The United Kingdom (244 ' 050 km2) is composed of a principal island, Great Britain - whose England occupies two thirds -, of the North-East of Ireland (most of Ulster) and of a multiplicity of secondary islands, often uninhabited, in particular in the North-West of Scotland.
The history of British Isles is the sometimes animated chronicle of a regrouping of various countries: England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland. The insular character, near the continent of Europe, confers on this unit a privileged geopolitical position: safe from invasions after 1066, the United Kingdom could forge an original destiny, combining disobedient participation in the history of Europe and opening on a world infinitely broader. Hearth of progress and power until the first world war, which sees emerging American supremacy, the United Kingdom was the large inspirer of the industrial revolution. In margin of the continent, its inhabitants worked a particular culture which was readily exported, even if it is not more dominant.