当前位置:首页 > 英语阅读 > 美文欣赏 > 英语美文欣赏爱情篇>

英语视频畅谈欧美人文风情112:联合王国,大不列颠和英格兰(中英+mp3)

英语视频畅谈欧美人文风情112:联合王国,大不列颠和英格兰(中英+mp3)

整语速调:

Welcome to The United Kingdom (And a whole lot more). Explained by me, C.G.P. Grey.
欢迎收看《联合王国》(以及其他种种)由我,C.G.P. Grey为您解说。
United Kingdom, England, Great Britain? Are these three the same place? Are they different places? Do British people secretly laugh those who use the terms incorrectly? Who knows the answers to these questions? I do, and I'm gonna tell you right now.
“联合王国”,“英格兰”,“大不列颠”?这三个是同一个地方吗?还是它们是不同所在?英国人会偷偷嘲笑那些误用这些名词的人吗?谁知道这些问题的答案?我知道,现在我给您道来。
For the lost: This is the world, this is the European continent and this is the place we have to untangle.
迷途羔羊们:这是全世界,这是欧洲大陆,而这是我们必须要解开谜底的地方。
The area shown in purple is the United Kingdom. Part of the confusion is that the United Kingdom is not a single country but instead is a country of countries. It contains inside of it four co-equal and sovereign nations.
紫色这块区域是“联合王国”。一部分的混淆是指“联合王国”不是一个单一的国家而是个由多个国家组成的国家。它内部包含了四个相互平等的主权国家。
The first of these is England, shown here in red. England is often confused with the United Kingdom as a whole, because it's the largest and most populous of the nations and contains the de facto capital city, London.
首先是“英格兰”,这里用红色表示。“英格兰”通常被误认是整个“联合王国”,因为它是最大且人口最多的国家,还包含了实质上的首都,伦敦。
To the north is Scotland, shown in blue, and to the west is Wales, shown in white. And what's often forgotten even by those who live in the United Kingdom, is Northern Ireland, shown in orange.
北边是“苏格兰”,用蓝色表示,而往西边是“威尔士”,用白色表示。而时常甚至被活在“联合王国”内的人们给遗忘的是“北爱尔兰”,用橘色表示。
Each country has a local term for the population. While you can call them all "British," it's not recommended as the four countries generally don't like each other.
每个国家都有个称呼人民的当地专有名词。尽管你可以统称他们为“英国人”,但还是不建议那样做,因为这四个国家通常不会互相喜欢。
The Northern Irish, Scottish and Welsh regard the English as slave-driving colonial masters, no matter that all three have their own devolved Parliaments, and are allowed to vote on English laws despite the reverse not being true, and the English generally regard the rest as rural yokels who spend too much time with their sheep.
“北爱尔兰人”,“苏格兰人”和“威尔人”认为英格兰人是奴役他人的殖民主子,所有这三个国家都有他们自己传承下来的国会,也被允许参与英格兰立法投票,尽管反之却行不通(英格兰人无法干涉这三个国家的内政),而英格兰人通常认为其他人是农村来的乡巴佬,花太多时间在他们的绵羊身上。
However, as the four constituent countries don't have their own passports, they are all British Citizens, like it or not. They are British Citizens of the United Kingdom, whose full name by the way is the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
然而,因为这四个构成国并没有自己的护照,不管喜不喜欢,他们都是“英国公民”。他们是“联合王国”的“英国公民”,顺带一提,“联合王国”的全名是“大不列颠及北爱尔兰联合王国”。
So where's Great Britain hiding?
所以“大不列颠”藏在哪里?
Right here: the area covered in black is Great Britain. Unlike England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, Great Britain is a geographical rather than a political term. Great Britain is the largest island among the British Isles.
就在这儿:黑色覆盖的区域是“大不列颠”。不像“英格兰”,“苏格兰”,“威尔士”和“北爱尔兰”一样,“大不列颠”是个地理上而不是政治上的名词。“大不列颠”是“不列颠群岛”中最大的岛屿。
Within the United Kingdom, the term "Great Britain" is often used to refer to England, Scotland and Wales alone, with the intentional exclusion of Northern Ireland.
在“联合王国”内,“大不列颠”这个名词通常用来单独指“英格兰”,“苏格兰”和“威尔士”,刻意将“北爱尔兰”排除在外。这大多数时候是正确的,但也不完全对,因为所有三个构成国都拥有不属于“大不列颠”的岛屿,像是“英格兰”的一部分--“维特岛”、“威尔士”的“安格里斯岛”、“苏格兰”的“赫布里底群岛”、“谢德兰群岛”、“奥克尼群岛”和“克莱德群岛”。
This is mostly, but not completely true, as all three constituent countries have islands that are not part of Great Britain, such as The Isle of Wight, part of England, the Welsh Isle of Anglesey, the Scottish Hebrides, the Shetland Islands, the Orkney Islands and the Islands of the Clyde.
“不列颠群岛”第二大的岛屿是“爱尔兰”。
The second biggest island in the British Isles is Ireland.
现在值得注意的是,“爱尔兰”不是个国家。就像“大不列颠”一样,它是个地理上,而不是政治上的名词。
It is worth noting at this point that Ireland is not a country. Like Great Britain, it's a geographical, not political term.
“爱尔兰岛”包含了两个国家:我们已经讨论过了的“北爱尔兰”和“爱尔兰共和国”。
The Island of Ireland contains on it two countries: Northern Ireland, which we have already discussed and the Republic of Ireland.
当人们说他们是“爱尔兰人”,他们提到的是“爱尔兰共和国”,和“联合王国”是分开的两个国家。
When people say they are Irish, they are referring to the Republic of Ireland, which is a separate country from the United Kingdom.
然而,“爱尔兰共和国”和“联合王国”都是欧盟成员,即便“英格兰”特别喜欢装得好像是个大西洋中间而不是在法国海岸线外五十公里处的岛屿。但那又是另一个故事了。
However, both the Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom are members of the European Union, even though England in particular likes to pretend that it's an Island in the Mid-Atlantic, rather than fifty kilometers off the coast of France. But that's a story for another time.
复习一下:
To review:
“不列颠群岛”中两个最大的岛屿是“爱尔兰”和“大不列颠”。“爱尔兰”中有两个国家:“爱尔兰共和国”和“北爱尔兰”,而“大不列颠”主要包含三个国家:“英格兰”、“苏格兰”和“威尔士”。这最后三个,当和“北爱尔兰”结合在一起时,组成了“联合王国”。
The two largest islands in the British Isles are Ireland and Great Britain. Ireland has on it two countries: the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, while Great Britain mostly contains three: England, Scotland and Wales. These last three, when combined with Northern Ireland, form the United Kingdom.
还有很多有待回答的问题,像是:为何,当你到加拿大旅游时,在钱币上有“不列颠帝王”?
There are still many unanswered questions, such as: Why, when you travel to Canada, is there British Royalty on the money?
要回答这问题,我们得谈谈“帝国”。
To answer this, we need to talk about Empire.
你不能上过了英语系世界的学校而不知道“不列颠帝国”曾经横跨全世界四分之一的土地并统治了将近全世界四分之一的人民。
You can't have gone to school in the English-speaking world without having learned that the British Empire once spanned a fourth of world's land and governed nearly a fourth of world's people.
尽管要记得那些透过暴力脱离“不列颠帝国”的部分地区是很容易的,我们常常忘记有多少国家是透过外交手段获得独立,而不是透过流血冲突。
While it's easy to remember the parts of the British Empire that broke away violently, we often forget how many nations gained independence through diplomacy, not bloodshed.
这些自称的国家和帝国签订合约,此中他们继续认同君主为元首,交换当地自治的国会。
These want-to-be nations struck a deal with the Empire, where they continued to recognize the monarch(y) as the head of state in exchange for a local, autonomous parliament.
要了解他们如何连结在一起的,我们得谈谈“王权”。不是位于伦敦塔的玻璃后面,为英国赚取游客数百万英镑的实体王冠,而是最容易被人想成是一人企业般的复杂法定实体的“王权”。
谁创立了这企业?
To understand how they are connected, we need to talk about the Crown. Not the physical crown that sits behind glass in the Tower of London and earns millions of tourist pounds for the UK, but the Crown as a complicated legal entity best thought of as a one-man corporation.
老天爷创的。
Who created this corporation?
根据“英国传统”所有权力是神所授予的,而君主在一个基督教仪式上加冕的。然而神--不想心烦于细部管理--方便地将他的权力委派给了一个称做“王权”的实体。尽管那以前曾是伦敦塔里的实体王冠,它日渐演变成为一个法律上的独资公司,仅受支配一切的君主控制。
God Did.
它有效的提醒着我们“联合王国”严格地来说仍然是个神权政治,在位的君主同时担任元首和法定国教:“英国国教”的最高总督。
According to British Tradition all power is vested in God, and the monarch is crowned in a Christian ceremony. God however—not wanting to be bothered with micromanagement—conveniently delegates his power to an entity called the Crown. While this used to be the physical crown in the Tower of London, it evolved over time into a legal corporation sole, able to be controlled only by the ruling monarch.
这些就是当涉及一个拥有千年历史的君权政治产生的怪事。
It's a useful reminder that the United Kingdom is still technically a theocracy with the reigning monarch acting as both the head of state and the supreme governor of the official state religion: Anglicanism.
回来看看加拿大以及其它:那些通过外交以及继续认同“王权”统治而获得独立的前殖民地被称作“英联邦王国”。
Such are the oddities that arise when dealing with a thousand-year-old Monarchy.
按照人口数递减的次序,它们是:加拿大、澳洲、巴布亚新几内亚、纽西兰、牙买加、索罗门群岛、贝里斯、巴哈马、巴贝多、圣露西亚、圣文森、格瑞那达、安地卡及巴布达、圣克里斯多福及尼维斯和图瓦卢。
Back to Canada and the rest: The former colonies that gained their independence through diplomacy and continue to recognize the authority of the Crown are known as the Commonwealth Realm.
通通都是独立国家但仍然认同君主为元首,即便它在境内几乎没有实际权力。
They are, in decreasing order of population: Canada, Australia, Papua New Guinea, New Zealand, Jamaica, the Solomon Islands, Belize, the Bahamas, Barbados, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Grenada, Antigua and Barbuda, Saint Kitts and Nevis, and Tuvalu.
有三个属于“王权”,更进一步的实体,这些是“皇家属地”:马恩岛、泽西岛和根西岛。
All are independent nations but still recognize the monarch(y) as the head of state, even though it has little real power within their borders.
不像“英联邦王国”,它们不被认为是独立国家,但“王权”授予自治权和“联合王国”所赋予的“英国公民身分”,虽然“联合王国”的确保留了驳回当地议会法律的权力。
There are three further entities that belong to the Crown, and these are the Crown Dependencies: The Isle of Man, Jersey and Guernsey.
我们全都讲完了吗?
Unlike the Commonwealth Realm, they are not considered independent nations, but are granted local autonomy by the Crown and British Citizenship by the United Kingdom, though the UK does reserve the right to overrule the laws of their local assemblies.
快了,但还没。仍有些尚未解决的问题,像是这地方:西班牙南岸的直布罗陀小城市,以岩石、猴子和造成“联合王国”及西班牙间的外交紧张局势而出名。
Are we all done now?
那么福克兰群岛呢?那造成了“联合王国”和阿根廷间许多紧张情势,它们曾因而打仗。
Almost, but not quite. There are still a couple of loose threads, such as this place: The tiny city of Gibraltar on the Southern Cost of Spain, famous for its rock, its monkeys and for causing diplomatic tension between the United Kingdom and Spain.
这些地点属于最后一组的“皇家领地”,也就是着名的“英属海外领土”。但它们先前的名字“皇家殖民地”透露出它们的来由。它们是“不列颠帝国”的最后遗迹。
Or what about the Falkland Islands? Which caused so much tension between the United Kingdom and Argentina that they went to war over them.
不像“英联邦王国”,它们还没成为独立国家,并继续在军事上,有时候经济上依靠“联合王国”的协助。就像是“皇家属地”一样,每个在它们境内出生的人都是“英国公民”。
These places belong in the last group of Crown Properties, known as British Overseas Territories. But their former name "Crown Colonies" gives away their origins. They are the last vestiges of the British Empire.
“皇家殖民地”,按照人口数递减的次序为:百慕达、开曼群岛、特克斯和凯科斯群岛、直布罗陀、英属维京群岛、亚克罗提利与德凯利亚、安圭拉、圣赫伦那、亚森欣岛、特里斯坦-达库尼亚、蒙特塞拉特岛、英属印度洋领地、南乔治亚及南三明治群岛、福克兰群岛、英属南极领土和皮特凯恩群岛。
Unlike the Commonwealth Realm, they have not become independent nations and continue to rely on the United Kingdom for military and sometimes economic assistance. Like the Crown Dependencies, everyone born within their borders is a British Citizen.
在我们最后的范恩图中,“联合王国”是个位于“不列颠群岛”的国家而且是君主统治的“王权”中的一部分。
The Crown Colonies are, in decreasing order of population: Bermuda, the Cayman Islands, the Turks and Caicos Islands, Gibraltar, the British Virgin Islands, Akrotiri and Dhekelia, Anguilla, Saint Helena, the Ascension Islands, Tristan da Cunha, Montserrat, the British Indian Ocean Territory, the South Georgia and the South Sandwich
部分的“王权国家”以及“不列颠群岛”也是“皇家属地”。前帝国中仍然认同“王权”的独立国家是“英联邦王国”,而前帝国中的非独立残存者则是“英属海外领土”。
Islands, the Falkland Islands, the British Antarctic Territory, and the Pitcairn Islands.
非常感谢你的收看。
For our final Venn diagram, the United Kingdom is a country situated on the British Isles and is part of the Crown which is controlled by the monarch(y).

Also part of the Crown and the British Isles are the Crown Dependencies. The independent nations of the former empire that still recognize the Crown are the Commonwealth Realm, and the non-independent remnants of the former empire are the British Overseas Territories.

Thank you very much for watching.



展开全部内容

欢迎收看《联合王国》(以及其他种种)由我,C.G.P. Grey为您解说。
“联合王国”,“英格兰”,“大不列颠”?这三个是同一个地方吗?还是它们是不同所在?英国人会偷偷嘲笑那些误用这些名词的人吗?谁知道这些问题的答案?我知道,现在我给您道来。
迷途羔羊们:这是全世界,这是欧洲大陆,而这是我们必须要解开谜底的地方。
紫色这块区域是“联合王国”。一部分的混淆是指“联合王国”不是一个单一的国家而是个由多个国家组成的国家。它内部包含了四个相互平等的主权国家。
首先是“英格兰”,这里用红色表示。“英格兰”通常被误认是整个“联合王国”,因为它是最大且人口最多的国家,还包含了实质上的首都,伦敦。
北边是“苏格兰”,用蓝色表示,而往西边是“威尔士”,用白色表示。而时常甚至被活在“联合王国”内的人们给遗忘的是“北爱尔兰”,用橘色表示。
每个国家都有个称呼人民的当地专有名词。尽管你可以统称他们为“英国人”,但还是不建议那样做,因为这四个国家通常不会互相喜欢。
“北爱尔兰人”,“苏格兰人”和“威尔人”认为英格兰人是奴役他人的殖民主子,所有这三个国家都有他们自己传承下来的国会,也被允许参与英格兰立法投票,尽管反之却行不通(英格兰人无法干涉这三个国家的内政),而英格兰人通常认为其他人是农村来的乡巴佬,花太多时间在他们的绵羊身上。
然而,因为这四个构成国并没有自己的护照,不管喜不喜欢,他们都是“英国公民”。他们是“联合王国”的“英国公民”,顺带一提,“联合王国”的全名是“大不列颠及北爱尔兰联合王国”。
所以“大不列颠”藏在哪里?
就在这儿:黑色覆盖的区域是“大不列颠”。不像“英格兰”,“苏格兰”,“威尔士”和“北爱尔兰”一样,“大不列颠”是个地理上而不是政治上的名词。“大不列颠”是“不列颠群岛”中最大的岛屿。
在“联合王国”内,“大不列颠”这个名词通常用来单独指“英格兰”,“苏格兰”和“威尔士”,刻意将“北爱尔兰”排除在外。这大多数时候是正确的,但也不完全对,因为所有三个构成国都拥有不属于“大不列颠”的岛屿,像是“英格兰”的一部分--“维特岛”、“威尔士”的“安格里斯岛”、“苏格兰”的“赫布里底群岛”、“谢德兰群岛”、“奥克尼群岛”和“克莱德群岛”。
“不列颠群岛”第二大的岛屿是“爱尔兰”。
现在值得注意的是,“爱尔兰”不是个国家。就像“大不列颠”一样,它是个地理上,而不是政治上的名词。
“爱尔兰岛”包含了两个国家:我们已经讨论过了的“北爱尔兰”和“爱尔兰共和国”。
当人们说他们是“爱尔兰人”,他们提到的是“爱尔兰共和国”,和“联合王国”是分开的两个国家。
然而,“爱尔兰共和国”和“联合王国”都是欧盟成员,即便“英格兰”特别喜欢装得好像是个大西洋中间而不是在法国海岸线外五十公里处的岛屿。但那又是另一个故事了。
复习一下:
“不列颠群岛”中两个最大的岛屿是“爱尔兰”和“大不列颠”。“爱尔兰”中有两个国家:“爱尔兰共和国”和“北爱尔兰”,而“大不列颠”主要包含三个国家:“英格兰”、“苏格兰”和“威尔士”。这最后三个,当和“北爱尔兰”结合在一起时,组成了“联合王国”。
还有很多有待回答的问题,像是:为何,当你到加拿大旅游时,在钱币上有“不列颠帝王”?
要回答这问题,我们得谈谈“帝国”。
你不能上过了英语系世界的学校而不知道“不列颠帝国”曾经横跨全世界四分之一的土地并统治了将近全世界四分之一的人民。
尽管要记得那些透过暴力脱离“不列颠帝国”的部分地区是很容易的,我们常常忘记有多少国家是透过外交手段获得独立,而不是透过流血冲突。
这些自称的国家和帝国签订合约,此中他们继续认同君主为元首,交换当地自治的国会。
要了解他们如何连结在一起的,我们得谈谈“王权”。不是位于伦敦塔的玻璃后面,为英国赚取游客数百万英镑的实体王冠,而是最容易被人想成是一人企业般的复杂法定实体的“王权”。
谁创立了这企业?
老天爷创的。
根据“英国传统”所有权力是神所授予的,而君主在一个基督教仪式上加冕的。然而神--不想心烦于细部管理--方便地将他的权力委派给了一个称做“王权”的实体。尽管那以前曾是伦敦塔里的实体王冠,它日渐演变成为一个法律上的独资公司,仅受支配一切的君主控制。
它有效的提醒着我们“联合王国”严格地来说仍然是个神权政治,在位的君主同时担任元首和法定国教:“英国国教”的最高总督。
这些就是当涉及一个拥有千年历史的君权政治产生的怪事。
回来看看加拿大以及其它:那些通过外交以及继续认同“王权”统治而获得独立的前殖民地被称作“英联邦王国”。
按照人口数递减的次序,它们是:加拿大、澳洲、巴布亚新几内亚、纽西兰、牙买加、索罗门群岛、贝里斯、巴哈马、巴贝多、圣露西亚、圣文森、格瑞那达、安地卡及巴布达、圣克里斯多福及尼维斯和图瓦卢。
通通都是独立国家但仍然认同君主为元首,即便它在境内几乎没有实际权力。
有三个属于“王权”,更进一步的实体,这些是“皇家属地”:马恩岛、泽西岛和根西岛。
不像“英联邦王国”,它们不被认为是独立国家,但“王权”授予自治权和“联合王国”所赋予的“英国公民身分”,虽然“联合王国”的确保留了驳回当地议会法律的权力。
我们全都讲完了吗?
快了,但还没。仍有些尚未解决的问题,像是这地方:西班牙南岸的直布罗陀小城市,以岩石、猴子和造成“联合王国”及西班牙间的外交紧张局势而出名。
那么福克兰群岛呢?那造成了“联合王国”和阿根廷间许多紧张情势,它们曾因而打仗。
这些地点属于最后一组的“皇家领地”,也就是着名的“英属海外领土”。但它们先前的名字“皇家殖民地”透露出它们的来由。它们是“不列颠帝国”的最后遗迹。
不像“英联邦王国”,它们还没成为独立国家,并继续在军事上,有时候经济上依靠“联合王国”的协助。就像是“皇家属地”一样,每个在它们境内出生的人都是“英国公民”。
“皇家殖民地”,按照人口数递减的次序为:百慕达、开曼群岛、特克斯和凯科斯群岛、直布罗陀、英属维京群岛、亚克罗提利与德凯利亚、安圭拉、圣赫伦那、亚森欣岛、特里斯坦-达库尼亚、蒙特塞拉特岛、英属印度洋领地、南乔治亚及南三明治群岛、福克兰群岛、英属南极领土和皮特凯恩群岛。
在我们最后的范恩图中,“联合王国”是个位于“不列颠群岛”的国家而且是君主统治的“王权”中的一部分。
部分的“王权国家”以及“不列颠群岛”也是“皇家属地”。前帝国中仍然认同“王权”的独立国家是“英联邦王国”,而前帝国中的非独立残存者则是“英属海外领土”。
非常感谢你的收看。



Welcome to The United Kingdom (And a whole lot more). Explained by me, C.G.P. Grey.
United Kingdom, England, Great Britain? Are these three the same place? Are they different places? Do British people secretly laugh those who use the terms incorrectly? Who knows the answers to these questions? I do, and I'm gonna tell you right now.
For the lost: This is the world, this is the European continent and this is the place we have to untangle.
The area shown in purple is the United Kingdom. Part of the confusion is that the United Kingdom is not a single country but instead is a country of countries. It contains inside of it four co-equal and sovereign nations.
The first of these is England, shown here in red. England is often confused with the United Kingdom as a whole, because it's the largest and most populous of the nations and contains the de facto capital city, London.
To the north is Scotland, shown in blue, and to the west is Wales, shown in white. And what's often forgotten even by those who live in the United Kingdom, is Northern Ireland, shown in orange.
Each country has a local term for the population. While you can call them all "British," it's not recommended as the four countries generally don't like each other.
The Northern Irish, Scottish and Welsh regard the English as slave-driving colonial masters, no matter that all three have their own devolved Parliaments, and are allowed to vote on English laws despite the reverse not being true, and the English generally regard the rest as rural yokels who spend too much time with their sheep.
However, as the four constituent countries don't have their own passports, they are all British Citizens, like it or not. They are British Citizens of the United Kingdom, whose full name by the way is the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
So where's Great Britain hiding?
Right here: the area covered in black is Great Britain. Unlike England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, Great Britain is a geographical rather than a political term. Great Britain is the largest island among the British Isles.
Within the United Kingdom, the term "Great Britain" is often used to refer to England, Scotland and Wales alone, with the intentional exclusion of Northern Ireland.
This is mostly, but not completely true, as all three constituent countries have islands that are not part of Great Britain, such as The Isle of Wight, part of England, the Welsh Isle of Anglesey, the Scottish Hebrides, the Shetland Islands, the Orkney Islands and the Islands of the Clyde.
The second biggest island in the British Isles is Ireland.
It is worth noting at this point that Ireland is not a country. Like Great Britain, it's a geographical, not political term.
The Island of Ireland contains on it two countries: Northern Ireland, which we have already discussed and the Republic of Ireland.
When people say they are Irish, they are referring to the Republic of Ireland, which is a separate country from the United Kingdom.
However, both the Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom are members of the European Union, even though England in particular likes to pretend that it's an Island in the Mid-Atlantic, rather than fifty kilometers off the coast of France. But that's a story for another time.
To review:
The two largest islands in the British Isles are Ireland and Great Britain. Ireland has on it two countries: the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, while Great Britain mostly contains three: England, Scotland and Wales. These last three, when combined with Northern Ireland, form the United Kingdom.
There are still many unanswered questions, such as: Why, when you travel to Canada, is there British Royalty on the money?
To answer this, we need to talk about Empire.
You can't have gone to school in the English-speaking world without having learned that the British Empire once spanned a fourth of world's land and governed nearly a fourth of world's people.
While it's easy to remember the parts of the British Empire that broke away violently, we often forget how many nations gained independence through diplomacy, not bloodshed.
These want-to-be nations struck a deal with the Empire, where they continued to recognize the monarch(y) as the head of state in exchange for a local, autonomous parliament.
To understand how they are connected, we need to talk about the Crown. Not the physical crown that sits behind glass in the Tower of London and earns millions of tourist pounds for the UK, but the Crown as a complicated legal entity best thought of as a one-man corporation.
Who created this corporation?
God Did.
According to British Tradition all power is vested in God, and the monarch is crowned in a Christian ceremony. God however—not wanting to be bothered with micromanagement—conveniently delegates his power to an entity called the Crown. While this used to be the physical crown in the Tower of London, it evolved over time into a legal corporation sole, able to be controlled only by the ruling monarch.
It's a useful reminder that the United Kingdom is still technically a theocracy with the reigning monarch acting as both the head of state and the supreme governor of the official state religion: Anglicanism.
Such are the oddities that arise when dealing with a thousand-year-old Monarchy.
Back to Canada and the rest: The former colonies that gained their independence through diplomacy and continue to recognize the authority of the Crown are known as the Commonwealth Realm.
They are, in decreasing order of population: Canada, Australia, Papua New Guinea, New Zealand, Jamaica, the Solomon Islands, Belize, the Bahamas, Barbados, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Grenada, Antigua and Barbuda, Saint Kitts and Nevis, and Tuvalu.
All are independent nations but still recognize the monarch(y) as the head of state, even though it has little real power within their borders.
There are three further entities that belong to the Crown, and these are the Crown Dependencies: The Isle of Man, Jersey and Guernsey.
Unlike the Commonwealth Realm, they are not considered independent nations, but are granted local autonomy by the Crown and British Citizenship by the United Kingdom, though the UK does reserve the right to overrule the laws of their local assemblies.
Are we all done now?
Almost, but not quite. There are still a couple of loose threads, such as this place: The tiny city of Gibraltar on the Southern Cost of Spain, famous for its rock, its monkeys and for causing diplomatic tension between the United Kingdom and Spain.
Or what about the Falkland Islands? Which caused so much tension between the United Kingdom and Argentina that they went to war over them.
These places belong in the last group of Crown Properties, known as British Overseas Territories. But their former name "Crown Colonies" gives away their origins. They are the last vestiges of the British Empire.
Unlike the Commonwealth Realm, they have not become independent nations and continue to rely on the United Kingdom for military and sometimes economic assistance. Like the Crown Dependencies, everyone born within their borders is a British Citizen.
The Crown Colonies are, in decreasing order of population: Bermuda, the Cayman Islands, the Turks and Caicos Islands, Gibraltar, the British Virgin Islands, Akrotiri and Dhekelia, Anguilla, Saint Helena, the Ascension Islands, Tristan da Cunha, Montserrat, the British Indian Ocean Territory, the South Georgia and the South Sandwich
Islands, the Falkland Islands, the British Antarctic Territory, and the Pitcairn Islands.
For our final Venn diagram, the United Kingdom is a country situated on the British Isles and is part of the Crown which is controlled by the monarch(y).
Also part of the Crown and the British Isles are the Crown Dependencies. The independent nations of the former empire that still recognize the Crown are the Commonwealth Realm, and the non-independent remnants of the former empire are the British Overseas Territories.
Thank you very much for watching.

您可能感兴趣

为您推荐英语书

北师大版高三必修5英语书高三必修5英语书 北师大版高二必修3英语书高二必修3英语书 北师大版高一必修2英语书高一必修2英语书 北师大版高一必修1英语书高一必修1英语书 人教版八年级上册英语书八年级上册英语书 人教版高一必修二英语书高一必修二英语书