United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain was a state located on the island of Great Britain north of the Europe continent on Earth. It was first established in 1707 as the Kingdom of Great Britain. In 1801, it became the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland with the fusion of the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Kingdom of Ireland. Citizens of the United Kingdom were known as Britons. The United Kingdom was a constitutional monarchy. The monarch, in the person of either a King or Queen, served as a ceremonial head of state. The actual power of the government rested with the Prime Minister and a Parliament.

Originally, England, Scotland, and Wales were the constituent countries that united to form the Kingdom of Great Britain. Ireland was added in 1801 and continued as a part of the United Kingdom until the 1920s, when most of it won independence; upon that point, the state became known as the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, due to the continued presence of six northern Irish counties within the UK. However, in 2025, Northern Ireland was reunited with the rest of Ireland, and the United Kingdom reverted to its original form.

London was the capital city of the United Kingdom. Throughout the 1800s, the United Kingdom was the dominant political power on Earth, operating a vast empire that was the largest in the planet's history. It was often said that the sun never set on the British Empire. This colonial period later proved untenable, and, as with the colonial habits of many other European states, contributed to human rights abuses and to extreme global instability in subsequent generations. Nonetheless, the United Kingdom was also a center of world culture, learning, and scientific and political advancement.