Kingdom of Great Britain

The Kingdom of Great Britain was the sovereign state created in 1707 when the Treaty of Union and the Acts of Union joined the Kingdom of England, including Wales, with the Kingdom of Scotland into a single realm covering the whole island. The two crowns had shared one monarch since James VI of Scotland became James I of England in 1603, but only now did one parliament at Westminster govern both, while English and Scots law, schools and churches stayed distinct. The early decades were shaken by Jacobite risings in 1715 and 1745, and weak Hanoverian kings let Parliament and the first prime ministers, above all Robert Walpole, gather real power. Victory in the Seven Years War of 1756 to 1763, the first war fought on a global scale, gave Britain dominance in India, North America and the seas, though the American war of 1775 to 1783 ended with the independence of the United States. Amid revolution in France, Britain merged with the Kingdom of Ireland on 1 January 1801 under George III.