French Culture and Civilisation Jason Cates

State or Nation: The United Kingdom

This paper will discuss the issue of whether the United Kingdom is a “State” or a “Nation”. In this paper, we will consider a “State” to be a political and geopolitical entity whereas a “Nation” will be considered to be a more cultural entity.

This issue on terms of the United Kingdom is complicated by the fact that the United Kingdom can be considered a “Multinational State”. This is in relation to the fact that even though the UK as a whole is considered a “State”, similar to how the European Union and the USA have member “States”, the UK has four distinct member “Nations”. These “Nations” being those of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, whom all of which have their own distinct ideologies, characters and history.

The United Kingdom did not exist as an entity or a state until the Treaty of Union in 1707 that saw the merger of two separate Kingdoms, those of England and Scotland, who up until this point, consisted of two separate “States”. Due to the UK initially consisted of four separate states, this lead to the development of four distinct cultural identities among the “Home Nations” as they are commonly called. These four identities that stemmed from before the Treaty of Union (1707) still exist in todays United Kingdom. However, rather than these identities taking the form of official states, they take the form of Nations in the cultural and ideological sense.

As a result of this, although I personally see myself as “British” rather than “English” in terms of national identity, most “British” people do not generally refer to themselves as “British”. This is due to them instead, referring to themselves as either “English”, “Scottish”, “Welsh” or “Northern Irish”. Also, contrary to popular belief, Great Britain itself is not a “State” in the official sense; it is merely one Island of many that makes up the United Kingdom. However, Great Britain can also at times be referred to as a “Nation” when it comes to inter-national stage such as events like the Olympic Games. Great Britain in terms of the island only includes the three “Nations” of England, Scotland and Wales; it however does not include the likes of Northern Ireland or any overseas territories such as the Falkland Islands.

The diagrams below hopefully put this differentiation of the United Kingdom, Great Britain and the “Home Nations” across in a simpler way.

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French Culture and Civilisation Jason Cates

(The Colour Blue, 2011)

Therefore, as the United Kingdom as a whole is considered to be the official “State” by organisations such as the United Nations, in most formal events, the UK is represented as a single entity. However, this is not the case for sporting events in which the UK is represented in different forms depending in the event. An example of is would be world cup events in the likes of football and rugby in which each “Home Nation” is presented independently from the others. This is compared to events such as the Olympic Games in which Great Britain is represented as a single entity with Northern Ireland which joining the Republic of Ireland which is a completely separate state all together.

To conclude, it terms of the United Kingdom, the “State” is more prominent than the “Nation”. However, in relation to the likes of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, no “State” in the technical sense exists, but merely distinct “Nation” mentalities.

Referencing

The Colour Blue (2011) A short history of the United Kingdom [Online]. Available at: http://www.thecolourblue.co.uk/g.shtml [Accessed: 21th September, 2011].

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