Scotlands History

Scotland was once known as Caledonia, and was mainly ruled by the war mongeling Pictish-tribes whose language and origin is unknown. The midland valley of Scotland marks the furthest the Roman Empire extended to the north during their conquering of England. Here you can se the Antonine Wall that was built between the rivers Forth and Clyde. In the 5th century, the modern "Scots" traveled from their homes on Ireland to the western parts of Scotland and settled several kingdoms but in the year 843 Robert MacAlpin gathered the kingdoms and renamed the land Scotland. After almost 300 year in the 1120's Scotland began to divide into two Cultural and geographic groups the Southern Lowland Scots who spoke mainly English due to the influence of their southern neighbors and the Northern Highland Scots who still practiced a clan system. Some of these clans had a lot of power and ruled their area independently whilst the lowlands implemented the feudal system of England. During the wars of Scottish independence (1290-1363), when King Edward I tried to impose English rule over Scotland, as he had successfully done in Wales, the people rose up against him, first under the command of Sir William Wallace, who was captured by the English and executed in London. Later, under the lead of Robert the Bruce they won a battle against the English at the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314. In 1603 King James VI inherited the throne of England from his cousin Elizabeth I, and became James I of England.  In 1707, the Scottish and English Parliaments signed a Treaty of Union, which effectively transferred all powers to London. Succeeding monarchs were not as friendly as James had been. This sparked two new "civil wars" between the scots and the Englishmen in 1715 and 1745. The second one lead to a mass migration of scots to the rest of the world. In May 1999 gained Scotland a new Scottish parliament, which governs the area of its domestic matters, whilst The United Kingdom’s parliament governs its defenses and international affairs and certain other areas.