Scottish national identity - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Scottish national identity is a term referring to the sense of national identity and common culture

Culture of Scotland

The culture of Scotland refers to the patterns of human activity and symbolism associated with Scotland and the Scottish people. Some elements of Scottish culture, such as its separate national church, are protected in law as agreed in the Treaty of Union, and other instruments...

of Scottish people

Scottish people

The Scottish people , or Scots, are a nation and ethnic group native to Scotland. Historically they emerged from an amalgamation of the Picts and Gaels, incorporating neighbouring Britons to the south as well as invading Germanic peoples such as the Anglo-Saxons and the Norse.In modern use,...

and is shared by a considerable majority of the people of Scotland

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

.

Scottish national identity is largely free from ethnic

Ethnology

Ethnology is the branch of anthropology that compares and analyzes the origins, distribution, technology, religion, language, and social structure of the ethnic, racial, and/or national divisions of humanity.-Scientific discipline:Compared to ethnography, the study of single groups through direct...

distinction, and many of "immigrant" descent see themselves (and are seen as), for example, Pakistan

Pakistan

Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...

i and Scottish: Asian-Scots. Identification of others as Scottish is generally a matter of accent, and though the various dialects of the Scots language

Scots language

Scots is the Germanic language variety spoken in Lowland Scotland and parts of Ulster . It is sometimes called Lowland Scots to distinguish it from Scottish Gaelic, the Celtic language variety spoken in most of the western Highlands and in the Hebrides.Since there are no universally accepted...

and Scottish English

Scottish English

Scottish English refers to the varieties of English spoken in Scotland. It may or may not be considered distinct from the Scots language. It is always considered distinct from Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic language....

(or the accents of Gaelic

Gaels

The Gaels or Goidels are speakers of one of the Goidelic Celtic languages: Irish, Scottish Gaelic, and Manx. Goidelic speech originated in Ireland and subsequently spread to western and northern Scotland and the Isle of Man....

speakers) are distinctive, people associate them all together as Scottish with a shared identity, as well as a regional or local identity. Parts of Scotland, like Glasgow

Glasgow

Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...

, the Outer Hebrides

Outer Hebrides

The Outer Hebrides also known as the Western Isles and the Long Island, is an island chain off the west coast of Scotland. The islands are geographically contiguous with Comhairle nan Eilean Siar, one of the 32 unitary council areas of Scotland...

and the north east of Scotland, including Aberdeen

Aberdeen

Aberdeen is Scotland's third most populous city, one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas and the United Kingdom's 25th most populous city, with an official population estimate of ....

, retain a strong sense of regional identity, alongside the idea of a Scottish national identity.
Residents of Orkney and Shetland also express a distinct regional identity, influenced by their Norse

Norsemen

Norsemen is used to refer to the group of people as a whole who spoke what is now called the Old Norse language belonging to the North Germanic branch of Indo-European languages, especially Norwegian, Icelandic, Faroese, Swedish and Danish in their earlier forms.The meaning of Norseman was "people...

heritage.

The early middle ages

The history of Scotland

History of Scotland

The history of Scotland begins around 10,000 years ago, when humans first began to inhabit what is now Scotland after the end of the Devensian glaciation, the last ice age...

as a nation state starts in the later period of the so-called Dark Age. By the 12th century, the geographical area consisting modern Scotland contained the Goidelic "Scots" kingdom of Dál Riata

Dál Riata

Dál Riata was a Gaelic overkingdom on the western coast of Scotland with some territory on the northeast coast of Ireland...

, Galloway, the Brythonic

Britons (historical)

The Britons were the Celtic people culturally dominating Great Britain from the Iron Age through the Early Middle Ages. They spoke the Insular Celtic language known as British or Brythonic...

Kingdom of Strathclyde

Strathclyde , originally Brythonic Ystrad Clud, was one of the early medieval kingdoms of the celtic people called the Britons in the Hen Ogledd, the Brythonic-speaking parts of what is now southern Scotland and northern England. The kingdom developed during the post-Roman period...

, the Anglo Saxon

Anglo-Saxons

Anglo-Saxon is a term used by historians to designate the Germanic tribes who invaded and settled the south and east of Great Britain beginning in the early 5th century AD, and the period from their creation of the English nation to the Norman conquest. The Anglo-Saxon Era denotes the period of...

kingdom of Bernicia

Bernicia

Bernicia was an Anglo-Saxon kingdom established by Anglian settlers of the 6th century in what is now southeastern Scotland and North East England....

and the Pict

PICT

PICT is a graphics file format introduced on the original Apple Macintosh computer as its standard metafile format. It allows the interchange of graphics , and some limited text support, between Mac applications, and was the native graphics format of QuickDraw.The original version, PICT 1, was...

ish Kingdom, the latter's origin being highly contentious. The disparate cultures of Scotland were cemented together firstly by the Viking

Viking

The term Viking is customarily used to refer to the Norse explorers, warriors, merchants, and pirates who raided, traded, explored and settled in wide areas of Europe, Asia and the North Atlantic islands from the late 8th to the mid-11th century.These Norsemen used their famed longships to...

threat, and latterly by aggression from the neighbouring Kingdom of England

Kingdom of England

The Kingdom of England was, from 927 to 1707, a sovereign state to the northwest of continental Europe. At its height, the Kingdom of England spanned the southern two-thirds of the island of Great Britain and several smaller outlying islands; what today comprises the legal jurisdiction of England...

The late middle ages

The late middle ages has often been seen as the era in which Scottish national identity was initially forged, in opposition to English attempts to annex the country, led by figures such as Robert the Bruce and William Wallace

William Wallace

Sir William Wallace was a Scottish knight and landowner who became one of the main leaders during the Wars of Scottish Independence....

and as a result of social and cultural changes. English invasions and interference in Scotland have been judged to have created a sense of national unity and a hatred towards England which dominated Scottish foreign policy well into the 15th century, making it extremely difficult for Scottish kings like James III

James III of Scotland

James III was King of Scots from 1460 to 1488. James was an unpopular and ineffective monarch owing to an unwillingness to administer justice fairly, a policy of pursuing alliance with the Kingdom of England, and a disastrous relationship with nearly all his extended family.His reputation as the...

and James IV

James IV of Scotland

James IV was King of Scots from 11 June 1488 to his death. He is generally regarded as the most successful of the Stewart monarchs of Scotland, but his reign ended with the disastrous defeat at the Battle of Flodden Field, where he became the last monarch from not only Scotland, but also from all...

to pursue policies of peace towards their southern neighbour. In particular the Declaration of Arbroath

Declaration of Arbroath

The Declaration of Arbroath is a declaration of Scottish independence, made in 1320. It is in the form of a letter submitted to Pope John XXII, dated 6 April 1320, intended to confirm Scotland's status as an independent, sovereign state and defending Scotland's right to use military action when...

(1320) asserted the ancient distinctiveness of Scotland in the face of English aggression, arguing that it was the role of the king was to defend the independence of the community of Scotland and has been seen as the first "nationalist theory of sovereignty".

The adoption of Middle Scots by the aristocracy has been seen as building a sense of national solidarity and culture between rulers and ruled, although the fact that North of the Tay Gaelic still dominated, may have helped widen the cultural divide between highlands and lowlands. The national literature of Scotland created in the late medieval period employed legend and history in the service of the crown and nationalism, helping to foster a sense of national identity at least within its elite audience. The epic poetic history of the The Brus

The Brus

The Brus is a long narrative poem of just under 14,000 octosyllabic lines composed by John Barbour which gives a historic and chivalric account of the actions of Robert the Bruce and the Black Douglas in the Scottish Wars of Independence during a period from the circumstances leading up the English...

and Wallace helped outline a narrative of united struggle against the English enemy. Arthurian literature differed from conventional version of the legend by treating Arthur

King Arthur

King Arthur is a legendary British leader of the late 5th and early 6th centuries, who, according to Medieval histories and romances, led the defence of Britain against Saxon invaders in the early 6th century. The details of Arthur's story are mainly composed of folklore and literary invention, and...

as a villain and Mordred

Mordred

Mordred or Modred is a character in the Arthurian legend, known as a notorious traitor who fought King Arthur at the Battle of Camlann, where he was killed and Arthur fatally wounded. Tradition varies on his relationship to Arthur, but he is best known today as Arthur's illegitimate son by his...

, the son of the king of the Picts

Picts

The Picts were a group of Late Iron Age and Early Mediaeval people living in what is now eastern and northern Scotland. There is an association with the distribution of brochs, place names beginning 'Pit-', for instance Pitlochry, and Pictish stones. They are recorded from before the Roman conquest...

, as a hero. The origin myth of the Scots, systematised by John of Fordun

John of Fordun

John of Fordun was a Scottish chronicler. It is generally stated that he was born at Fordoun, Mearns. It is certain that he was a secular priest, and that he composed his history in the latter part of the 14th century; and it is probable that he was a chaplain in the St Machar's Cathedral of...

(c. 1320-c. 1384), traced their beginnings from the Greek prince Gathelus and his Egyptian wife Scota

Scota

Scota, in Irish mythology, Scottish mythology, and pseudohistory, is the name given to two different mythological daughters of two different Egyptian Pharaohs to whom the Gaels traced their ancestry, allegedly explaining the name Scoti, applied by the Romans to Irish raiders, and later to the Irish...

, allowing them to argue superiority over the English, who claimed their descent from the Trojans, who had been defeated by the Greeks.

It was in this period that the national flag emerged as a common symbol. The image of St. Andrew martyred bound to an X-shaped cross first appeared in the Kingdom of Scotland

Kingdom of Scotland

The Kingdom of Scotland was a Sovereign state in North-West Europe that existed from 843 until 1707. It occupied the northern third of the island of Great Britain and shared a land border to the south with the Kingdom of England...

during the reign of William I

William I of Scotland

William the Lion , sometimes styled William I, also known by the nickname Garbh, "the Rough", reigned as King of the Scots from 1165 to 1214...

and was again depicted on seals used during the late 13th century; including on one particular example used by the Guardians of Scotland, dated 1286. Use of a simplified symbol associated with Saint Andrew, the saltire

Saltire

A saltire, or Saint Andrew's Cross, is a heraldic symbol in the form of a diagonal cross or letter ex . Saint Andrew is said to have been martyred on such a cross....

, has its origins in the late 14th century; the Parliament of Scotland

Parliament of Scotland

The Parliament of Scotland, officially the Estates of Parliament, was the legislature of the Kingdom of Scotland. The unicameral parliament of Scotland is first found on record during the early 13th century, with the first meeting for which a primary source survives at...

decreed in 1385 that Scottish soldiers wear a white Saint Andrew's Cross on their person, both in front and behind, for the purpose of identification. Use of a blue background for the Saint Andrew's Cross is said to date from at least the 15th century. The earliest reference to the Saint Andrew's Cross as a flag is to be found in the Vienna Book of Hours, circa 1503.

The early modern era

Following the Glorious Revolution

Glorious Revolution

The Glorious Revolution, also called the Revolution of 1688, is the overthrow of King James II of England by a union of English Parliamentarians with the Dutch stadtholder William III of Orange-Nassau...

in 1688, in which the Whigs and Tories of England had agreed to the dethronement of the Catholic

Catholic

The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...

King James II (VII in Scotland), the throne of England was offered to the Protestant William of Orange

William III of England

William III & II was a sovereign Prince of Orange of the House of Orange-Nassau by birth. From 1672 he governed as Stadtholder William III of Orange over Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Guelders, and Overijssel of the Dutch Republic. From 1689 he reigned as William III over England and Ireland...

. When William landed in England with his army, James II fled to France. In 1689, William ascended the throne, and the Scottish government accepted his sovereignty too. However, this acceptance was not universal throughout Scotland - Scotland was divided into a Protestant and a Catholic population. Generally speaking, the Protestants were the Lowlanders and the Catholics the Highlanders. The Highlanders, of course, wished for a Catholic King, and so wanted James VII to be back on the throne. "Jacobus" was the Latin name for "James", and therefore his supporters called themselves "Jacobites".

During the following years, William proposed a complete union to the Parliament of Scotland

Parliament of Scotland

twice - in 1700 and 1702. However, it was not until a severe economic crisis, on account of harvest failure and the economic adventure in Panama

Panama

Panama , officially the Republic of Panama , is the southernmost country of Central America. Situated on the isthmus connecting North and South America, it is bordered by Costa Rica to the northwest, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north and the Pacific Ocean to the south. The...

where the Scots tried to establish a colony

Colony

In politics and history, a colony is a territory under the immediate political control of a state. For colonies in antiquity, city-states would often found their own colonies. Some colonies were historically countries, while others were territories without definite statehood from their inception....

(an attempt which failed utterly due to fever, hostile natives and lacking English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

co-operation), that the Scottish Parliament did agree to a union of Parliaments.

This was not a particularly popular decision amongst the Scottish population - there was an overwhelming feeling of anti-English bitterness. Queen Anne (1702–1714) had many spies in Scotland, and one of them reported:

"In Edinburgh and to northwards especially, they cry so bitterly against the Union, cursing those great men of theirs that gave consent to it, that one may see fifty men before one that is for the Union, in South or North."

Despite this unpopular decision by the ruling classes of both Scotland and England

England

, the union was nonetheless tolerated by the populations of both countries. This was primarily due to the benefits it brought for each country: Scotland benefitted economically by gaining access to trade with English colonies, and England benefitted since union with Scotland prevented European adversaries from using Scotland as a base of attack against England. Moreover, it secured England's northern border.

The ruling class of Scotland were, however, careful enough to allow many Scottish institutions to be preserved within the union. The Scots kept their own Kirk, law and education. Conserving these helped keep Scottish identity alive during the following period.

Jacobite Risings

At the beginning of the 18th century, following the Union of 1707, there were two major Jacobite Risings - one in 1715 and one in 1745. Originally the Jacobites

Jacobitism

Jacobitism was the political movement in Britain dedicated to the restoration of the Stuart kings to the thrones of England, Scotland, later the Kingdom of Great Britain, and the Kingdom of Ireland...

were the people who supported James VII, but later on Jacobites became identified with rebels fighting against the Union. The first rising took place after Queen Anne's death in 1714. George I of Hanover succeeded to the throne, but in Scotland James VIII

James Francis Edward Stuart

James Francis Edward, Prince of Wales was the son of the deposed James II of England...

, son of James VII, was proclaimed king in September, 1715. James VIII was in France, but he sailed off for Scotland. He arrived at the end of the year, delayed by illness, bad weather and poor communications. James VIII turned out to be a rather incompetent leader, and he was not supported by the French King, as he had expected, since Louis XIV

Louis XIV of France

Louis XIV , known as Louis the Great or the Sun King , was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and Navarre. His reign, from 1643 to his death in 1715, began at the age of four and lasted seventy-two years, three months, and eighteen days...

had just died, and Louis XV

Louis XV of France

Louis XV was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and of Navarre from 1 September 1715 until his death. He succeeded his great-grandfather at the age of five, his first cousin Philippe II, Duke of Orléans, served as Regent of the kingdom until Louis's majority in 1723...

was not inclined to help him. The Jacobite Rising was led by the eleventh Earl of Mar, a former Unionist and Tory, but since George I had deprived him of his privileges, he had changed side and was now in charge of the Jacobite army.

The Jacobite risings highlighted the social and cultural schism within Scotland - the predominantly Protestant Lowlanders (and thus more inclined to be pro-Union, given more social and cultural similarities with the English) and the predominantly Catholic

Catholic

The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...

Highlanders. The fighting also created contention between the Lowlanders (as well as the English) and the Highlanders.

Following the last Jacobite rising, the Dress Act of 1746 was introduced to crush the Highland culture (note: not Scottish culture). The Act prohibited any use of Highland Dress, punishable by six month's imprisonment - for a second offence possibly transportation "to any of His Majesty's Plantations beyond the Seas, there to remain for the space of Seven Years". This Act of Parliament

Act of Parliament

An Act of Parliament is a statute enacted as primary legislation by a national or sub-national parliament. In the Republic of Ireland the term Act of the Oireachtas is used, and in the United States the term Act of Congress is used.In Commonwealth countries, the term is used both in a narrow...

was not repealed until 1782. Samuel Johnson

Samuel Johnson

Samuel Johnson , often referred to as Dr. Johnson, was an English author who made lasting contributions to English literature as a poet, essayist, moralist, literary critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer...

("Dr. Johnson"), one of the most outstanding members of English intellectual life, travelled in the Highlands in 1773, and there he found that the Dress Act had been "universally obeyed".

Highland Regiments

The use of Highland Dress was only legitimate in the Highland Regiments, which were raised and incorporated in the British Army

British Army

The British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...

in large numbers during the eighteenth century. The Highland culture was male and martial - many clansmen had no other profession than one of arms, and to them the Highland Regiments were a possibility to continue their way of life; here they could still be warriors, and still wear the kilt. Indeed the formation of these regiments helped to unite the Highlanders and Lowlanders, and give them a shared sense of "Scottishness", by changing the image of Highlanders from being backward and savage, to being "the very embodiment of Scotland" (which became clearly evident during the Romanticist period in Scotland).

Ossian Cult

Between 1760 and 1763, James MacPherson

James Macpherson

James Macpherson was a Scottish writer, poet, literary collector and politician, known as the "translator" of the Ossian cycle of poems.-Early life:...

published three prose

Prose

Prose is the most typical form of written language, applying ordinary grammatical structure and natural flow of speech rather than rhythmic structure...

works, which he claimed were the works of Ossian, a Gaelic bard

Bard

In medieval Gaelic and British culture a bard was a professional poet, employed by a patron, such as a monarch or nobleman, to commemorate the patron's ancestors and to praise the patron's own activities.Originally a specific class of poet, contrasting with another class known as fili in Ireland...

from the third century AD. The works were tales of love and heroes, much like the tales of Virgil

Virgil

Publius Vergilius Maro, usually called Virgil or Vergil in English , was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. He is known for three major works of Latin literature, the Eclogues , the Georgics, and the epic Aeneid...

and Homer

Homer

In the Western classical tradition Homer , is the author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, and is revered as the greatest ancient Greek epic poet. These epics lie at the beginning of the Western canon of literature, and have had an enormous influence on the history of literature.When he lived is...

. They created sensation in Scotland, in England and in all of Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

. They inspired artists everywhere and encouraged people in Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

and Scandinavia

Scandinavia

Scandinavia is a cultural, historical and ethno-linguistic region in northern Europe that includes the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, characterized by their common ethno-cultural heritage and language. Modern Norway and Sweden proper are situated on the Scandinavian Peninsula,...

to seek their Nordic

Nordic countries

The Nordic countries make up a region in Northern Europe and the North Atlantic which consists of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden and their associated territories, the Faroe Islands, Greenland and Åland...

past; Nordic, but just as proud and heroic as the Latin

Latin

Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...

/Greek

Greeks

The Greeks, also known as the Hellenes , are a nation and ethnic group native to Greece, Cyprus and neighboring regions. They also form a significant diaspora, with Greek communities established around the world....

past. Ossian enthralled Napoleon Bonaparte, who even brought the book with him on campaigns and on St. Helena. The cult of Ossian lasted 60 years on the continent, but in England and Scotland the excitement faded, when prominent persons doubted its authenticity. MacPherson had no clear proof to show, but persisted that he had reproduced an old, Gaelic text, written down after centuries of oral tradition. Samuel Johnson

Samuel Johnson

went to the Western Isles, where he discovered that the population were almost completely illiterate, but that they in fact had a strong oral tradition. Thus, he concluded that MacPherson had created Ossian from old songs, blending its with his own imagination. Authentic or not, one cannot disregard the great impact Ossian had on the forming of the Romanticism.

Walter Scott

Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet was a Scottish historical novelist, playwright, and poet, popular throughout much of the world during his time....

wrote historical novels, i.e., novels originating in historical events, which would serve as a colourful background for the fiction of his imaginative stories. Usually, Scott is thought of as a Romantic novelist. However, he in fact emphasised that the past was dead and had better be left that way, however glorious it may have been. Moreover, Scott tried to emphasise that despite an emotional connection to, say, the Jacobite

Jacobitism

cause, one should acknowledge the benefits of the Union. In addition, one should not make emotional actions, but instead rational actions (i.e., the Union of England and Scotland would be the rational choice to support, since it's beneficial to all parties concerned, even if you were emotionally attached to a different cause).

He was both a Jacobite and a Unionist at the same time. He loved the Scottish - and the English - history; he found grandeur and pride in both. The Union was more than a hundred years old; Scotland had prospered, taken a gigantic step forward, culturally, economically and socially, there had been a great, mutual influence between the Scottish and the English peoples.

In 1822, Scott was asked to stage King George IV's state visit in Scotland. Scott made it a pageant, which should be a reconciliation between Scotland and England, more than anything else. In 1745 Highlanders had invaded Edinburgh

Edinburgh

Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...

and in 1822 Highlanders were to parade in Edinburgh in honour of George IV. Highland dress was worn - not as a sign of resistance, now, but as a part of a splendid show, which should consolidate the Union and the Hanoverian royal power. George IV repaid by wearing Highland dress at the Levee. The state visit was a great success, and Edinburgh was swarming with people, dressed in kilts, produced for the very occasion.

This leads to two interesting aspects: the dual identity of the Scots, and the fact that the Scottish national identity from now on was strongly influenced by Highland culture. Michael Lynch claims that by 1750 most of the Scots were prepared to think of themselves as both Scots and Britons. To understand this, you might think of Scotland as North Britain rather than Scotland - the difference between the Lowland culture (undeniably the culture of approximately 90% of all Scots) and the culture of the northern part of England is minimal. The real cultural difference is between the Lowland and the Highland, which is hardly surprising, considering the very different conditions of living. In spite of this difference, the Lowland gentry and bourgeoisie grabbed the chance of "reviving" a culture they had never had. The cult of Ossian had started a "Celtic Revival", but the real ignition was the novel, Waverley

Waverley

Waverley is the name of several different things:*Waverley , a novel by Sir Walter Scott**The Waverley Novels, the series of which Waverley was the first**The Waverley Overture, a work by Hector Berlioz inspired by Scott's novel...

, written by Walter Scott and published in 1814. This cultural explosion peaked at the royal state-visit in 1822.

Walter Scott - supported by the rest of the Scottish intelligentsia - invented what is commonly known as "Tartanry

Tartanry

Tartanry is a word used to describe the kitsch elements of Scottish culture that have been over-emphasized or super-imposed on the country first by the emergent Scottish tourist industry in the 18th and 19th centuries, and later by an American film industry...

", i.e., "the myth, which contains the idea of a glorious, romantic past in the wild Scottish Highland".

Victorian era (1832-1914)

The Reform Act of 1832 marked a milestone in Scottish history due to the expansion of the electorate, which subsequently allowed more Scots the opportunity to make their opinion matter. However, though more people were allowed to vote, tenants were often forced to do so by the owners of the land which they cultivated, so despite it being a free choice whether one would vote or not, the subdued farmers were facing use of excessive force from the landowners to whom they belonged. The conditions of the tenants are described sufficiently by Michael Lynch, in his book "Scotland - A New History":

"Without the security of a secret ballot, tenants, it was complained in 1835, were driven to the polls by landowners like 'a heard of vassals'".

This highlights the clear division between the social classes in Scotland; a division which would prove to grow larger in time. Due to the differences in the strata of Scottish society, it became unlikely that the Scottish people would unite in great national matters. This lack of solidarity, and Scotland's prosperity within the Union and as part of the British Empire, inhibited the emergence of nationalism.

Additionally, the voting system was not the only change forged by the Reform Act; the fact that Scotland was a British state was now generally accepted, and hereby a sense of belonging to Great Britain emerged and created the notion of "Britishness

Britishness

Britishness is the state or quality of being British, or of embodying British characteristics, and is used to refer to that which binds and distinguishes the British people and forms the basis of their unity and identity, or else to explain expressions of British culture—such as habits, behaviours...

". That is, Scottish people were generally proud to identify as "British" as well as "Scottish", least not the social elite. Lynch comments on this also:

"Bourgeois respectability linked arms with the new British state, which had emerged after the Reform Act of 1832. [...] The concentric loyalties of Victorian Scotland - a new Scottishness, a new Britishness and a revised sense of local pride - were held together by a phenomenon bigger than all of them - a Greater Britain whose stability rested on the Empire."

Industrial Revolution

In 1837, as the industrial revolution

Industrial Revolution

The Industrial Revolution was a period from the 18th to the 19th century where major changes in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, transportation, and technology had a profound effect on the social, economic and cultural conditions of the times...

was well on its way in the cotton

Cotton

Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective capsule, around the seeds of cotton plants of the genus Gossypium. The fiber is almost pure cellulose. The botanical purpose of cotton fiber is to aid in seed dispersal....

industry, a trade union

Trade union

A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...

called the "Spinners Association", which up until then had prevented the introduction of new labour-saving machinery, had had enough power to influence the factory owners' decisions. After a strike in 1837, the trade union's power deteriorated, and industrial progress could be introduced throughout Scotland's cotton industry.

Once the machines were running, a factory owner could depend on very few skilled workers to keep these machines going, and the rest of the work could be performed by unskilled labour. What the various trade unions sought to prevent by keeping the human workforce in the factories, was the inevitable outcome of the industrialisation; namely huge unemployment among the skilled workforce, because of the higher wages they had to be paid, as opposed to the unskilled labour. Unskilled labour could be paid less wages and thereby keep the expenses down, not unlike the production philosophies we know today, when companies move their production from their homeland to a foreign country where labour is cheap, and trade unions do not exist or lack power to get their demands through.

Without the trade unions to exercise the power held by them, the industry had no problems introducing technology and cheaper labour - this meant more profit and a faster production to the owners of the cotton mills, but the consequences for the main parts of the workforce

Workforce

The workforce is the labour pool in employment. It is generally used to describe those working for a single company or industry, but can also apply to a geographic region like a city, country, state, etc. The term generally excludes the employers or management, and implies those involved in...

was unemployment

Unemployment

Unemployment , as defined by the International Labour Organization, occurs when people are without jobs and they have actively sought work within the past four weeks...

and a life at no more than subsistence level. This was a life without any kind of sufficient social support, as was seen with the disruption of 1843

Disruption of 1843

The Disruption of 1843 was a schism within the established Church of Scotland, in which 450 ministers of the Church broke away, over the issue of the Church's relationship with the State, to form the Free Church of Scotland...

.

The industrialisation

Industrialisation

Industrialization is the process of social and economic change that transforms a human group from an agrarian society into an industrial one...

resulted, at first, in employment for just about anybody. The fact that the "rush" of the cotton mills passed, and technology/machinery replaced lots of working people, combined with the large urbanisation, resulted in an inevitable outcome: massive unemployment, with depression and frustration in its wake. This was what characterised the poor districts of the urbanised areas.

Education

In Scotland there was a school in almost every parish, and the parishes were controlled by the Church of Scotland

Church of Scotland

The Church of Scotland, known informally by its Scots language name, the Kirk, is a Presbyterian church, decisively shaped by the Scottish Reformation....

(until the Disruption of 1843

Disruption of 1843

). As there were no regulations dictating how pupils should be taught, and no "road maps" regarding education as such, it would be fairly easy for the New Church to establish an educational system of their own, without compromising any written conventions agreed by the Scottish government. This was also the case with other branches of the religious life in Scotland; in theory just about anybody could start a school, this would "only" take an interested crowd of people, who would make their children attend. Of course, this is very roughly put, but nonetheless this was to a wide extent what the Scottish educational system consisted of before the 1872 Education (Scotland) Act, in which all schools were brought under state control.

The change from Church to state control following the 1872 Education (Scotland) Act meant an organisation of school boards, which were controlled from the Scotch Education Department (SED) which was based in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

Social conditions

The duality

Dualism

Dualism denotes a state of two parts. The term 'dualism' was originally coined to denote co-eternal binary opposition, a meaning that is preserved in metaphysical and philosophical duality discourse but has been diluted in general or common usages. Dualism can refer to moral dualism, Dualism (from...

that emerged with the separation of the Church did not only raise problems concerning education; there were also large numbers of poor people to consider. The national Church had lost its authority concerning the parishes which had taken care of the poor, and seen to their well-being. The Free Church had to build up an entirely new organisation, in order to avoid leaving the poor to themselves and their fate. It was the church itself that took care of the poor people of Scotland; no governmental aids were provided, so the small-time business of hiring out coffin covers at funerals, together with private donations at Kirk-sessions, did not fulfil the needs of the poor at all.

For a time, the Free Church was in fact a sanctuary for the crofters and other low-paid parts of society, but eventually this was a short-term relief from the upper-middle classes, who were fast in taking over the important posts of the new church. The Free Church consisted mainly of younger people, allowing the better economic founded classes to move in on the new "territory" and take control.

This "take over" of the Free Church by the better classes resulted in a further secularisation of the social layers of Scotland. What had begun - or at least become, as the church attended mainly by the workers of the nation - was soon to be set apart from these people. It is peculiar how this diversion between the different civic groups in Scotland was manifested; even though most of the people fulfilled, or had fulfilled, a place in society.

Besides the problems in the more-urbanised areas of Scotland, the Highlands

Scottish Highlands

The Highlands is an historic region of Scotland. The area is sometimes referred to as the "Scottish Highlands". It was culturally distinguishable from the Lowlands from the later Middle Ages into the modern period, when Lowland Scots replaced Scottish Gaelic throughout most of the Lowlands...

had problems of their own to handle. The Disruption

Disruption of 1843

had a great impact on the highlanders; they saw it as an opportunity to dissociate from the landowners and their kind - a class diversion in which the peasantry of the rural areas of Scotland found a haven free from their "superiors".

It was in wake of these massive changes in Scotland at the time that Scottish society remained detached from a sense of Scottish national identity. Moreover, Scottish society remained fragmented, though this was chiefly along class lines more so than the historic Highland/Lowland divide of the past.

World Wars (1914-1960)

In the years leading up to the first World War, Scotland found herself on the verge of devolution. The Liberals were in power at Whitehall, largely confirmed by the Scots, and they were about to legislate on Irish Home Rule. Gaelic culture was on the rise, and long lasting disputes within the Church had finally been settled.

Economic conditions from 1914-1922

Between 1906 and 1908 the Clyde shipbuilding industry had suffered a decline in output in 50% compared to 1905. Also, the almost equally important steel and engineering industries were ailing. These were ominous signs for an economy that was based on eight staple industries - in order of numbers employed: agriculture, coal mining, shipbuilding and engineering, textiles, building, steel and fishing. These eight counted for 60% of the country's industrial output. With a 12.5% output of the UK production compared with the 10.5% of the population, the Scottish economy was by all means a comparatively significant factor in the British economy. Despite a bleak economic outlook, Scotland did not hesitate in throwing her sons into World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

, which broke out on 4 August 1914. Though seemingly enthusiastic about the War engagement (if this is possible), seen by the fact that Scotland mobilised 22 out of the 157 battalions that made up the British Expeditionary Force, the wartime threat to an exporting economy soon came to be a fore. Panic spread because of the fear that the War would lead to disastrous conditions for industrial areas, and unemployment would, subsequently, rise. This panic soon abated, though, as the German offensive on the Western front came to a halt. In the Glasgow Herald, the MP Sir William Raeburn stated:

"The War has falsified almost every prophesy. Food was to be an enormous price [sic] unemployment rife [...] revolution was to be feared. What are the facts? The freight market [...] is now active and prosperous [...] prices of food have risen very little, and the difficulty at present is to get sufficient labour, skilled and unskilled. We have not only maintained our own trades, but have been busy capturing our enemies'."

However the textile industry was immediately hit by the rising of charges in freight and insurances by 30-40%. The coal mining was also affected instantaneously as the German market

Economy of Germany

Germany is the largest national economy in Europe, the fourth-largest by nominal GDP in the world, and fifth by GDP in 2008. Since the age of industrialisation, the country has been a driver, innovator, and beneficiary of an ever more globalised economy...

- which had consisted of 2.9 million ton

Ton

The ton is a unit of measure. It has a long history and has acquired a number of meanings and uses over the years. It is used principally as a unit of weight, and as a unit of volume. It can also be used as a measure of energy, for truck classification, or as a colloquial term.It is derived from...

s - disappeared in the post-war period, and along with it the Baltic

Baltic region

The terms Baltic region, Baltic Rim countries, and Baltic Rim refer to slightly different combinations of countries in the general area surrounding the Baltic Sea.- Etymology :...

market. Also, enlistment resulted in a grave decline of efficiency due to the condition of the remaining miners who were either less skilled, too old or in poor physical shape. The fishing industry was struck, again because its main importers of herring were Germany

Germany

and Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

. The War's affection on fishing resulted in an enormous flow of fishermen into the Royal Naval Reserve

Royal Naval Reserve

The Royal Naval Reserve is the volunteer reserve force of the Royal Navy in the United Kingdom. The present Royal Naval Reserve was formed in 1958 by merging the original Royal Naval Reserve and the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve , a reserve of civilian volunteers founded in 1903...

.

Industries that gained from the War appeared to be the shipbuilding and the munitions industry in general. But while these industries had a positive effect on the employment situation, they dealt with a production of a limited future, and when the War ended in 1918 so did the orders that had kept the Clyde Yards busy. It was soon to become evident that the War would leave the Scottish economy scarred for years to come.

The War had seen an enormous sacrifice from the Scots with an estimated loss of around a 100,000 men, according to the National War Memorial White Paper. At 5% of the male population this nearly doubled the British average. The capital from the expanded munitions industry had moved south, and likewise the control of much of the Scottish business. English banks had taken over Scottish banks, and those that remained had switched much of their investment into government stocks, or down south to more profitable commercial concerns. This made the Glasgow Herald, who was usually no friend to nationalism, state: "That ere long the commercial community will be sighing for a banking William Wallace to free them from southern oppression."

The War had also brought a new desolation to the Highlands. The forests were chopped down and death and migration had put an end to traditional industries. Schemes were made to restore the area: plantation of new forests, building of railways and an industrialisation of the islands after a Scandinavian pattern, constructed around deep sea fishery. But the carrying out of these plans was dependant on a continuing British economic prosperity.

The plans for a reorganisation of the railways were of critical importance. The newly created Minister of Transport suggested a nationalisation of the railways, with a separate Scottish region that was supposed to be autonomous. But as this scheme would put an extraordinary strain on the Scottish railways, as already seen during the War, when there was national control. This led to an upgrade in maintenance and wages with resulting rise in expenses. A separate Scottish company would be forced to uphold these standards, even though it was only carrying a little more than half the tons of traffic, compared with the English railway. This would, all in all, make the Scottish system uneconomical. The result of this schism was a campaign headed by a coalition of Scottish MPs from both the Labour, the Liberal and the Conservative parties in which the "rhetoric of nationalism" was used to secure an amalgamation of Scottish and English railways.

This is one example of how nationalism could be tied up with economics. More generally, any economic disadvantage relative to the rest of the UK could be used by politicians as a justification for active intervention by either a devolved or independent administration.

Scotland had been close to a vote on devolution prior to the outbreak of the First World War, but though economic problems were not by all means a novelty, they had not been a case for nationalism before 1914. Until then, governmental interventions had been of a social character, as displayed in the 1832-1914 period, where the major issues were social welfare and the educational system. With this in mind, it would be fair to assert that actions concerning the economy were not considered functions of the government before 1914. It was only incidentally that economic issues appeared in nationalist political forms.

The Scottish electorate had risen from 779,012 at the 1910 election to 2,205,383 in 1918, due to the Representation of the People Act 1918

Representation of the People Act 1918

The Representation of the People Act 1918 was an Act of Parliament passed to reform the electoral system in the United Kingdom. It is sometimes known as the Fourth Reform Act...

, which entitled women over 30 to vote, plus added male voters by a full 50%. But even though Labour had Home Rule on its program, and supported it with two distinctively Scottish planks: "The Self-Determination of the Scottish People" and "The Complete Restoration of the Land of Scotland to the Scottish People", it was the Unionists who prevailed with 32 seats in the Commons, as opposed to only seven in 1910. What the Scots did not know yet, was that the period following the War would be a time of an unprecedented depression; and they obviously had paid no heed to the ominous signs of the War's influence on the economy, which the consensus of the 1918 election was clearly a proof of.

Economic conditions from 1922-1960

The Scottish economy was heavily dependent on international trade. A decline in the trade would mean over capacity in shipping and a fall in owner's profit. This again would lead to fewer orders for new ships, and this slump would then spread to the other heavy industries. In 1921 the shipbuilding industry had been hit by the combination of a vanishing naval market, the surplus of products of American shipyards, and confiscated enemy ships.

Scotland needed to plan her way out of trouble. In 1930 the Labour

Labour Party (UK)

The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...

government had, though it was considered a purely cosmetic move, encouraged regional industrial development groups, which led to the forming of the Scottish National Development Council (SNDC). The forming of the SNDC later led to the set up of the Scottish Economy Committee (SEC). Neither of these bodies sought a cure for Scotland's ills by nationalist political solutions, and many of those who were actively involved in them joined in a comprehensive condemnation of any form of home rule. However, at the same time the secretary of the committee justified its existence by stating: "It is undoubtedly true that Scotland's national economy tends to pass unnoticed in the hands of the Ministry of Labour and the Board of Trade". Because increasing legislation required more Scottish statutes, the importance of the legal and the administrative in the years between the wars grew. The move of the administration to St. Andrew's House

St. Andrew's House

St. Andrew's House is a large, Category 'A' listed Art Deco-influenced building on the southern flank of Calton Hill in Edinburgh, Scotland. Its southern side looks out over Waverley station, the Canongate and Holyrood Park....

was considered an important act, but while welcoming the move in 1937, Walter Elliot — the Secretary of State

Secretary of State

Secretary of State or State Secretary is a commonly used title for a senior or mid-level post in governments around the world. The role varies between countries, and in some cases there are multiple Secretaries of State in the Government....

then — feared the changes:

"[...] will not in themselves dispose of the problems whose solution a general improvement in Scottish social and economic conditions depends [...] it is the consciousness of their existence which is reflected in, not in the small and unimportant Nationalist Party, but in the dissatisfaction and uneasiness amongst moderate and reasonable people of every view or rank - a dissatisfaction expressed in every book published about Scotland now for several years".

As government began to play an increasingly interventionist role in the economy, it became easy to advocate a nationalist remedy to ensure that it was in what ever was deemed Scotland's interest. As before 1914, the easy conditions of world trade after 1945 made Scottish industry prosper, and any need for drastic political interventions were postponed until the late 1950s, when the economic progress of Scotland started to deteriorate, and shipbuilding and engineering companies were forced to shut down. But even if the decline in the late 1950s meant an increasing degree of intervention from the government, there was no evidence of any other political change. Even the Scottish Council's inquiry into the Scottish economy in 1960 was specific: "The proposal for a Scottish Parliament [...] implies constitutional changes of a kind that place it beyond our remit although it is fair to say that we do not regard it as a solution".

Literary renaissance

While the post 1914 period appears to have been devoted to the economic questions and problems of Scotland, it also saw the birth of a Scottish literary renaissance in the 1924-1934 decade.

In the late 18th and 19th century, industrialisation had swept across Scotland with great speed. Such was the rate of industrialisation that the Scottish society had failed to adequately adapt to the massive changes which industrialisation had brought. The Scottish intelligentsia was overwhelmed by the growth of the Scottish industrial revolution, and the new entrepreneurial bourgeoisie linked to it. It was "deprived of its typical nationalist role. [...] There was no call for its usual services". These 'services' would normally lead the nation to the threshold of political independence. So the, indeed, very well known intelligentsia of Scotland was operating on an entirely different stage, though it was not really Scottish at all. As a contrast, or perhaps a reaction to this, an entirely different literary "school" erupted in the late 19th century: the Kailyard.

Along with Tartanry

Tartanry

, Kailyard has come to represent a "cultural sub-nationalism". One can say the Kailyard literature, and the garish symbols of Tartanry, fortified each other and became a sort of substitute for nationalism. The parochialism of the Kailyard, and the myths of an irreversible past of the Tartanry, came to represent a politically impotent nationalism.

One of the first to recognise this "lack of teeth" was the poet Christopher Murray Grieve, synonymous with Hugh MacDiarmid

Hugh MacDiarmid

Hugh MacDiarmid is the pen name of Christopher Murray Grieve , a significant Scottish poet of the 20th century. He was instrumental in creating a Scottish version of modernism and was a leading light in the Scottish Renaissance of the 20th century...

. MacDiarmid, both a nationalist and a socialist, saw the parochialism of the Scottish literature as a sign of English hegemony, hence it had to be destroyed. He tried to do this through his poetry, and used his own reworking of old Scots or "Lallans" (Lowland Scots

Scots language

) in the tradition of Robert Burns

Robert Burns

Robert Burns was a Scottish poet and a lyricist. He is widely regarded as the national poet of Scotland, and is celebrated worldwide...

instead of Scots Gaelic or standard English

English language

English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

. MacDiarmid's "crusade" brought along other writers and poets, like Lewis Grassic Gibbon

Lewis Grassic Gibbon

Lewis Grassic Gibbon was the pseudonym of James Leslie Mitchell , a Scottish writer.-Biography:...

and Edwin Muir

Edwin Muir

Edwin Muir was an Orcadian poet, novelist and translator born on a farm in Deerness on the Orkney Islands. He was remembered for his deeply felt and vivid poetry in plain language with few stylistic preoccupations....

; but this literary renaissance lasted only for about ten years.

1960-present day

Scotland had come to rely firmly on the presence of heavy industry, and common Scots shared a working-class identity underneath - or perhaps even above, as could be seen in the later (during the 1980s) attempt to create a new Scottish identity out of the common history of working-class struggle; e.g. Red Clydeside

Red Clydeside

Red Clydeside is a term used to describe the era of political radicalism that characterised the city of Glasgow in Scotland, and urban areas around the city on the banks of the River Clyde such as Clydebank, Greenock and Paisley...

- the dual Scottish/British identity. With such a large part of Scottish livelihood depending on the success of the country's industrial capacities, it is clear that a notable political force inevitably became linked with this social class; a working-class uprising would be a Scottish uprising - nationalism throughout the working-class would be Scottish nationalism in its full potential.

However, nationalism flourished only in small intellectual circles. Indeed the intelligentsia repeatedly admonished the working-class for not appreciating the fact that dissociation from Britain was, according to them, the only way to improve the situation in Scotland.

The essential industry had been in great demand during the post-war period, but as Europe slowly recovered from the lingering impacts of war, old competitors became active again, while the need for heavy industry continued to diminish. Scottish industry had failed to reorientate, hence unemployment rose steadily, having doubled the number of jobless labourers by the beginning of the 1960s - a tendency which continued in spite of attempts to bring new industry to Scotland

As the rest of Britain also suffered from economic recession

Recession

In economics, a recession is a business cycle contraction, a general slowdown in economic activity. During recessions, many macroeconomic indicators vary in a similar way...

, and thus needed to review every expense, the infrastructure of Scotland became somewhat neglected. Unprofitable railroad lines were subsequently shut down throughout the UK

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

to minimise maintenance costs.

This development left an increasing number of Scots with little more than a sense of isolation and being disregarded. Dissatisfaction, not surprisingly, started growing, as the social and economical decline wore on - to some Scots it could only appear as if central England were rebuilding its strength on behalf of its conceived provinces.

Discontent has always provided fertile soil for most forms of radicalism, including nationalism. In an economical context, this tendency for discontent to create opposition is called the "feelgood factor", and John Curtice, Senior Lecturer in Politics at Strathclyde University, has described its principal workings in the following words:

"The key to the outcome of elections is the state of the economy. If voters have plenty of money in their pockets, they feel good about the economy and will support the government. If they have less money in their pockets, they lose confidence in the economy, and will vote the government out."

Though a desire for change did begin to emerge - an inclination also demonstrated by the fact that the Scottish National Party

Scottish National Party

The Scottish National Party is a social-democratic political party in Scotland which campaigns for Scottish independence from the United Kingdom....

(SNP) received wider support from the working-class through the 1960s - the Scots could hardly be said to even attempt to vote out the government (during the 1960s there were only minor fluctuations in the support for the established parties). This was likely due to the unease of the prospect of confronting the central British government. A status quo appears to have been preferred to the uncertainties that changes would bring.

The reason for the apparent lack of political influence by the "feelgood factor" could probably be explained by this general absence of faith in the future, there not being obvious ways to reverse the decline. There was no guarantee that the working people's standard and quality of living was not to deteriorate further, if they sought to break up with Britain. Talk of a devolved parliament might chafe Westminster unnecessarily, potentially cutting Scotland off from vital UK subsidiaries. As for the case of independence - what was Scotland, still relying greatly on obsolete heavy industry, to live on? Total independence could pledge no promises of improved conditions, but would inevitably mean new expenses, like the need for the establishment of costly institutions as military and defence.

It appears that the people at this point felt no particular ideological need for a higher degree of political independence. What they wanted was just better social and employment conditions, preferably without too much of the insecurity and responsibility that would inevitably follow the possible channelling of their discontent into a political momentum.

In 1970, however, something happened that provided a possible solution to the very real economical problems facing a potentially independent Scotland. Large quantities of oil were discovered in what would be Scotland's own territorial waters, had she not been a part of the UK. The Scots felt, more than ever, exploited by central Britain, as they saw little of the oil revenues (which primarily went to Britain), and the economic recession continued. The conviction that the new oil industry might be able to support an independent Scottish nation was the cue for advocates of autonomy to launch into one of the first rather successful nationalistic campaigns. The SNP proclaimed "It's Scotland's Oil", campaigning for total independence, and their public support soared to no less than 30% of the Scottish electorate in the 1974 October election (a mere 6.4% behind the established Labour party), giving them 11 MPs in Westminster. It seemed that Scottish nationalism had finally had its breakthrough, and that the newly discovered economical foundation would allow the discontent caused largely by the "feelgood factor" to play its part, making Scotland actively oppose the established government.

In the following years the nationalistic tendencies were so pronounced that, in 1979, a Scottish/Welsh devolution referendum took place. With so many Scots supporting the SNP, the other parties could simply not afford to ignore the issue, if they were to keep their voters. However, it again became apparent that the Scots were truly a divided people, and that there was, evidently, a rather significant difference between what the common Scotsman said and what he actually did (a Scottish national covenant demanding an intra-UK parliament in Scotland had received over two million signatures). 52% of the voters voted pro-devolution, but only 32.9% of the entire Scottish electorate turned out, and Westminster required this figure to be at least 40% for the election outcome to be valid.
The outcome indicated that there was no simple, unified "struggle for freedom", and support lent to the active nationalists was gone as quickly as it had appeared. The number of SNP MPs dropped from 11 to only 2 at the following election, as the party had been left somewhat discredited after the referendum. Ever since, through the 1980s and the beginning of the 1990s, the support for the nationalists remained low.

Various explanations have been suggested for the Scots defying pre-poll expectations of a clear majority in favour of independence. It is possible that the SNP with their separatist course had frightened supporters of a slower dissociation with Britain, thus - again - invoking the fear of a self-governed Scotland standing alone (even in spite of the expected oil revenues). Oil or no oil, the Scots would need to politicise the "pseudo-nationalism" they had relied on for so long. Or rather they would need to abandon it altogether, they would have to shed the secure (even if forged) tartan-image - established through Tartanry and Kailyard, and reinforced by the tourist ideas of Scotland held by foreigners as well as by the Scots themselves - replacing it with a different form of identity.

Independence in Europe

Many Scottish nationalists have caught sight of a new way of trying to achieve status of an independent nation, by means of the European Union

European Union

The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...

(EU). The goal is to gain "Independence in Europe", as the catch phrase of the campaign launched by the SNP

Scottish National Party

The Scottish National Party is a social-democratic political party in Scotland which campaigns for Scottish independence from the United Kingdom....

goes, and it appears that the EU then becomes instrumental in the "struggle" (or, rather, passive demand) for a higher degree of independence; an accessory for dissociation with Britain.

Cultural icons

Cultural icons in Scotland have changed over the centuries, e.g., the first national instrument was the Clarsach

Clàrsach

Clàrsach or Cláirseach , is the generic Gaelic word for 'a harp', as derived from Middle Irish...

or Celtic harp

Harp

The harp is a multi-stringed instrument which has the plane of its strings positioned perpendicularly to the soundboard. Organologically, it is in the general category of chordophones and has its own sub category . All harps have a neck, resonator and strings...

until it was replaced by the Highland pipes in the 15th century. Symbols like the tartan

Tartan

Tartan is a pattern consisting of criss-crossed horizontal and vertical bands in multiple colours. Tartans originated in woven wool, but now they are made in many other materials. Tartan is particularly associated with Scotland. Scottish kilts almost always have tartan patterns...

, the kilt

Kilt

The kilt is a knee-length garment with pleats at the rear, originating in the traditional dress of men and boys in the Scottish Highlands of the 16th century. Since the 19th century it has become associated with the wider culture of Scotland in general, or with Celtic heritage even more broadly...

and bagpipes are widely but not universally liked by Scots; their establishment as symbols for the whole of Scotland, especially in the Lowlands, dates back to the early 19th century. This was the age of pseudo-pageantry: the visit of King George IV to Scotland

Visit of King George IV to Scotland

The 1822 visit of King George IV to Scotland was the first visit of a reigning monarch to Scotland since 1650. Government ministers had pressed the King to bring forward a proposed visit to Scotland, to divert him from diplomatic intrigue at the Congress of Verona.The visit increased his popularity...

organised by Sir Walter Scott

Walter Scott

Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet was a Scottish historical novelist, playwright, and poet, popular throughout much of the world during his time....

. Scott, very much a Unionist and Tory

Tory

Toryism is a traditionalist and conservative political philosophy which grew out of the Cavalier faction in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. It is a prominent ideology in the politics of the United Kingdom, but also features in parts of The Commonwealth, particularly in Canada...

, was at the same time a great populariser of Scottish mythology through his writings.

The early middle ages

The late middle ages

The early modern era

Jacobite Risings

Highland Regiments

Ossian Cult

Walter Scott

Victorian era (1832-1914)

Industrial Revolution

Education

Social conditions

World Wars (1914-1960)

Economic conditions from 1914-1922

Economic conditions from 1922-1960

Literary renaissance

1960-present day

Independence in Europe

Cultural icons

See also

Further reading