History of the UK

Another significant king was Charles I. During his reign the revolution started. The king was executed and for a short period of time after the Civil War (1644-1649) England became a republic (Oliver Cromwell titled Lord Protector). He had a new model army that defeated the royalist in ECW.

Charles II is known for the Acts of Union of 1707 which united England, Scotland and Wales under one parliament as a Kingdom of Great Britain.

Another monarch who gave her name to an age was Queen Victoria. She succeeded to the throne in 1837 at the age of eighteen. After her husband, Prince Albert, died, Victoria withdrew into seclusion although she reigned for another forty years. During that time the British Empire grew and grew, and the Queen was the dignified symbol of the continuity and stability of the British way of life. Victoria was the first monarch to live in Buckingham Palace. Queen Victoria became an Indian Emperor. The Victorian Era is known for Industrial Revolution which culminated in The Great Exhibition in 1851.

Then the WWI started. Even though Britain belonged to the winners of the war, it suffered a great casualty of over 1 million dead people and colonies.

During WWII Britain was one of the 3 major Allied Powers (with Winston Churchill as the Prime Minister). Churchill refused the appeasement policy which led the country to victory in the famous air battle of Britain in 1940.

After WWII the colonial system entered a series of crises marked by the national liberation movement in the colonies. In 1947 India, led by Mahatma Gandhi, and Pakistan were granted independence: India became a republic.

Though the 1970s and 1980s saw the UK's integration to the European Economic Community which became the European Union in 1992 and a strict modernization of its economy.

The current monarch of the UK is Queen Elizabeth II from the Windsor dynasty who is now 86 years old. Her husband is Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. They have four children; one of them is Charles, Prince of Wales who was married to Princess Diana. They have two sons, Prince William and Prince Henry. Lady Diana died in a car crash in Paris in 1997 and Charles remarried. His second wife is Camilla Parker Bowls. Prince William married Catherine Middleton in 2011 and they became Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. Catherine is expecting an heir now. Prince William is second in the line of succession, behind his father.

During the reign of Elizabeth II twelve Prime Ministers ruled the UK. The first one was Winston Churchill. Probably one of the most famous PM is Margaret Thatcher, the only female PM. She stayed prime minister from 1979 to 1990. She led the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. She is often known by her nickname, "the Iron Lady". She directed British troops in 1982 to get back the Falkland Islands from Argentina. Argentina had taken the Falklands for a short time during the Falklands War. She had the second longest single prime ministerial term in history.

She was succeeded by John Major, Tony Blair, Gordon Brown and finally, current PM David Cameron.