Isle of Man


The Isle of Man, or Mann, is a self-governing British Crown Dependency in the Irish Sea, between Great Britain and Ireland. As head of state, Charles III holds the title Lord of Mann and is represented by a Lieutenant Governor. The government of the United Kingdom is responsible for the Isle of Man's military defence and represents it abroad, but the Isle of Man still has a separate international identity.
Humans have lived on the island since before 6500 BC. Gaelic cultural influence began in the 5th century AD, when Irish missionaries following the teaching of St Patrick began settling the island, and the Manx language, a branch of the Goidelic languages, emerged. In 627, King Edwin of Northumbria conquered the Isle of Man along with most of Mercia. In the 9th century, Norsemen established the thalassocratic Kingdom of the Isles, which included the Hebrides and the Northern Isles, along with the Isle of Man as the southernmost island. Magnus III, King of Norway from 1093 to 1103, reigned as King of Man and the Isles between 1099 and 1103.
In 1266, King Magnus VI of Norway sold his suzerainty over Man to King Alexander III of Scotland under the Treaty of Perth. After a period of alternating rule by the Kings of Scotland and England, the island came under the feudal lordship of the English Crown in 1399. The lordship revested in the British Crown in 1765, but the island did not become part of the 18th-century Kingdom of Great Britain, nor of its successors, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and the present-day United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. It has always retained its internal self-government. In 1881, the Isle of Man Parliament, Tynwald, became the first national legislative body in the world to give women the right to vote in a general election, although this excluded married women.
The Manx economy is bolstered by its status as a low tax and offshore banking destination. Insurance and online gambling each generate 17% of the GNI, followed by information and communications technology and banking with 9% each. This status has, however, also brought the problems of money laundering, financial crime, and the financing of terrorism. The Isle of Man is also known for the TT Motorcycle Races, and the Manx cat, a breed with short or no tails. In 2016, UNESCO awarded the Isle of Man biosphere reserve status.

Name

The earliest reference to the Isle of Man occurs in Pliny's Natural History, which mentions an island named Monapia lying between Britain and Ireland. This has been traced to the Brittonic *Manaua, meaning "mountain island" or "high island". The same root may appear in Môn, the Welsh name for Anglesey. The island is known in Welsh as Manaw and in Manx as Mannin, or in full, Ellan Vannin. Mannin was originally a dative form, the nominative being Mana.
Man was associated in legend with Manannán mac Lir, the Gaelic god of the sea, and was sometimes said to have taken its name from him. It is more likely, however, that the reverse is true.

History

In the later part of the Mesolithic Period c.8000 BC, the island was cut off from the surrounding islands as sea levels rose following the end of the last ice age. Humans colonised it by travelling by sea some time before 6500 BC. The first occupants were hunter-gatherers and fishermen. Examples of their tools are kept at the Manx Museum.
The Neolithic Period marked the beginning of farming, and the people began to build megalithic monuments, such as Cashtal yn Ard in Maughold parish, King Orry's Grave in Laxey, Mull Hill near Cregneash and Ballaharra Stones at St John's. There were also the local Ronaldsway and Bann cultures.
During the Bronze Age, the size of burial mounds decreased. The people put bodies into stone-lined graves with ornamental containers. The Bronze Age burial mounds survived as long-lasting markers around the countryside.
The ancient Romans knew of the island and called it Insula Manavia. During the four centuries when Rome ruled the Province of Britannia, the Roman military controlled the Irish Sea, providing safe passage of agricultural goods from the productive farms of Anglesey to Roman settlements at the English – Scottish frontier. Only a few Roman artefacts have been found on Man, suggesting a lack of strategic value of Man during the era of Britannia. No Roman lighthouses or signal towers have yet been found on Man.
Around the 5th century AD, large-scale migration from Ireland precipitated a process of Gaelicisation, evidenced by Ogham inscriptions, and the Manx language developed. It is a Goidelic language closely related to Irish and Scottish Gaelic.
File:The Braaid - Isle of Man - kingsley - 21-APR-09.jpg|thumb|left|The Braaid in the central Isle of Man, with remnants of a Celtic-Norse roundhouse and two longhouses,
In the 7th century, Man came under control of the Anglo-Saxon King Edwin of Northumbria, who then launched raids from Man into Ireland. How much influence the Northumbrians exerted on Man is unknown, but very few place names on Man are of Old English origin.
Vikings arrived at the end of the 8th century. They established Tynwald and introduced many land divisions that still exist. In 1266 King Magnus VI of Norway ceded the islands to Alexander III, King of Scots, in the Treaty of Perth. But Scottish rule over Man did not become firmly established until 1275, when the Manx were defeated in the Battle of Ronaldsway, near Castletown.
In 1290 King Edward I of England sent Walter de Huntercombe to take possession of Man. It remained in English hands until 1313, when Robert the Bruce took it after besieging Castle Rushen for five weeks. In 1314, it was retaken for the English by John Bacach of Argyll. In 1317, it was retaken for the Scots by Thomas Randolph, 1st Earl of Moray and Lord of the Isle of Man. It was held by the Scots until 1333. For some years thereafter control passed back and forth between the two kingdoms until the English took it for the final time in 1346. The English Crown delegated its rule of the island to a series of lords and magnates. Tynwald passed laws concerning the government of the island in all respects and had control over its finances, but was subject to the approval of the Lord of Mann.
In 1765, the Act of Revestment occurred, whereby the feudal rights of the Dukes of Atholl as Lords of Man were purchased and revested into the British Crown.
During the Napoleonic Wars, the Isle of Man served as a strategically important, but often neglected naval outpost.
In 1866, the Isle of Man obtained limited home rule, with partly democratic elections to the House of Keys, but the Legislative Council was appointed by the Crown. Since then, democratic government has been gradually extended.
During both World Wars, the island was used for the internment of people originating from enemy countries.
In recent times, the economy of the island has benefited from regulatory arbitrage in various contexts, such as low taxes. These have attracted wealthy individuals and, together with relatively low government interference, industries such as offshore financial services and more recently gambling.
The Isle of Man has designated more than 250 historic sites as registered buildings.

Geography

The Isle of Man is an island located in the middle of the northern Irish Sea, almost equidistant from England to the east, Northern Ireland to the west and Scotland to the north, while Wales to the south is almost the distance of the Republic of Ireland to the southwest. It is long and, at its widest point, wide. It has an area of around. Besides the island of Man itself, the political unit of the Isle of Man includes some nearby small islands: the seasonally inhabited Calf of Man, Chicken Rock, St Patrick's Isle and St Michael's Isle. The last two of these are connected to the main island by permanent roads/causeways.
Ranges of hills in the north and south are separated by a central valley. The northern plain, by contrast, is relatively flat, consisting mainly of deposits from glacial advances from western Scotland during colder times. There are more recently deposited shingle beaches at the northernmost point, the Point of Ayre. The island has one mountain higher than, Snaefell, with a height of. According to an old saying, from the summit one can see six kingdoms: those of Man, Scotland, England, Ireland, Wales and Heaven. Some versions add a seventh kingdom, that of the sea, or Neptune.

Climate

The Isle of Man has a temperate oceanic climate. Average rainfall is higher than averaged over the territory of the British Isles, because the Isle of Man is far enough from Ireland for the prevailing south-westerly winds to accumulate moisture. Average rainfall is highest at Snaefell, where it is around a year. At lower levels it can be around a year. In drier spots, the Isle of Man is sunnier than either Ireland or the majority of England at 1,651 hours per year at the official Ronaldsway station. The highest recorded temperature was in Ronaldsway on 12 July 1983. Due to the moderate surface temperatures of the Irish Sea, the island does not receive bursts of heat that sometimes can hit Northern England. The stable water temperature also means that air frost is rare, averaging just ten occasions per year.

Governance

The United Kingdom is responsible for the island's defence and ultimately for good governance, and for representing the island in international forums, while the island's own parliament and government have competence over all domestic matters.

Political structure

The island's parliament, Tynwald, is claimed to have been in continuous existence since 979 or earlier, purportedly making it the oldest continuously governing body in the world, though evidence supports a much later date. Tynwald is a bicameral or tricameral legislature, comprising the House of Keys and the Legislative Council. These two bodies also meet together in joint session as Tynwald Court.
The executive branch of government is the Council of Ministers, which is composed of Members of Tynwald. It is headed by the Chief Minister.
Vice-regal functions of the head of state are performed by a lieutenant governor.