Alba Gu Brath

by MSK42

To become independent in the early 1800s is to enter a world of chaos. Scotland, a land centuries old but joined to England for over a century, has done so, and at once faces the challenges of independence and imperialism in the 1800s. With its home split between Highlands and Lowlands and lands abroad being snapped up by empires, Scotland will attempt to stand the test of time.

3. 1846 - 1856

By 1846, the "Scottish Empire" had come to cover a wide swath of territories stretching from North America to Africa to Asia. And quickly, a question came to the fore. All across the Scottish colonial holdings, slavery had slowly grown, although not to a point where it was as endemic as in the United States or the Empire of Brazil. The United Kingdom had abolished slavery in 1838, and many in the Scottish government, particularly from the Whig Party. During a debate taking place over much of the early months of 1846, the Whigs gave such a spirited campaign that the people of Scotland as a whole slowly drifted towards abolition. With few major bases of slavery outside of a handful of plantations in the Scottish Virgin Islands, the main opposition to abolition was mostly on the basis of maintaining a status quo, and that abolishing slavery would lead to unrest in the Scottish Virgin Islands. Eventually, the Scottish Parliament decided that they would hold off on a decision until after the election that would conclude later that year. In May 1846, the Whigs gained the majority in the Parliament, and a subsequent vote abolished slavery in all of Scotland's domains. Full legal equality was a long way off, however.

In 1847, the Scottish Empire began to grow yet more with a new war against the Kalat Khanate, which turned out to be surprisingly more difficult. The larger territory of Kalat was easy to invade and conquer, owing to the technological superiority of the Scottish troops, but ended up being harder to control, as an insurgency started up almost immediately after the Khan was deposed by the expeditionary force. Undaunted, the Scots would continue to attempt to impose a direct colonial rule over them for some time longer.

With several colonies at its command, and trade all the way from the Indian Subcontinent starting to pour into Scotland, the economy was taking off. New industrial growth was being spurred, with factories coming up all over the country in both the Highlands and the Lowlands, although it was much more prevalent in the Lowlands than the Highlands. It was at this time that the Liberal Revolutions began to make themselves known in Scotland, an import from continental Europe. All across Europe, increased liberal agitation had lead to several riots and small-scale revolutions all across Europe from Spain to Russia. Scotland was no different, although the effects were somewhat dampened by the fact that Scotland was already a fairly liberal country for its time, with a fully democratic government and with Queen Mary IV holding almost no power over the government that was officially formed in her name. Regardless, there were several issues, notably the extension of voting rights to many of the poorer strata of society and the growing issue of wealth disparity in the nation. While the revolutions were never as strong as they were in places like Germany and Italy, they nonetheless cemented the ideas of "First Phase Liberalism" in Scotland.

Another issue was becoming readily apparent. Across the waters in Ireland, starting in 1845, a massive famine had started decimating the population of the Irish. A potato blight that had spread across all of Europe was harshly affecting the Irish, where two-fifths of the population relied almost solely on the potato for their food and the remainder also used it quite often. Emigration from Ireland had gone way up, with the Irish departing their homeland for other nations on the British Isles as well as for North America, primarily the United States and Canada. Scotland in particular was getting a large amount of immigration from Ireland, and the already overcrowded cities that had been getting a lot of migrants from the countryside grew even more crowded with thousands of migrants from Ireland. As in England, there was a reactionary movement against these migrants, with many Scottish businesses refusing to hire the Irish or hiring them for slave wages. A nascent Irish rights movement quickly grew almost overnight, with its epicenter in Glasgow, the center of Irish immigration to Scotland. This movement quickly merged with many parts of the Liberal Revolutions, although never entirely.

In North America, the Canadian Rebellions of 1837 had lead to a somewhat greater degree of Canadian self-government, although not to the point where the Canadian government could handle its own affairs self-sufficiently. Immediately adjacent to the new "Province of Canada", the Dominion of Nova Scotia began to petition the Scottish government for greater self-governance of its own in 1849. Scotland, with its attention divided by the continuing guerilla war in Kalat and the still continuing Liberal Revolutions, didn't have the capacity to properly respond to this sort of request, and quickly threw together a plan for Nova Scotia that involved the creation of a Dominion Assembly, the predecessor to the future Parliament, and allowing the appointing of a Premier to oversee this Assembly in the same way that the Prime Minister of Scotland oversaw the Scottish Parliament. As slapdash as the plan was and as quickly as it was put together and enacted, it worked surprisingly well. With an Assembly, the Dominion was able to vote on and process several of its own domestic laws (with things like diplomacy, war, and trade still handled by Edinburgh) without the need for constant oversight from Scotland. The success would later inspire Canada to petition Britain for a similar reorganization of its government.

Back at home, the strain put on Ireland from the Potato Famine was growing to be too great to bear, and many of the Irish had started to carry out acts of violence and terrorism against the United Kingdom's government. While Scotland officially condemned this violence, a few in the Scottish government also supported the idea of Irish independence, with MP David Whitmore of Dundee quoted as saying "In order to ensure the true freedom of all people of the British Isles, then the last remnants of English control over the islands must be ended. The United Kingdom must be dissolved." This got some support in the Parliament, but Whig Prime Minister Andrew Rutherford opposed the official involvement of Scotland in the affairs of the United Kingdom when it came to Ireland. Nonetheless, many Scots began to sneak arms and supplies into Ireland, especially from the Irish migrants who had left for Scotland and had acquired some wealth. Spurred on by this, several Irish rebel groups began to organize with the goal for overthrowing English rule over the whole of Ireland.

Meanwhile, the Scottish Parliament was incredibly happy with the new economic boost acquired from its colonies and holdings overseas, and sought to expand them further. In 1853, Scotland looked out across Asia again, and saw that the Sikh Empire to the north of its colony (which had come to be simply called "Baluchistan") was in dire straits, with a financial situation that had been worsened by an embargo by the British that effectively cut them off from trade with the outside world. What's more, the Sikh Empire was entirely within the Scottish sphere of colonialism that the Douglas Accords had set in the Indian Subcontinent. However, with the smouldering conflict still ongoing in Kalat, any large-scale military action against the Sikh, who were still very well armed and had much more manpower than the Kalati or Sindhi had once had, the Scots elected instead to try and peacefully bring the Sikh Empire into their domain.

A Scottish envoy approached the Maharajah in Fall of 1853, offering generous terms for swearing fealty to the Scottish Crown. Maharajah Duleep Singh, who had come to power during a very tumultuous time owing to the influence of the British, felt relieved to be offered the status of protectorate by Scotland. However, at the insistence of Maharajah Duleep himself, he traveled back with the Scottish envoy all the way back to Edinburgh, where he personally met with Mary IV to declare his allegiance to her. Reportedly, the two monarchs became very fond of each other very quickly, and they began to exchange letters back and forth not long after they had met each other. They would continue to exchange letters back and forth for decades afterwards. Not only had the Maharajah secured his nation's independence, he had the favor of the Scottish queen and thus had more of an ability to negotiate with the government.

By 1855, the Kingdom's influence had grown beyond all of Europe, but was also growing somewhat within Europe as well. As Scotland was a neutral power that nonetheless was strategically positioned just north of the United Kingdom, several nations saw it as ideal if they foresaw a conflict with the UK. In particular, France had been eager to renew its friendship with Scotland as it had stood in the ancient days of Europe. At the time, France was prospering under the Second French Empire, with its monarch Napoleon III. Eager to curry favor, bilateral agreements with both Edinburgh and Paris were soon called and underway by early 1855. However, many of the Whig Party criticized their own party associating with the absolute monarchy of France, but even many Whig politicians had ties to France and French businesses. As such, many of the criticisms proved to be ephemeral, and the ancient "Auld Alliance" was restored in early 1856.