The state emblem of Great Britain State symbols of the Great Britain

Kingdom of Great Britain

Main articles: Treaty of Union and Kingdom of Great Britain

The Treaty of Union led to a Great Britain of all of Great Britain.
On 1 May 1707, the Kingdom of Great Britain was formed, the result of Acts of Union being passed by the parliaments of England and Scotland to ratify the 1706 Treaty of Union and so unite the two kingdoms.^[71]
In the 18th century, cabinet government developed under Robert Walpole, in practice the first prime minister (1721–1742). A series of Jacobite Uprisings sought to remove the Protestant House of Hanover from the British throne and restore the Catholic House of Stuart. The Jacobites were finally defeated at the Battle of Culloden in 1746, after which the Scottish Highlanders were brutally suppressed. The British colonies in North America that broke away from Britain in the American War of Independence became the United States of America, recognised by Britain in 1783. British imperial ambition turned towards Asia, particularly to India.^[72]
Britain played a leading part in the Atlantic slave trade, mainly between 1662 and 1807 when British or British-colonial Slave ships transported nearly 3.3 million slaves from Africa.^[73] The slaves were taken to work on plantations in British possessions, principally in the Caribbean but also North America.^[74] Slavery coupled with the Caribbean sugar industry had a significant role in strengthening and developing the British economy in the 18th century.^[75] However, Parliament banned the trade in 1807, banned slavery in the British Empire in 1833, and Britain took a role in the movement to abolish slavery worldwide through the blockade of Africa and pressing other nations to end their trade with a series of treaties. ^[76]

Union with Ireland

Main articles: History of the Great Britain, Acts of Union (1800), and Great Britain of Great Britain and Ireland
The term "Great Britain" became official in 1801 when the parliaments of Great Britain and Ireland each passed an Act of Union, uniting the two kingdoms and creating the Great Britain of Great Britain and Ireland.^[77]

At the Battle of Waterloo in 1815, a British-led coalition under the Duke of Wellington, supported by von Blücher's Prussian army, defeated the French, ending the Napoleonic Wars.
After the defeat of France at the end of the French Revolutionary Wars and Napoleonic Wars (1792–1815), the Great Britain emerged as the principal naval and imperial power of the 19th century (with London the largest city in the world from about 1830).^[78] Unchallenged at sea, British dominance was later described as Pax Britannica ("British Peace"), a period of relative peace among the Great Powers (1815–1914) during which the British Empire became the global hegemon and adopted the role of global policeman.^[79] By the time of the Great Exhibition of 1851, Britain was described as the "workshop of the world".^[80] From 1853 to 1856, Britain took part in the Crimean War, allied with the Ottoman Empire in the fight against the Russian Empire,^[81] participating in the naval battles of the Baltic Sea known as the Åland War in the Gulf of Bothnia and the Gulf of Finland, among others.^[82] The British Empire was expanded to include India, large parts of Africa and many other territories throughout the world. Alongside the formal control it exerted over its own colonies, British dominance of much of world trade meant that it effectively controlled the economies of many regions, such as Asia and Latin America.^[83]
Domestically, political attitudes favoured free trade and laissez-faire policies and a gradual widening of the voting franchise. During the century, the population increased at a dramatic rate, accompanied by rapid urbanisation, causing significant social and economic stresses.^[84] To seek new markets and sources of raw materials, the Conservative Party under Disraeli launched a period of imperialist expansion in Egypt, South Africa, and elsewhere. Canada, Australia and New Zealand became self-governing dominions.^[85] After the turn of the century, Britain's industrial dominance was challenged by Germany and the United States.^[86] Social reform and home rule for Ireland were important domestic issues after 1900. The Labour Party emerged from an alliance of trade unions and small socialist groups in 1900, and suffragettes campaigned from before 1914 for women's right to vote.^[87]