AHC: Have "England" be an accepted term for the whole UK

The use of "England" to mean the entire UK is common, though incorrect and frowned upon. Historically, it was fairly common in the 19th and early 20th centuries though, even though Scotland, Wales, and Ireland/N. Ireland were recognized as being separate.

The challenge here is have "England" accepted -- including by the Scots and the Welsh at least -- as a term that includes the other home countries. If it's easier, we can leave Ireland out of this. Could include an earlier union or continuing overlordship of Scotland in the Middle Ages, political changes in the 18th and 19th centuries, or anything else.
 
A policy of Plantation, in which the Scots and Welsh are prioritized for being sent to the colonies while Englishmen settle into communities in Scotland and Wales that are self supporting and grow to start estalishing regional majorities in the populations to the point you splinter or dilute the Scottish and Welsh group identities to nothing,might do the trick. Actual mass cultural assimilation of majority populations to that of the minority is extremely tricky.
 

Zen9

Banned
One could start with a successful Northumbria taking more land beyond the Lothians. Plunging a division between the Gaelic Scots and the Brythonic Picts.
Add in say complete replacement of languages in the islands with old Norse and it's possible both to have a larger England and a weaker Scotland.
 
Scotland never emering as a kingdom of it's own and being part of Anglo-Saxon England could be a start.
 
If the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes had more extensively conquered the entire island of Britain and assimilated the local Britons, Gaels, and Picts, the whole island could have easily been called England or Angleland, or something to that effect. The geography helped to dissuade a full conquest from happening before both Wales and Scotland developed into their own cultures and polities.
 

SpookyBoy

Banned
More persecution of minorities

Also, the Acts of Union would likely have to occur under different circumstances, perhaps an invasion and/or with Scotland having a more explicitly subordinate relationship
 
More persecution of minorities

Also, the Acts of Union would likely have to occur under different circumstances, perhaps an invasion and/or with Scotland having a more explicitly subordinate relationship

Kind of felt this too, probably requires an earlier union of crowns, maybe an English king inheriting the Scottish throne and explicitly treating England as the higher crown. (The Stuarts largely treated it as a de facto union of equals and inaugurated the "King of Great Britain" styling.)
 
It's fairly easy to have Scotland subsumed as English provinces, but how do you manage Ireland? The UK is because of Ireland after all.

I don't see Ireland being part of England administration. Also interestingly this would mean that the North in England would need a new name since the North would now be Inverness.

If Ireland becomes part of England then you also need to rename the West and East. Or maybe you can rename it to Northern Island of Great Britain.

How many regions would this new England have?

What would the impact of no Scots law or Scottish education system be? Presumably one national Bank and Church too.

Any other big changes?
 
Once upon a time, the lowlanders were called the Inglis in Scotland. So as others have said, not that hard if you avoid or have England win the Scottish Wars of Independence.. Wales almost died out as a national identity in OTL and probably would do were it not for the Methodist split. So that is Britain covered.

Ireland is much trickier. You would probably need greater Germanic settlement from very early on.
 
IOTL the Lowland Scots and Highland Scots considered themselves separate peoples until the rise of romantic nationalism led to a sense of Scottish nationhood. I think you could probably butterfly things so that the Lowlanders instead come to think of themselves as English (in terms of language, culture, way of life, etc., they certainly had more in common with England than with the Highlands), and since the Lowlands make up the most populous and wealthy part of Scotland, that would probably be enough to have Scotland as a whole be considered English.
 

Derek Pullem

Kicked
Donor
A surviving Protectorate would do it I think. Technically it was called the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland but highly likely it would become known as Commonwealth of England. Cool flag too.

1920px-Flag_of_the_Commonwealth_%281658-1660%29.svg.png
 
It WAS for a while

That has been erased from memories by the fact that it is not now

But it WAS

Reminds of a scence in a WW2 movie where British civilans are complaining about the nearby "Yanks" and a Sergant from Mississippi is very annoyed at being called a "Yank". I suspect many Scots and Welsh would simularly be annoyed at being called English.
 
It's fairly easy to have Scotland subsumed as English provinces, but how do you manage Ireland? The UK is because of Ireland after all.

I don't see Ireland being part of England administration.

In OTL it seems impossible but it might not be in an ATL.

The name France did not always refer to all of Gaul but to the region around Paris, the "pays de France". (That old meaning of France survives today on in places like Roissy-en-France, Châtenay-en-France...) Gradually it became the name for the entire kingdom. In an ATL maybe England just becomes the name for everything ruled by the monarch based in London.
 
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