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British nationalism is a nationalist ideology which asserts that the British people are a nation and that the United Kingdom, the homeland of the Britons, is a nation-state. The ideology’s definition of Britishness has traditionally included all the peoples of the British Isles, including English, Scottish, Welsh and Irish people. British nationalism is closely associated with British Unionism, which seeks to preserve the political, cultural and economic unity of the United Kingdom in the face of English, Scottish, Welsh and Irish nationalism.

The origins of British nationalism may date as far back as the seventeenth century when James VI of Scotland became king of England as James I. It was during his reign that Union Jack was first designed and attempts to forge a British national identity were first made. British historian Linda Colley claims that British nationalism first emerged in the eighteenth century after the Acts of Union formally united England (including Wales) and Scotland into a new state called the United Kingdom of Great Britain. Alternatively, some historians argue that Britishness first emerged in Ireland where English and Scottish Protestant settlers co-operated with each other during the Ulster Plantation.