Kingdom of Great Britain
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{{Infobox Former Country
|native_name =
|conventional_long_name = Kingdom of Great Britain
|common_name = United Kingdom
|continent=Europe
|region=British Isles
|country=United Kingdom
|status=State union
|year_start = 1707
|year_end = 1800
|date_start = May 1
|date_end = December 31
|event_start = [[Acts of Union 1707|1707 Union]]
|event_end = [[Act of Union 1800|1801 Union]]
|p1 = Kingdom of England
|flag_p1 = Flag of England.svg
|p2 = Kingdom of Scotland
|flag_p2 = Flag of Scotland.svg
|s1 = United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
|flag_s1 = Flag of the United Kingdom.svg
|image_flag = Union flag 1606 (Kings Colors).svg
|image_coat = UK Arms 1714.svg
|symbol_type=Royal coat of arms
|image_map = LocationIslandGreatBritain.png
|image_map_caption = Territory of the Kingdom of Great Britain
|national_motto = ''[[Dieu et mon droit]]''<br>([[English language|English]]: "God and my right")<sup>1</sup>
|national_anthem = [[God Save the Queen|God Save the King/Queen]]
|capital = London
|latd=51|latm=30|latNS=N|longd=0|longm=07|longEW=W
|common_languages = [[English language|English]] (throughout) <br> [[Welsh language|Welsh]] (Wales) <br> [[Scots language|Scots]] (Scotland) <br> [[Scottish Gaelic language|Scottish Gaelic]] (Scotland)
|government_type = Constitutional monarchy
|title_leader = [[List of British Monarchs#House of Stuart|Monarch]]
|leader1 = [[Anne of Great Britain|Anne]]
|year_leader1=1707–1714
|leader2 = [[George I of Great Britain|George I]]
|year_leader2 = 1714–1727
|leader3 = [[George II of Great Britain|George II]]
|year_leader3 = 1727–1760
|leader4 = [[George III of the United Kingdom|George III]]
|year_leader4=1760–1801
|title_deputy = [[Prime Minister of the United Kingdom|Prime Minister]]
|deputy1 = [[Robert Walpole]]
|year_deputy1=1721–1742
|deputy2 = [[William Pitt the Younger]]
|year_deputy2=1783–1801
|legislature = [[Parliament of Great Britain|Parliament]]
|house1 = [[British House of Lords|House of Lords]]
|house2 = [[British House of Commons|House of Commons]]
|stat_year1=1801
|stat_area1=230977
|stat_pop1 = 16345646
|currency = Pound sterling
|footnotes = <sup>1</sup> The Royal motto used in Scotland was {{lang|la|''[[Nemo Me Impune Lacessit]]''}} ([[Latin]] for "No-one provokes me with impunity").
}}
The '''Kingdom of Great Britain''', also known as the '''United Kingdom of Great Britain''',<ref>[[s:Act of Union 1707|Act of Union 1707]], Article 2.</ref> was a [[state]] in [[Western Europe]], in existence from 1707 to 1800. It was created by the merger of the [[Kingdom of Scotland]] and the [[Kingdom of England]], under the [[Acts of Union 1707]], to create a single kingdom encompassing the whole of the island of [[Great Britain]]. A new single parliament and government, based in [[Westminster]] in [[London]], controlled the new kingdom. The two separate kingdoms of Scotland and England had [[Union of the Crowns|shared the same monarch]] since [[James VI of Scotland and I of England|James VI, King of Scots]], became [[King of England]] in 1603 following the death of [[Elizabeth I of England|Queen Elizabeth I]].
The Kingdom of Great Britain was superseded by the [[United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland]] in 1801 when the [[Kingdom of Ireland]] was absorbed with the enactment of the [[Act of Union 1800]] following the suppression of the [[Irish Rebellion of 1798]].
==Political structure==
The island of Great Britain was ruled by a single monarch with two titles (King of England and King of Scotland) following the Union of the Crowns in 1603, except during the [[English Interregnum|Interregnum]] and during the [[William and Mary|joint reign]] of [[William III of England|William]] and [[Mary II of England|Mary]]. From 1707, however, the monarch of the Kingdom of Great Britain ruled by the power of a single unified [[Crown of Great Britain]], rather than by the power of both crowns of the previously separate Kingdoms.<ref>[[s:Act of Union 1707|Act of Union 1707]], Article 1.</ref> The succession to the throne of the new united Kingdom of Great Britain was determined by the English [[Act of Settlement 1701|Act of Settlement]], rather than the Scottish equivalent, the [[Act of Security 1704|Act of Security]] as this was part of the terms agreed in the 1706 [[Treaty of Union]]<ref>Treaty of Union 1706, Article 2.</ref> and put into effect with the two [[Acts of Union]] the following year. The adoption of the Act of Settlement required that the heir to the English throne be a [[Protestant]] descendant of [[Electress Sophia of Hanover|Sophia of Hanover]], effecting the future [[Hanoverian succession]].
Legislative power was vested in the [[Parliament of Great Britain]], which replaced the [[Parliament of England]] and the [[Parliament of Scotland]].<ref>Act of Union 1707, Article 3.</ref> As with the modern [[Parliament of the United Kingdom]], the Parliament of Great Britain included three elements: the [[British House of Commons|House of Commons]], the [[House of Lords]], and the [[Crown-in-Parliament]]. [[England]] and [[Scotland]] were given seats in both the House of Lords and the House of Commons of the new parliament. Although Scotland's representation in both houses was smaller than its population indicated it should have been, representation in parliament was at that time based not on population but on taxation, and Scotland was given a greater number of seats than its share of taxation warranted. Under the terms of the [[Political union|union]], Scotland sent 16 [[Peers and Parliament|representative peer]]s to the Lords and elected 45 members to the Commons, with the rest being sent from [[England and Wales]].<ref>Act of Union 1707, Article 22.</ref> This cooperation still forms the basis of British politics today.
==Name==
Often, the Kingdom of Great Britain is given the alternative name of the ''United Kingdom of Great Britain'', which is often shortened to ''[[United Kingdom]]''. There is substantial debate over whether the latter name is acceptable.<ref>[http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-2156657.html "Rough guide to British history"]. 29 April 2006. The Times. ''URL accessed 13 May 2006''.</ref> The Acts of Union refer in name to the ''United Kingdom of Great Britain'' in several places; critics argue in rebuttal that the word "united" is only a descriptive word, and not part of the style, citing the Acts of Union themselves, which state that England and Scotland were "United into One Kingdom by the Name of Great Britain".<ref>Act of Union 1707, Article 1.</ref>
The name "United Kingdom" is sometimes preferred for purposes of continuity, particularly in the military and colonial spheres. At the time of the Act of Union 1800, which unambiguously styled the country as the "United Kingdom", the British were embroiled in the [[Great French War]] and the [[British Empire]] possessed many colonies in the [[Americas]], [[India]], and [[Australia]]. Some who would otherwise prefer the term "Kingdom of Great Britain" thus use "United Kingdom" to avoid using two different names for a single military and colonial power, which may confuse the discussion.
However "United Kingdom" seems to have come into popular use, and so at the time of the Act of Union with Ireland the name was officially adopted.
==Britain in the 18th century==
{{see|British Empire|Georgian era|History of the United Kingdom}}
Peace between England and the Netherlands in 1688 meant that the two countries entered the [[Nine Years' War]] as allies, but the conflict - waged in Europe and overseas between France, Spain and the Anglo-Dutch alliance - left the English a stronger colonial power than the Dutch, who were forced to devote a larger proportion of their military budget on the costly land war in Europe.<ref>{{cite book| first =Pagden|last =Anthony |title=The Origins of Empire, The Oxford History of the British Empire |publisher=Oxford University Press|year=1998|pages=441}}</ref>
The 18th century would see England (after 1707, Britain) rise to be the world's dominant colonial power, and France becoming its main rival on the imperial stage.<ref>{{cite book| first =Pagden|last =Anthony |title=Peoples and Empires: A Short History of European Migration, Exploration, and Conquest, from Greece to the Present |publisher=Modern Library |year=2003|pages=90}}</ref>
The death of [[Charles II of Spain]] in 1700 and his bequeathal of Spain and its colonial empire to [[Philip V of Spain|Philippe of Anjou]], a grandson of the King of France, raised the prospect of the unification of France, Spain and their respective colonies, an unacceptable state of affairs for Britain and the other powers of Europe. In 1701, Britain, Portugal and the Netherlands sided with the [[Holy Roman Empire]] against [[Spain]] and [[France]] in the [[War of the Spanish Succession]]. The conflict, which France and Spain were to lose, lasted until 1714. At the concluding peace [[Treaty of Utrecht]], Philip renounced his and his descendents' right to the French throne. Spain lost its empire in Europe, and though it kept its empire in the Americas and the Philippines, it was irreversibly weakened as a power. The British Empire was territorially enlarged: from France, Britain gained [[Newfoundland (island)|Newfoundland]] and [[Acadia]], and from Spain, [[Gibraltar]] and [[Minorca]]. [[Gibraltar]], which is still a [[British overseas territory]] to this day, became a critical naval base and allowed Britain to control the Atlantic entry and exit point to the [[Mediterranean]].
Deeper political integration of Britain had been a key policy of [[Anne of Great Britain|Queen Anne]] (reigned 1702–14), the last Stuart monarch of [[England]] and [[Scotland]] and the only Stuart monarch of the [[Kingdom of Great Britain]]). Under the aegis of the Queen and her advisors a [[Treaty of Union]] was drawn up, and negotiations between England and Scotland began in earnest in 1706. The Acts of Union received [[royal assent]] in 1707, uniting the separate Parliaments and crowns of England and Scotland and forming the Kingdom of Great Britain. Anne became formally the first occupant of the unified British throne and Scotland sent 45 MPs to the new [[List of Parliaments of England|parliament at Westminster]].
[[Image:Clive.jpg|thumb|300px|[[Lord Clive]] meeting with [[Mir Jafar]] after the [[Battle of Plassey]], by [[Francis Hayman]] (c. 1762).]]
The [[Seven Years' War]], which began in 1756, was the first war waged on a global scale, fought in Europe, India, North America, the Caribbean, the Philippines and coastal Africa. The signing of the [[Treaty of Paris (1763)]] had important consequences for Britain and its empire. In North America, France's future as a colonial power there was effectively ended with the ceding of [[New France]] to Britain (leaving a sizeable French-speaking population under British control) and [[Louisiana (New France)|Louisiana]] to Spain. Spain ceded [[Florida]] to Britain. In India, the [[Carnatic Wars#Third Carnatic War (1756-1763)|Carnatic War]] had left France still in control of its [[French India|enclaves]] but with military restrictions and an obligation to support British client states, effectively leaving the future of India to Britain. The British victory over France in the Seven Years War therefore left Britain as the world's dominant colonial power.<ref>{{cite book| first =Pagden|last =Anthony |title=Peoples and Empires: A Short History of European Migration, Exploration, and Conquest, from Greece to the Present |publisher=Modern Library |year=2003|pages=91}}</ref>
During the 1760s and 1770s, relations between the [[Thirteen Colonies]] and Britain became increasingly strained, primarily because of resentment of the British Parliament's ability to tax American colonists without their consent.<ref>{{cite book| first=Ferguson |last =Niall |title=Empire |publisher=Penguin|year=2004|pages=73}}</ref> Disagreement turned to violence and in 1775 the [[American Revolutionary War]] began. The following year, the colonists [[United States Declaration of Independence|declared the independence of the United States]] and with economical and naval assistance from France, would go on to win the war in 1783.
The loss of the United States, at the time Britain's most populous colony, is seen by historians as the event defining the transition between the "first" and "second" empires,<ref>{{cite book| first =Pagden|last =Anthony |title=The Origins of Empire, The Oxford History of the British Empire |publisher=Oxford University Press|year=1998|pages=92}}</ref> in which Britain shifted its attention away from the Americas to Asia, the Pacific and later Africa. [[Adam Smith]]'s ''[[Wealth of Nations]]'', published in 1776, had argued that colonies were redundant, and that [[free trade]] should replace the old [[mercantilist]] policies that had characterised the first period of colonial expansion, dating back to the protectionism of Spain and Portugal. The growth of trade between the newly independent United States and Britain after 1783<ref>{{cite book |last= James |first= Lawrence |title=The Rise and Fall of the British Empire |year=2001 |publisher=Abacus |pages=119}}</ref> confirmed Smith's view that political control was not necessary for economic success.
During its first century of operation, the focus of the [[British East India Company]] had been trade, not the building of an empire in India. Company interests turned from trade to territory during the 18th century as the Mughal Empire declined in power and the British East India Company struggled with its French counterpart, the ''[[French East India Company|La Compagnie française des Indes orientales]]'', during the [[Carnatic Wars]] of the 1740s and 1750s. The [[Battle of Plassey]], which saw the British, led by [[Robert Clive]], defeat the French and their Indian allies, left the Company in control of [[Bengal]] and a major military and political power in India. In the following decades it gradually increased the size of the territories under its control, either ruling directly or indirectly via local puppet rulers under the threat of force of the [[Indian Army]], 80% of which was composed of native Indian [[sepoys]].
In 1770, [[James Cook]] had discovered the eastern coast of [[Australia]] whilst on a scientific [[First voyage of James Cook|voyage]] to the South Pacific. In 1778, [[Joseph Banks]], Cook's botanist on the voyage, presented evidence to the government on the suitability of [[Botany Bay]] for the establishment of a penal settlement, and in 1787 the first shipment of [[Convictism in Australia|convicts]] set sail, arriving in 1788.
At the threshold to the 19th century, Britain was challenged again by France under [[Napoleon]], in a struggle that, unlike previous wars, represented a contest of ideologies between the two nations.<ref>{{cite book |last= James |first= Lawrence |title=The Rise and Fall of the British Empire |year=2001 |publisher=Abacus |pages=152}}</ref>
It was not only Britain's position on the world stage that was threatened: Napoleon threatened invasion of Britain itself, and with it, a fate similar to the countries of continental Europe that his armies had overrun. The [[Napoleonic Wars]] were therefore ones that Britain invested large amounts of capital and resources to win. French ports were blockaded by the [[Royal Navy]], which won a decisive victory over the French fleet at [[Battle of Trafalgar|Trafalgar]] in 1805.
==Monarchs==
*[[Anne of Great Britain|Anne]] (1707–1714), previously [[Queen of England]], [[Queen of Scotland]], and [[Queen of Ireland]] since 1702.
*[[George I of Great Britain|George I]] (1714–1727)
*[[George II of Great Britain|George II]] (1727–1760)
*[[George III of the United Kingdom|George III]] (1760–1801), continued as King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland until 1820.
==References==
<div class="references-small">
<references/>
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==See also==
*[[Georgian era]]
*[[Early Modern Britain]]
{| class="wikitable"
| width="30%" align="center" |''Preceded by:''<br>[[Kingdom of England]]<br>c 927–[[30 April]][[1707]]<br>[[Kingdom of Scotland]]<br>c 843–[[30 April]][[1707]]
| width="40%" align="center" |'''Kingdom of Great Britain'''<br>[[1 May]] [[1707]] – [[31 December ]]1800
| width="30%" align="center" |''Succeeded by:''<br>[[United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland]]<br>[[1 January]] [[1801]]–[[5 December]][[1922]]
|}
{{British Isles}}
[[Category:1707 establishments|Great Britain]]
[[Category:1800 disestablishments|Great Britain]]
[[Category:Former monarchies of Europe|Great Britain (1707–1800)]]
[[Category:History of Great Britain| ]]
[[af:Koninkryk van Groot-Brittanje]]
[[ang:Cynerīce Grēatre Brytene]]
[[be:Каралеўства Вялікабрытанія]]
[[be-x-old:Каралеўства Вялікабрытанія]]
[[bs:Kraljevstvo Velike Britanije]]
[[br:Rouantelezh Breizh-Veur]]
[[ca:Regne de la Gran Bretanya]]
[[ceb:Gran Britanya]]
[[cy:Teyrnas Prydain Fawr]]
[[de:Königreich Großbritannien]]
[[es:Reino de Gran Bretaña]]
[[fr:Royaume de Grande-Bretagne]]
[[ko:그레이트브리튼 왕국]]
[[id:Kerajaan Britania Raya]]
[[it:Regno di Gran Bretagna]]
[[he:ממלכת בריטניה הגדולה]]
[[lv:Lielbritānijas Karaliste]]
[[hu:Nagy-Britannia Egyesült Királysága]]
[[nl:Koninkrijk Groot-Brittannië]]
[[ja:グレートブリテン王国]]
[[no:Det forente kongerike Storbritannia]]
[[pl:Królestwo Wielkiej Brytanii]]
[[pt:Reino da Grã-Bretanha]]
[[ru:Королевство Великобритания]]
[[simple:Kingdom of Great Britain]]
[[sk:Kráľovstvo Veľkej Británie]]
[[fi:Ison-Britannian kuningaskunta]]
[[sv:Kungariket Storbritannien]]
[[th:ราชอาณาจักรบริเตนใหญ่]]
[[vi:Vương quốc Anh]]
[[zh:大不列顛王國]]