I'm not trying to be offensive...?

Question

Okay, I recently asked a question about why people think England is a nation when the nation is the United Kingdom and is composed of: England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland.

I was actually surprised to see how many angry responses I got from citizens of the UK stating that "England is a nation" and then bashing me...

Obviously this is a touchy subject, but here is my question:
What countries officially recognize England as a nation?
(If you would like to answer my first question about whether or not England is a country, I don't mind that, either, but please be respectful. I am truly not trying to offend anyone, so there is no reason to get angry.)

Answer 1

This seems to be something that is difficult for non-Britons to undersand and it all relates to the history of the British Islands.

In the past all the countries that make up The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (by the way the second longest official country name in the world) were seperate and independent kingdoms, with Wales being a series of principalities.

England being the largest and most powerful of the then entities that made up the countries of the British Isles started its colonial ambitions with the Welsh, engaging in many hundreds of years of war and guerilla action to subdue and subjugate them. The annexation of Wales by England was officially recognised by the Statute of Rhyddlan, that forceably abolished the Welsh Parliarment. Further integration was achieved under a Welsh king of England - Henry VIII and his successor Queen Elizabeth II.

Wales was then deconstructed and became officially England, a state that existed until the early part of the 20th century. In the latter part of the 20th and early 21st century some redress was made by the establishment of a Welsh Assembly with limited powers.

The Welsh have more closely aliegned themselves with the English than either the Scots or the Irish. Perhaps because of the overwhelming odds and the calous indifference shown to the Welsh in just as much measure as that to the Irish. Ireland of course was a larger state and more remote from England and therefore more difficult to subdue.

Scotland volunteered to join England in a Greater Britain by the Act of Union of 1707. Unlike Wales though the Scots were allowed to keep their own laws and indeed to make their own laws which specifically related to them allbeit made in the Parliament in London.

Ireland is quite another matter.

So history and cultural identity has a great deal to do in the psychology of English, Welsh, Scottish and Northern Irish 'nationhood'.

Of course they are not nations in the truly accepted sense of the word nor are they synonimous with the federal structure of Canada, Australia or the US; but that does not stop the populations thinking of them as different from each other.

Answer 2

Your problem is one of definition. If you define "nation" as a legally separate country with separate legal relations with other countries, separate membership in the UN and EU, etc., then you are right.

But "nation" can be defined many ways, and if by nation you mean a geographical discrete unit or people with a separate history and cultural identity and separate sports teams, then people who say England is a nation is correct.

Many such arguments are all about defining terms.

Answer 3

england is a nation period. it is part of a greater area called great brittan. which is made up of several nations. something like when the soviet union still existed, russia was a country, but also part of the soviet union.

Answer 4

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdom

Read thoroughly, there is yer answer.

England is recognized as a nation. A separate nation.