries. It became
    associated
  • with St. George and England, along with other
    countries and cities (such as Georgia, Milan and
    the
  • Republic of Genoa), which claimed him as their
    patron saint and used his cross as a banner. It
    remained
  • in national use until 1707, when the Union Flag
    (also known as the Union Jack, especially at sea)
    which
  • English and Scottish ships had used at sea since
    1606, was adopted for purposes to unite the whole
    of
  • Great Britain under a common flag. The flag of
    England no longer has much of an official role,
    but it is
  • widely flown by Church of England properties and
    at sporting events.
  • Until recently, the flag was not commonly flown
    in England with the British Union Flag being used
  • instead. This was certainly evident at the 1966
    football World Cup when English fans
    predominantly flew
  • the latter. However, since devolution in the
    United Kingdom, the St George Cross has
    experienced a

32
The flag of England is the St George's Cross. The
red cross appeared as an emblem of England during
the Middle Ages and the Crusades and is one of
the earliest known emblems representing England.
33
Three Lions
  • The coat of arms of England are described as
    gules, three
  • lions passant guardant orcitation needed. The
    earliest
  • surviving record of their use was by Richard I
    ("Richard the
  • Lionheart") in the late 12th century.
  • Since union with Scotland and Northern Ireland,
    the arms of
  • England are no longer used on their own instead
    they form a
  • part of the conjoined Royal coat of arms of the
    United
  • Kingdom. However, both the Football Association
    and the
  • England and Wales Cricket Board use logos based
    on the three
  • lions. In recent years, it has been common to see
    banners of
  • the arms flown at English football matches, in
    the same way
  • the Lion Rampant is flown in Scotland.
  • In 1996, Three Lions was the official song of the
    England football
  • team for the 1996 European Football Championship,
    which were held
  • in England.

34
Rose
  • The Tudor rose is the national floral emblem of
    England, and
  • was adopted as a national emblem of England
    around the time
  • of the Wars of the Roses.
  • The rose is used in a variety of contexts in its
    use for
  • England's representation. The Rose of England is
    a Royal
  • Badge, and is a Tudor, or half-red-half-white
    rose,
  • symbolising the end of the Wars of the Roses and
    the
  • subsequent marriage between the House of
    Lancaster and the
  • House of York. This symbolism is reflected in the
    Royal coat of
  • arms of the United Kingdom and the crest of the
    FA. However,
  • the rose of England is often displayed as a red
    rose (which
  • also symbolises Lancashire), such as the badge of
    the England
  • national rugby union team. A white rose (which
    also
  • symbolises Yorkshire) is also used on different
    occasions.

35
  • The presentation is done by Vorobieva Irina
  • 11-1 class
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