Scotland: Colony or Coloniser?
“The primary aim of propaganda is, of course, to influence contemporary opinion, but those who rewrite history do probably believe with part of their minds that they are actually thrusting facts into the past.”
Notes on Nationalism – George Orwell
It’s sadly become a nationalist trope to claim Scotland is a ‘Colony’. It’s done not just by Cybernats but by nationalist celebrities such as Eddie Reader and politicians. Earlier this year, our “Minister for Independence”, Jamie Hepburn, followed the lead of Pete Wishart and referred to the Secretary of State for Scotland using the colonial title “Governor-General”.
However, even a cursory examination of academic research, historical facts, and recorded events reveals a different story. This article aims to comprehensively answer the claim of Scotland being a colony, instead presenting evidence of Scotland’s role as a coloniser.
Pre-Union Colonisation
The invasion of Britain
Of course, in one sense – Scotland is a colony. The Declaration of Arbroath records how the Scots – an Ulster tribe, invaded what became ‘Scotland’ – Claiming the right of conquest by “expulsion primo Britonibus et Pictis omnino deletes” – First driving out the native British then committing the genocide of the Picts” and “multis cum victories et Laboribus quamplurimis adquisuit” taking possession of the land through military victories.
The Darien Scheme
The Darien scheme is a testament to Scotland’s ambitions as a colonial power in the late 17th century. Backed predominantly by Scottish investors, the scheme aimed to establish a colony named New Caledonia in the Darién Gap on the Isthmus of Panama. The objective was to amass wealth and extend Scotland’s influence on the global stage.
However, the venture proved to be a catastrophic failure. The harsh conditions of the Darién Gap took a severe toll on the settlers, with over 80% of the participants perishing within the first year. The colony was abandoned twice due to the inhospitable environment and the challenges of sustaining a settlement in such a region. Today, the land where the ill-fated Darien colony once stood is part of Guna Yala, an autonomous territory inhabited by the indigenous Guna people.
The Duke of Hamilton, a prominent supporter of the Darien scheme, had plans to import enslaved Africans to be “worked to death” in the region’s gold mines once the Scottish colony was established. This intention underscores the harsh realities of colonial ambitions and the often-overlooked role of Scotland in the broader narrative of the British Empire’s colonial history.
But while Scots may have colonised ‘Scotland’ and failed to colonise central America alone, it’s within the British Empire that Scots and Scotland rose to the most global power and prominence.
Scotland’s Role in the British Empire
Devine Intervention
Sir Thomas Martin Devine, known as Tom Devine, has been described as the country’s “most influential historian” and “the pre-eminent historian of his generation” is a highly respected Scottish historian and academic. He is Sir William Fraser, Professor Emeritus of Scottish History and Palaeography at the University of Edinburgh, and was director of the university’s Scottish Centre for Diaspora Studies. He knows his stuff when it comes to Scottish history.
His ethos is deeply rooted in rigorous academic research and a commitment to understanding and interpreting Scotland’s past. His reputation, extensive body of work, and recognition in Scottish history make him a trustworthy source of information.
However, because his research is based on facts and evidence, revisionist nationalists have taken against him.
In “Scotland’s Empire: The Origins of the Global Diaspora”, he comprehensively examines Scotland’s role in the global development of the British Empire. The book explores Scotland’s impact – from the Americas to Australia, from the Caribbean to India, Scottish soldiers conquered territory and slaughtered natives, Scottish emigrants displaced people and stole their lands, Scottish merchants exploited the colony’s natural resources from slaves to gold and crops: and Scottish colonial administrators organised them all.
Indeed Scottish exploitation of the Empire built Scotland as a nation, driving our enlightenment and building our granite cities on the backs of slavery: The Glasgow Tobacco barons grew fat on the labour of slaves in Virginian tobacco plantations.
The Scottish Empire
Devine is not a lone voice – John MacDonald MacKenzie, A University of Glasgow graduate who is now Emeritus Professor of imperial history at Lancaster University, is a British historian of imperialism who pioneered the study of ‘cultural imperialism’. His works, such as “Echoes of Empire”, “How Empire Shaped Us”, and “The Scottish Empire”, study the impact of the Empire on both the dominant and subordinate societies.
He examines how the Empire shaped Scottish identity and how the Scots, in turn, influenced the Empire’s development: and that it was not a “British” empire separate from the home nation cultures but was a mash-up of Irish, Scottish, Welsh and English influences.
Together Devine and MacKenzie also gathered and edited “Scotland and the British Empire”, a range of essays from a variety of historians exploring how Scotland as coloniser was both an influence and influenced, economically, socially, culturally and ethnically – playing an active role in everything from slave plantations to the East India Company.
The colony myth called out in 2014
Pseudo-History
“I have long been amused by the romanticised and misplaced sense of modern Scottish nationalism. It comes as no surprise to me that Scottish officers were in the Vanguard of putting down the (Indian) rebellion. Given the sheer number of Scots in power at the dizzy heights of the Empire, no wonder Indian historians often refer to the British Empire as really the Scottish Empire. Scots as an oppressed nation? Don’t make me laugh!”
Raj Pal, Oxfordshire County Heritage and Arts Officer
Characteristics of pseudo-history
Recasting Scotland as a colony, or colonial victim, is a form of pseudo-history.
Skeptic, Robert Todd Carroll, has identified many characteristics, saying pseudo-history:
- Is on a mission, not a quest, seeking to support some contemporary political or religious agenda rather than find out the truth about the past
- It is selective in its use of ancient documents, citing favourably those that fit with its agenda and ignoring or interpreting away those documents which do not fit.
- Often maintains that there is a conspiracy to suppress its claims because of racism, atheism or ethnocentrism or opposition to its political or religious agenda.
Some pseudo-histories may be relatively harmless – like the authorship of Shakespeare other may be extremely popular and profitable – like the Da Vinci Code, some are particularly controversial, like Black Cleopatra, but generally, when Pseudo-History comes from nationalists, it is harmful, such as the “Irish Slaves” myth, also beloved of some Scottish Nationalists, equating Irish indentured work to the African American slave experience. White supremacists have also adopted this myth to excuse racial prejudice. Pseudo-History also goes right up to outright Holocaust denial.
Nationalist Narrative
The narrative of ‘Scotland as colony’ and victim of the British Empire isn’t just a grossly over-simplistic interpretation of a complex historical relationship, or a genuine misunderstanding, it is a classic example of Orwell’s rewriting of the past for nationalist propaganda. A Braveheart revisionism of the Volksgheist that nationalists are hoping to use to drive their cause of independence at any cost.
History is rewritten to say Scotland is the last colony of the British Empire for three key reasons-
Stoke Grievance, blame and Division
Populists tell people that things aren’t their fault because others are oppressing them. It is an ‘othering’ of British history. If voters can be convinced that Scotland was an innocent victim variously invaded, subjected to military occupation, and bullied into a disadvantageous union followed by 300 years of colonial exploitation, then then they can be motivated to act against their own best interests – voting for some misplaced sense of becoming free of oppression, righting a historical ill – in other words making a purely emotional decision free from any economic or practical considerations.
Claim Absolution for past sins.
No ‘true’ Scotsman would have had anything to do with anything inconvenient or immoral, such as slavery or exploitative Imperial trade. Never mind why so many Jamaicans have Scottish names, or what Alexander Hamilton’s ancestors were doing in the Caribbean, or Glasgow was known as the second city of the Empire.
International Reframing
Scottish Nationalists like to point to actual former colonies as case studies of countries that have left the united kingdom, as pathfinders, and citing the United Nations’ support of self-determination. However, the United Nations’ support of self-determination in the mid-twentieth century context of decolonisation does not apply – since the treaty of Finland in 1972, the United Nations gives precedence to the territorial integrity of members, such as the United Kingdom, over the self-determination of separatist regions. This is something I explore in detail here.
Rebutting Braveheart Revisionism
The rewriting of Scottish history for political ends can seem almost laughable if you do know your history: but it should not be taken lightly. Sadly under a nationalist government, this pseudo-history – from “Churchill sending in Tanks” to “Scotland was occupied” to “The Highlanders were abandoned” has made its way into Scottish Schools.
Scotland is not a British colony. Indeed, we have been British here longer than we’ve been Scottish. With its links to many more robust sources, I hope this article can act as a bookmarked rebuttal to be shared when the ‘Scotland as Colony’ propaganda trope is deployed.
We cannot allow nationalists to rewrite our past to steal our future.
References
1. Devine, T. M. (2004). Scotland’s Empire: The Origins of the Global Diaspora. Allen Lane.
2. MacKenzie, J. M. (2011). The Scottish Empire. Birlinn.
3. Kelly, J. (2019). Scottish Involvement in the British Empire
4. The National. (2020). The British Empire: The shameful story of how the Scots helped to start it.
5. Hyam, R. (2010). Understanding the British Empire. Cambridge University Press.
6. Scottish Colonisation of the Americas
7. George Orwell, (1945). Notes on Nationalism
8. Scottish Barons (1320) Letter of Arbroath
9. Scottish Streets named after Slavers and Colonial Possessions
10. Clyde Heritage “Second City of Empire”
11. Carroll, Robert Todd. (2003) The Skeptic’s Dictionary, Hoboken
12. Jill Stephenson. (2020) The subversion of history education in Scotland, Spectator
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