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Treaty of Union | 1706 |
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Acts of Union | 1707 |
Personal Union of 1714 | 1714 |
Wales and Berwick Act | 1746 |
Irish Constitution | 1782 |
Acts of Union | 1800 |
Government of Ireland Act | 1920 |
Anglo-Irish Treaty | 1921 |
Royal and Parliamentary Titles Act | 1927 |
N. Ireland (Temporary Provisions) Act | 1972 |
European Communities Act | 1972 |
Local Government Act | 1972 |
Local Government (Scotland) Act | 1973 |
Northern Ireland Assembly | 1973 |
N. Ireland Constitution Act | 1973 |
Referendum Act | 1975 |
Scotland Act | 1978 |
Wales Act | 1978 |
Local Government (Wales) Act | 1994 |
Local Government etc. (Scotland) Act | 1994 |
Referendums (Scotland & Wales) Act | 1997 |
Good Friday Agreement | 1998 |
Northern Ireland Act | 1998 |
Government of Wales Act | 1998 |
Scotland Act | 1998 |
Government of Wales Act | 2006 |
Northern Ireland Act | 2009 |
European Union Act | 2011 |
Scotland Act | 2012 |
Edinburgh Agreement | 2012 |
Wales Act | 2014 |
European Union Referendum Act | 2015 |
Scotland Act | 2016 |
Wales Act | 2017 |
The Treaty of Union is the name usually now given to the agreement which led to the creation of the new state of Great Britain, stating that England (which already included Wales) and Scotland were to be "United into One Kingdom by the Name of Great Britain", At the time it was more often referred to as the Articles of Union.
The details of the Treaty were agreed on 22 July 1706, and separate Acts of Union were then passed by the parliaments of England and Scotland to put the agreed Articles into effect. The political union took effect on 1 May 1707.
Queen Elizabeth I of England and Ireland, last monarch of the Tudor dynasty, died without issue on 24 March 1603, and the throne fell at once (and uncontroversially) to her first cousin twice removed, James VI of Scotland, a member of House of Stuart and the only son of Mary, Queen of Scots. By the Union of the Crowns in 1603 he assumed the throne of the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of Ireland as King James I. This personal union lessened the constant English fears of Scottish cooperation with France in a feared French invasion of England.
After this personal union, the new monarch, James I and VI, sought to unite the Kingdom of Scotland and the Kingdom of England into a state which he referred to as "Great Britain". Nevertheless, Acts of Parliament attempting to unite the two countries failed in 1606, in 1667, and in 1689.
Beginning in 1698, the Company of Scotland sponsored the Darien scheme, an ill-fated attempt to establish a Scottish trading colony in the Isthmus of Panama, collecting from Scots investments equal to one-quarter of all the money circulating in Scotland at the time. In the face of opposition by English commercial interests, the Company of Scotland also raised subscriptions in Amsterdam, Hamburg, and London for its scheme. For his part, King William III had given only lukewarm support to the Scottish colonial endeavour. England was at war with France, and hence did not want to offend Spain, which claimed the territory as part of New Granada.