AHC: Scottish Dominated UK

Yes possibly IMO certainly Ulster


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.

Yes, this is my point. It was eradicated as a separate clan culture, a culture that was hated and feared among 'civilised' society in the lowlands and England. That then allowed it to come back as an admired "noble savage" culture that was part of Britain's general heritage.

A stronger clan system used to enforce a Catholic monarch on the UK would have had highland culture, clothing and music as symbols of the treacherous other and thus kept as part of a minority that would be overthrown in time.
 
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.

I got so confused for a second and thought you meant the wildfowl and Wetlands guy
 
Yes, this is my point. It was eradicated as a separate clan culture, a culture that was hated and feared among 'civilised' society in the lowlands and England. That then allowed it to come back as an admired "noble savage" culture that was part of Britain's general heritage.

A stronger clan system used to enforce a Catholic monarch on the UK would have had highland culture, clothing and music as symbols of the treacherous other and thus kept as part of a minority that would be overthrown in time.

But as I said and tbh not unequivocally it would depend on the success and longevity of the Stuart lineage. And whilst I don’t disagree with you my point is it is hard to imagine much more damage that was achieved in TOTL. You could also argue that this image of the noble savage also undermines the true nature of highland life. The original thread poses the question how can Scotland be more influential than ITOTL. And whilst I have argued that Scotland was already pivotal in the creation of British imperialism we may have seen a more confident and independent thinking Scotland had a Stuart dynasty been restored. I would however not deem this dynasty as necessarily long lasting and yes the repercussions may have been very damaging but neither would the reconquering of Scotland and the highlands been a cake walk. I also believe it is too easy to make assumptions that England would simply roll over Scotland and could do so at any point - they couldn’t and truly never have.

It is also important as you have rightly mentioned that Scotland is a mixed bag of loyalties and cultures but to say that the Hanoverians could ever have been popular in Scotland during that time is simply wrong. They were hated frankly sources support this - even now to be called a “Hun” in Scotland is to be called a very derogatory remark. And this particularly word is derived from the German mercenaries that were used by the crown during this period. To be called a hun is worse than being called a sasanach
 
Why on Earth would Welsh and Cornish people be considered Scottish? That's like imagining Romanian people being an alt-Spanish.

Part of what you quoted from my idea answers your question: "A weirder way would be to expand the definition of "Scottish" to be specifically opposed to English and have an English screw" [emphasis added].

This would replace the current/OTL definition of Scottish which is, as I understand it, "The culture/people historically to the north of England on the same island." For Welsh and Cornish people to be considered "Scottish", the definition of "Scottish" would have to be fundamentally changed.

Your specifically-weird counterexample does not have any similar degree of distance or difference in culture-- or shared historical resistance against the same culture. I'd say Welsh and Scottish culture are different--but more similar to each other than say, Welsh and Hungarian. Maybe a better comparison would be to have the Portuguese and Galicians end up sharing a cultural umbrella name in resistance to Castilian efforts and demographics in the Iberian peninsula.

I don't see it as particularly leaning on ASBs to think cultural forces could unite the disparate Celtic-leaning cultures and have Scottish be the umbrella term of choice for "people who are defined in opposition to the English and live on the same island." *Scottish people and culture would have a different name: Highlanders? Northerners? [insert another cultural name here].

I don't think it's plausible by any stretch of the imagination, but changing the definition of who's Scottish is a good way to approach the original AHC of having *Scots have the most demographic weight in the UK.

Edits: Clarity/moving some sentences around
 
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