Section 5: The United Kingdom In Europe, The Commonwealth: Fill & Download for Free

This is an interesting question.Yes, but maybe not.In short, it depends.(Before I start please refrain from commenting before reading the entire answer, you know who you are)There are many ways to determine the power of a nation, but I will list 4.5:Military strengthSoft PowerEconomic strengthGeo/sociopolitical prowess.Military strength:Britain ranks number lower in defense spending, on par with neighboring countries such as Germany and France. While spending numbers are important, they don’t tell the whole story. China for example spends 5 times as much, yet most of it is spent on maintaining its large and low-quality military, and only in recent years has China been able to bring anything high tech online.Power projection is super important for a country if it wants to maintain a global presence. When it comes to this factor Britain is second only to the US, with Russia’s navy pretty much contained by the Royal Navy and China’s power bottled up by the US. The Royal Navy is by far the second most powerful in the world, given that it is one of only three truly blue water navies in the world, the other two being France and the US. While I’m sure to get some flank for this, while France has a powerful Navy and a Nuclear Carrier, they are not comparable to the RN.Technology is also important. The UK is one of the most advanced nations in the world, being a world leader in aviation especially, and is one of only two countries that can produce jet engine technology well above the rest (Rolls Royce for the UK, P&W, and GE for the US), and alongside the US and France/Germany is in the top three when it comes to most high tech weaponry (missiles, ships, aircraft, etc.)Finally, Britain also keeps a well-trained military. In recent years the UK has downsized considerably especially in the Army. But even in doing so has made sure that those who serve under her majesty are on average and in the elite some of the most highly trained in the world. Also being the creator of the first special forces, the SAS, can’t hurt.Soft PowerThis is something that has been said is hard to quantify but is quoted as, “the ability of a country to persuade others to do what it wants without force or coercion.” This of course is the opposite of hard power, which entails, “using force, the threat of force, economic sanctions, or inducements of payment.” Britain consistently ranks among the top three, having held number 1 in 2018, but lost its slight edge to France due to Brexit, now ranking comfortably above Germany at number 2.There are two big contributors to the UK’s considerable soft power. First, the fruit of the British Empire, the Anglosphere, and more specifically the Commonwealth of Nations, which provides the UK with considerable say in international affairs without even trying. Second is the cultural influence of the Anglosphere, which we will explore in the Sociopolitical portion.Given the detailed and near unquantifiable aspects of Soft Power, I will link a page of a study on Soft Power from people far smarter than I.Soft Power 30Economic StrengthEconomics is a biggie so I’m going to break it down into 3 sections.GDPFinancesNational WealthThe GDP of Britain currently ranks No.6 in nominal GDP having just lost No.5 to India this past year and ranks No.9 in PPP mainly due to the high costs of Europe and the country’s small population.Britain is famous for its leading role as the financial capital of the world, having an entire district of the city dedicated to the sector of business, and exports more financial services than any other nation. This aids greatly to the influence a nation can hold internationally.While GDP is can be described as the salary/wage of a country and contributes to the annual success and growth of a nation, to see the deeper economic capability of a nation we need to look at an often overlooked portion of the economy, the National Wealth. This is described as, “National net wealth, also known as national net worth, is the total sum of the value of a nation's assets minus its liabilities. It refers to the total value of net wealth possessed by the citizens of a nation at a set point in time.”The numbers speak for themselves.Only 3 nations outmatch the UK in national wealth, and two of them are allies, Germany and France pretty much match the UK.Geo/Sociopolitical ProwessThis is where the UK shines. Being not only a part but the founder of the Anglosphere - Wikipedia., Britain has a cultural influence that stretches as far as America’s does, as both nations are essentially intertwined in cultural influence. Britain is also the only other nation that can make a lasting influence on other nations in the way the US also can, including on the US itself.The influence even stretches to India, which against the odds is becoming more Anglo elitist than ever before and is becoming a country where if you don’t speak English you cannot be considered high class. London is also intertwined with Hollywood, being the second most important city in filmmaking after Los Angeles. Britain is also the world leader in newscasting, with the BBC being the largest and most influential news network in the world, beating out giants like CNN and Fox by a large margin.“A total of 438 million people from around the world came to BBC News on average every week in the year to March. . . India, the United States, Nigeria, and Kenya are the biggest international markets.” - BBC, July 23, 2020ConclusionWhile I believe the United Kingdom was for a time the 2nd most powerful nation in the world as the 2019 comprehensive chart above shows, Brexit and losing influence in Hong Kong affairs has sealed Britain's fate to lose the No.2 spot to China.We live in a changing world, one where powers rise and fall. Britain used to be the wealthiest and most powerful nation in history, so the fact that it has been able to remain at the top despite being so long since its fall is nothing short of remarkable.RULE BRITANNIA!

Close relations between Poland and The United Kingdom, in particular Scotland, started in the 15th century:• British, mainly Scottish, immigration to the Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth lasted ‪from the 15th to the 18th‬ century. By the end of the 16th century out of a total population of 800 thousand in Scotland 30 thousand Scottish families moved to the PLC, which numbered 7 million at the time. The Scots came from all social strata: penniless orphans, soldiers, pedlars, merchants, craftsmen, writers, musicians and Enlightenment figures.The most resourceful ones made fortunes here and rose through the ranks to occupy prominent positions in commerce, the army, in politics and the arts.Alexander Chalmers was a lawyer who was elected mayor of Warsaw 4 times running.The Scots merchant Robert Gordon made his fortune in Gdansk before founding what became the Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen. There were many others.Statue of Robert Portius in Krosno. Photo: Zaplanuj z nami swoją podróż do KrosnaSome became legendary and made their way to our literature and film. Colonel Wolodyjowski with Scot Hassling-Ketling of Elgin from the classic novel by Henryk Sienkiewicz:• Due to this influx diplomatic relations were close between the two countries, especially during the reign of James. After complaints from the Scottish councillors of Danzig in 1624, King James VI issued a proclamation restricting migration to those who showed evidence that they had been invited by sponsors or could make their own way on arrival.In all the main cities some districts were inhabited by Scots. Entire villages were populated by Scots. In Poland there are still around 50 villages with names relating to Scotland, Szkocja in Polish.• In the 16th century most grain imports to the British Isles came from Poland. Other products from Poland included wool, linen, timber, resin, furs, flux, honey and horses.• In the elections of 1674 Duke of York was one of the contenders for the Polish throne. Jan Sobieski won the elections. Duke of York later ruled England as James II. If the duke had been chosen as the Polish king the relationship between the two countries would indeed have been close.• Bernard Connor, an Irish doctor to the Polish King John Sobieski, wrote The History of Poland, in several letters to persons of quality, giving an account of the ancient and present state of that kingdom, 2 vols. It was published in London, 1698, thus introducing the British to Polish history.• 'Bonnie' Prince Charlie's mother was half Polish – his mother was Clementina Sobieska, the granddaughter of Jan Sobieski, King of Poland.There was a Stuart-Polish connections with the court of Stanislaw Leszczynski, the former king of Poland and candidate to the Polish throne.• In the 18th century the mentor to the Polish kingStanisław II August Poniatowski was Sir Charles Hanbury Williams, a Welsh diplomat, writer and satirist. The painting of sir Charles by John Giles Eccardt:On his trip to Britain the Polish king also came to know Charles Yorke, the Lord Chancellor.• In 1790 Stanisław August commissioned a London art dealership to assemble a collection of Old Master paintings for Poland to encourage arts in the Commonwealth. Due to the imminent political collapse of the PLC the art collection destined for Poland remained in Britain and can now be seen at the Dulwich Picture Gallery in South London.• In the 19th century, Polish-British relations took on a cultural dimension, with musical tours in the United Kingdom by virtuosos and composers including ‪Maria Szymanowska‬, ‪Frederic Chopin‬, Maria Kalergis, and Henryk Wieniawski.Wieniawski:Jane Stirling organised and partly financed Chopin’s tour of the U.K. in line with Quora rules I’ve removed the earlier picture of the two of them, which was a poster of an exhibition about them which was on show last year in Poland.• During the Polish November 1830 Uprising against the Russian Empire, British defence equipment and armaments were sent to Poland.• After the failure of the uprising some Polish insurgents arrived in Britain, where poet Thomas Campbell co-founded the Literary Association of the Friends of Poland in 1832. The Association had several regional centres; one of its meetings was addressed by the Polish statesman, Count Adam Jerzy Czartoryski.• Czartoryski's permanent representative at the Court of St James's was General Count Wladyslaw Stanislaw Zamoyski (1803–1868), who later led a division in the Crimean War, on the British side, against Russia.The last official Polish envoy to Britain was the statesman, writer, and futurologist, Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz (1758–1841).• After the 1831 uprising some Polish aristocrats, such as General Dezydery Chtapowski, the Zamoyskis, the Czartoryskis, and others, brought over several hundreds of English, Welsh and Scottish settlers to their estates. Ludwik Michał Pac paid for 500 British families to immigrate to his estate in Dowspuda.Photo: Pac Palace in Dowspuda village, which inhabited entirely by the British:After the uprising general Pac was forced to emigrate to France, the palace was devastated in reprisals but the British villagers stayed.The British settlers were farmers, craftsmen, agriculturalists, agrarians, factory hands, factory and farm managers. Several of the communities stayed in Poland through thick and thin and became Polish citizens after Poland regained independence in 1918.• At the end of the 19th century Józef Korzeniowski arrived in Britain, gained British citizenship, learnt the language, changed his name and became the accomplished novelist, Joseph Conrad.• 1917-1919 thousands of Poles fought alongside the White Russians and a multi-national anti-Bolshevik coalition, which included British soldiers, in the area of Murmansk and Arkhangelsk. By the summer of 1919 the British and other allied powers had decided to withdraw their forces. 460 men of the Polish legion together with their polar bear, Baśka, were evacuated to Scotland before returning to Poland.Baśka caused a sensation during an army parade when she marched in step through Edinburgh alongside hundreds of Polish soldiers in the autumn of 1919.Photo: British officers, led by Sir Frederick Poole, conferring decorations for bravery upon Polish soldiers of Murmansk Battalion:• In 1920, when the Danzig dockers sympathising with the Bolsheviks blocked a crucial military aid transport from France to Poland, British soldiers stationed there unload it on the orders of general Richard Haking.• During the war Lloyd George was not sympathetic to Poland. The secretary of the British Labor Party, Henderson and Ernest Bevin, chairman of the British transport union were both against support for Poland on account of their pro Soviet leanings. However, Winston Churchill still managed to send over some much needed military materiel to Poland.• Adrian Carton de Wiart Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia..., took over command of the British Military Mission to Poland during the Bolshevik war.He became a great supporter of the Polish cause, got into lots of scrapes with the enemy and became friends with his Polish aide de camp, Prince Karol Radziwiłł, who gave him the use of a large estate in the Pripet Marshes, a wetland area larger than Ireland, where de Wiart spent most of his time in the interwar period, hunting.General De Wiart also headed the British Military Mission to Poland in 1939.WW2:• 5 weeks before the outbreak of the war Bletchley codebreakers Alastair Denniston and Dilly Knox met with the Polish Cipher Bureau members near Warsaw. Polish cryptologists, Rejewski, Henryk Zygalski and Jerzy Rozycki, passed on to the French and British delegation the know how that they had developed for breaking the German Enigma ciphers, thus enabling the British to develop their "Ultra" operation.Until then the British where focusing on the linguistic rather than mathematical approach. The Polish cryptologists also handed over their Bomba machine that they had built as a working model to counter the Enigma. Afaik the original Bomba is still on show at the Pilsudski museum in London.• Alan Turing travelled to Paris in 1940 to meet up with Rejewski in order to clarify some aspects of Enigma.• In the 1990s the British authorities acknowledged the Polish role in the Enigma code breaking, and then followed it with 2 big budget feature films which obfuscated it. The lively debate that occurs sometimes as a result could be interpreted as close relations. Lack of debate means no relations ;)• British-Polish Military Alliance of March 1939 delayed the war by a week, which allowed for operation Peking: shortly before the outbreak of hostilities, three Polish destroyers followed by two submarines sailed for Great Britain in anticipation of joint operations with the Royal Navy, thus avoiding certain destruction.Photo: ORP Piorun officers and men on return to Plymouth after fighting the Bismarck.• The British were instrumental in rescuing the 75 tons of Polish gold before it fell into German hands. On instructions of British consul Captain Robert E. Brett’s surreptitiously transported the gold from a port in Rumania on his 4,000 ton oil tanker, the SS Eocene, to Istanbul where it would continue its journey to other places, including the Bank of England.• With the Fall of France, the Polish Government-in-Exile relocated to London in 1940, along with a first wave of at least 20,000 soldiers and airmen.• While the Polish Soviet relations were decidedly frosty the negotiations regarding the Sikorski-Maisky agreement were initiated by the British minister of foreign affairs, Anthony Eden. He met with the Soviet ambassador Ivan Maisky in London just after the German invasion of the Soviet Union on the 22nd of June 1941. It paved the way for the meeting between Maisky and general Sikorski on the 5th of July 1941, which led to the release of 120 thousand Polish prisoners from the deadly Soviet camps.The evacuees had a better chance of survival by serving in the army than by staying incarcerated in Siberia or Kazakhstan. Young children were also released and homed in several countries around the British Commonwealth.• The Poles formed the fourth-largest Allied armed force after the Soviets, the Americans, and the combined troops of the British Empire.• By July 1945 there were 228,000 troops of the Polish Armed Forces in the West serving mostly in their own units under the British.Photo General Sikorski (left) and Winston Churchill review Polish troops in England, 1943.No. 303 Squadron was one of 16 Polish squadrons in the RAF during ww2. The 303 was the highest scoring of the Hurricane squadrons during the Battle of Britain.From No. 303 Squadron RAF - Wikipedia:"Had it not been for the magnificent material contributed by the Polish squadrons and their unsurpassed gallantry," wrote Air Chief Marshal Sir Hugh Dowding, head of RAF Fighter Command, "I hesitate to say that the outcome of the Battle (of Britain) would have been the same."• In 2017 Franciszek Kornicki, the Polish pilot who took command of 308 Squadron during the Second World War was named the winner of an RAF Museum poll to decide 'The People's Spitfire Pilot'.• From 1943 onwards the Polish Home Army obtained parts of the V2 rocket which was being tested near the Bug river. They passed the intelligence about it and about usage of liquid oxygen on to London.In 1944 they got hold of a particularly intact rocket. Dismantled parts of the rocket were secured and analyzed at the secret laboratories of the Home Army in Warsaw. Detailed plans were drawn. In a dramatic airlift operation, Operation Most, the parts were sent to London, where the rocket was reassembled. The story was later recounted in the British feature film Battle of the V-1 of 1958.• In Britain the Special Operations Executive (SOE) was set up as a subversion organisation to operate in disguise behind enemy lines.Altogether 2,613 Polish Army soldiers volunteered for training by Polish and British SOE operatives. 606 of them completed the training, and eventually 316 of them were secretly parachuted into occupied Poland.• Polish Cichociemni, “The silent unseen” operatives were trained in Britain.• The Polish signals officer Józef S Kosacki, stationed in Dundee, developed the ‘Mine Detector (Polish) Mk 1’. The detector proved to be a vital piece of military equipment and a refined version was still being used by the British Army up until the Gulf War in 1991.• The 1st (Polish) Independent Parachute Brigade, which fought in the Battle of Arnhem in 1944, was trained mainly in Fife.• During the war several British universities hosted Polish academic departments to enable Polish students to complete their interrupted studies: Liverpool offered veterinary science in Polish and Oxford hosted a Polish faculty of law, and Edinburgh had a Polish Medical Faculty.• The BBC's Polish section broadcasts began on 7 September 1939 with coded messages among prosaic material for the Polish Underground. They continued throughout the war.• During the debate regarding the Yalta agreement, 25 MPs and Peers drafted an amendment protesting against the UK's acceptance of Poland's falling under the Soviet control.• In the spring of 1945, Winston Churchill came up with Operation Unthinkable, a plan for an offensive by the Anglo-American armies, plus a Free Polish contingent against the Soviet Union in order to push Stalin’s control out of Central Europe. (The plan wasn’t enacted).• After the war Clement Attlee's newly elected Labour government turned against the overwhelmingly anti communist Poles who were reluctant to return to communist Poland. In spite of this the British authorities made arrangements for the nearly 250 thousand Polish diaspora to either stay in Britain or to be settled in various parts of the British Commonwealth, the US, Argentina, Mexico and Brazil. Arrival in New Zealand:Some returned to Poland.Our Government in Exile and several thousand people stayed in Britain.• For those who stayed Westminster passed The Polish Resettlement Act in 1947 - the first ever mass migration act of its type, which offered help to settle into civilian life in the UK “for the military forces to certain Polish forces” by providing pension, health care and educational services.• In 1949 "PUNO" (Polski Uniwersytet na Obczyznie) – The Polish University Abroad was set up, offering humanities subjects in Polish.• The Federation of Poles in Great Britain (ZPWB) was set up to promote the interests of Poles in Great Britain. It still acts as an umbrella for more than seventy organisations throughout the UK, i.e. Polish clubs, cultural centres, and adult and youth organisations.• 1967 a Polish Cultural Centre, POSK, was established in London. It houses the Library of Poland in London, a Polish cafe and a restaurant, a regular jazz club, film screenings, exhibitions, and theatre performances, attended by many non Polish visitors.• In the 1970s a Polish war veteran, Jan Tomasik, built the Great Polish map of Scotland, 50m x 40m three-dimensional outdoor concrete scale model, which is claimed to be the world's largest terrain relief model.• Margaret Thatcher backed the Solidarity movement. Her visit to Poland in 1988 was a factor behind the Communist Party’s decision to start negotiations with the Solidarity opposition.• Polish Government in Exile continued in existence in London until 1990, when Lech Wałęsareceived the symbols of the Polish Republic from the last president of the government in exile, Ryszard Kaczorowski.According to etymologists the name Walęsa comes from Wallace.• Last year at a ministers meeting on Brexit strategy Polish government broke ranks with the rest of the EU members by calling for a flexible approach to Brexit.“It’s the only member state that expressed a very pro-U.K. position,” said one of ‪the diplomats‬ who attended the meeting. “It called for flexibility and if necessary to amend the guidelines,” the diplomat added. “That view was in total isolation.”It’s not because our government is pro Brexit. The view is that the decision is up to the British. Hindering it is not helpful to anyone.• In a quiet residential back street in London.......Prince Janek Zylinski has built his own White House, which is used for photo shoots, filming, concerts, celebrations while also being his home:During the post war period the truth about the historical Polish-British links was suppressed in Poland, in line with the dominant narrative aiming to alienate the Soviet bloc countries from Western countries. Contentious aspects of the relationship were highlighted, the rest was pushed into obscurity. Historians of both countries are gradually uncovering the history, particularly the british ones, like Norman Davies and Neil Ascherson among others.Sources:Poland breaks ranks from EU Brexit unityhttp://Scots in Poland 1576 - 1793When a polar bear marched on Princes StreetLidia Fedorska's answer to Was there historically much British presence in Easter Europe?Lidia Fedorska's answer to Why were Polish refugees sent to the middle east during world war 2?Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaMurmańczycy - WikipediaBritish_Military_Mission_to_Poland.Enigma RelayStory by Marek GrajekVirtual Bletchley Park by Tony Sale, The Breaking of Enigma by the Polish Mathematicians
Virtual Bletchley ParkMarian Rejewski - WikipediaAlan Turing Scrapbook - The Enigma WarWładysław Kozaczuk - WikipediaPeking Plan - Wikipediahttps://www.google.com/amp/s/Honouring ‘silent and unseen’ fighters who led Polish resistancePoland and the SOEPoles in the United Kingdom - WikipediaWhy did we humiliate Polish aces after Battle of Britain heroics?The Wartime Experiences of an RNR OfficerOperation Unthinkable - WikipediaOperation Most III - WikipediaThe Great Polish Map of ScotlandMargaret Thatcher: A Cold War angel and a democratic miraclePrince Janek Zylinski

Should Queen Elizabeth be referred to as the Queen of England or the Queen of the UK?There has not been Kingdom called “England” since 1707. So how can there be a King or Queen “of England” when there is no Kingdom by that name? A quick history answers the question.Kingdom of England - Wikipedia927 - 1707a sovereign statethe last Queen of England was Queen AnneThe Kingdom of England (Anglo-Norman and French: Royaume d'Angleterre [2] [3] [4]) was a sovereign state on the island of Great Britain from 927, when it emerged from various Anglo-Saxon kingdoms until 1707, when it united with Scotland to form the Kingdom of Great Britain.The Kingdom of England was followed byKingdom of Great Britain - WikipediaOr just Great BritainMay 1, 1707 - December 31, 1800Kingdom of England (including Wales) was united with the Kingdom of Scotlanda sovereign statethe first Monarch was Queen Annethe last Monarch was George IIIThe Kingdom of Great Britain, officially called simply Great Britain, [1] [2] was a sovereign state in western Europe from 1 May 1707 to 31 December 1800. The state came into being following the Treaty of Union in 1706, ratified by the Acts of Union 1707, which united the kingdoms of England (which included Wales) and Scotland to form a single kingdom encompassing the whole island of Great Britainand its outlying islands, with the exception of the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands. The unitary state was governed by a single parliament and government that was based in Westminster.Next, Ireland is added:United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland - WikipediaThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was a sovereign state established by the Acts of Union 1800, which merged the kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland.from 1800 to 1922Kingdom of Great Britain was merged with The Kingdom of Irelanda sovereign statethe first Monarch was George IIIthe last Monarch was George VIt ended in 1922 with the creation of the Irish Free State - Wikipedia which included all the counties of Ireland. The Irish Free State later became the Republic of Ireland - WikipediaOne day later the Northern Counties rejoined The United Kingdom of Great Britain, creatingUnited Kingdom - WikipediaThe United Kingdom (UK), [15] officially the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and sometimes referred to as Britain, [note 10] is a sovereign country located off the north-western coast of the European mainland. The United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland, and many smaller islands.[16] Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom that shares a land border with another sovereign state, the Republic of Ireland.The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Irelandfrom 1922 to present daya sovereign statethe first Monarch was George Vfollowed by George VIfollowed by the current Monarch, Queen Elizabeth IINow, based on this history, we have two questions to answer.Should Queen Elizabeth II be referred to as a Queen of England?No. You know The Kingdom of England ceased to exist as a sovereign state in 1707 and the last Queen of England was Queen AnneShould Queen Elizabeth II be referred to as The Queen of the United Kingdom?YES, this is an abbreviation of her full titleHer full title - from theyworkforyou dot com:Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and of Her other Realms and Territories Queen, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the FaithEDIT 5/29/2019: Brent McKee makes a very good point. The above describes how the Monarch’s title changed over centuries, but it does not take include Commonwealth, just U.K.Elizabeth II’s official title changes depending upon the country she is currently in. This link list all variations of her titles in the first section in sub-section called “Current.”List of titles and honours of Elizabeth II - WikipediaP.S. Thanks, Brent!(Quora A2A)