As a dumb American, I will admit that I’ve always had trouble understanding the distinction between all of these terms (though I will at least assert that I knew there was a difference, that they weren’t interchangeable).
That diagram, though, is incredibly helpful. I don’t know why that’s what it took, but now I can finally wrap my head around it. So someone please correct me if I’m wrong, but what I get out of this is:
- “The British Isles” is a term for a collection of islands
- “Great Britain” is the term for a specific one of those islands
- “The United Kingdom” is an artificial construct, a term used to indicate a specific set of countries
Now what I need is another version of this graphic that also covers the definition of the European Union.
