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big and small islandsNo, as you can imagine, it’s not easy to distinguish between these terms and some of them will seem just as illogical as the term “continental UScontinental US” (as you may remember from the beginning of this chapter). But as with “continental US” all these terms about Britain are commonly used even though they’re problematic. We could start with the term “British IslesBritish Isles”; after all I just promised you more than 5,000 islands although you were probably only expecting two: namely the larger island called Great BritainGreat Britain and the somewhat smaller island called IrelandIreland. What about the HebridesHebrides, OrkneysOrkneys, or ShetlandsShetlands (the northernmost point of the UK), which lie off the coast of ScotlandScotland? Or the island of AngleseyAnglesey off the coast of WalesWales, which became a center of Druidism. Or the Isles of ScillyScilly (pronounced “silly”), which weren’t silly to the captains of the many ships that were wrecked off the rocky coasts. The Scilly Isles contain the southernmost point of the UK and the southernmost and westernmost extremity of EnglandEngland, more than 50 kilometers further south and west than Land’s End in CornwallCornwall. Want even more islands? The Isle of ManIsle of Man is midway between the English/Scottish coast and the coast of Northern IrelandNorthern Ireland at the geographical center of the British Isles. And in spite of its central position, the Isle of Man neither belongs to the United KingdomUnited Kingdom nor even to the European UnionEuropean Union but is something called a Crown DependencyCrown Dependency. Other Crown Dependencies are not at all at the center of the British Isles but far to the south just off the coast of FranceFrance: the Channel IslandsChannel Islands of GuernseyGuernsey and JerseyJersey ( 6).

(Great) Britain, United KingdomUnited KingdomSo far so good. But the situation becomes more complicated when you start to use some of commonly known terms. You can even insult some of the inhabitants of WalesWales and ScotlandScotland if you [21]say “EnglandEngland” and mean “Britain.” Compare the name “Great BritainGreat Britain” with “Britain” – which is bigger? Since you probably think this is a trick question, you’ll probably guess “Britain” and you’d be right. The confusion is basically one of using geographical and political terms interchangeably. “Britain” is widely used to refer to the formal political term “The United KingdomUnited Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandUnited Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland,” which because of its length only the most serious politicians use – and have used only since 1922 ( 2). “Great Britain” isn’t bigger than “Britain” (in the meaning of the UK) when you use the name Great Britain to refer to the island made up of the three countries of England, Wales, and Scotland. England is the largest country of the three in area and also has by far the largest population (we’ll come to the numbers a little later) – and maybe that’s why foreigners like Germans or Americans sometimes say “England” when they mean “Britain” or at least “Great Britain.” (Even Deutsche Bahn made this mistake on the packages of chocolates given to passengers during the World Cup in 2006: The English St. George’s flag filled up the entire map of the island of Great Britain. You could read that England had an area of 130,395 square kilometers, exact and correct, and a population of 60,441,457 – very exact and very wrong, unless you translate DB’s “England” to the “United Kingdom.”)

Maybe a summary can help to “un-confuse” you while at the same time making you aware of the complications connected with names from a political and from a geographical perspective.

British? IslesMaybe the easiest term to understand at first glance (but only at first glance) is the British IslesBritish Isles, a geographical term that includes not only the biggest island, Great BritainGreat Britain, but also the second biggest, IrelandIreland, and many more. Unfortunately what seems to be a clearly geographical term is also a political term: the Irish could very well object to having their Emerald IsleEmerald Isle called anything British or English, and as we’ll see later in the history chapter, there are lots of good reasons for this. The British Isles also include the little Isle of ManIsle of Man, located in between the two bigger islands, as well as the Channel IslandsChannel Islands, which would belong to FranceFrance if distance played a role: the Channel Islands are much much closer to France than to the “precious stone set in the silver sea” as Shakespeare famously described EnglandEngland (but meaning of course “Great Britain”). The Channel Islands and the Isle of Man are part of the British Isles although they aren’t part of the United KingdomUnited Kingdom. But [22]we’re getting too complicated again, so let’s drop politics until a later chapter ( 6).

names and terms
political	geographical
British IslesBritish Isles a politically loaded term used by those who don’t consider IrelandIreland as British	British IslesBritish Isles a politically neutral term referring to the island of Great BritainGreat Britain, the island of IrelandIreland, and many other islands; other terms less commonly used: Britain and IrelandIreland, British-Irish Isles
United United Kingdom Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandUnited Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland often referred to as Britain or as Great BritainGreat Britain	Great Great BritainBritain, IrelandIreland the entire island Great BritainGreat Britain and the northeastern part of the island of IrelandIreland
EnglandEngland
ScotlandScotland
WalesWales
Northern IrelandNorthern Ireland Republic of IrelandIreland	IrelandIreland as an island with the countries of Northern IrelandNorthern Ireland and of the Republic of IrelandIreland
Isle of ManIsle of Man as a Crown DependencyCrown Dependency	Isle of ManIsle of Man as an island in the Irish SeaIrish Sea
Channel IslandsChannel Islands as Crown Dependencies	Channel IslandsChannel Islands including the islands of GuernseyGuernsey, JerseyJersey, and other smaller islands off the coast of FranceFrance
and many other geographical islands considered as part of the political entities Scotland,Scotland Wales,Wales EnglandEngland