United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland Britain is a country and sovereign state to the north-west of mainland Europe. It comprises the island of Great Britain, the north-east part of the island of Ireland and many small local islands. Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK with a land border, sharing it with the Republic of Ireland. Apart from this land border, the UK is surrounded by the waters of the Atlantic Ocean, the North Sea, the English Channel, and the Irish Sea.The United Kingdom is a constitutional monarchy comprising four constituent countries: England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. The current monarch is Queen Elizabeth II who is also Queen and Head of State of fifteen other Commonwealth Realms including Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Jamaica. The Crown Dependencies of the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man, formally possessions of the Crown, are not part of the UK but form a federacy with it. The UK has fourteen overseas territories, all remnants of the British Empire, which at its height encompassed almost a quarter of the world's land surface.

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...The United Kingdom has the fifth largest economy in the world in terms of market exchange rates and the sixth largest by purchasing power parity (PPP). It has the second largest economy in Europe after Germany. The UK's capital, London, (see Economy of London), is one of the two largest financial centres in the world,The armed forces of the United Kingdom, commonly known as the British Armed Forces or Her Majesty's Armed Forces, and sometimes legally the Armed Forces of the Crown, encompasses a navy, army, and an air force. With a reported personnel strength of 429,500 in 2006 (195,900 regular force, 191,300 regular reserve, and 42,300 volunteer reserve), the British Armed Forces constitutes one of the largest militaries in Europe, though only the 22nd largest in the world by number of troops.The British Armed Forces however have the second highest expenditure (only behind U.S.) of any military in the world. Their Commander-in-Chief is the British monarch, Queen Elizabeth II and they are managed by the Defence Council of the Ministry of Defence. Consistent with longstanding constitutional convention, however, the Prime Minister holds de facto authority over the armed forces. Britain's 14 Overseas Territories, spread throughout the globe, are diverse communities. They range from the tiny island of Pitcairn with its 47 inhabitants, set in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, to Bermuda, which has a population of over 62,000 and is one of the world's major financial centres.The Overseas Territories are:Anguilla, British Antarctic Territory, Bermuda, British Indian Ocean Territory, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Falkland Islands, Gibraltar, Montserrat, St Helena and Dependencies (Ascension Island and Tristan da Cunha), Turk and Caicos Islands, Pitcairn Island, South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands, Sovereign Base Areas on Cyprus.