United Kingdom is 4 countries, England, Scotland, Northern Ireland, Wales (and a bunch of minor additions). Great Britain is the island that contains England,

United Kingdom is 4 countries, England, Scotland, Northern Ireland, Wales (and a bunch of minor additions). Great Britain is the island that contains England, Scotland and Wales. A citizen of the United Kingdom is British, even if they live in Northern Ireland. What you're complaining about is basically about spelling, not usage or "language". Many of the so-called "misspellings" in en_US vs en_GB aren't if you look at the OED, for example, the -ise and -ize. Having "u"s in spelling (eg colour) is a left over of the French influence on English in the UK. A lot of the changes in spelling are because Noah Webster, when creating the first US dictionary, simplified things, eg axe vs ax. Some of the word usage, eg "gotten" came over to the US but faded out in the UK. Oh, and it's spelled "americanization" :)