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Capital – London
Area – 244,820Km²
Population – 59,834,300
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Northern Ireland (usually shortened to the
United Kingdom, or the UK) occupies part of the
British Isles in northwestern Europe, with most
of its territory and population on the island of
Great Britain. It shares a land border with the
Republic of Ireland on the island of Ireland and
is otherwise surrounded by the North Sea, the
English Channel, the Celtic Sea, the Irish Sea,
and the Atlantic Ocean.
The United Kingdom, often
referred to as "Britain", is a
constitutional monarchy and
unitary state composed through
a political union of four
constituent entities: the three
constituent countries of England,
Scotland and Wales (known as
the Home Nations) on Great
Britain, and the province of
Northern Ireland on the island of
Ireland. The UK has several
overseas territories, including
Gibraltar and the Falkland
Islands, and through the Crown
has a constitutional relationship
with the Crown dependencies of
the Isle of Man and the Channel
Islands. The UK has close
relationships with the fifteen
other Commonwealth Realms,
which share the same monarch
as head of state.
The UK has a highly developed
economy, the fourth-largest in
the world (as measured in terms
of Gross domestic product. It is
one of the most populous
member states of the European
Union and a founding partner of
both the UN (with a permanent
seat on the Security Council)
and NATO. The UK is also one
of the major nuclear weapon
states.
The UK has been a member of the
European Union since 1973. The
attitude of the present government
towards further integration is
conservative, with the official
opposition favouring a return of some
powers and competencies to the UK.
It has not chosen to adopt the Euro
as domestic political opinion runs
strongly against such a move, whilst
the government itself has not seen fit
to advance membership based on a
judgement of the economic costs
and benefits in doing so.
Capital – Washington, DC
Area – 9,631,418Km²
Population – 298,290,000
The United States shares land
borders with Canada (to the
north) and Mexico (to the
south), and territorial water
boundaries with Canada,
Russia, the Bahamas, and
numerous smaller nations. It is
otherwise bounded by the
Pacific Ocean on the west, the
Atlantic Ocean on the east, and
the Gulf of Mexico to the
southeast. Alaska borders the
Pacific Ocean to the south, the
Bering Strait to the west, and
the Arctic Ocean to the north,
while Hawaii lies far to the
southwest of the mainland in
the Pacific Ocean.
Forty-eight of the states are in the single
region between Canada and Mexico; this
group is referred to, with varying precision
and formality, as the continental or
contiguous United States, and as the Lower
48. Alakska, which is not included in the term
contiguous United States, is at the
northwestern end of North America,
separated from the Lower 48 by Canada. The
state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the
Pacific Ocean. The capital city, Washington,
District of Columbia, is a federal district
located on land donated by the state of
Maryland. (Virginia had also donated land,
but it was returned in 1847).
The United States of
America is a Federal
republic situated primarily
in North America. It is
bordered on the north by
Canada and to the south
by Mexico. It comprises
50 states and one federal
district, and has several
territories with differing
degrees of affiliation. It is
also referred to, with
varying formality, as the
United States, America[1],
the U.S., the U.S.A., the
U.S. of A., the States, or
(poetically) Columbia.
Since the twentieth
century, following World
War I, the United States
has emerged as the
dominant global influence
in economic, political,
military, cultural and
technological affairs.
Following the collapse of
the Soviet Union, it is
today's sole global
superpower.
The country celebrates its
founding date as July 4,
1776, when the Second
Continental Congress—
representing thirteen
British colonies—adopted
the Declaration of
Independence that
rejected British authority in
favor of selfdetermination. The
structure of the
government was
profoundly changed on
March 4, 1789, when the
states replaced the
Articles of Confederation
with the United States
Constitution.
Capital – Canberra
Area – 7,686,850Km²
Population – 20,406,800
The Commonwealth of Australia
is a country in the Southern
Hemisphere comprising the
world's smallest continent and a
number of islands in the
Southern, Indian and Pakcific
Oceans. Australia's neighbouring
countries include Indonesia, East
Timor and Papua New Guinea to
the north, the Solomon Islands,
Vanuatu and the French
dependency of New Caledonia to
the northeast, and New Zealand
to the southeast.
The continent of Australia has
been inhabited for over 40,000
years by Indigenous Australians.
After sporadic visits by fishermen
from the north and by European
explorers and merchants starting
in the seventeenth century, the
eastern half of the continent was
claimed by the British in 1770
and officially settled as the penal
colony of New South Wales on
26 January 1788. As the
population grew and new areas
were explored, another five
largely self-governing Crown
Colonies were successively
established over the course of
the nineteenth century.
On 1 January 1901, the six
colonies federated and the
Commonwealth of Australia was
formed. Since federation,
Australia has maintained a stable
liberal democratic political system
and remains a Commonwealth
Realm. The capital city is
Canberra although the current
population of around 20.5 million
is concentrated mainly in the
large coastal cities of Sydney,
Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, and
Adelaide.
The name Australia is derived from the Latin Australis, meaning of the South.
Legends of an "unknown land of the south" (terra australis incognita) date back to
the Roman times and were commonplace in mediaeval geography, but they were
not based on any actual knowledge of the continent. The Dutch adjectival form
Australische ("Australian", in the sense of "southern") was used by Dutch officials in
Batavia to refer to the newly discovered land to the south as early as 1638. The first
use of the word "Australia" in English was a 1693 translation of Les Aventures de
Jacques Sadeur dans la Découverte et le Voyage de la Terre Australe, a 1692
French novel by Gabriel de Foigny under the pen name Jacques Sadeur. Alexander
Dalrymple then used it in An Historical Collection of Voyages and Discoveries in the
South Pacific Ocean, published in 1771. He used the term to refer to the entire
South Pacific region, not specifically to the Australian continent. In 1793, George
Shaw and Sir James Smith published Zoology and Botany of New Holland, in which
they wrote of "the vast island, or rather continent, of Australia, Australasia or New
Holland."
Capital – Ottawa
Area – 9,984,670Km²
Population – 32,270,500
Originally inhabited
exclusively by
aboriginal peoples,
Canada was founded
as a union of British
colonies, some of
which had earlier been
French colonies.
A federal dominion of ten
provinces with three
territories, Canada
peacefully obtained
sovereignty from its last
colonial possessor, the
United Kingdom, in a
process beginning in
1867 with its formation
and ending in 1982 when
Canada gained the
authority to amend its
own constitution.
Canada is a
parliamentary
democracy and
constitutional monarchy.
Canada's head of state
is its monarch, who is
represented in Canada
by the Governor
General. The head of
government is the Prime
Minister.
Canada defines itself as a
bilingual and multicultural nation.
Both English and French are
official languages. In the early
1970s, Canada began to adopt
policies based on the concepts of
cultural diversity and
multiculturalism. Many Canadians
now view this as one of the
country's key attributes.
A technologically advanced and
industrialized nation, Canada is a net
exporter of energy because of its large
fossil fuel deposits, nuclear energy
generation, and hydroelectric power
capacity. Its diversified economy relies
heavily on an abundance of natural
resources and trade, particularly with
the United States, with which Canada
has had a long and complex
relationship, one which can be
described as the strongest trade
partnership in history.