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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Wales (Welsh: Cymru;[1] spoken /ˈkəmrɨ/ ) is one of the four constituent countries of the United Kingdom. Traditionally a principality (Twysogaeth Cymru),[2][3][4] Wales is located in the southwest of the island of Great Britain bordering England (Lloegr) to the east, the Bristol Channel (Môr Hafren) to the south, the Irish Sea (Môr Iwerddon) to the west and north, and the estuary of the River Dee (Afon Dyfrdwy) in the upper northeast.
A Welsh national identity emerged in the early 5th century.[5] In the 18th century the Welsh Methodist revival transformed Welsh society, and even as late as the 20th century Protestant nonconformism was central to Welsh identity.[6] From the late 19th century onwards, Wales also acquired a popular national image as the "land of song", attributable in part to the revival of the eisteddfod tradition.[7]
Cardiff (Caerdydd) is Wales' largest city and home of the largest media center in Britain outside of London[8] Located in the southeast, Cardiff was established as capital of Wales in 1955 and is among Europe's 'youngest' capitals. Two-thirds of the Welsh population lives in the southeast, with another concentration in the northeast.
The Industrial Revolution in Wales was distinctive, driven by the production of capital goods and raw materials rather than factory-made consumer goods.[7] Coal mining, steelmaking, and slate quarrying were major facets of the Welsh economy into until the late 20th century. More recently, light manufacturing and the service sector have replaced heavy industry as Wales transitioned into a modern post-industrial economy.
Gwynedd's Llywelyn I the Great founded the Principality of Wales in 1216. [2] Following the Edwardian Conquest, Owain Glyndŵr briefly restored the independence of the Welsh principality in the early 15th century. England formally annexed Wales and abolished Welsh law in the 16th century. A distinctive Welsh polity emerged in the 19th century leading to a devolved legislature and government in 1999. Today, Wales continues to share political and legal structures to varying degrees with the United Kingdom.
[edit] Etymology
The English name "Wales" originates from the Germanic word Walha, meaning "foreigner," probably derived from the term Volcae.[citation needed] The term also appears in the "-wall" of Cornwall. The Welsh call their country Cymru in the Welsh language, which most likely meant "compatriots" in Old Welsh.[9] The name competed for a long time in Welsh literature with the older name Brythoniaid (Brythons). Only after 1100 did the former become as common as the latter;[10] both terms applied originally not only to the inhabitants of what is now called Wales, but in general to speakers of the Brythonic language and its descendants, many of whom lived in "the Old North": the placenames Cymru (Welsh for Wales) and Cumbria are of the same origin.[10] The Angles, Saxons and Jutes were known indiscriminately as Saeson in Welsh (the term is cognate with "Saxon"; compare Gaelic Sassenach); Sais, plural Saeson, is the modern Welsh word for "Englishman."
There is also a medieval legend found in the Historia Regum Britanniae of Sieffre o Fynwy (Geoffrey of Monmouth) that derives it from the name Camber, son of Brutus and, according to the legend, the eponymous King of Cymru (Cambria in Latin); this, however, is considered largely the fruit of Geoffrey's vivid imagination. Cumberland and Cumbria in the North of England derive their names from the same Old Welsh word.
[edit] History
[edit] Colonisation
The first documented history was recorded during the Roman occupation of Britain. At that time the area of modern Wales was divided into many tribes, of which the Silures in the south-east and the Ordovices in the central and north-west areas were the largest and most powerful.
The Romans established a string of forts across what is now South Wales, as far west as Carmarthen (Caerfyrddin; Latin: Maridunum), and mined gold at Dolaucothi in Carmarthenshire. There is evidence that they progressed even farther west. They also built the legionary fortress at Caerleon (Latin: Isca Silurum), of which the magnificent amphitheatre is the best preserved in Britain. The Romans were also busy in Northern Wales, and the mediaeval Welsh tale Breuddwyd Macsen Wledig claims that Magnus Maximus (Macsen Wledig), one of the last western Roman Emperors, married Elen or Helen, the daughter of a Welsh chieftain from Segontium, present-day Caernarfon.[11] It was in the 4th century during the Roman occupation that Christianity was introduced to Wales.
After the Roman withdrawal from Britain in 410, much of the lowlands were overrun by various Germanic tribes. However, Gwynedd, Powys, Dyfed and Seisyllg, Morgannwg, and Gwent emerged as independent Welsh successor states. They endured, in part because of favourable geographical features such as uplands, mountains, and rivers and a resilient society that did not collapse with the end of the Roman civitas.
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- The Saxons at anchor on the sea always
- The Cymry venerable until doomsday shall be supreme
- They will not seek books nor be covetous of poets
- The presage of this isle will be no other than this.
- [ from The Omen of Prydein The Great, Book of Taliesin VI ]
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This tenacious survival by the Romano-Britons and their descendants in the western kingdoms was to become the foundation of what we now know as Wales. With the loss of the lowlands, England's kingdoms of Mercia and Northumbria, and later Wessex, wrestled with Powys, Gwent, and Gwynedd to define the frontier between the two peoples.
