The issue of Ireland has been a major one in British politics, intermittently so for centuries. Britain's attempts to control and administer the island, or parts thereof, has had significant consequences for British politics, especially in the 19th and 20th centuries. Although nominally autonomous (as the Kingdom of Ireland) until the end of the 18th century, Ireland became part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland in 1801. In 1844, a future British prime minister, Benjamin Disraeli, defined what he called the Irish Question: — Hansard