AHC: Scottish Dominated UK

[GlobalHumanism]

With a PoD occurring anytime after the 1706/7 Acts of Union, the challenge is to get Scottish culture and language to dominate the overarching British administration of the United Kingdom.

Disclaimer: There is no requirement to change the actual structure of OTL's parliamentary government, only to simply make it far less "English" and at the same time more "Scottish" in character/spirit.

Bonus Points to any who can describe a true Scotsman

 

[The Professor]

Preventing the Highland Clearances would reduce the population disparity.

 

[Socrates]

Preventing the Highland Clearances would reduce the population disparity.

It would barely make a dent. Scotland simply does not have anywhere close to the agricultural capacity as England does, meaning an inevitable massive population differential. The best you can do is to have Scots be disproportionately influential in industry, politics and the empire, and that is our timeline.

 

[The Professor]

It would barely make a dent. Scotland simply does not have anywhere close to the agricultural capacity as England does, meaning an inevitable massive population differential. The best you can do is to have Scots be disproportionately influential in industry, politics and the empire, and that is our timeline.

Well I was thinking even a change from 1/10th to 1/8 would help increase influence.
I do agree it is practically impossible to have it dominate though.

 

[GlobalHumanism]

It would barely make a dent. Scotland simply does not have anywhere close to the agricultural capacity as England does, meaning an inevitable massive population differential. The best you can do is to have Scots be disproportionately influential in industry, politics and the empire, and that is our timeline.

How doable is this?
Since the aristocratic land enclosures pretty much jump started the the whole thing, how can we have a much more Scot-dominated House of Lords?

 

[FillyofDelphi]

How doable is this?
Since the aristocratic land enclosures pretty much jump started the the whole thing, how can we have a much more Scot-dominated House of Lords?

Make it so the heads of the Scottish Clans are all enobled as proper Peers of the Realm? Until relatively recently, if you were one you just... got a seat

 

[GrinningSatyr]

A way to start would have the traditional English/Scottish border moved South, shrinking Northern England-- different Roman wall construction/extent of influence?

A weirder way would be to expand the definition of "Scottish" to be specifically opposed to English and have an English screw: "Scottish" meaning everyone in (an expanded) Wales, Cornwall, and *Scotland. ("All Celts, from the Highlands, Lowlands, Wales, and Cornwall, are Scots against the evil English!")

Even then, I'm imagining it's more like 1/3 than 1/10. Maybe the above combined with severe English disenfranchisement and policies encouraging "Scottish" ways of life so that London becomes a largest-plurality *Scottish-identifying capital surrounded by an English countryside? (I'm thinking along the lines of Belgium and Walloons/Flemish)

 

[Analytical Engine]

With a PoD occurring anytime after the 1706/7 Acts of Union, the challenge is to get Scottish culture and language to dominate the overarching British administration of the United Kingdom.

Which Scottish culture?

And this is almost impossible, due to the massive demographic disparity. The English aristocracy would resist it, for a start.

 

[Lemon flavoured]

Dunno about after the Act of Union, but with a POD before that you could probably get an earlier union of the crowns that was weighted towards Scotland for dynastic reasons.

 

[Alex Zetsu]

It's very easy with a POD after union of the crowns since James VI was already king of Scotland, but a POD that butterflies away Elizabeth and puts her cousin Mary works too

 

[The Professor]

Part of the issue is that prior to the Acts the Parliament of Scotland was unicameral.
What the union did was essentially expand the English (including Welsh btw) Parliament with Scottish representatives in the Houses of Commons and Lords.
So the united parliament is already dominated by the English and they will resist attempts to invert that in favour of any region, and they have the demographics to back them up in the event of any rebellion.

 

[Mightyboosh5]

Ironically no highland clearances could make Scotland more isolated, with a significant Gaelic speaking impoverished highlands population, a sort of Appalachia parallel. Integration and domination would be made harder with the clans and Gaelic speakers remaining

 

[Nomis Nosnibor]

Hmm nobody has mentioned the proverbial elephant in the room - Bonnie Prince Charlie and the return of a Stuart monarch. Ok so we are also probably aware than many even at the time considered Charlie to be solely ambitious towards the English/unified British crown and had he won he may have conveniently forgotten his highland “brothers”. He certainly did not represent any notion of Scottishness and the highlanders themselves were definitely not representative of all Scots. But a Stuart lineage rising to power and remaining in power after ‘45 may (emphasis on “may”) have provided certain highland nobles with a more elevated and prominent role in British society.

 

[Nomis Nosnibor]

The second proverbial elephant in the room has to be the Darien Scheme of course....

http://historyandgeekstuff.blogspot.co.uk/2014/09/what-if-scotland-never-lost-its.html

Scottish colonialism if successful would have altered the entirety of the relationship between the south of the island and the north no doubt. It may have butterflied away union, caused (inevitable?) rivalry and conflict or it may have ultimately enabled a union between two more equal parts. The latter option being IMO the most likely. If a more equal union had been engendered then surely Scotland's role in Empire and governance would have been even more influential.

I think however it is easy to forget or gloss over the salient fact that Scotland and Scotsmen played a pivotal role within the British empire - the empire wasn't just an English hegemony many prominent Scotsman helped shape the foundations of this pan-British imperialism such as John Loudon McAdam, Balfour and John Stuart to name merely three.

http://www.historytoday.com/blog/2012/06/scotland-and-british-empire (definitely worth a read IMHO)

 

[The Professor]

The second proverbial elephant in the room has to be the Darien Scheme of course....

http://historyandgeekstuff.blogspot.co.uk/2014/09/what-if-scotland-never-lost-its.html

Scottish colonialism if successful would have altered the entirety of the relationship between the south of the island and the north no doubt. It may have butterflied away union, caused (inevitable?) rivalry and conflict or it may have ultimately enabled a union between two more equal parts. The latter option being IMO the most likely. If a more equal union had been engendered then surely Scotland's role in Empire and governance would have been even more influential.

I think however it is easy to forget or gloss over the salient fact that Scotland and Scotsmen played a pivotal role within the British empire - the empire wasn't just an English hegemony many prominent Scotsman helped shape the foundations of this pan-British imperialism such as John Loudon McAdam, Balfour and John Stuart to name merely three.

http://www.historytoday.com/blog/2012/06/scotland-and-british-empire (definitely worth a read IMHO)

If we assume a later union because of this could this include Ireland as well? A more equal union might well be a pan British (Isles) one!

 

[Londinium]

Ah, but a Scottish dynasty dominated the island now known as Great Britain for over a century after the last Tudor's death. Ironically, until the Act of Union, these were independent kingdoms (with James VI of Scotland and I of England even having the distinction of having both his kingdoms going to war with each other despite both of them grudgingly recognizing his personal sovereignty over each). I wonder how things would have worked had there somehow been and ENGLISH dynasty having a personal rule but Scottish laws, lairds,etc. having the lion's share of power?

 

[Socrates]

A way to start would have the traditional English/Scottish border moved South, shrinking Northern England-- different Roman wall construction/extent of influence?

A weirder way would be to expand the definition of "Scottish" to be specifically opposed to English and have an English screw: "Scottish" meaning everyone in (an expanded) Wales, Cornwall, and *Scotland. ("All Celts, from the Highlands, Lowlands, Wales, and Cornwall, are Scots against the evil English!")

Even then, I'm imagining it's more like 1/3 than 1/10. Maybe the above combined with severe English disenfranchisement and policies encouraging "Scottish" ways of life so that London becomes a largest-plurality *Scottish-identifying capital surrounded by an English countryside? (I'm thinking along the lines of Belgium and Walloons/Flemish)

Why on Earth would Welsh and Cornish people be considered Scottish? That's like imagining Romanian people being an alt-Spanish.

 

[Socrates]

Hmm nobody has mentioned the proverbial elephant in the room - Bonnie Prince Charlie and the return of a Stuart monarch. Ok so we are also probably aware than many even at the time considered Charlie to be solely ambitious towards the English/unified British crown and had he won he may have conveniently forgotten his highland “brothers”. He certainly did not represent any notion of Scottishness and the highlanders themselves were definitely not representative of all Scots. But a Stuart lineage rising to power and remaining in power after ‘45 may (emphasis on “may”) have provided certain highland nobles with a more elevated and prominent role in British society.

And those highland nobles would have been widely hated and framed as clannish savages, leading to their culture being completely eradicated in the inevitable overthrow of the Stuarts that would happen in the coming decades. What was far better for Scottish culture was for the positively liked Hannovers to embrace Scottish culture as part of broader British romanticism so it became fashionable over the whole UK.

 

[Socrates]

Ironically no highland clearances could make Scotland more isolated, with a significant Gaelic speaking impoverished highlands population, a sort of Appalachia parallel. Integration and domination would be made harder with the clans and Gaelic speakers remaining

It would also have deprived Glesgae of much of its industrial workforce, hindering it becoming the second city of the Kingdom.

 

[Nomis Nosnibor]

If we assume a later union because of this could this include Ireland as well? A more equal union might well be a pan British (Isles) one!

Yes possibly IMO certainly Ulster

And those highland nobles would have been widely hated and framed as clannish savages, leading to their culture being completely eradicated in the inevitable overthrow of the Stuarts that would happen in the coming decades. What was far better for Scottish culture was for the positively liked Hannovers to embrace Scottish culture as part of broader British romanticism so it became fashionable over the whole UK.

To be fair the crown did their best in the OTL to eradicate their culture. For example as mentioned the highland clearances, the banning of tartan, the banning of highland dress the concerted effort to discriminate against Gaelic so your argument is a little redundant because this attempted eradication occurred anyway. Short of genocide I’m not sure how could have been worse. Whole communities were wiped out due to the clearances, state and state sponsored discrimination. Indeed many families in light of these policies over night stopped speaking Gaelic in public and many even anglicised their surnames to avoid discrimination.

In terms of romanticism this happened in the OTL anyway due in part to Walter Scott - in a catholic dominated Stuart nation if this was possible and could be sustained then this would happen again.