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.

7. 1886 - 1896

The new Anglo-German alliance was concerning a lot of people, especially on the British Isles. The Scots and English had no intention of going to war, but with both allied to the main rival powers of Europe, many expected that they would go to war anyways. By early 1887, the Scots had amassed almost 40,000 soldiers on the border with England, in preparation for a possible attack. It was around this time that it became apparent that the Royal Scots Navy was hopelessly behind when it came to a match against the English Royal Navy. Not long after Scotland began to construct a large bevy of new ships, all of which had iron hulls and the most modern guns available to them, it soon became apparent that for all of the last 7 decades, Scotland hadn't had a proper strategy in place for an English invasion. While it hadn't been needed, many in the Scottish army began kicking themselves over it, and quickly began to create new strategies for the event of an English attack.

The first and most comprehensive of these plans was named the Thistle Plan, after the national floral symbol of Scotland as well as an apt metaphorical description of it; the concept was "grab at it and get a hand full of stickers". The strategy was a radical departure from the classic European concept of charging into battle guns blazing, like it had been in the Napoleonic Wars. During the American Slave Rebellion, the Scottish adjutant to the United States had seen the strategy used by the slaves of "guerrilla warfare" as it was called, and how it had allowed a force that was inferior in manpower, logistics, and experience to win the independence of New Afrika, which to this day had still managed to remain at peace with the United States perhaps out of begrudging respect (if not for the racial divide that now kept them apart). Scottish generals began to adapt this into a defensive strategy that did not involve invading England, but rather putting all effort into the defence of their frontier. At the same time, new fortifications were erected around Glasgow and Edinburgh, and several redoubts in the Highlands. In fact, the mountainous terrain of the Highlands was chosen to be the hiding place for the Scottish government in the event that Edinburgh should fall to the English. And in the event that the whole country should fall, the government would hide in the Highlands while the whole of the country carried on a war of resistance, fighting in much the same way the now-former slaves in the USA had.

1888 saw a rather odd sort of power shuffling in Germany. Emperor Wilhelm I died, and was succeeded by his son Frederick III. And just a few months later, Frederick III died and was succeeded by his own son, Wilhelm II. Unlike his grandfather and namesake, Wilhelm II was not as deferential to the workings of Otto von Bismarck and wanted to take a stronger position of his own in foreign affairs. In 1890, Wilhelm II sacked Bismarck and effectively removed the person who had been keeping peace on the continent for almost 20 years from any real power. With Bismarck gone, Wilhelm decided on a path of strengthening Germany by any means necessary, expanding its colonial Empire outside the lands of Mauritania and Tanzania and the other scattered holdings it had. The Imperial German Navy began to be expanded, in an attempt to "catch up with England", who they were ostensibly still allied with. This brash new way of going about things worried the English government, who saw Germany more and more as a threat rather than an ally. Wilhelm II badly wanted to be liked by the English, and desperately sought the approval of Queen Victoria, his maternal grandmother. While Queen Victoria, in the closing days of her reign, treated him with tact and cordiality, the English government found him boorish and rude, often given to impulse. Finally, in 1892, the English government got its opportunity: a British diplomat who had been scheduled to meet with Wilhelm II in place of Queen Victoria herself, he reportedly threw a fit so bad that it culminated with him striking the diplomat over the head with a nearby inkwell. The problems of dealing with the German Kaiser while still being allied to them had become too much to bear, and England annulled its alliance with Germany in early 1893. All of a sudden, the Scots found that the English were no longer part of what was nominally a hostile alliance. The pressure was relieved, but the Thistle Plan was still held in place in the event that England tried something drastic.

In 1893, Queen Mary IV died, having reigned for 54 years. Her funeral was attended by monarchs from all over Europe, including Queen Saraid, Queen Victoria, the aging Maharaja Duleep Singh, Emperor Napoleon IV (his father having barely clung to power after the defeat in the Franco-Prussian War), Wilhelm II, and even President Jeremiah Haralson of New Afrika. After her death, her son ascended to the throne as James VIII, the first Scottish monarch born in Scotland since Charles I, who had been born in 1600, almost 293 years ago. Mary IV's death signified the end of the "Marian Era" in Scotland, the period of Scotland's greatest glory and triumph overseas. Many people spoke of the new Jamesian Era as one of uncertainty, with peace in Europe seemingly hanging in the balance. Regardless of this, the alliance between Scotland and France, the ancient Auld Alliance, had been relaxed with the nation of Russia forming an alliance with France in 1894, surrounding Germany and its new ally Austria-Hungary in the west, east, and south, when the Ottoman Empire was included in Russia's sphere of influence.

With the pressure to answer a call from France relaxed, Scotland worked on currying favor within the British Isles. All three nations had come to see the Empire of Germany as an imminent threat, including England. England was eager to try and make friends with Ireland and Scotland even as the Scottish generals kept the Thistle Plan on reserve. By this time, the Isle of Man had become a neutral ground for the three Kingdoms, and Castle Rushen just south of Douglas, the ancient seat of power for the Isle of Man, had informally become the meeting place for representatives of all three nations. In April of 1894, the three kingdoms announced the formation of the British League, a military alliance between the three nations that while not driven by any mutual like, was more cemented in a preventing of any hostilities against each other. The meeting was the last time that Queen Victoria would leave mainland England, as her health had started declining in her old age. At the meeting, Victoria was quoted by almost every newspaper with her statement on the new monarch of Scotland. "James is a decent fellow; educated, polite, and tactful, but he is frightfully stuffy. There isn't any room for individuality with him, he is a thorough embodiment of the Crown itself. I do miss Mary. Meeting with her was like discussing matters with a sister."

In 1896, the Scottish Empire saw a native uprising against Father Cunningham's brutal tactics in Gabon. Cunningham himself was captured by the natives and brutally executed, the details of which were sketchy but were described as "involving the breaking of every single bone that can be found in the human body." In response, Scotland began a brutal campaign of suppression in Gabon that was waged with the intent to "enshrine forevermore the loyalty of the people of Scotland's colonial dominions." By 1897, the situation reached a climax when King James VIII made a somewhat controversial proclamation. Envious of how Queen Victoria had made herself "Empress of India", and how other great nations like France, Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Russia were mighty Empires, James VIII declared that the Kingdom of Scotland and her dominions overseas would be made "National Domains" of the Kingdom of Scotland, ruled in personal union with the rest of Scotland, and the whole of the lands subject to Scottish rule would officially become the supranational Scottish Empire, thus amending his title to "King and Emperor". While it did bring some new prestige to the new Empire, the controversy arose from whether or not the King could actually unilaterally amend his title and the structure of the whole Empire. A constitutional crisis emerged that hinged on the King's ability to reorganize the Empire, and was eventually settled when it was determined that only the Parliament could reorganize the nation and her dominions. It was a massive loss of face for James VIII, even though the Parliament went ahead with reorganizing the Empire to his specifications anyways. This would be the last time that the Scottish monarch would attempt to directly influence the politics of Scotland.