Aye or Naw? Scotland and the United Kingdom 撰文及考題設計 英國文化協會 Jeremy Beacock
W
hile many people think of England when they think of the United
Kingdom, September’s vote on Scottish independence brought the British Isles’ second largest country into sharp focus. The two countries have been together for more than 400 years, but have always maintained their separate identities. The Scottish kingdom proper emerged in the early middle ages, when Robert the Bruce unified the country for the first time. Throughout the middle ages, there were sporadic wars with the English, and even in peacetime, Scottish and English warriors raided across the border.
反對獨立的蘇格蘭人9月19日慶祝公投結果 如他們所願。（歐新社）
The first steps to the union were taken in
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1503 when Henry Tudor, seeking legitimacy for
Scottish capital, provided a home to key scientists and
his line, married his daughter Margaret to James the
philosophers of the period.
Fourth of Scotland. Despite a brief outbreak of war,
It was not just Edinburgh that made Scotland a val-
the alliance held, and on the death of Elizabeth I, King
ued part of the United Kingdom. Glasgow became a
James I of Scotland inherited the throne. The two
great industrial city, and Scots strengthened the British
kingdoms were formally united by the Declaration of
Empire as soldiers, engineers, and colonists. While the
Union in 1707.
English sometimes still treated the Scots as second class
But Scotland remained independent in spirit, and
citizens, forcing people off land and weakening the tra-
the relationship with its larger neighbor was often
ditional Gaelic language, Scotland also became more
fraught. On several occasions, Scottish armies threw
politically influential, sending more MPs to Parliament.
themselves behind different rivals for the crown, with
As ties became closer, the two countries seemed
the last of these being the Jacobite rising of 1745. How-
bound to a common destiny. Scotland retained its own
ever, with the dawning of the Enlightenment, Scotland
cultural identity, expressed in its accent, its religion,
began to forge its own identity in the context of, and
and its traditions, but a vote in 1979 showed only a
not just in opposition to, the union. Edinburgh, the
minority of Scots wanted independence. This began to
全球中央雜誌 2014.11