Great Britain and Kazakhstan
Kazak State University of International Relationship
and World Languages
Great Britain
&
Kazakhstan
made: Shashkin Pavel Group № 207
Almaty 1999
Plan
I Great Britain
1. London
2. Birmingham
3. Liverpool
4. Manchester
II Sights of London
1. Westminster Palace or Houses of Parliament
2. Buckingham Palace
3. Saint James`s Palace
4. National Gallery
5. Hyde Park
III Kazakhstan
1. The new capital
2. The Commercial capital
3. Nuclear zone
4. Space center
5. Caviar capital
6. Jewel of the Caspian Sea
7. The heart of Kazakhstan
I Great Britain
1. London
London is the capital of Great Britain, SE England, on both sides of the
Thames River. Greater London (1991 pop. 6,378,600), c.620 sq mi (1,610 sq
km), consists of the Corporation of the City of London and the following 32
boroughs: Westminster, Camden, Islington, Hackney, Tower Hamlets,
Greenwich, Lewisham, Southwark, Lambeth, Wandsworth, Hammersmith and
Fulham, Kensington and Chelsea (the inner boroughs); Waltham Forest,
Redbridge, Havering, Barking and Dagenham, Newham, Bexley, Bromley,
Croydon, Sutton, Merton, Kingston upon Thames, Richmond upon Thames,
Hounslow, Hillingdon, Ealing, Brent, Harrow, Barnet, Haringey, and Enfield
(the outer boroughs). Greater London includes the area of the former county
of London, most of the former county of Middlesex, and areas that were
formerly in Surrey, Kent, Essex, and Hertfordshire. Each of the boroughs of
Greater London elects a council. The Corporation of the City (1991 pop.
4,000), 1 sq mi (2.6 sq km), the core of London historically and
commercially, elects a lord mayor, aldermen, and councilmen.
Economy
London is one of the world's foremost financial, commercial, industrial,
and cultural centers. The Bank of England, Lloyd's, and numerous banks and
investment companies have their headquarters there, primarily in the City.
It is a center for international finance, especially for large investment
houses looking for a strong foothold in the European Community. London is
one of the world's greatest ports. It exports manufactured goods and
imports petroleum, tea, wool, raw sugar, timber, butter, metals, and meat.
London is also a great manufacturing city. Many London area workers are
employed in manufacturing. Clothing, furniture, precision instruments,
jewelry, cement, chemicals, and stationery are produced. Engineering and
scientific research are also important. London is rich in artistic and
cultural activity with numerous theaters, cinemas, museums, galleries, and
opera and concert halls. London also has an ethnically and culturally
diverse population, with large groups of immigrants from Commonwealth
nations.
Points of Interest
The best-known streets of London are Fleet Street, the Strand, Piccadilly,
Whitehall, Pall Mall, Downing Street, Lombard Street, and Bond and Regent
streets (noted for their shops). Municipal parks include Hyde Park,
Kensington Gardens, and Regent's Park. Besides the British Museum, the art
galleries and museums of London include the Victoria and Albert Museum, the
National Gallery, and the Tate Gallery. The Univ. of London is the largest
in Great Britain. The new Lloyd's building was opened in 1986. Among the
more recent developments is the Canary Wharf office complex, which is only
partially completed.
History
Little is known of London prior to A.D. 61, when, according to the Roman
historian Tacitus, the followers of Queen Boadicea rebelled and slaughtered
the inhabitants of the Roman fort Londinium. Roman authority was soon
restored, and the first city walls were built, remnants of which still
exist. After the final withdrawal of the Roman legions in the 5th cent.,
London was lost in obscurity. Celts, Saxons, and Danes contested the
general area, and it was not until 886 that London again emerged as an
important town under the firm control of King Alfred, who rebuilt the
defenses against the Danes and gave the city a government.
London put up some resistance to William I in 1066, but he subsequently
treated the city well. During his reign the White Tower, the nucleus of the
Tower of London, was built just east of the city wall. Under the Normans
and Plantagenets (see Great Britain), the city grew commercially and
politically and during the reign of Richard I (1189–99) obtained a form of
municipal government from which the modern City Corporation developed. In
1215, King John granted the city the right to elect a mayor annually.
The guilds of the Middle Ages gained control of civic affairs and grew
sufficiently strong to restrict trade to freemen of the city. The guilds
survive today in 80 livery companies, of which members were once the voters
in London's municipal elections. Medieval London saw the foundation of the
Inns of Court and the construction of Westminster Abbey. By the 14th cent.
London had become the political capital of England. It played no active
role in the Wars of the Roses (15th cent.).
In the 16th cent. many monastical buildings were destroyed or converted to
other uses by Henry VIII, who founded several grammar schools for the poor.
The reign of Elizabeth I brought London to a level of great wealth, power,
and influence as the undisputed center of England's Renaissance culture.
This was the time of Shakespeare and the beginnings of overseas trading
companies such as the Muscovy Company. With the advent (1603) of the
Stuarts to the throne, the city became involved in struggles with the crown
on behalf of its democratic privileges, culminating in the English Civil
War.
In 1665 the great plague took some 75,000 lives. A great fire in Sept.,
1666, lasted five days and virtually destroyed the city. Sir Christopher
Wren played a large role in rebuilding the city. He designed more than 51
churches, notably the rebuilt Saint Paul's Cathedral. Much of the business
as well as literary and political discussion was transacted in
coffeehouses, forerunners of the modern club. Until 1750, when Westminster
Bridge was opened, London Bridge, first built in the 10th cent., was the
only bridge to span the Thames. Since the 18th cent. several other bridges
have been constructed.
In the 19th cent. London began a period of extraordinary growth. The area
of present-day Greater London had about 1.1 million people in 1801; by 1851
the population had increased to 2.7 million, and by 1901 to 6.6 million.
During the Victorian era London acquired tremendous prestige as the capital
of the British Empire and as a cultural and intellectual center. Britain's
free political institutions and intellectual atmosphere continued to make
London a haven for persons unsafe in their own countries. The Italian
Giuseppe Mazzini, the Russian Alexander Herzen, and the German Karl Marx
were among many politically controversial figures who lived for long
periods in London.
Many buildings of central London were completely destroyed or partially
damaged in air raids during World War II. These include the Guildhall
(scene of the lord mayor's banquets and other public functions); No. 10
Downing Street, the British Prime Minister's residence; the Inns of Court;
Westminster Hall and the Houses of Parliament; St. George's Cathedral; and
many of the great halls of the ancient livery companies. Today there are
numerous blocks of new office buildings and districts of apartment
dwellings constructed by the government authorities. The growth of London
in the 20th cent. has been extensively planned. One notable feature has
been the concept of a “Green Belt” to save certain areas from intensive
urban development.
2. Birmingham
Birmingham is the city and county district (1991 pop. 934,900), West
Midlands, central England. The city is equidistant from Bristol, Liverpool,
Manchester, and London, England's main ports, and near the Black Country
iron and coal deposits; it is connected to the Staffordshire mines by the
Birmingham Canal, built in the 18th cent. Birmingham is Britain's second-
largest city (in both area and population) and is the center of water,
road, and rail transportation in the Midlands. The chief industries are the
manufacture of automobiles and bicycles and their components and
accessories. Other products include electrical equipment, paint, guns, and
a wide variety of metal products. By the 15th cent., Birmingham was a
market town with a large leather and wool trade; by the 16th cent. it was
also known for its many metalworks. In the English Civil War the town was
captured by the royalists. Birmingham's industrial development and
population growth accelerated in the 17th and 18th cent. In 1762, Matthew
Boulton and James Watt founded the Soho metalworks, where they designed and
built steam engines. Joseph Priestley, the discoverer of oxygen, lived for
a time in Birmingham. In 1791 a mob, incensed at his radical religious and
political views, burned his home. The town was enfranchised by the Reform
Bill of 1832 and was incorporated in 1838. John Bright represented it in
Parliament from 1857 to 1889. During the 1870s, while Joseph Chamberlain
was mayor, Birmingham underwent a large program of municipal improvements,
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