The Caribbean Colony that brought down Scotland

this is from a few months ago but thought it was worth posting because of the independence vote which is coming up. and worth reading the whole thing for those into history and questions of "what if" .


<As Scotland prepares for an independence referendum I decided to look back at the late 1690s when an independent Scotland launched an ambitious but ultimately doomed plan to create a colony in what is now Panama.

"In the time of our forefathers," a village elder told us, "white people came here - Scottish and Spanish people. We liked the Scottish more than the Spanish, for the Spanish attacked us and drove us inland away from the coast and the Scots did not. But there were battles and many ships were sunk".

The disaster helped end Scotland's independence. For the colony had been funded by public subscription - an early example of a financial mania.

And it was the role of England that was most bitterly resented.

King William issued a decree to all the English colonies from Canada to the Caribbean: there was to be no trade with the errant Scots and no assistance - not so much as a barrel of clean water was to be offered to them.

Few of the 3,000 Scots who went made it home. Those who did found an impoverished country which, within a decade, accepted union with England. >



http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-27405350