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Welsh liberalism, exemplified in the early 20th century by Lloyd George , was displaced by the growth of socialism and the Labour Party. Welsh national feeling grew over the century; Plaid Cymru was formed in and the Welsh Language Society in Established under the Government of Wales Act , the National Assembly for Wales holds responsibility for a range of devolved policy matters. At the dawn of the Industrial Revolution , development of the mining and metallurgical industries transformed the country from an agricultural society into an industrial nation; the South Wales Coalfield 's exploitation caused a rapid expansion of Wales' population.

Two-thirds of the population live in South Wales , including Cardiff , Swansea , Newport and the nearby valleys. Now that the country's traditional extractive and heavy industries have gone or are in decline, Wales' economy depends on the public sector , light and service industries and tourism.

Although Wales closely shares its political and social history with the rest of Great Britain, and a majority of the population in most areas speaks English as a first language, the country has retained a distinct cultural identity and is officially bilingual. Over , Welsh language speakers live in Wales, and the language is spoken by a majority of the population in parts of the north and west.

From the late 19th century onwards, Wales acquired its popular image as the "land of song", in part due to the eisteddfod tradition. Rugby union is seen as a symbol of Welsh identity and an expression of national consciousness. The English words "Wales" and "Welsh" derive from the same Germanic root singular Walh , plural Walha , which was itself derived from the name of the Gaulish people known to the Romans as Volcae and which came to refer indiscriminately to all non-Germanic peoples.

Wallonia , Wallachia and Valais and peoples e.


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Historically in Britain , the words were not restricted to modern Wales or to the Welsh but were used to refer to anything that the Anglo-Saxons associated with the Britons, including other non-Germanic territories in Britain e. Cornwall and places in Anglo-Saxon territory associated with Britons e.

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Walworth in County Durham and Walton in West Yorkshire , [14] as well as items associated with non-Germanic Europeans, such as the walnut. It emphasised that the Welsh in modern Wales and in the Hen Ogledd were one people, different from other peoples. The word came into use as a self-description probably before the 7th century. Thereafter Cymry prevailed as a reference to the Welsh. The Latinised forms of these names, Cambrian , Cambric and Cambria , survive as lesser-used alternative names for Wales, Welsh and the Welsh people.

The Cumbric language , which is thought to have been closely related to Welsh, was spoken in this area until becoming extinct around the 12th century. This form also appears at times in literary references, as in the pseudohistorical " Historia Regum Britanniae " of Geoffrey of Monmouth , where the character of Camber is described as the eponymous King of Cymru. Wales has been inhabited by modern humans for at least 29, years. At that time sea levels were much lower than today, and the shallower parts of what is now the North Sea were dry land.

The east coast of present-day England and the coasts of present-day Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands were connected by the former landmass known as Doggerland , forming the British Peninsula on the European mainland. The post-glacial rise in sea level separated Wales and Ireland, forming the Irish Sea. According to John T. Koch and others, Wales in the Late Bronze Age was part of a maritime trading-networked culture that also included the other Celtic nations. The Roman conquest of Wales began in AD 48 and took 30 years to complete.

Roman rule lasted over years. The campaigns of conquest are the most widely known feature of Wales during the Roman era , because of the spirited, but ultimately unsuccessful, defence of their homelands by two native tribes: Roman rule in Wales was a military occupation, save for the southern coastal region of south Wales , east of the Gower Peninsula , where there is a legacy of Romanisation. Both Caerwent and Carmarthen , also in southern Wales, became Roman civitates. The Romans used their engineering technology to extract large amounts of gold , copper and lead , as well as modest amounts of some other metals such as zinc and silver.

Although Latin became the official language of Wales, the people tended to continue to speak in Brythonic. While Romanisation was far from complete, the upper classes of Wales began to consider themselves Roman, particularly after the ruling of that granted Roman citizenship to all free men throughout the Empire. Early historians, including the 6th-century cleric Gildas , have noted as a significant point in Welsh history, [40] as it is stated in literature as the foundation point of several medieval royal dynasties. In that year the Roman general Magnus Maximus , or Macsen Wledig, stripped all of western and northern Britain of troops and senior administrators, to launch a successful bid for imperial power; continuing to rule Britain from Gaul as emperor.

Having left with the troops and Roman administrators, and planning to continue as the ruler of Britain in the future, his practical course was to transfer local authority to local rulers.

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The earliest Welsh genealogies give Maximus the role of founding father for several royal dynasties, including those of Powys and Gwent. The year period following the collapse of Roman rule is the most difficult to interpret in the history of Wales. Before extensive studies of the distribution of R1b Y-DNA subclades , some previously maintained that native Britons were displaced by the invaders. With the loss of the lowlands, England's kingdoms of Mercia and Northumbria , and later Wessex , wrestled with Powys, Gwent and Gwynedd to define the frontier between the two peoples.

Having lost much of what is now the West Midlands to Mercia in the 6th and early 7th centuries, a resurgent late-7th-century Powys checked Mercian advances. Aethelbald of Mercia , looking to defend recently acquired lands, had built Wat's Dyke. According to John Davies , this endeavour may have been with the agreement of Powys king Elisedd ap Gwylog , as this boundary, extending north from the valley of the River Severn to the Dee estuary, gave Oswestry to Powys.

Davies wrote of Cyril Fox 's study of Offa's Dyke: On the Long Mountain near Trelystan, the dyke veers to the east, leaving the fertile slopes in the hands of the Welsh; near Rhiwabon , it was designed to ensure that Cadell ap Brochwel retained possession of the Fortress of Penygadden. By the 8th century, the eastern borders with the Anglo-Saxons had broadly been set. The southern and eastern parts of Great Britain lost to English settlement became known in Welsh as Lloegyr Modern Welsh Lloegr , which may have referred to the kingdom of Mercia originally and which came to refer to England as a whole.

From onwards, a series of dynastic marriages led to Rhodri Mawr 's r. His sons, in turn, would found three principal dynasties Aberffraw for Gwynedd, Dinefwr for Deheubarth and Mathrafal for Powys. Rhodri's grandson Hywel Dda r. Maredudd's great-grandson through his daughter Princess Angharad Gruffydd ap Llywelyn r.

Historian John Davies states that Gruffydd was "the only Welsh king ever to rule over the entire territory of Wales Thus, from about until his death in , the whole of Wales recognised the kingship of Gruffydd ap Llywelyn. For about seven brief years, Wales was one, under one ruler, a feat with neither precedent nor successor. Within four years of the Battle of Hastings , England had been completely subjugated by the Normans.

The frontier region, and any English-held lordships in Wales, became known as Marchia Wallie , the Welsh Marches , in which the Marcher Lords were subject to neither English nor Welsh law. Owain Gwynedd's grandson Llywelyn Fawr the Great, — , wrested concessions [ which? With Llywelyn's death and his brother prince Dafydd 's execution, the few remaining Welsh lords did homage for their lands to Edward I.

The English interpretation of the treason of Llywelyn was that his fiefdom had escheated to the king. The king ruled directly in two areas: The existing royal lordships of Montgomery and Builth remained unchanged, [68] and the remainder of Wales was still controlled by the marcher lords. To help maintain his dominance, Edward constructed a series of great stone castles: Beaumaris , Caernarfon and Conwy. But the rebellion failed, and Owain went into hiding in ; peace was essentially restored in Wales by The last remnants of Celtic-tradition Welsh law were abolished and replaced by English law by the Laws in Wales Acts and Prior to the British Industrial Revolution , which saw a rapid economic expansion between and , there were signs of small-scale industries scattered throughout Wales.

With access to local coal deposits and a harbour that could take advantage of Cornwall's copper mines and the copper deposits being extracted from the largest copper mine in the world at Parys Mountain on Anglesey, Swansea developed into the world's major centre for non-ferrous metal smelting in the 19th century. In the late 18th century, slate quarrying began to expand rapidly, most notably in north Wales. The Penrhyn Quarry , opened in by Richard Pennant , was employing 15, men by the late 19th century, [77] and along with Dinorwic Quarry , it dominated the Welsh slate trade.

Although slate quarrying has been described as 'the most Welsh of Welsh industries', [78] it is coal mining which has become the single industry synonymous with Wales and its people. Initially, coal seams were exploited to provide energy for local metal industries but, with the opening of canal systems and later the railways, Welsh coal mining saw a boom in its demand. By its height in , Wales was producing almost 61 million tons of coal.

As well as in south Wales, there was also a significant coalfield in the north-east of the country, particularly around Wrexham. Historian Kenneth Morgan described Wales on the eve of the First World War as a "relatively placid, self-confident and successful nation".

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Output from the coalfields continued to increase, with the Rhondda Valley recording a peak of 9. A total of , Welshmen served in the war, representing The first quarter of the 20th century also saw a shift in the political landscape of Wales. Since , the Liberal Party had held a parliamentary majority in Wales and, following the general election of , only one non-Liberal Member of Parliament, Keir Hardie of Merthyr Tydfil , represented a Welsh constituency at Westminster.

After economic growth in the first two decades of the 20th century, Wales' staple industries endured a prolonged slump from the early s to the late s, leading to widespread unemployment and poverty in the south Wales valleys. The 20th century saw a revival in Welsh national feeling. Plaid Cymru was formed in , seeking greater autonomy or independence from the rest of the UK. Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg The Welsh Language Society was formed in , in response to long-held fears that the language might soon die out. By the end of the s, the regional policy of bringing businesses into disadvantaged areas of Wales through financial incentives had proven very successful in diversifying the industrial economy.


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It was believed that the foundations for stable economic growth had been firmly established in Wales during this period, but this was shown to be wildly optimistic after the recession of the early s saw the collapse of much of the manufacturing base that had been built over the preceding forty years. The governments of the United Kingdom and of Wales almost invariably define Wales as a country.

Although we are joined with England by land, and we are part of Great Britain, Wales is a country in its own right. But he does not have a role in the governance of Wales, even though his title might suggest that he does. Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Wales held a referendum in and chose to establish a form of self-government. The consequent process of devolution began with the Government of Wales Act , which created the National Assembly for Wales Welsh: Members AMs ACau are elected to four-year terms under an additional member system.

Forty of the AMs represent geographical constituencies , elected under the First Past the Post system. The remaining 20 AMs represent five electoral regions , each including between seven and nine constituencies, using the d'Hondt method of proportional representation. Labour remained the largest Assembly party following the election , winning 26 of the 60 seats.

Under the 'One Wales' agreement, a referendum on giving the Welsh assembly full law-making powers was promised "as soon as practicable, at or before the end of the assembly term in " and both parties have agreed "in good faith to campaign for a successful outcome to such a referendum".

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Welsh Labour remained the largest party in the Assembly following the National Assembly for Wales election, , winning 30 of the 60 seats. Other parties represented in the assembly were the Welsh Conservatives the loyal opposition with 14 seats, Plaid Cymru , who have 11 seats, and the Welsh Liberal Democrats , with five seats. Carwyn Jones remained First Minister following the election, this time leading a Welsh Labour ministerial team.

After the May election, Labour continues to form the largest group in the Assembly, with 29 AMs. The twenty areas of responsibility devolved to the Welsh Government, known as "subjects", include agriculture, economic development, education, health, housing, local government, social services, tourism, transport and the Welsh language.

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The GoWA allows for the Assembly to gain primary lawmaking powers on a more extensive range of matters within the same devolved areas if approved in a referendum. A referendum on extending the lawmaking powers of the National Assembly was accordingly held on 3 March Consequently, the Assembly is now empowered to make laws, known as Acts of the Assembly , on all matters in the subject areas, without needing the UK Parliament's agreement.