How did the united kingdom of great britain come into existence
Answers
A long, long story.
The first of the kingdoms to come in to being was England. The island of Britain was covered in a patchwork of kingdoms, some Anglo-Saxon, some Welsh, some Pictish. In the southern part of the island the most powerful ones were Wessex and Mercia, but there was East Anglia, Northumbria, Kent and a few others - borders were fluid as the kings of these places were forever fighting. Then came the Great Heathen Army from Scandinavia, Vikings who tired to conquer as much of the island as they could. These took most of the Anglo Saxon kingdoms out of play, but Wessex in the south west held on by the skin of it's teeth through the actions of Alfred the Great. He slowly conquered his lost territory back from the Norse, and went on to take over the old territories of Mercia and East Anglia too. His grandson Athelstan (895-939) eventually expanded the borders of this kingdom to more or less the the same extent as modern England, and is regarded as the first King of England. Eventually England was in invaded by the Normans in 1066.
In the meantime Scotland was similarly being put together out of smaller kingdoms with frequent interruptions and invasions by Scandinavians, but we will come back to them later.
Ireland was acquired by Henry II in 1171. Ireland had never unified properly. There was a High King, just as in England prior to the Great Heathen Army there had been a tacit acceptance of a leading King from among the Anglo Saxon Kingdoms. But there was endless infghting among the small kingdoms of Ulster, Leinster, Connacht etc. and the church in Ireland was a very independent one with plenty of doctrines that not jibe with Catholicism. So the Pope was persuaded to make Henry II officially King of Ireland to sort it all out. Took centuries of fighting and rebellions, but eventually Ireland became a kingdom also in the hands of the kings of England.
Wales was likewise a patchwork of petty kingdoms. Invasions of Wales started as soon as the Normans were finished with the conquest of England, but it was Edward I (who finally managed to subdue the whole territory and incorporate it into the Kingdom of England by 1283.
Scotland and England had an impressive series of wars that did not come to definitive stop until James VI of Scotland inherited the throne of England from Elizabeth I in 1603. James the VI and I was king of three kingdoms, England, Scotland and Ireland but they were still separate entities united only by having the same monarch.
In 1707 the Scottish Parliament passed the Act of Union which effectively dissolved the kingdom and unified it with England under Queen Anne due to financial issues - Scotland was bankrupt (there was also some bribery of Scottish aristocrats). Scots MP now sat in the English Parliament and the new entity was known as 'the Kingdom of Great Britain'.
Ireland was similarly merged in 1801 to form the 'United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland', the UK finally existed.
Most of Ireland became independent in 1922, but Ulster remained under British rule and so the country became the 'United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland', the title it still has today.
In recent years Scotland has got its parliament back, Wales has an Assembly (more or less a parliament but with lesser powers) and after the Good Friday agreement of 1998 Northern Ireland has an Assembly too. MPs from all these areas still have seats in Westminster, and the constitutional conundrum of how to reconcile all this is currently an issue in the UK, but not a big one. Scotland has had a couple of referendums on independence and may yet do it. If this happened they would probably keep the monarchy, but would put their relationship with the rest of the UK on the same basis as it was prior to 1707 - same monarch but a different kingdom. What the UK will call itself then is anyones guess.
The formation of nation state in Britain did not happen because of a sudden upheaval or revolution.
It was the result of a long-drawn-out process. Before the eighteenth century, there was no British nation.
The British Isles were divided into different ethnicities; like English, Welsh, Scot or Irish. Each ethnic group had its own cultural and political traditions.
The English nation steadily grew in wealth, importance and power. Thus it was able to extend its influence on the other nations of the islands.
The English parliament seized power from the monarchy in 1688 after a prolonged conflict.
The English parliament was instrumental in forging the nation-state of Britain. The Act of Union (1707) between England and Scotland resulted in the formation of the ‘United Kingdom of Great Britain’.
In this Union, England was the dominant partner and thus the British parliament was dominated by its English members.
The British identity grew at the peril of Scottish culture and political institutions. The Scottish Highlands were inhabited by the Catholic clans.
They felt terrible repression whenever they attempted to assert their independence.
They were forbidden to speak their Gaelic language or wear their traditional dress. Many of them were forcibly driven out of their homeland.
Ireland suffered a similar fate. It was a country deeply divided between Catholics and Protestants.
The Protestants of Ireland established their dominance over the majority Catholics through the English help.
There was a failed revolt led by Wolfe Tone and his United Irishmen in 1798. After that, Ireland was forcibly incorporated into the United Kingdom in 1801.
The English culture was propagated forcefully to forge a new ‘British Nation’. The older nations survived only as subordinate partners in this union