History of the United Kingdom

The history of the United Kingdom began in the early eighteenth century with the Treaty of Union and Acts of Union. The core of the United Kingdom as a unified state came into being in 1707 with the political union of the kingdoms of England and Scotland, into a new unitary state called Great Britain.

Quotes

 * If this long island story of ours is to end at last, let it end only when each one of us lies choking in his own blood upon the ground.
 * Winston Churchill, as quoted in "How the War in Ukraine Might End" (29 September 2022), by Keith Gessen, New Yorker


 * Historians usually focus their attention on the past of countries that still exist, writing hundreds and thousands of books on British history, French history, German history, Russian history, American history, Chinese history, Indian history, Brazilian history or whatever. Whether consciously or not, they are seeking the roots of the present, thereby putting themselves in danger of reading history backwards. As soon as great powers arise, whether the United States in the twentieth century or China in the twenty-first, the call goes out for offerings on American History or Chinese History, and siren voices sing that today’s important countries are also those whose past is most deserving of examination, that a more comprehensive spectrum of historical knowledge can be safely ignored.
 * Norman Davies, Vanished Kingdoms: The History of Half-Forgotten Europe (2011)