UNITED KINGDOM
Population: 60,094,648
Area: 244,820 sq. km.
Economy: In 2002, the UK ranked 12th in the UN's Human Development Index survey and 7th in total GDP, with a per capita GDP of $25,427. 17% ot its population lived in poverty, with 15.7% surviving on less than $11 a day. Debt service statistics unavailable.
Main Language: English
Monkey's Name: The Monkey
Fun Fact: In 1936, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) built a studio and erected an antenna at north London's Alexandra Palace, a 19th Century exhibition hall. From there, on 2 November 1936 the BBC began the world's first regularly scheduled television broadcast.
The United Kingdom has had a long and complicated history, and one that does not easily lend itself to encapsulation. Among the UK's most important modern historical developments were its "take-off" as the first industrialized country in the late 18th and early 19th Centuries. Seeking supplies for its mills and forges, and markets for its wares, the UK passed the Spanish, Portuguese, and Ottomans as the world's preeminent colonial power, creating an empire stretching from neighboring Ireland to territories in places as far-flung as modern-day Argentina, the United States, Australia, Egypt, South Africa, India, and China.
The hugely influential British Empire has since receded, though remnants of it remain in the loose linkages of the Commonwealth and the persistence of English as a world language. Nowadays, the non-committal UK seeks a place in the world, working angles and trying to choose a path somewhere between a subservient position in its partnerships with the United States and its aspirations for greater influence in the European Union, an organization in which it at times seems hesitant to participate more fully. On a cultural level, from its respected BBC to its pop music, its footballers to its beers and whiskies, and its artists to its architects, the UK remains a powerful global force.
The United Kingdom, of course, consists of four semi-autonomous parts: England, Scotland and Wales on the isle of Britain, and Northern Ireland on the isle of Ireland. Thus far, of the UK's parts the Monkey has only been to England, and of that only a few areas of the south. Most of his time spent in the UK involved London, the largest city in Europe. Despite being something of a Londonphile, the Monkey's photographic exploits have been fairly minimal. He hopes to return and visit more of the UK in the short-term future.
The Monkey poses by the buildings of the British Parliament, home to one of the oldest continually operating representative government systems in the world.
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