Scotland
Scotland, or in Gaelic, Alba, is a former kingdom located on the northern one third of the island of Great Britain. In 1707, the Kingdom of Scotland merged with the Kingdom of England to form the Kingdom of Great Britain (the King of Scotland had already inherited the English throne in 1603). In 1801 the Kingdom of Great Britain merged with the Kingdom of Ireland to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. In 1922, twenty-six of Ireland's thirty-two counties left the UK to form its own Irish Free State. Scotland remains part of the remaining kingdom, now known as the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. In 1999, it received its own regional home rule parliament to govern Scotland on purely Scottish matters.
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| Royal motto: Nemo me impune lacessit (Latin: No one injures me with impunity) | |||||
| Official languages | English is the de facto administrative language. Scots Gaelic, Scots, and British Sign Language. | ||||
| Capital | Edinburgh | ||||
| Queen | Elizabeth | ||||
| First Minister | Jack McConnell MSP | ||||
| Area - Total - % water | Ranked 2nd 78,782 km² ? | ||||
| Population - Total (2001) - Density | Ranked 2nd 5,062,011 64/km² | ||||
| Establishment | MacAlpin's Treason, 843 | ||||
| Currency | Pound Sterling | ||||
| Time zone | UTC, Summer: +1 UTC | ||||
| National anthem | None. Various songs are used at different events, among them Flouer o Scotland, Scotland the Brave, Scots Wha Hae, and others | ||||
| Internet TLD | None. | ||||
| Calling Code | 44 | ||||
| International call prefix | 00 | ||||
Queen Elizabeth, a descendant of the last Scottish monarch, King James VI (who in 1603 became James I of England), reigns over the United Kingdom. (It should be noted that for Scotland, she is the first monarch to reign with this name, and signs all documents "Elizabeth".)
Scotland is the northern part of Great Britain, bordering to the south on England. Scotland consists of a mainland area plus several island groups, including the Shetland, Orkney, and the Hebrides, divided into the Inner Hebrides and Outer Hebrides. The mainland is divided into three geographical and geological areas, from north to south, the generally mountainous Highlands, the low lying Central Belt, and hilly Southern Uplands. The majority of the Scottish population resides in the Central Belt, which contains three of the five main cities, and many large towns.
When vulcanism was active in East Lothian, 350 million years ago, the land which is now Britain was situated close to the equator, and was part of the newly amalgamated supercontinent of Pangaea. The continental plates of which Pangaea was composed were still converging, and major collision with the continent of Gondwana ongoing, having initiated approximately 30 million years previously.
The northern and southern parts of Britain became adjoined only 75 million years before the onset of volcanism in East Lothian. Before then, Scotland and part of northern England were located on the margin of the Laurentian continent, which included North America and Greenland. Southern Britain lay some 40° of latitude further south, adjacent to Africa and South America in the Gondwanan continent. In the Early Ordovician, approximately 475 million years ago, southern Britain, on the Avalonian plate, rifted away from Gondwana and drifted northward towards Laurentia. The Iapetus Ocean, which separated the two parts of Britain, began to close. By the mid-Silurian, about 420 million years ago, its margins had become attached along the Iapetus Suture, which roughly follows a line running West to East from the Solway Firth to Northumberland.
When the later episode of vulcanism occurred, approximately 270 million years ago, Britain was still incorporated into Pangaea, but had drifted northward. East Lothian was at ~8° North. Consolidation of Pangaea had continued so that the nearest ocean was the Tethys seaway between Eurasia and Africa.
See http://www.glg.ed.ac.uk/home/s9810658/eastlothian/plates/tectonics.html
Almost all residents speak English although many speak various Scots dialects which are quite different from Standard English and approximately fifty-five thousand still speak Scots Gaelic. It was Scots which was spoken in the old Scottish Court and Parliament. Scots is also known as Lallans. Scots developed from the Anglian spoken in the Northumbrian kingdom of Bernicia which in the 6th century conquered the British kingdom of Gododdin and renamed its capital of Dunedin to Edinburgh.
Historically Scotland was divided into two cultural areas - the mainly Scots, latterly English speaking Lowlands and the mainly Gaelic speaking Highlands. These caused divisions in the country where the Lowlands were, historically, more influenced by the English to the South due to the greater ease with which they could be attacked by invading armies.
The clan system in Highland Scotland was one of its more distinguishing features. Notable clans include Clan MacGregor, Clan MacDonald, Clan Mackenzie, Clan MacLeod, Clan Robertson, Clan Campbell...
Historically the Lowlands adopted a variant on the Feudal system after the Norman Conquest of England, with the major families providing most the monarchs after approximately 1100AD. These families included Stewart or Stuart, Bruce, Douglas, Murray or Moray
During the Wars of Scottish Independence approx. 1290-1333, the Scottish people rose up against English rule, firstly, under the leadership of William Wallace, and later, Robert the Bruce. Bruce won a famous victory at the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314.
In 1603 the Scottish King James VI inherited the throne of England, and became James I of England. James moved to London and only returned once more to Scotland. In 1707 a Treaty of Union was signed between the Scottish and English Parliaments. The English and the Scottish Parliaments were dissolved and all their powers transferred to a new Parliament in London which then became the British Parliament. A customs and currency union was also declared. This state of affairs remained until May 1999 when a new Scottish Parliament was created. Though whereas the old Scottish parliament was a national parliament of a sovereign state, the new parliament is a devolved parliament, in effect a sub-parliament under the United Kingdom parliament which both created and in theory can abolish a devolved parliament by a simple Act.
Scotland is also divided into 33 traditional counties.
There are six cities in Scotland, and they are (in order of size):
Glasgow; Edinburgh, which is the capital; Aberdeen; Dundee; Inverness and Stirling
Waterways in Scotland:
Scotland has a distinct civic culture from the rest of the United Kingdom. This is based on various differences, some entrenched as part of the Act of Union, others facets of nationhood that are not so easily defined but readily identifiable.
For instance, Scotland retains its own unique legal system, based on Roman law, which combines the best features of civil law and common law. This was agreed as part of the terms of union with England. Scots Law is distinct from England's common law system. See Scottish Law.
There is also a separate Scottish education system. The rights of the Scottish universities were guaranteed under the Act of Union but more importantly, Scotland was the first country since Sparta in Ancient Greece, in which a system of general public education was implemented. This began with the Education Act of 1696 and became compulsory for children from the implementation of the Education Act of 1872 onwards. The result was that for over two hundred years Scotland had a higher percentage of its population educated at primary, secondary and tertiary levels than any other country in Europe. The differences in education manifest themselves in different ways, but most noticeably in the number of Scots who went on to become leaders in their fields during the 18th and 19th centuries. School students in Scotland sit Higher exams rather than the English A-Level system. Also, a Scottish university degree takes four years of study as opposed to three in the rest of Britain.
In banking there are differences as well. Although the Bank of England is the nationalised bank for the UK Government there are three Scottish corporate banks which still issue their own banknotes (the Bank of Scotland, the Royal Bank of Scotland and the Clydesdale Bank). These notes are not legal tender in other parts of Britain, (and neither they nor the Bank of England's notes are legal tender in Scotland), but banknotes issued by any of the four banks are commonly accepted throughout the UK. See British banknotes.
Scotland has many separate sports associations, such as the Scottish Football Association or the Scottish Rugby Union. This gives it independent representation at many international sporting events such as the football (soccer) World Cup. Scotland cannot compete in the Olympic Games independently however, and Scottish athletes must compete as part of the UK team if they wish to take part. Scotland does however send its own team to compete in the Commonwealth Games.
Scotland also has its own sporting competitions distinct from the rest of the UK, such as the Scottish Football League.
Scotland has a distinct media from the rest of the UK. For example, there are many Scottish newspapers produced such as The Daily Record (Scotland's leading tabloid) and the four major broadsheets, The Glasgow Herald in the South West, The Scotsman in the South East, The Courier and Advertiser in the East and The Press and Journal in the North. Only the Daily Record can truly be considered to be national as the broadsheets tend to concentrate on their local publishing areas.
Also, Scotland has its own BBC headquarters which has a few local and one national radio station. BBC Scotland produces many TV programmes. Some, such as news and current affairs programmes, are intended for Scottish broadcasting whilst others, such as drama and comedy programmes, are intended for UK broadcasting. There are also three independent television (ITV) stations (Scottish, Grampian and Border) broadcasting in Scotland. Although they were independent of each other at one time, all three are now owned by the same company and there is very little difference between them. Strangely, very little of the BBC TV and ITV content is particularly Scottish, the vast majority of it being the same as that transmitted in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Scotland retains its own distinct sense of nationhood. Academic reasearch consistently shows that people in Scotland feel Scottish, whilst not necesarily feeling the need to see that translated into the establishment of an independent Scottish nation-state.
Scotland also has its own unique family of dialects, helping to foster a strong sense of "Scottish-ness". See Scots Language.
As part of the Act of Union, Scotland retains its own established church, separate from that of England.
These factors combine together to form a strong Scottish civic culture that is readily identifiable.
Scotland is also known for:
The Church of Scotland (often referred to as The Kirk) is the established state church. It differs from the Church of England in that it has a Presbyterian form of church governance. This goes back to the Scottish experience of Reformation, initiated in 1560 by John Knox. The Scottish Reformation was in essence a grassroots one, and the system they chose was that of Presbyterianism. This differs from that of England, where the Reformation was driven by Henry the Eighth and he chose the Episcopal system that survives to this day in the Church of England.
There are a number of other religions in Scotland, amongst them Roman Catholicism, the largest faith outwith The Kirk. As well as The Kirk there are other various Protestant churches, including the Scottish Episcopal Church which is a full part of the Anglican Communion and the Free Church of Scotland which is a Presbyterian off-shoot from the established Church of Scotland.
The largest faith outside of Christianity is that of Islam, although the numbers purporting to adhere to that faith are very small.
Much of Scotland (particularly the West Central Belt around Glasgow) has been beset with problems owing to religious divide between Presbyterians and Catholics. This problem has historically manifested itself in a number of ways, particularly in employment and football fanaticism. The problems associated with sectarianism in Scotland are much less severe than in the past, although it does remain to a certain degree.
Figures from the 2001 Census on Religion in Scotland:
Historically the politics of Scotland have reflected those of the UK as a whole, although with some differences. For example, besides the main UK-wide political parties (Labour, Tories and the Lib-Dems) there are a number of Scottish specific parties in operation. These include the Scottish National Party (SNP), the Scottish Socialist Party (SSP) and the Scottish Green Party.
The traditional political divides of left and right have also been characterised by arguments over devolution, which all the UK-wide parties have supported to some degree throughout their history (although both the Labour Party and Tories have swithered a number of times between supporting and opposing it). However, now that devolution has been established the main argument about Scotland's constitutional status is between those who support Scottish independence and those who oppose it.
Scotland is also the name of some places in the United States:
Geography
Geology
Tectonic Plate Movement
Tectonic Setting of the East Lothian Volcanic Field
History
Modern Scotland
Scotland is today divided administratively into a number of unitary authorities.Culture
Scottish Law
Scottish Education
Banking
Sports
Media
Other facets of Scottish Culture
Miscellaneous
Religion
Church of Scotland - 42% of the population
Roman Catholic
- 16%
Other Christian - 7%
Islamic - 0.8%
Buddhist - 0.1%
Sikh - 0.1%
Judaism - 0.1%
Hindu - 0.1%
Other Religion - 0.5%
No Religion - 28%
No Answer - 5%Politics
Further Reference
External links
