Wales: England’s Colony?

From the very beginnings of Wales, its people have defined themselves against their large neighbour. Wales: England’s Colony? shows, that relationship has not only defined what it has meant to be Welsh, it has also been central to making and defining Wales as a nation. Yet the relationship between the two nations has not always been a happy one and never one between equals. Wales was England’s first colony and its conquest was by military force. It was later formally annexed, ending its separate legal status. Yet most of the Welsh reconciled themselves to their position and embraced the economic and individual opportunities being part of Britain and its Empire offered. Only in the later half of the twentieth century, in response to the decline of the Welsh language and traditional industry, did Welsh nationalism grow.