What is the Difference Between the UK and Britain?

The problem for the Irish is that word 'British'. Historically, it's come laden with war, oppression, economic hardship and at least one attempted genocide. There was a long and bloody struggle to extricate Ireland from under the yoke of the parliament in England.

With that in mind, it's perhaps understandable that the Irish want nothing to do with Britain nor the British.

Though, of course, it's a different story once you move north of the border into Northern Ireland. The Orange part of the population are quite happy with being in the British Isles.  The Green part are still involved in the aforementioned long and bloody struggle to get away, so would probably also prefer the British Isles and Ireland.

In order to side-step any frostiness in Ireland, it's probably better to avoid referring to islands as a whole; or to go with Atlantic Archipelago instead.  Though no-one has heard of the latter outside a dusty professorial text-book, so will probably ask where on Earth that is.

In about 391 BCE, Aristotle wrote De Mundo, which mentioned the British Isles. It covered the same geographical area that it does today, but was split into two major areas:  Ierne and Albion.

Connacht, Ulster, Munster and Leinster were on the island of Ierne.  This survives now as Ierne-land, or Ireland. You are fine with the latter, though half of the population of Ulster will insist on a 'Northern' being added before it.

No-one will have a clue what you mean if you refer to Ierne.  However, variants in the form of Éire or even Éirinn will be welcomed with open arms.

Everywhere else was in Albion. It's a name that is sometimes still used poetically, but rarely in any other context.  You won't be shouted down for applying it, but neither will you be taken seriously. Everyone in Albion calls it the British Isles.

Let's face it, even this map is quite arbitrary.  It reflects a time after the Anglo-Saxon and Viking invasions have pushed the Celtic nations to the fringes of Europe. Previous maps would have shown many more territories, which were overwhelmed in the struggles.

But this one serves a purpose well in pointing out the flashpoints now. Not least, it shows how independent regions were forced together into larger countries. Alba and Cymru weren't as united as this map suggests either. For example, Cymru (now called Wales) had thirteen separate kingdoms within it.

I'm going to over-simplify this to the point of personally cringing, but it will highlight all of the basics.

The first thing that happened was the merger between Northumbria, Mercia, East Anglia, Kent, Essex, Sussex and Wessex. Though this country did swallow up Celtic areas, it emerged as fundamentally and culturally Germanic.That involved a great deal of compromise or bloodshed, as it merged the Jutes (Kent), Angles (East Anglia and Mercia), Saxons (Wessex, Sussex and Essex) and Scandinavians (Northumbria).

It became Angle-land, or England. Even today, there is some low-level disdain between the Southern Saxons and the Northern Angles and Norse. It's called the North-South divide, but no visitor to the country is going to run into trouble here.  The Union of England stuck fast.

Every other nation is Celtic. Note that you are dealing with as many ethnic and cultural differences as anything else.  There were also communication barriers. Wales, Cornwall (Kernow), Scotland, Ireland and Man all have distinct languages, separate even from each other. Though these have survived in varying degrees of strength.

The problems in naming the landmass have come from England's repeated attempts to merge the entire of the British Isles into one country. That idea has routinely met with fierce resistance, resulting in a modern day map which looks like this:

In short, you're dealing with countries made up of smaller countries forcibly stitched together. Then freezing at the point when England could no longer make any more hybrids stick.

Ierne and Albion have largely fallen out of the lexicon in the process. However, I will occasionally use those names in this article, as it is a useful way of differentiating the two island groups.

I've written those names in English, then in the native language. I'm sure that no-one here would sniff at visitors not knowing the Celtic straight away.  That can wait until week two.

I've included the Isle of Man, though it's not technically a country. It's a Dependency of the British Crown.  In other words, they completely self-govern, except on matters of defense, diplomatic representation and citizenship. However, Man is in the British Isles.

You will also hear some people argue that Cornwall isn't a nation either. They're just wrong, so feel free to ignore them.

No-one in the British Isles will mind you calling them by the relevant name in this table. However mixing them up will cause frostiness through to a punch in the mouth, depending on who you confused them with.

The biggest faux pas that you can commit is assuming that anyone on that list is English, except, of course, the English.

While people get very distracted by Ierne and Albion, there are actually 136 smaller islands off our respective coastlines with populations upon them.  There are over 1000 more with no permanent residents at all.

Circa 77 CE, Pliny the Elder wrote about the British Isles. He didn't bother naming all of those smaller islands, but collectively labelled them the Britanniae. They are places inside the British Isles, which weren't Ierne nor Albion.

This is the first moment at which any place was actually called Britain. 

As for the people themselves, nobody was calling themselves anything collective. Both Ierne and Albion were full of small territories ruled by tribal kings. They might have all lived in the British Isles, but that's as far as the commonality went.

Naturally this all changed as soon as there was a common enemy.  From now on, consider the name Britain in a political context against the backdrop of a bitter fight for the land.

It starts with the Celts of Albion. They are the original occupants of the British Isles, so they are British compared to waves of invaders coming in from Rome, Scandinavia and Germanic countries. The name Britain began to be associated solely with the people being pushed to the West or fleeing to the South.

Take notes here - the Welsh and Cornish will welcome being called British. If you listen very carefully, with the right kind of ears, you will also hear the unspoken 'true' before the word British. 

In fact, if you take care to separate British and English, then these Celtic countries will practically make you an honorary citizen. Many people are still thinking in terms of Britain and Occupied Britain.

Of course, many centuries have passed between then and now. The word Britain is now interchangeable with Great Britain.  No-one will sniff at you doing the same.

Despite the name, Geoffrey of Monmouth was probably French rather than Welsh.  Around 1136, he became the first person to refer to Great Britain. It was political.

Until now, Britain meant modern day Wales, with an option on Cornwall too.  Living on the Welsh borderland, the Norman elite were busily trying to bring Wales under their control by whatever means necessary.

By taking the name Britain and applying it to the whole of Albion, it blurred the borders between the British Welsh and the Norman English. It also placed very firm intentions upon bringing Scotland under England's rule.

In short, Geoffrey had done exactly what the Welsh tried to do over seven centuries before, but in reverse. The Welsh thinking had been, 'This is all our land. Foreigners go home!' The Norman thinking had been, 'This should all be one land, and we will control you.'

This was all very academic and not taken seriously at the time. Which was a shame, because it transpired to be precisely what was going to happen.

In Geoffrey's vision, Great Britain would include all of the countries of old Albion - Cornwall, England, Scotland and Wales.  A millennium later, it does.

It was called 'great' to differentiate it from 'little' or 'lesser' Britain. That's Brittany, in France, now. It's populated by those Celts who fled south across the channel, as refugees from the invading Anglo-Saxons.

The Celtic countries will welcome the Bretons (from Brittany) as one of us. The English barely think of them at all and, if they do, it's under the assumption that they're French.

Nevertheless, Great Britain survives as an alternative, and now official, name for Albion.

You will never get in trouble for saying Great Britain with either side. Consider it safe ground, as long as you also note one more thing.  The Irish have not been part of this story. They are not, and never have been, part of Great Britain.

You will not make any friends with that mistake. You've as good as told them that they should be governed from Westminster; and a lot of blood was spilled creating that republic. In fact, I'd go as far as to say confusing Eire and Great Britain is one of the biggest errors that you could make.

As I hope I've demonstrated, the name Britain (or Great Britain) has been laced with politics ever since the Celts lost the area now covered by England. 

The Welsh and Norman-English could waffle on about Great Britain all that they liked, but with Scotland remaining an independent country there would be no effective landmass called it.

Of course, there were attempts, notably at the marriage between Prince James of Scotland and Princess Cecily of England in 1474. Magically, the English documentation referred to their joint countries as Great Britain.

It was a good try, but didn't take off until England basically ran out of monarchs with the death of Elizabeth I.  Her nearest relative and heir happened to be James VI of Scotland (pictured above). When the two countries joined, it wasn't under English rule, but Scottish.

This was finally the Kingdom of Great Britain and it had a Celtic monarch. History hung in the balance and it should finally have been the end of the English. But, for reasons too complex to go into here, James was an Anglophile.  He moved to England and effectively gave up on his heritage.

However, the Kingdom of Great Britain still only referred to its monarchy. Scotland and England remained separate countries.  Britain, at this point, was still only Cornwall, England and Wales. As far as many Scots are concerned, it still is.

You probably won't get lynched in Scotland for calling them British, nor referring to Great Britain, but you may well find them very sniffy. A history lesson might soon be forthcoming.

On May 1st 1707, a city-wide riot broke out in Edinburgh.  Panicked and furious crowds stormed the parliament buildings, then rampaged through the city. They were looking for one thing, the meeting in which the Act of Union was to be signed.

No Scot was in favor of it.  Many ordinary English people were utterly against it too.

Daniel Defoe, arriving in Edinburgh on that date, observed that, "There is an entire harmony in this country, consisting in universal discords."

Hidden away, in a locked and cramped cellar beneath an ordinary home, the Chancellor of Scotland signed away his country's independence. The resulting discontent led directly to the Jacobite Uprising and the Highland Clearances.

Thus the United Kingdom of Great Britain came into effect. The Welsh and Cornish weren't even consulted. They were lumped in with England and basically treated like it was nothing to do with them.

It is an understatement to say that the relationship between Ireland and England has been bloody. Millions have died under the intense struggle to keep the Irish free from Westminster's control. In 1798, they lost the battle. 

On January 1st 1801, that military success translated into the Acts of Union 1800. This resulted in a country called the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.

But the Irish refused to surrender.  After another 122 years of bloodshed, most of Ireland managed to become free as the Republic of Ireland. Never, ever confuse Eire and the UK. That would be a very bad mistake.

This was only possible if the country split, leaving most of the old province of Ulster in the Union.  Since the 17th century, many people had emigrated to that region from England and lowland Scotland. The plantation strategy had involved slaughtering many of the original Irish occupants, but it left a foothold full of people loyal to the crown of England.

This is Northern Ireland and the root of the Troubles there.  The Orangemen population will embrace every mention of the United Kingdom, fighting with all they have to remain within it.  The native Ulster Irish hate it with a burning passion.

In short, England and Orange Northern Ireland are the only people who don't grit their teeth at the very sight and mention of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.  Wales and Cornwall are ignored in it. Scotland and Northern Ireland are there because they lost a war. They've both been subject to a near genocide since, in order to keep the United Kingdom intact.

On paper, this one is easy enough.  Britain is Cornwall, England, Scotland and Wales.  The United Kingdom is all of the above, including Northern Ireland too.

In reality, it's a minefield of nationalities and political allegiances, underpinned by centuries of bad feeling. 

Right now, Scotland is preparing for a referendum, which will take it out of the UK. If that succeeds, then it blows the concept wide open.  Northern Ireland will no doubt fight to remain within the Union, which will bestow the only nominally Gaelic presence there.

Wales is edging out via the Welsh Assembly, but Kernow (Cornwall) is losing its fight for self-identity.  Petitions to the European Union have so far not amounted to much.

Only England resolutely wants the whole collection of countries to stay tied together.

These are the tensions that contribute to the plethora of names associated with that archipelago of islands in the west of Europe. This is the reason behind the whole confusion and random frostiness of various Britons and Irish people.