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.

6. 1876 - 1886

In 1876, the Scottish Empire received a sudden jolt: Maharaja Duleep Singh, the ruler of the Sikh Empire as a Scottish Protectorate, had been the subject of an assassination attempt by agents from the neighboring Emirate of Afghanistan, who sought to make inroads on his territory. Outraged, the Maharaja called to Scotland for military support, and a motion of Parliament approved it. The response was the outbreak of the Afghan War, which lasted for little more than a year. Not only did Scottish forces outclass the Afghan forces in both manpower, organization, and strategy, but the Sikh Empire's forces had been considerably modernized and reorganized along modern lines. The Afghan War was the first known instance of the Sikh Empire utilizing its military against a foreign nation to such an extent. The Sikh Empire, having sat within Scotland's sphere of influence for decades, came to be considered "westernized" by the European powers, much like Japan had not long after its "Meiji Restoration".

With this, Scotland officially opened an Embassy in the Sikh capital of Lahore, and the Sikh also opened their first embassy in Edinburgh. Scotland also saw an opportunity to relieve some of the strain on its Empire. The Kalati people had continually been in revolt even after the infamous "Rape of Kalat", and Edinburgh had decided that the lands were more trouble than they were worth. In fact, almost all of "Scottish India" was. They had claimed the land with the hopes that it would turn out to be as productive and economically powerful as the English Raj in India had become, but it had failed. As such, Scotland offered to sell off its holdings in Balochistan to the Sikh Maharaja, who happily accepted the deal. The "Scottish Raj" as it was by now sarcastically called was reduced to just Sindh, which had been a bit more amicable and easier to hold than Balochistan had been. At the same time, the Sikh Empire now had a port on the Indian Ocean, allowing it greater freedom of trade (albeit still with a preferential trading system with Scotland). The Sikh had also conquered the easternmost regions of Afghanistan, all of which contributed to making the Sikh Empire the greatest local power in the region.

By 1879, the Scottish Empire had suffered a humiliation with the inability to hold down Balochistan, but the rest of its Empire was easier to handle. However, even with Balochistan gone, there was still an excellent place to build the Empire larger still: Africa. The nations of Europe had developed sufficient technologies to properly invade and conquer large regions of the continent, and all had started scrambling to do so. Many conflicts between the various colonial powers had started almost immediately, to the point where it seemed like the Empires were about to go to war with each other. Scotland, however, offered the chance for mediation. It called out to the nations of Europe that held colonial claims across the continent to convene in a meeting that would determine who would colonize what, much like the Douglas Accords had determined between England and Scotland almost 40 years ago.

Thus, the Edinburgh Conference was convened in April of 1880. Present at the meeting were representatives of England, Scotland, Germany, France, Belgium, Portugal, Spain, Italy, and Austria-Hungary were present, all jockeying for who got what land. Not only this, but standards for colonization were also adopted that effectively enshrined a lack of protections for the natives and the advancement of colonialism by any means necessary. Several land claims were negotiated at the table, including those for the Scottish Empire. Scotland's claims were centered around the lands that had already claimed back in its earliest days with restored independence. Scotland's new Empire now extended over the regions of the Ivory Coast, outwards from the holdings at Fort Thistle, the region of Somaliland outwards from the city of Mogadishu, and the new region of "Namibia" that expanded outwards from the holdings in Fort Walvis. The Scottish Empire also gained control over the region known as "Kenya" as far as Lake Victoria and through the region of "Buganda". The last region of land appropriated to it was a holding in Gabon, an entirely new one that had no direct access to any existing Scottish forts. With this and other nations having divided up Africa amongst themselves, Scotland now commanded a respectable Empire for itself. Upon hearing the results of the land appointed to Scotland, Mary IV was quoted as saying "It would seem we've made up for the disaster of Darien", hearkening back to the disaster of the Darien Scheme that had been one of the main factors leading to the Acts of Union that had created the Kingdom of Great Britain for a little more than a century.

Scottish colonization of Africa, though, proved to be a bit harder than merely claiming the land. With the harsh climate and natives that far outnumbered them, the idea of colonizing the lands the same way they had done with places like Westralia and Nova Scotia and the Virgin Islands was out of the question. As such, Scottish colonization would more involve economic investment and utilization rather than settlement. Scottish companies quickly began to travel to the colonies to make use of the resources, such as tropical wood, rubber, and ivory. Tobacco plantations also became common and widespread in the tropical colonies of Gabon and the Ivory Coast, while activities like herding became more common in the drier climates of Namibia ("Scottish South Africa") and Kenya. Another important development was the droves of missionaries that traveled to the new colonies to begin the conversion of the natives from local faiths to that of the Church of Scotland. These efforts met varied success across many colonies, but would utterly fail in places like Sindh and Somaliland, which clung fast to Islam.

These missionaries would have a mixed legacy. In Kenya, for example, a priest by name of David Livingstone had become a popular example of the success of Empire by his own story if nothing else: he was born in poverty just before independence, rose to a higher societal standing and became a priest, and traveled to the Scottish colonies as a missionary on many occasions, even suffering malaria but miraculously coming through it. His mission in Mombasa was often bandied about in the press for its success in converting the locals to the Church of Scotland, its humane practices of conversion and treatment of the sick, as well as the efforts it made in "making the natives Scottish". However, in another case, a missionary named Adam Cunningham had a much less well-covered effort, which took a fire-and-brimstone style to a far extreme of "by any means necessary". The efforts of Father Cunningham often included brutal beatings, starvation, and sometimes outright torture to "convince" the natives to convert. Naturally, many pro-Empire papers conveniently "forgot" to cover these atrocities.

By 1886, Africa had been completely claimed and divided up, barring only the nations of Liberia and Ethiopia (and even it had lost some land). With Africa no longer the main issue, Europe went right back to squabbling with itself. In particular was the rising French desire to reconquer the lost provinces of Alsace-Lorraine, the idea of "Revanchism". The whole of Europe was polarizing around whether you were on Germany's side or France's side. Scotland was still solidly aligned with France, but England was still wavering on who to join. Scotland's greatest fear was that England would align with Germany, and that in a future Franco-German war, that England would invade again. Some of the more jingoistic figures in Scotland began advocating preparations for such a war, stating that a "Fourth Scottish War of Independence" (the Napoleonic-era rebellion being the third) was inevitable, and that with France on their side and their Empire to bolster them, Scotland could succeed again. While the then-Conservative government balked at the idea of going to war, they nonetheless began to strengthen defences along the border with England.

Finally, Scotland's nightmare came true. In September of 1886, the will of the Iron Chancellor came through, and through diplomatic maneuverings he managed to form an alliance between England and Germany, which Bismarck saw as necessary to maintain the balance of power in Europe between Germany and France. All at once, the Scots now had a border with what was at the very least nominally a hostile nation. The historical fears of the Scottish people for an English invasion were suddenly brought across time to the modern era. Immediately, the Conservative party began to not only reinforce defences but construct new ones, a project that Prime Minister John Ramsay described as "the construction of a new Hadrian Wall." 1886 ended with peace tenuous on the British Isles, with a possible war between England and Scotland seeming imminent.