Why is the United Kingdom called England instead of Britain?

The official name of the United Kingdom is the "United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland". The country consists mainly of England, Wales and Scotland on the island of Great Britain, plus the northeastern part of the island of Ireland, and a number of small islands surrounding it. It is customary to refer to the whole "United Kingdom" by "England", and the Chinese translation is simplified to "英国". "

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the largest country in the world.

The word "England" can be understood as "the territory to which the people who originally lived in the German Anglian peninsula (the peninsula next to the Narrow Water, Angeln) migrated". Anglos refers to the people living in the present-day German peninsula of Schleswig Anglin (German: Angeln, meaning narrow; the word "Angeln" is the same as the English "agnail", the German "eng The word "Angeln" is cognate with the English word "agnail" and the German word "eng". Language transcription: Anglia) of the Western European peoples who inhabited present-day England after the Roman Empire occupied the British peninsula in 42 AD.

Expanded:

. p>Development of the name Britain:

Britain was conquered by Julius Caesar in the 1st century BC and became a province of the Roman Empire. From the mid-5th century A.D., the Germanic peoples of mainland Europe invaded the British Isles in force. The Germans were divided into Angles, Saxons and Jutes, and Britain became the land of the Angles and Saxons, so Britain was named "Anglo-Saxon's land", i.e. Anglo-Saxon's land. Over time, this name evolved into Anglo's land and other forms, and eventually became known as England, and the language spoken by the people of this region became known as English.

The Anglo-Saxons established their dominance with the Celtics and later the Normans, among others. The Anglo-Saxons, in the process of establishing their dominance, integrated with the local Celts and later with the Normans to form the English nation. In the process of this national integration, there were many small kingdoms, countries competing for supremacy, frequent wars, after a long period of competition with each other, annexation.

By the end of the 6th century and the beginning of the 7th century, seven kingdoms were formed, namely, Essex, Wessex and Sussex established by the Saxons, the Kingdom of Kent established by the Jutes, and East Anglia, Mercia and Northumbria established by the Angles. The seven kingdoms were often at war with each other, and their power waxed and waned. This period of time is the famous "seven kingdoms era" in British history (the middle of the 5th century - the beginning of the 9th century).

The Danes invaded Britain at the end of the 8th century A.D., and the seven kingdoms were infringed upon to varying degrees, so they all wished to build up their strength and achieve unity. In the struggle to establish unified hegemony, the two kingdoms of Wessex and Mercia were bitter rivals. In 825 AD, King Egbert of Wessex (reigned 802-839) defeated Mercia at the Battle of Ellanden, and from then on, all the countries successively recognized Egbert as the "ruler of Britain". By 829 AD, Egbert had defeated the Kingdom of Northumbria and essentially united England, and his rule laid the foundation for the strength of the Kingdom of Wessex. It was the first united kingdom in English history.

Baidu Encyclopedia-England