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Motto: Nemo me impune lacessit |
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Ranked 2nd UK |
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Ranked 2nd UK |
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Scotland (Alba in
Gaelic) is a nation in northwest
Europe and a constituent country of the United
Kingdom. The country occupies the northern third of the island of Great
Britain, shares a land border to the south with England, and is
bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic
Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea
to the south-west. Apart from the mainland, Scotland consists of over 790 islands.
The capital, Edinburgh, is
one of Europe's largest financial centres. Scottish
waters consist of a large sector [1]
of the North Atlantic and the North Sea, containing the largest oil reserves
in the European Union.
The Kingdom of Scotland was an independent
state until 1 May 1707, when the Acts of Union resulted in a political
union with the Kingdom of England to create the Kingdom of Great Britain. Scotland
continues to constitute a separate state
and jurisdiction
in Public International Law. Scots law,
the Scottish education system and the Church of Scotland have been three cornerstones
contributing to the continuation of Scottish
culture and Scottish national identity since the
Union.
Contents |
[edit]
Etymology
The word
Scot was borrowed from Latin
and its use to refer to Scotland dates from at least the first half of the
10th century,
when it first appeared in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle as a reference to
the Land of the Gaels,
analogous to the Latin Scotia. Scottish
kings adopted the title Basileus Scottorum or Rex Scottorum (meaning
High
King of the Gaels), and Rex Scotiae (King of Gael-land)
some time in the 11th century, likely influenced by the style Imperator
Scottorum known to have been employed by Brian Boru
in Ireland
in 1005.
In
modern times the word Scot is applied equally to all inhabitants
regardless of their ancestral ethnicity, since the nation has had a civic,
rather than a monoculturally ethnic or linguistic, orientation for most of the last
millennium.
[edit]
History
Main article: History of Scotland
[edit]
Prehistory
Skara
Brae, a neolithic
settlement, located in the Bay of Skaill on the west coast of mainland Orkney.
Main article: Prehistoric Scotland
It is
believed that the first group of hunter-gatherers
arrived in Scotland around 11,000 years ago, as the ice sheet
retreated after the last ice age. Groups of settlers began
building the first permanent houses on Scottish soil around 9,500 years ago,
and the first significant villages around 6,000 years ago.
[edit]
First millennium
The
written history
of Scotland largely began with the arrival of the Roman
Empire in southern and central Great Britain, when the Romans occupied what
is now England
and Wales,
administering it as a Roman province called Britannia.
Part of southern Scotland was briefly, indirectly controlled by Rome. To the north
was territory not conquered by the Romans: Caledonia. Caledonia was
peopled by the Picts,
with the Gaels of Dál Riata
in Argyll.
Pictland became dominated by the Pictish sub-kingdom of Fortriu, but the Kingdom of Scotland is traditionally dated from
843, when Kenneth I of Scotland became King
of the Picts and Scots. The Scottish
Saltire is believed to have been adopted by King Óengus II
in 832 while engaging
the English in battle at Athelstaneford.
[edit]
Middle Ages
Main article: Scotland in the High Middle Ages
In the
following centuries, the Kingdom of the Scots expanded to something
closer to modern Scotland. The period was marked by comparatively good
relations with the Wessex
rulers of England, intense internal dynastic disunity and, despite this,
relatively successful expansionary policies. Sometime after an invasion of the Kingdom of Strathclyde by King Edmund of England in 945, the province was
handed over to king Malcolm I. During the reign of King Indulf (954-62), the Scots captured
the fortress later called Edinburgh, their first foothold in Lothian. The
reign of Malcolm II saw fuller incorporation of these
territories. The critical year was perhaps 1018, when Malcolm II
defeated the Northumbrians at the Battle of Carham.
The Norman Conquest of England in 1066 initiated a chain
of events which started to move the Kingdom of Scotland away from its originally
Gaelic cultural orientation. Malcolm III married Margaret the sister of Edgar
Ætheling the deposed Anglo-Saxon claimant to the throne
of England, who subsequently received some Scottish support. Margaret
played a major role in reducing the influence of Celtic Christianity. When her youngest son David I later succeeded, Scotland gained
something of its own gradual "Norman Conquest". Having previously
become an important Anglo-Norman lord through marriage, David I was
instrumental in introducing feudalism into Scotland and in encouraging an influx of
settlers from the Low Countries to the newly-founded burghs, to enhance
trading links with mainland Europe and Scandinavia.
By the late 13th century, scores of Norman and Anglo-Norman
families had been granted Scottish lands. The first meetings of the Parliament of Scotland were convened during
this period.
After
the death of the Maid of Norway, last direct heir of Alexander III of Scotland, Scotland's nobility asked the King
of England to adjudicate between rival claimants to the vacant Scottish
throne, but Edward I of England, instead, attempted to
install a puppet monarchy and exert outright control. The Scots
resisted, however, under the leadership of Sir William
Wallace and Andrew de Moray in support of John
Balliol, and later under that of Robert the Bruce. Bruce, crowned as King
Robert I on March
25, 1306, won a
decisive victory over the English at the Battle of Bannockburn on June 23 - June 24, 1314, but warfare
flared up again after his death during the second Wars of Scottish Independence from 1332 to 1357 in which Edward
Balliol attempted unsuccessfully to win back the throne from Bruce's heirs,
with the support of the English king. Eventually, with the emergence of the Stewart
dynasty in the 1370s,
the situation in Scotland began to stabilise.
By the
end of the Middle Ages, Scotland was showing a split into two
cultural areas — the mainly Scots-speaking
Lowlands, and the mainly Gaelic-speaking Highlands. However, Galwegian
Gaelic persisted in remote parts of the southwest, which had formed part of
the Lordship of Galloway, probably up until the
late 18th
century. Historically, the Lowlands were closer to mainstream European
culture. By comparison, the clan
system of the Highlands formed one of the region's more distinctive
features, with a number of powerful clans remaining dominant until after the Acts of Union 1707.
[edit]
Union with England
The Battle of Culloden saw the defeat of the
Jacobite rebellion
In 1603, the Scottish King
James VI of Scotland inherited the throne of
the Kingdom of England, and became also "James
I" of England. With the exception of a short period under The
Protectorate, Scotland remained a separate state, but there was
considerable conflict between the crown and the Covenanters
over the form of church government. After the Glorious Revolution and the overthrow of the Roman
Catholic James VII by William
and Mary, Scotland briefly threatened to select a different Protestant
monarch from England. In 1707, however, following English threats to end trade and free
movement across the border, the Parliament of Scotland and the Parliament of England enacted the twin Acts of Union, which created the Kingdom of Great Britain.
Two
major Jacobite
risings launched from the west of Scotland in 1715 and 1745 failed to remove
the House of Hanover from the British
throne. The deposed Jacobite Stuart claimants had remained popular in the
Highlands and north-east, particularly amongst non-Presbyterians.
[edit]
Modern period
Following
the Scottish Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution, Scotland became one of
the commercial, intellectual and industrial powerhouses of Europe. Its
industrial decline following World War II was particularly acute, but in recent
decades the country has enjoyed something of a cultural and economic
renaissance, fuelled in part by a resurgent financial services and electronics sector, the proceeds of North
Sea oil and gas,
and latterly the devolved Scottish Parliament, established by the UK government under the Scotland
Act 1998.
[edit]
Main article: Politics of Scotland
Further information: Politics of the United Kingdom
The Royal Arms
of the Queen in Scotland. A version
without the helm is used by the Scottish Executive.
As one
of the constituent countries of the United Kingdom,
the head
of state in Scotland is the British
monarch, currently Queen Elizabeth II (since 1952).
Constitutionally
the United Kingdom is a unitary state with one sovereign parliament and
government. Under a system of devolution (or home rule)
adopted in the late 1990s the constitutent countries within the United Kingdom
were given limited self-government, subject to the ability of the
British Parliament in Westminster at will to amend, change, broaden or abolish
the national governmental systems. As such the Scottish Parliament is not sovereign.
However, it is thought unlikely that any British parliament would unilaterally
abolish a home rule parliament and government without consultation via a
referendum with the voters of the constituent country.
Executive
power in the United Kingdom is vested in the Queen-in-Council,
while legislative power is vested in the Queen-in-Parliament (the Crown and the Parliament of the United Kingdom
at Westminster in London). Under
devolution executive and legislative powers in certain areas have been
constitutionally delegated to the Scottish Executive and the Scottish Parliament at Holyrood in Edinburgh
respectively. The United Kingdom Parliament retains active power over
Scotland's taxes, social security system, the military,
international relations, broadcasting,
and some other areas explicitly specified in the Scotland
Act 1998 as reserved matters. The Scottish Parliament has legislative
authority for all other areas relating to Scotland, and has limited power to
vary income
tax.
Jack
McConnell MSP, the First Minister of Scotland.
The
Scottish Parliament is a unicameral legislature
comprised of 129 Members, 73 of whom represent
individual constituencies and are elected
on a first past the post system; 56 are elected in
eight different electoral regions by the additional member system. The Queen
appoints one of the members of the Parliament, on the nomination of the
Parliament, to be First Minister. Other Ministers are also
appointed by the Queen on the nomination of the Parliament and together with
the First Minister they make up Scottish Executive, the executive arm of government.
The
current (since 2001)
First Minister is Jack McConnell of the Labour Party, who forms the government on a coalition
basis with the Liberal Democrats. The main opposition party is the Scottish National Party, which campaign for
Scottish independence. Other parties include
the Conservative and Unionist Party,
the Scottish Green Party and the Scottish Socialist Party.
Under
devolution Scotland is represented by 59 MPs in the British House of Commons elected from
territory-based Scottish
constituencies. A Secretary of State for Scotland,
who prior to devolution headed the system of government in Scotland, sits in
the Cabinet of the United Kingdom and is
responsible for the limited number of powers the office retains since
devolution, as well as relations with other Whitehall
Ministers who have power over reserved
matters. The Scottish Parliament can refer devolved matters back to
Westminster to be considered as part of United Kingdom-wide legislation under
the Sewel
motion system if United Kingdom-wide legislation is considered to be more
appropriate for certain issues. The Scotland
Office is a department of the United Kingdom government, responsible for
reserved Scottish affairs. The current Secretary of State for Scotland is Douglas
Alexander. Until 1999,
Scottish peers were entitled to sit in the House
of Lords.
The
main political debate in Scotland tends to revolve around attitudes to the constitutional
question. Under the pressure of growing support for Scottish independence a
policy of devolution
had been advocated by all three UK-wide parties to some degree during their
history (although Labour and the Conservatives have also at times opposed it).
This question dominated the Scottish political scene in the latter half of the 20th
century. Now that devolution has occurred, the main argument about
Scotland's constitutional status is over whether the Scottish Parliament should
accrue additional powers (for example over fiscal
policy), or seek to obtain full independence.
Ultimately the long term question is: should the Scottish parliament continue
to be a subsidiary assembly created and potentially abolished by the
constitutionally dominant and sovereign parliament of the United Kingdom (as in
devolution) or should it have an independent existence as of right, with full
sovereign powers (either through independence, a federal United Kingdom or a
confederal arrangement)? Finally, will the current devolution system satisfy
Scottish demands for self-government or strengthen demands for full-blown
independence?
The
programmes of legislation enacted by the Scottish Parliament have seen the
divergence in the provision of public
services compared to the rest of the United Kingdom. While the costs of a university
education, and care services for the elderly are free at point of use in
Scotland, fees are paid in the rest of the UK. Scotland is the first country in
the UK to ban smoking in public places. [2]
[edit]
Law
Main article: Scots law
Parliament House, home of the supreme
courts
Scots law
is the law of
Scotland. It is a unique system with ancient roots and has a basis in Roman law,
combining features of both uncodified civil law
dating back to the Corpus Juris Civilis and common law
with medieval
sources. The terms of the Treaty of Union with England in 1707,
guaranteed the continued existence of a separate law system in Scotland from
that of England
and Wales. Formerly, there were several regional law systems in Scotland,
one of which was the use of Udal Law in Orkney and Shetland, based on Old Norse
Law, which for the most part was abolished in 1611. Various systems
based on common Celtic
or Brehon
Laws also survived in the Highlands until the 1800s.
Scots
law provides for three types of courts:
civil, criminal
and heraldic
courts responsible for the administration of justice in
Scotland. In the civil courts, the and the High Court of Justiciary is the supreme
criminal court. Both courts are housed at Parliament House, Edinburgh, the home
of the pre-Union Parliament of Scotland. The sheriff
court is the main criminal and civil court. There are 60 sheriff courts
throughout the country [3]. District
courts were introduced in 1975 for minor offences. The Court of the Lord Lyon regulates heraldry in
Scotland.
Scots
law is also unique in that it allows three verdicts in criminal cases including
the controversial 'not proven' verdict.
[edit]
Subdivisions
The ornate Municipal Buildings in Greenock, the
headquarters of Inverclyde Council, feature the Victoria Tower.
Main article: Subdivisions of Scotland
For
the purposes of local government, Scotland was divided
into thirty-two council areas in 1996. These are unitary authorities responsible for the
provision of all local government services, including education, social work, environment and roads
services. Some of the larger councils are also further divided into area
committees. Community councils are informal organisations
that represent specific areas within a council area. The Queen appoints a Lord
Lieutenant to represent her in the thirty five lieutenancy areas of Scotland.
For
the purposes of administering justice, Scotland is divided into six sheriffdoms.
In the Scottish Parliament, there are 129 MSPs representing 73 individual and 8
regional constituencies (with
7 members per region). In the Parliament of the United Kingdom, there are 59 Scottish
constituencies.
City status in the United Kingdom
is determined by royal charter. Currently there are six cities in
Scotland:
Royal burgh
status is also awarded by royal charter, and is held by 66 places. Dundee is
the only city to also retain royal burgh status; Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Glasgow,
Inverness and Stirling have all had the honour withdrawn.
|
United Kingdom | Scotland | Council areas of Scotland |
|
|
Subdivisions
created by the Local Government etc
(Scotland) Act 1994 Aberdeen
| Aberdeenshire | Angus | Argyll
and Bute | Clackmannanshire | Dumfries and Galloway | Dundee
| East
Ayrshire | East Dunbartonshire | East
Lothian | East Renfrewshire | na
h-Eileanan Siar (Western Isles) | Edinburgh | Falkirk | Fife | Glasgow
| Highland
| Inverclyde
| Midlothian
| Moray | North
Ayrshire | North Lanarkshire | Orkney
| Perth and Kinross | Renfrewshire
| Scottish Borders | Shetland
| South
Ayrshire | South Lanarkshire | Stirling | West Dunbartonshire | West
Lothian |
|
[edit]
Geography
Map of Scotland
Main article: Geography of Scotland
Scotland
comprises the northern third of the island of Great
Britain, off the coast of north west Europe. The total
land mass is around 78,772 square
kilometres (30,414 mi²). Scotland's only land border is with England, and runs
for 96 kilometres
(60 miles) between
the River
Tweed on the east coast and the Solway
Firth in the west. The island of Ireland lies
around 30 kilometres (20 mi) off the south west tip of Scotland, Norway is around
400 kilometres (250 mi) to the north east, and the Faroes and Iceland lie to
the north. Scotland lies between the Atlantic
Ocean and the North Sea.
The
territorial extent of Scotland is generally that established by the 1237 Treaty
of York between Scotland and England and the 1266 Treaty of Perth between Scotland and Norway. Exceptions
include the Isle of Man, which is now a crown
dependency outside the United Kingdom, Orkney and Shetland, which
are Scottish rather than Norwegian, and Berwick-upon-Tweed, which was defined as subject
to the laws of England by the 1746 Wales and Berwick Act. Rockall was
annexed by the United Kingdom in 1972 and administratively made part of the Isle
of Harris in Scotland, although this is disputed by the Republic of Ireland, Iceland and Denmark; both the
UK (in 1997) and Ireland (in 1996) have since ratified the UN Convention on the
Law of the Sea which excludes Rockall from qualifying as land from which
various territorial limits can be measured although it is itself claimed to
within territorial limits of both the UK and Ireland.
The country consists of a mainland area plus several island groups. The mainland can be divided into three areas: the Highlands in the north; the Central Belt and the Southern Uplands in the south. The Highlands are generally mountainous and are bisected by the Great Glen. The highest mountains in the British Isles are found here, including Ben Nevis, the highest peak at 1,344 metres (4,409