tag:theconversation.com,2011:/id/topics/scottish-nationalism-29273/articlesScottish nationalism – The Conversation2023-01-10T13:29:03Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1903932023-01-10T13:29:03Z2023-01-10T13:29:03Z30 years on, Czechoslovakia’s ‘velvet divorce’ is not a model for Scottish independence from the UK<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503322/original/file-20230105-20-vwaelx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C544%2C4641%2C2456&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Scottish independence has its supporters -- as did that of Slovakia.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/slovakia-fans-in-the-stands-before-the-2018-fifa-world-cup-news-photo/857936752?phrase=scotland%20slovak%20fans&adppopup=true">Jane Barlow/PA Images via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Had Scottish nationalists got their way, 2023 would have seen the country head to the polls in a <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/uk-top-court-rule-legality-new-scottish-independence-referendum-2022-11-23/">second referendum over independence</a> from the United Kingdom – and they might have won. Whereas the first attempt in 2014 resulted in 55% voting “no,” <a href="https://www.heraldscotland.com/politics/22564415.scottish-independence-polling-polls-changed-2022/">polls suggest</a> that after Brexit, a majority of Scots might now favor secession.</p>
<p>But that plan for a fresh referendum was scuppered in November 2022, when the U.K. Supreme Court <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk-supreme-court-rules-scotland-cannot-call-a-second-independence-referendum-the-decision-explained-194877">decided</a> that Scotland could not hold such a vote without the consent of the Westminster Parliament. And that permission seems unlikely given that the governing Conservative Party <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-independence-scotland-cameron/cameron-says-scottish-independence-issue-settled-for-a-generation-idUKKBN0HE0IN20140919">believes the 2014 referendum</a> settled the debate “for a generation.” Even a change of government is unlikely to matter, with the opposition Labour Party indicating that it too is <a href="https://www.thenational.scot/news/20268570.scottish-independence-keir-starmer-confirms-labour-reject-section-30-call/">not inclined to allow a second vote</a>.</p>
<p>It seems that when it comes to disentangling nations with a shared government, breaking up can be hard to do.</p>
<p>Yet, some advocates of Scottish independence point to an event that took place 30 years ago as an example of how such a divorce can be amicably managed and beneficial for all concerned: In January 1993, Czechoslovakia ceased to exist, and the Czech Republic and Slovakia <a href="https://www.un.org/en/about-us/member-states/czechoslovakia#:%7E:text=Following%20the%20receipt%20of%20their,admitted%20to%20United%20Nations%20membership.">were welcomed into the United Nations</a> as separate states. </p>
<p>While it is tempting for some to look back to the Czech-Slovak split for <a href="https://strathprints.strath.ac.uk/65544/">comforting lessons</a> <a href="https://www.gla.ac.uk/news/archiveofnews/2013/may/headline_278765_en.html">over the</a> <a href="https://www.economicsobservatory.com/scottish-independence-what-lessons-from-the-break-up-of-czechoslovakia">long-run consequences</a> of Scottish independence, as <a href="https://www.drake.edu/polsci/facultystaff/kieranwilliams/">a scholar who has studied the politics of Central Europe</a>, I’m mindful of two things: It wasn’t entirely smooth, and the circumstances were not all that comparable to Scotland’s situation today.</p>
<h2>Better apart?</h2>
<p>Combined at the end of the First World War, the two national identities that made up Czechoslovakia were papered over under Communist rule and burst into the open with the <a href="https://time.com/5730106/velvet-revolution-history/">return of democracy in 1989</a>. </p>
<p>This came to a head with <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/0967-067X(93)90004-B">elections in the summer of 1992</a>. The decision to terminate the union was rooted in an aversion among leaders of the largest Czech and Slovak parties to sharing power – and a vision of post-Communist economic reform – in a coalition government. The Czech side, which had been <a href="https://kdwilliams7.medium.com/the-czech-legislatures-secret-session-on-the-breakup-of-czechoslovakia-90a64e612899">secretly</a> thinking through what uncoupling would entail, had no appetite for Slovak proposals of a loose confederation and insisted on a cleaner break.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A black and white photo show three women in a crowd clap hands and cheer." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503445/original/file-20230106-25-zrc6fu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503445/original/file-20230106-25-zrc6fu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=360&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503445/original/file-20230106-25-zrc6fu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=360&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503445/original/file-20230106-25-zrc6fu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=360&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503445/original/file-20230106-25-zrc6fu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=453&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503445/original/file-20230106-25-zrc6fu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=453&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503445/original/file-20230106-25-zrc6fu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=453&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Demonstrators in Prague on June 18, 1992, the day before negotiations between Czech and Slovak politicians over a proposed split.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/CzechScotlandCzechoslovakiaBreakup/d1f4edd4954043f0a2f6e28f64fcddb4/photo?Query=slovakia%201993&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=5&currentItemNo=0">AP Photo/David Brauchli</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In the end, a chaotic vote in the federal parliament on Nov. 25, 1992, saw a slim majority <a href="https://www.upi.com/Archives/1992/11/25/Federal-Parliament-votes-to-dissolve-Czechoslovakia/1607722667600/">in favor of dissolving the union</a> at the end of that year. But it was messy: The first two attempts failed, and the third attempt succeeded by just two or three votes (the votes cast and tallied did not add up). </p>
<p>Furthermore, the legislature did not have the expressed will of the people behind it – parties that months earlier had campaigned to preserve the union in some form acted without prior authorization or subsequent affirmation by a referendum. Thirty years later, <a href="https://ct24.ceskatelevize.cz/domaci/3554349-rozdeleni-ceskoslovenska-hodnoti-kladne-necela-polovina-cechu-mezi-slovaky-zastancu">polling</a> finds that very large majorities in both successor states wish a referendum had been held. Czechs still struggle to accept the end of federation, with a plurality of 48% regarding it negatively, while 62% of Slovaks say it was the right thing.</p>
<p>The lack of popular assent notwithstanding, the Czech-Slovak split is cited by <a href="https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/18983787.independence-breaking-not-always-bitter/">advocates for Scottish independence</a> as a model that minimizes the risk of violence and economic disruption. </p>
<p>No doubt, the two new countries seem to have flourished. Both went on to become members of the European Union and the Schengen Area, which allows free movement across much of the continent. They also joined NATO and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. The Czech Republic is routinely ranked among the <a href="https://www.socialprogress.org/index/global/results">safest countries in the world with high scores</a> for quality of life. Its adjusted <a href="https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.PCAP.PP.CD?locations=EU-CZ&most_recent_value_desc=true">per capita gross domestic product</a> is now ahead of those of older EU member states such as Spain, Portugal and Greece, and closing in on Italy’s.</p>
<p>Slovakia had to overcome greater political turmoil and structural challenges. But since joining the EU in 2004 and the eurozone in 2009, it has matched or outpaced the Czech Republic in annual economic growth. Indeed, Slovakia has attracted so much investment by foreign automakers that it is now the world’s largest producer of cars relative to population – which <a href="https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/slovakia-population/">at around 5.5 million</a> is <a href="https://www.scotlandscensus.gov.uk/census-results/at-a-glance/population/">almost identical in size to Scotland’s</a>.</p>
<p>Even more so than the Czech Republic, Slovakia confirms that <a href="https://www.economicsobservatory.com/scottish-independence-how-do-other-small-economies-fare">small states</a> can find their way in the world.</p>
<p>As such, it is no wonder that <a href="https://www.thenational.scot/news/15200957.whas-like-us-former-partners-czech-republic-and-slovakia-are-flourishing-after-velvet-divorce/">some Scots conclude</a>, “If Slovakia can make a success of itself after the Velvet Divorce, surely Scotland can do so too.”</p>
<p>And Slovakia did so while remaining on cordial terms with the Czech Republic. Setbacks such as the recent Czech reimposition of <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/czech-border-controls-blocking-migrants-route-germany-frustrate-slovakia-2022-11-10/">controls</a> on the border with Slovakia are minor compared with what we see in nearby regions that also fractured in the early 1990s - raging conflicts in the former Soviet Union and simmering tension in the former Yugoslavia.</p>
<h2>The velvet divorce</h2>
<p>Where the utility of Czechoslovakia as a precedent ends, however, is with the actual process of splitting up.</p>
<p>The appeal of the story of Czechoslovakia’s dissolution is that it seemed to be quick and easy as well as peaceful. In reality, it took years to finalize some issues, such as arrangements for citizens of one state to attend a university in the other and to acquire dual citizenship. Final settlement of the central bank’s balance took until November 1999 to sort out. </p>
<p>Most of the work of dividing assets was governed by a simple 2-to-1 principle that reflected the relative sizes of the Czech and Slovak populations. Liabilities, in the way of external debt, were dispatched on the same basis, and Czechoslovakia had little of it anyway.</p>
<p>The new international border was not agreed officially until 1996 but needed only minor adjustments. Being landlocked, the new states had no maritime issues to resolve. </p>
<p>For several reasons, it is hard to imagine such an amicable and swift grant of independence to Scotland from the rest of the U.K.</p>
<p>For starters, Edinburgh and London might never agree that the time had come to start discussing terms of divorce, in the way that Czech and Slovak leaders did in the summer of 1992. </p>
<p>Scotland’s first minister has said that the next U.K. general election, due to be held before the end of 2024, will be <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-63742281">treated as a “de facto referendum</a>.”</p>
<p>The Scottish National Party might interpret a general election result as a mandate to leave, but unionist parties might see it otherwise and refuse to come to the table. Any push towards independence in the face of opposition from the U.K. government could lead to an impasse akin to that between <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/sep/25/is-catalonia-still-dreaming-of-independence-from-spain">Catalonia</a> and the Spanish government.</p>
<p>Even if talks did somehow get underway, there is no simple rule to hand like the 2-to-1 ratio for Czechoslovakia’s partition. That applied to a process of ending a country, whereas the U.K. would seek to carry on with its remaining parts.</p>
<p>Instead, there would be hard bargaining on every major issue – trade, labor, pensions, currency and banking, debt, citizenship, defense, and borders – including claims to the dwindling tax receipts from <a href="https://www.herbertsmithfreehills.com/insight/scottish-independence-implications-for-the-north-sea-oil-and-gas-sector">North Sea oil and gas fields</a>.</p>
<p>In all likelihood, it would <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1057/s41293-022-00210-1">more closely resemble the United Kingdom’s choppy exit</a> from the European Union than Czechoslovakia’s division.</p>
<p>Speaking of which, Brexit itself presents another potential headache. Even if Scotland and the U.K. government were to reach agreement on the terms of any split, they might have to be reopened should an independent Scotland seek to join the E.U. – forcing it to choose between the single market of Europe and that of the rump U.K. </p>
<p>This is not to say that the separation of Scotland from the United Kingdom could not be arrived at. But harking back to events of 30 years ago may not serve anyone’s interests, least of all Scotland’s – especially if the path of the referendum-free “velvet divorce” leaves lingering doubts about the legitimacy of the process.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/190393/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kieran Williams does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Despite hopes of a second referendum on independence being dashed, many Scottish nationalists look to Slovakia as an example of how a small nation can stand on its own.Kieran Williams, Assistant Professor of Political Science, Drake UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1859852022-06-29T13:19:01Z2022-06-29T13:19:01ZScottish independence: what has changed since the last referendum<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/471425/original/file-20220628-14234-l4p3qx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=66%2C38%2C3646%2C2432&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://webgate.epa.eu/id/57683064">Michael Reynolds / EPA-EFE</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>If the SNP Scottish government and Nicola Sturgeon, first minister, get their way, then in October 2023 voters in Scotland will <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-61968607">again be asked</a> “Should Scotland be an independent country?”. This will be the same wording used in September 2014 for the first independence referendum. This, on a massive turnout of 84.6%, saw 55.3% of voters against and 44.7% voting for independence. </p>
<p>As in 2014, the proposed referendum would be consultative, not binding. If supported, it would be a start to negotiations on Scottish independence between the Scottish parliament and the UK parliament (which would, constitutionally speaking, still have to approve Scotland’s departure). The referendum question will be the same, but politically, much has changed in nine years when it comes to support for Scottish independence, not least the UK’s own Brexit referendum.</p>
<p>To hold the first “indyref”, Westminster granted Holyrood a section 30 order. This mechanism allows for the temporary transfer of power, so the Scottish parliament can deal with issues that are normally dealt with at the UK level, such as constitutional questions.</p>
<p>However, since then, two UK prime ministers, Theresa May and Boris Johnson, have consistently refused to grant a section 30 order for the purposes of indyref2, arguing in both <a href="https://euobserver.com/world/137269">2017</a> and 2019 that “<a href="https://www.shropshirestar.com/news/uk-news/2019/07/29/boris-johnson-sees-no-reason-for-scotland-holding-second-independence-vote/">now is not the time</a>”. Sturgeon has again written to Johnson asking for that authority, but it is unlikely the prime minister will change his mind.</p>
<p>Sturgeon, very aware that “no” was likely to be the answer again to her section 30 request, has preempted that decision by directly asking the Lord Advocate, Scotland’s top law officer, to <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-61974087">refer the proposed Scottish referendum bill</a> to the UK Supreme Court. Very few people saw that move coming, and it plays well in terms of putting the Scottish government slightly more in the driving seat, legally speaking. The SNP government’s plan A was always to ask for a section 30 order. This is their amended plan B, which was to move ahead with a referendum anyway, subject to legal arguments they would no doubt face.</p>
<p>Sturgeon has now also announced a plan C. If no referendum is allowed, the SNP will fight the next UK general election on the lone issue of independence for Scotland.</p>
<h2>What’s changed in Scotland?</h2>
<p>We must never forget that few expected the 2014 result to be almost 45% in favour. The pro-independence movement gained a lot of ground during the referendum campaign – ground it has not lost since. The SNP has become the dominant force at Holyrood in every subsequent Scottish election. The 2021 Scottish parliament elections saw <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1467-923X.13047?casa_token=ppeVYOaO0bAAAAAA%3A_UqDWTtREjbjyWukGa3kb1stvgnvmKs1NPIsvUV6Kbftk69oa6wPXCz2w5FJ5iw09DYVwHvY7Nsi3Q">another SNP victory</a>, and a pro-independence majority, when you include the Green Party.</p>
<p>The 2014 referendum did not hurt the SNP – in fact, it helped the party a lot. It has seemingly changed the nature of voting behaviour in Scotland. The Scottish Labour Party, long dominant in Scotland, was devastated at the 2015 UK election. The SNP won 56 seats out of 59, leaving Labour, the Scottish Conservatives, and the Scottish Liberal Democrats with only one each. While the pattern for UK elections in Scotland has shifted somewhat, in 2019 the SNP won 45% of the vote and the lion’s share of the seats again. Sturgeon <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/dec/13/nicola-sturgeon-to-demand-powers-for-scottish-independence-referendum?CMP=fb_gu&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook">claimed a fresh mandate for an independence referendum then</a>.</p>
<p>Brexit has also changed the playing field. In 2016, the UK voted, by 51.89% to 48.11% to leave the EU. Scotland, on the other hand, voted 62% to 38% to remain. Scotland, the SNP and others argued, was being <a href="https://www.scotsman.com/news/opinion/columnists/scotland-did-not-vote-be-dragged-out-eu-michael-russell-3006463">“dragged out” of Europe</a> against its will. The links between Europe and Scotland have always seemed strong, and the attitude towards the EU, especially the political attitudes, more positive. The SNP has always argued that Brexit represents significant constitutional change for the UK, and is therefore a reason to hold another referendum. But the UK government and Boris Johnson have insisted the <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election-2019-50789771">2014 result must stand</a>.</p>
<p>Then, there was the COVID pandemic. While this caused social, political and economic ructions that few saw coming, it also illustrated the fact that Scotland had its own parliament, its own first minister, and could make its own rules, with different priorities and <a href="https://www.heraldscotland.com/politics/19641823.uk-scottish-governments-different-covid-messaging-caused-confusion-mps-find/">message</a>. Irrespective of any difference in outcomes, Scotland’s ability to govern itself was more evident than ever before.</p>
<p>Polls over the last few years have <a href="https://ballotbox.scot/independence">occasionally shown</a> a potential pro-independence majority in Scotland, albeit a slim one. Furthermore, the pro UK union parties in Scotland (Scottish Labour, the Scottish Conservatives and the Scottish Liberal Democrats) are not as united as they were last time. It would be politically very difficult for them to run a united campaign as they did in 2014. </p>
<p>Indyref2 may have a better chance of success than 2014’s referendum, but a year is a long time. What may change in that year? The legal decision around the referendum and the potential granting of a Section 30 order will no doubt have impacts. </p>
<p>If the UK continues down paths that further isolate it from the EU and the wider world stage, Scottish attitudes to the Union may harden. But, Boris Johnson is <a href="https://www.ipsos.com/en-uk/satisfaction-boris-johnson-hits-new-low-scots-feel-cost-living-crisis-bite">personally very unpopular</a> in Scotland. If he is replaced as PM before a referendum takes place, this might change the game and positively impact pro-UK Union attitudes in Scotland.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/185985/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Murray Leith has previously received funding from the European Union Horizon 2020, and the UK Ministry of Defence. He is currently working on research funded by the Scottish Government.</span></em></p>Nicola Sturgeon has announced plans for indyref2. An expert explains what’s changed since the last time.Murray Leith, Professor of Political Science, University of the West of ScotlandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/718392017-01-24T16:08:25Z2017-01-24T16:08:25ZHow nervy elites seized Robert Burns before radicals got there<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/154076/original/image-20170124-16089-cq2uov.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Dundee's Burns memorial. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/tourscotland/6512281257/in/photolist-8xXceg-urgoU-Le9dL-8KhwZi-bdSmKH-nQfHf6-gYRQGw-8ZBmP-aVt9kk-k333UV-4pwEPc-bdSr5p-urbpu-nAXcLJ-bdSsmi-atwWPw-z4ggnS-9EgHPJ-9PXGeH-9e92ie-qBUdRq-74cq8W-dZWo8h-5tCRGp-gWHpTk-dq16vk-aVt8wr-bdSphg-fvdRC5-6RkVGa-nFT3kV-9XJKZk-9fb1Uy-6Xa6Hp-7d3Pi2-uphUx-dSomFR-64TKPj-KeDDN-4Fn4Zv-92Cdot-urcN4-paWq1H-dv4fJa-bqCo6-7PvAaD-G7s6Nr-bmUgco-bdSjY2-9ea6ev">Sandy Stevenson</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Two hundred years ago the bones of Robert Burns were <a href="http://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/dumfries/burnsmausoleum/">dug up</a> along with the coffin in which he had been laid to rest in 1796 in Dumfries in south-west Scotland. This was in preparation for the re-interment of Scotland’s national poet beneath a mausoleum being built as a more fitting memorial. </p>
<p>The workmen present <a href="http://www.dumfriesmuseum.demon.co.uk/mausoleum.html">stood</a> bare-headed in the cramped graveyard of St Michael’s church, “their frames thrilling with some indefinable emotion, as they gazed on the ashes of him whose fame is as wide as the world itself”. Barely two decades after his death, Burns had already become a secular saint. </p>
<p>Yet his legacy was still very much up for grabs at the time – unlike today. Now that it is time once again to toast Burns’ immortal memory on January 25, both in Scotland and around the world, how does our perception of him now compare to then? And how did Burns make the journey from Edinburgh drawing rooms at the turn of the 18th century to his global superstardom today?</p>
<h2>The battle for Burns</h2>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/154071/original/image-20170124-16066-1qxqqm1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/154071/original/image-20170124-16066-1qxqqm1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/154071/original/image-20170124-16066-1qxqqm1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/154071/original/image-20170124-16066-1qxqqm1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/154071/original/image-20170124-16066-1qxqqm1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/154071/original/image-20170124-16066-1qxqqm1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/154071/original/image-20170124-16066-1qxqqm1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/154071/original/image-20170124-16066-1qxqqm1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Burns mausoleum.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Robert_Burns_Mausoleum,_Dumfries.jpg#/media/File:Robert_Burns_Mausoleum,_Dumfries.jpg">Wikimedia</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>The Dumfries mausoleum was the first of numerous Burns memorials that <a href="http://www.birlinn.co.uk/Immortal-Memory.html">studded</a> the towns of lowland Scotland by the end of the Victorian era. Most were statues, erected in an informal race between Scotland’s urban elites to have one. Overseas, above all in Canada, the United States, Australia and New Zealand, Scots settlers and their descendants soon followed suit. Why? </p>
<p>The answer is far from straightforward. The sentimental appeal of Burns’ writing was part of it; his preservation in verse of a rural Scotland that was fast disappearing. But alone this will not do. It doesn’t explain why from the time of his death onwards, his legacy has been fought over. </p>
<p>Much has to do with establishment fears about where the cult of Burns might lead. Terrified by the prospect of revolution and radical violence in Scotland inspired by songs such as <a href="http://www.robertburns.org/works/496.shtml">A Man’s a Man</a>, his first editors elided poems and sections of them that were toxic in their assertion of human dignity regardless of rank, title or wealth. </p>
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<p>Tories in Scotland and further south then quickly adopted the poet, recognising the same danger. The likes of <a href="http://spartacus-educational.com/PRsidmouth.htm">Lord Sidmouth</a>, <a href="http://www.portaltothepast.co.uk/index.aspx?articleid=3319">Professor Charles Wilson</a> and the <a href="http://thepeerage.com/p2158.htm">Earl of Eglinton</a> promoted poems such as <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/poetryseason/poems/the_cotters_saturday_night.shtml">The Cotter’s Saturday Night</a> as a model of stoicism and Presbyterian piety for the country’s rural poor to abide by. </p>
<p>By the mid-19th century this championing of Burns had spread to the newly ascendant manufacturing and commercial classes and artisans. Disciples of the Scottish reformer <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Samuel-Smiles">Samuel Smiles</a>, they urged working people to emulate the bard on the grounds of his belief in independent living. He was seen as a credible example of how with hard work and the grace of God success and fame could be achieved – earning him the <a href="http://www.newcriterion.com/articles.cfm/The-heaven-taught-ploughman-8184">moniker</a> the “heaven-taught ploughman”. </p>
<p>Other sections of Scottish society had other designs on Burns by then. Moderate Presbyterians and non-believers <a href="http://www.birlinn.co.uk/Immortal-Memory.html">drew on</a> anti-clerical satires such as <a href="http://www.robertburns.org.uk/Assets/Poems_Songs/holy_willie.htm">Holy Willie’s Prayer</a> to help liberate the people from the nation’s theocrats, the inheritors of John Knox’s <a href="http://reformationhistory.org/johnknox.html">Reformation</a>. By the later Victorian era Burns was <a href="http://www.birlinn.co.uk/Immortal-Memory.html">becoming</a> a socialist icon, leading the way for communists to <a href="http://socialistunity.com/the-people%E2%80%99s-poet-robert-burns-1759-1796/">commandeer him</a> in the 20th century. </p>
<p>But on one issue there was no conflict. The most remarkable day in Scotland’s social history was January 25, 1859, the centenary of Burns’ birth. Without precedent, work in every city and town and hamlet ceased and celebrations were held. </p>
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<span class="caption">Burns centenary celebrations in Dumfries.</span>
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<p>The reason is clear. As The Scotsman <a href="http://www.birlinn.co.uk/Immortal-Memory.html">reminded</a> its readers at the time, the “chief characteristic of Burns was his Nationality … he was utterly and intensely, before and beyond everything, a Scotchman”. </p>
<p>There were those who believed Burns had rescued Scotland from oblivion – above all through his work as a collector, adaptor and writer of Scottish song, the nation’s genetic code. If Scots felt alienated within a union in which England was politically and culturally dominant, Burns offered them a sense of pride and self-respect that in turn fuelled the emerging <a href="http://ehr.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2014/07/31/ehr.ceu209.full">Home Rule movement</a>.</p>
<h2>Scotland the what?</h2>
<p>Burns’ legacy as a moving force in Scotland’s history has now dissolved. He has become a malleable symbol of the nation, functioning partly as a tourist attraction whose familiar face can sell shortbread, whisky, ales and tea towels. As usual, nationalists and unionists and other factions will claim him as one of their own – but mainly by judicious selection from his works and no little credibility stretching. </p>
<p>At the best of the Burns suppers, attendees will be reminded that Burns spoke for no one party. He spoke for humanity itself, warts and all. Right now, in the wake of Brexit and the inauguration of President Trump, that is precisely why he is still worth reading.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/71839/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Christopher A Whatley is the author of Immortal Memory: Burns and the Scottish People (2016, Birlinn/John Donald).</span></em></p>Scotland’s national poet was seen as having the potential to stir up revolutionary sentiment in the 19th century.Christopher A Whatley, Professor of Scottish History, University of DundeeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/639782016-08-22T15:35:24Z2016-08-22T15:35:24ZScottish identity is moving too fast to keep up, as Edinburgh play shows<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/134973/original/image-20160822-18734-nts5gt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">What's it all about, wonders Sandy Grierson.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mihaela Bodlovic </span></span></figcaption></figure><p>What does the Scottish national identity amount to in 2016? That’s the central question in one of the most hotly anticipated shows at this year’s Edinburgh Festival, <a href="http://www.eif.co.uk/2016/light">Anything That Gives Off Light</a>. A collaboration between the Brooklyn-based <a href="http://theteamplays.org/about/about-the-company/">TEAM ensemble</a> and the National Theatre of Scotland, the play was originally intended to coincide with the 2014 independence referendum. With a second referendum now <a href="https://theconversation.com/scottish-independence-back-in-play-after-brexit-shock-with-a-note-of-caution-61457">looking likely</a> after the Brexit vote in June, it feels just as timely. </p>
<p>The plot focuses on three main characters with different perspectives on Scottish identity: Brian (Brian Ferguson), a Glaswegian living in London who has returned home to find a burial place for his granny’s ashes; Red (Jessica Almasy), a Virginian holidaying in Scotland to try and understand her estranged husband; and Iain (Sandy Grierson), Brian’s childhood friend who stayed with his mammy in Glasgow. </p>
<p>It opens with Brian shuffling around the stage, trying and failing to shake off London and reconnect with Scotland by walking in a “Scottish way”. It concludes with Iain driving around Glasgow, finding his Scottishness in everything from a group of Slovaks singing in three-part harmony to a girl outside a Sikh gurdwara clapping to the rhythm of an Orange March. </p>
<p>In between is a bawdy, mythical, emotional romp across Scottish and Appalachian landscapes on an introspective quest for self and Scottishness. It tells the story of the shift from a rural-based, tightly-knit Scottishness to a more inclusive, urban one which has more experience of dealing with migrants and outsiders. </p>
<p>This sense of a Scotland emerging from its dark imperial past reminded me of the sentiment in Hamish Henderson’s <a href="http://tobarandualchais.co.uk/en/fullrecord/98252/2">Freedom Come-All-Ye</a>, sometimes described as an alternative national anthem. Yet it’s Iain, the Scot within the country, for whom this shift is more apparent than for Brian, the one who has moved away.</p>
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<p>As the characters journey towards the Highlands, they travel not only in space but in time, and their different homelands merge. The story of an old lady about to be evicted as part of the 18th and 19th-century <a href="http://www.educationscotland.gov.uk/scotlandshistory/jacobitesenlightenmentclearances/clearances/">clearances</a> of tenant crofters by Highland aristocrats blends into the story of a young lady whose home is threatened by environmental disaster in <a href="https://www.namb.net/send-relief/arm/appalachian-culture">Appalachia</a> in the eastern US, many of whose original settlers came from Scotland. </p>
<p>Brian, who works in London property, first becomes the landowner evicting the tenants during the clearances, then turns into a Scottish emigrant “made good” in latterday Appalachia and responsible for pushing people off their land. It was a perceptive comment on the circularity of life and the way different generations deal with the same issues again and again. </p>
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<span class="caption">Jessica Almasy as American tourist Red.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mihaela Bodlovic</span></span>
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<h2>Stories and heritage</h2>
<p>The play explores how stories are central to our sense of identity. We all have stories of family, community, nationhood and past successes and failures. We carry them in our journey through life and have to negotiate and recreate them during crises. As part of Scotland’s story, the play references <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/wallace_william.shtml">William Wallace</a>, <a href="http://www.history.co.uk/biographies/bonnie-prince-charlie">Bonnie Prince Charlie</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-death-of-margaret-thatcher-and-the-legacy-of-thatcherism-13324">Margaret Thatcher</a>. Meanwhile Red sings of putting stories in a bag around her neck that eventually merge into a single story that becomes too heavy to carry. </p>
<p>The three characters in the play hotly debate themes of Scottish heritage, putting the record straight about some things along the way. For example the common understanding of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/culloden-why-truth-about-battle-for-britain-lay-hidden-for-three-centuries-62398">battle of Culloden</a> of 1746 as simply a massacre of the Scots by the English – making it a useful vehicle for Scottish nationalism – is dismissed as ignoring how Scots colluded against one another at the time. </p>
<p>The play also emphasises the impact of the <a href="http://www.educationscotland.gov.uk/scottishenlightenment/">Scottish Enlightenment</a> on American political culture, while <a href="https://theconversation.com/walter-scott-was-no-bland-tartan-romantic-he-was-dumbed-down-28933">Walter Scott’s</a> <a href="http://www.walterscott.lib.ed.ac.uk/works/novels/waverley.html">Waverley</a> novels are credited with inspiring the <a href="http://www.civilwar.org/education/history/civil-war-overview/overview.html">American Civil War</a> by generating a sense of Romantic nationalism replete with notions of identity and loyalty. </p>
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<span class="caption">Digging in the dirt: Brian Ferguson – as Brian.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mihaela Bodlovic</span></span>
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<p>But above all, Anything That Gives Off Light is about how Scotland is perceived from the inside and outside. It is about how outsiders have not necessarily caught up with the ways in which stereotypes about parochial Scots with a Culloden-type chip on their shoulder have been superseded in the years since devolution and even the Scottish referendum. </p>
<p>There is much truth in this, in my view. In the <a href="https://theconversation.com/brexit-europes-new-nationalism-is-here-to-stay-61541">Brexit referendum</a>, it was the English who voted in fear of the effect of immigrants on their national identity while the Scots appeared more comfortable with theirs. And while Red speaks several times in the play about how Scots and Americans both view themselves as underdogs but see them as losers and survivors respectively, the confidence of the two Scots in the play seems to question this aspect of the Scottish psyche. </p>
<p>The play is a powerful reminder to outsiders to listen first and speak cautiously about what they think they know: culture and identity are constantly evolving, however much it might be more comforting if they stayed still.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/63978/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mairead Nic Craith does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Anything That Gives Off Light explores Scottishness from three very different perspectives.Mairead Nic Craith, Professor of Culture and Heritage, Heriot-Watt UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/623982016-07-14T11:03:23Z2016-07-14T11:03:23ZCulloden: why truth about battle for Britain lay hidden for three centuries<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/130426/original/image-20160713-12358-mjlb9l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption"></span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Culloden#/media/File:The_Battle_of_Culloden.jpg">Wikimedia</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The Battle of Culloden of 1746, where British troops defeated the Scottish Jacobite army for the final time near Inverness, has long been mis-represented for political purposes. The Jacobites’ struggle to restore the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/James-II-king-of-Great-Britain">deposed Stuart dynasty</a> to the British throne was a major threat to the success of a single centralised Britain. Yet for several centuries, historians presented the Jacobites as kilted primitives. </p>
<p>Culloden also saw the beginning of a national narrative about reconciling England and its “less developed” peripheries – a mission that would soon also be applied to more remote peoples to justify expanding the British Empire. Benjamin West’s famous painting of <a href="https://www.gallery.ca/en/see/collections/artwork.php?mkey=5363">The Death of General Wolfe (1770)</a>, which depicted not Culloden but the Battle of Quebec of 1759 between Britain and France, is an early example of how this was done. </p>
<p>It pictures a curious Native American observing the British general’s dignified death. Behind the man in green uniform stands Simon Fraser, chief of the Clan Fraser, who had fought for the Jacobites on the opposite side to Wolfe at Culloden (and was not in fact at Quebec). The message is plain: Fraser has been integrated into the dignity of the British imperium, as the Native American will be, too. </p>
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<span class="caption">The Death of General Wolfe.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/art-americas/british-colonies/colonial-period/a/benjamin-wests-the-death-of-general-wolfe">Wikmedia</a></span>
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<p>It is no coincidence that this idea of Jacobite primitives has been contested since 1970 as imperial Britain has become more fragmented and Scottish nationalism has risen. Yet the popular image of the Jacobites at Culloden remains. Arguably no battle is remembered so powerfully and so falsely. Peter Watkins’ <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KaE2CAkk4Q">1964 film Culloden</a> demonstrates the enduring power of this vision, in which modern British guns supposedly brought down kilted swordsmen.</p>
<p>British statists and romantic Scottish patriots have both drawn on the same image: dirty, badly-armed savages sacrificing themselves for the Italian princeling, Bonnie Prince Charlie (or Prince Charles), yet get credit for nobly defending an ancient way of life. As I have demonstrated in my <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/culloden-9780199664078?cc=gb&lang=en&">new book</a> on the battle, Culloden as it happened is in fact much more interesting than Culloden as it is remembered. </p>
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<h2>What really happened</h2>
<p>On Culloden Moor on April 16 1746 arguably the last Scottish army sought to restore Prince Charles’ father James to a multi-kingdom monarchy more aligned to European politics than colonial struggle. </p>
<p>Forget any idea of Highland clans against British regiments. The Jacobites were heavily armed with muskets and formed into conventional regiments. They were drilled according to French conventions and some British army practice and fought next to Franco-Irish and Scoto-French allies. They possessed numerous artillery pieces <a href="http://www.scotsman.com/heritage/people-places/amazing-discoveries-250-years-after-culloden-1-466171">and fired</a> more balls per man than the British.</p>
<p>On the other hand, they had no more than 200 mounted men; the British had almost four times as many. Once the Jacobite frontline failed to break the British front at more than one point, their reinforcements were readily disrupted by British cavalry and dragoons on the wings, and the ensuing disorder led to collapse. The British benefited from using their cavalry late, having learned from the battles of <a href="http://www.battleofprestonpans1745.org/heritagetrust/html/history.html">Prestonpans</a> and <a href="http://www.britishbattles.com/battle_of_falkirk.htm">Falkirk</a>. </p>
<p>The Jacobite army also only numbered about 5,000, barely a third its maximum strength in the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/scottishhistory/union/features_union_jacobites.shtml">rising of 1745-46</a> and <a href="http://www.britishbattles.com/battle_of_culloden.htm">several thousand fewer</a> than the British. It fought Culloden in spite of these numbers partly because it was a regular army and unsuited to a guerrilla campaign. Culloden was always going to be difficult for the Jacobites to win, but this manpower shortage – combined with the lack of cavalry – was critical. That was what made it possible for the British dragoon blades to cut down the Jacobite musketeers. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/130427/original/image-20160713-12353-yjired.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/130427/original/image-20160713-12353-yjired.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/130427/original/image-20160713-12353-yjired.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=761&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/130427/original/image-20160713-12353-yjired.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=761&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/130427/original/image-20160713-12353-yjired.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=761&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/130427/original/image-20160713-12353-yjired.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=956&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/130427/original/image-20160713-12353-yjired.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=956&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/130427/original/image-20160713-12353-yjired.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=956&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Charles Stuart: the Young Pretender.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.anglophile.ru/en/kings-queens/681-bonnie-prince-charlie.html">Wikimedia</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The Jacobites are also usually accused of choosing the wrong battlefield. The Irish quartermaster and Jacobite adjutant general John Sullivan <a href="http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Battle_of_Culloden">gets blamed</a> for persuading Prince Charles to choose boggy, flat terrain, which did not play to the army’s strengths. </p>
<p>Some historians argue that the error was not listening to an alternative suggestion by the prince’s lieutenant-general, Lord George Murray. But while it is true that Sullivan vetoed several other sites, one of which at least was Murray’s choice, neither made sense. </p>
<p>The best site was chosen by Sullivan 1km east of the final battle line. Its only disadvantage was that it was very visible to the Royal Navy in the Moray Firth. This delayed the Jacobites’ night attack on April 15 and in the subsequent confusion they ended up deployed further west than intended. In that sense, no-one “chose” the final battlefield. </p>
<h2>Civil war or conquest?</h2>
<p><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0040183">Until the 1960s</a>, Culloden was seen as the final battle in an Anglo-Scottish conflict. It was the precursor to the Highlands becoming the last part of Scotland to be fully incorporated into Great Britain, the British Empire and, most importantly, the British army. This helped underline the sense of Jacobites as aliens: Gaelic-speaking Catholics in an English-speaking Protestant country (never mind that all Jacobite military orders were in English). </p>
<p>But the rise of modern Scottish nationalism made the idea of an Anglo-Scottish battle uncomfortable. Jacobitism has nationalist implications nowadays. Since the 1960s, there has been a <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/culloden-9780199664078?cc=gb&lang=en&">determined effort</a> by British historians to present Culloden as the final battle in a civil war. “British army” is often supplanted by “government troops” or “Hanoverians”, despite being more British by some distance than the force commanded by Wellington <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/timelines/zwtf34j">at Waterloo</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/130428/original/image-20160713-12358-13ndxqo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/130428/original/image-20160713-12358-13ndxqo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/130428/original/image-20160713-12358-13ndxqo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=335&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/130428/original/image-20160713-12358-13ndxqo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=335&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/130428/original/image-20160713-12358-13ndxqo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=335&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/130428/original/image-20160713-12358-13ndxqo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=421&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/130428/original/image-20160713-12358-13ndxqo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=421&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/130428/original/image-20160713-12358-13ndxqo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=421&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Jacobite re-enactment.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/thepatman/11252918735/in/photolist-i9o9Gg-5UZZri-i9ozqn-fj6rrg-pNfk6N-Y4dm9-qAzzon-3c4VFp-nFpMn1-a3fV4r-AhVqzt-azJzuz-eiABox-8tGaQX-ekAMvr-fuuCMG-pDXuQT-nxYKEb-b6Zv5c-ndMc1M-qUJ13h-i9oeuc-fj878M-fjn8zW-obJAFD-78GyvP-i9opEm-i9o7B4-aqjiiH-7ra9YJ-i9o5NK-ejHsqt-i9ocNh-i9owov-i9oaQ8-fusZP4-i9obCR-i9oA9r-nVXwx2-HbGuaH-4RXpW8-i9o5cp-i9oiXE-i9okiY-fuuDhd-8MWqVz-i9oBtF-i9omDw-8MWrvM-odvsT6">Rob Eaglesfield</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Culloden was of course a civil war, as was the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/easterrising/aftermath/af04.shtml">Anglo-Irish war of 1919-21</a> or the <a href="http://www.historyofwar.org/articles/wars_american_independence.html">American War of Independence</a>. But every national struggle divides its nation, and the Jacobite Rising of 1745-46 was certainly a fight for a Scottish nation, too. Ending the Anglo-Scottish <a href="http://www.legislation.gov.uk/aosp/1707/7/contents">union of 1707</a> to restore the Stuarts’ multi-kingdom monarchy was a key Jacobite war aim. </p>
<p>So not only is the “primitives” narrative wrong and not only was the battle quite different to the memory, but Culloden was the final significant defeat of a Scottish alternative to the British state. The irony is that a federal British Isles under a single crown, <a href="https://scottishhistorysociety.com/learning-resources/the-union-of-1603/">which had existed</a> between 1603 and 1707 and is effectively what the Jacobites wanted, is closer to where we are today than the victors of Culloden could ever have imagined.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/62398/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Murray Pittock does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The Jacobites are regularly cast as ‘primitive’ Scots – yet it is a false narrative suited for political ends.Murray Pittock, Bradley Professor of English Literature, University of GlasgowLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.