<P> The history of the United Kingdom as a unified sovereign state began in 1707 with the political union of the kingdoms of England and Scotland, into a united kingdom called Great Britain . Of this new state the historian Simon Schama said: </P> <P> What began as a hostile merger would end in a full partnership in the most powerful going concern in the world...it was one of the most astonishing transformations in European history . </P> <P> A further Act of Union in 1800 added the Kingdom of Ireland to create the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland . </P> <P> The first decades were marked by Jacobite risings which ended with defeat for the Stuart cause at Culloden in 1746 . In 1763, victory in the Seven Years' War led to the growth of the First British Empire . With the defeat by the United States, France and others in the War of American Independence, Britain lost its 13 American colonies and rebuilt its second British Empire based in Asia and Africa . As a result, the culture of the United Kingdom, and its technological, political, constitutional, and linguistic influence, became worldwide . </P>

When did great britain change to united kingdom