The nations of the UK joined a union with England at different times and in different circumstances. Wales entered a Union with England in 1536 when England completed its conquest of the principality and thereafter governed it from London. But Wales retained elements of its distinctive culture despite Anglicisation. The crowns of England and Scotland were united in 1603 when King James VI of Scotland succeeded to the English throne as King James I. Scotland remained an independent state with its own parliament until the Act of Union in 1707 which was an international treaty between Scotland and England whereby Scotland joined the Union. Because of this Scotland maintained its legal, education system and local government. The Scottish Parliament was abolished and Scotland then sent their MPs to Westminster instead.
After centuries of England and Scottish settlement, Ireland joined the union in 1800 through an Act of Union. The union was a trouble one, with the ‘Irish question’ becoming one of the longest running and most difficult issues in UK politics. By the 1880s, Irish Nationalists dominated Ireland’s representation at Westminster. Negotiations between the UK government and Irish republicans led to the government of Ireland where there was a protestant majority which exercised their right to remain part of