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.

8. 1896 - 1906

In the closing years of the 19th century, many people wrote proudly of all that Scotland had accomplished since independence in 1818. With a bustling colonial Empire ruled by the King-Emperor and his Parliament, the homeland had become wildly rich, even in the Highlands. The British Isles were no longer under the threat of going into a cataclysmic war, even though the rest of Europe still seemed like it. Works of literature in both English and Scots Gaelic were read across the whole of the western world, and Scottish culture had undergone a renaissance that had given the Scots a fully independent identity that resulted from a confluence of the Calvinist theology of the Church of Scotland, the rebirth of interest in Gaelic culture, and customs brought in from England, like tea drinking.

However, just before the close of the century, a new upset started in North America. The Republic of New Afrika, the almost entirely African-American nation born from the American Slave Rebellion, found itself under greater economic and political pressure from the United States, which had been glad to see the "lesser race" go initially but had developed a bad case of revanchism after the 1870s. While the issue had divided both the Democratic and Republican Parties for some time, the election of 1896 brought in President William J. Bryan of the Democratic Party. While he had no need for much of the racist rhetoric against the "Black Republic" to his south, he firmly believed that the United States needed to be whole and that the Afro-Americans who populated the country were errant American citizens who had been lead astray. As such, much of the US rhetoric involved the reconquest of New Afrika, although many either forgot or refused to acknolwedge that being independent for 30 years would make any new nation resistant to such efforts. President Haralson of New Afrika appealed to his nation's allies abroad for aid in the event of such a war, and England, Scotland, and France all gave a quiet approval of the small nation's need for intervention should it be necessary. However, all three knew that to suddenly jump in and declare war on the United States would be bad for their reputations, and they would have to wait for something to trigger the need for intervention.

That proved much easier than initially suspected. In 1897, not long after the United States declared a war to reannex New Afrika, a French ship that had been docking in Savannah was attacked by the United States Navy as part of their blockade when the ship tried to leave port. France was outraged, and used the event as a pretext to declare war on the United States in favor of New Afrika. Shortly after this, England and Scotland also declared war on the United States, and began to move their armies to the Canadian and Nova Scotian borders, while New Afrika began a defensive war of its own territory. The United States was economically powerful, but its army was poorly trained and would later be found by researchers that the US didn't have a plan for the war at all, believing that their manpower alone would suffice. Again, the war turned into a quagmire for the United States. 35 years ago, they had been fighting underfed and underequipped rebel slaves in a guerrilla war. This time, New Afrika had a proper govenrment to organize and train a proper army, and they had been preparing for a US invasion ever since independence to fight a full-on war.

Quickly, across the whole of the border, massive lines of trench warfare erupted, grinding any US advance to a halt. New Afrika, unlike the United States, wasn't trying to conquer land and was instead just holding down its own territory. Not only this, but Scottish, French, and English forces broke down the blockade in the first year of the war and began to resupply New Afrika at once. One of the highlights of the war was the Battle of New York Harbor, when English Royal Navy and Royal Scots Navy ships bombarded New York City. Very little territory exchanged hands through the war after the initial small gains by the United States, until finally in 1899, the United States Congress pushed through an impeachment of President Bryan and formally made peace with New Afrika and its European allies. In the peace negotiations, there was no change of territory, and the only peace terms put on the United States involved a final and formal recognition of New Afrikan independence, along with reparations for the war. President Haralson willingly refused the annexation of new territories in order to ensure that relations with the United States would be as amicable as possible after the war, and this would later prove true with the election of Theodore Roosevelt in 1900, who lead a campaign of peaceful cooperation with New Afrika.

In 1900, Edinburgh hosted the World Centennial Fair, in a brand new building made of iron and glass known as the "Glass Castle", a callback to the "Crystal Palace" built in London for the 1851 World Exposition. Nations from all over the world came to show off exhibits of all kinds, from innovations in agriculture such as a gasoline-powered tractor, to new developments in mechanization, the centerpiece of which was the display of a modern steamship engine that ran a massive generator to power the lights for the entire exposition. Scotland's exhibition at its own fair was a new method for taking color photographs, and it soon became a novelty to gather one's family for a color photograph that cost £30. Not long after the Exposition, Scotland held a second gathering to celebrate its Empire going into the 20th century, and invited the world's heads of state to attend. The elderly Maharaja Duleep Singh was scheduled to attend, but he passed away just days before his invitation arrived. The death of the "second most powerful monarch in Scotland" reverberated in Edinburgh, as they had been used to the Maharaja's presence in the Sikh Empire as a force in favor of Scotland. The new Maharaja proved to be just as friendly to Scotland, but the friendly face of Duleep Singh had been a welcome presence in Scotland. Regardless, the exhibition went forward, albeit not spectacularly. Rain dampened the festivities and ruined several exhibits, and the whole affair was later decided to be a failure. Even with this, Scotland remained confident in its Empire and its control over it.

In 1902, Queen Victoria died at the age of 82. She had been the longest reigning queen in not just English history, but world history as well, and the broad swath of time that she had reigned over was often fondly called the Victorian Era. After her death, Edward VII came to the throne of England. He was as distant with James VIII as his mother had been, given the Scottish King's propensity to be entirely formal in all occasions, whether they be matters of state or not. Edward VII spoke of him much the same way Queen Victoria had: "If James VIII King of Scots could channel the formality he carries at all times into his military's prowess in battle, then Scotland could conquer the world by next Tuesday." Regardless, the two managed to carry out a professional relationship for the rest of James VIII's reign. The somewhat cold and distant relationship that the two monarchs of the nations had was reflective of the relationship between Scotland and England during this time, especially when in a state visit to London in 1904 James VIII famously refused to respond to any jokes whatsoever. Scotland and England held each other at a distance, but at the very least, their relationship was even slightly friendly. The fears of being attacked by England had been allayed for now.

In 1905, the Empire of Japan, having just won a war against Russia by the skin of its teeth, approached the kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland for an alliance. Both parties, the British and the Japanese, were afraid of the power of Russia, even though Scotland was allied to France and France was allied to Russia, forming a loose conglomeration known as the "Triple Entente" as opposed to the nations of Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy forming the "Triple Alliance". With Europe so polarized, problems with the collapse of the Ottoman Empire in the Balkans and their threatening to leave Russian influence was threatening to bring true von Bismarck's prediction that the great European war would come from "some damn fool thing in the Balkans." Japan would only add another facet to that war, opening a new theater of operations in East Asia. Regardless, Russia worried the Scots and the English, and they agreed to an alliance with Japan. The stage was rapidly accelerating towards a war of proportions unseen in all of world history. The shame of it was, no one truly saw it coming.