ANGLOCENTRISM Most people in England think that: 1) England - TopicsExpress



          

ANGLOCENTRISM Most people in England think that: 1) England is ruled by the queen of England (formerly by the kings of England). 2) England is the name of the country in which they live. 3) England is also the name for the British family of nations and peoples over which England rules. 4) English history and British history are one and the same thing. 5) The English think that their traditions have been the model for all others in the British family, and hence are the only ones that count. The first question is: are these thoughts true? 1) England is not ruled by a queen of England, because there has been no queen of England since Queen Anne became queen of Great Britain in 1707. Queen Elizabeth II is the eleventh British (and not English) monarch in the line of the Hanoverian succession beginning from the same date. By rights, she should not be counted “Elizabeth II” because Elizabeth I (Tudor) was the queen of different realms – of England and Wales, and of Ireland. Therefore, the English tradition has precedence, and does not respect logic at all. 2) All the inhabitants of England are subjects of the British monarch and citizens of the United Kingdom of Great Britain & Northern Ireland. The accepted shorthand name for the United Kingdom is either “the UK” or “Britain” but not “England”. 3) Indeed, England used to be the popular collective name for all the peoples both of the British Isles and of the British Commonwealth. But this illogical convention has ceases to be current for the last sixty-seventy years. 4) English history is the history of England. Strictly speaking, it came to an end in 1707, when, like Scotland, England ceased to be a sovereign state, but it may also be seen to be a constituent part of British history, in that England since 1707 has been one of several constituent parts of the United Kingdom. At all events, English history and British history are by no means the same thing. 5) England and the English people have been the dominant element in the British Isles for centuries. As far as modern history is concerned, their traditions and their interests should undoubtedly be given pride of place. However, there is no good reason to use English dominance to ignore or minimize the traditions and the interests of the non-English, especially in the pre-Union period.
Posted on: Fri, 29 Aug 2014 06:32:53 +0000

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