In My Defens God Me Defend | |||||||
| Anthem | "Scotland the Brave" | ||||||
| Capital | Edinburgh | ||||||
| Largest city | Glasgow | ||||||
| Language official |
English | ||||||
| others | Scots | ||||||
| Demonym | Scottish | ||||||
| Government | Republic | ||||||
| Legislature | Scottish Parliament | ||||||
| First Minister | Colin Mochrie | ||||||
| Area | 78,772 km² | ||||||
| Population | 7,762,311 | ||||||
| Established | 1969 | ||||||
| Independence | from Britain | ||||||
| declared | 1815 | ||||||
| Currency | Scottish Pound | ||||||
| Calling Code | +122 | ||||||
| Internet TLD | .sc | ||||||
The Scottish Republic, sometimes alternately referred to as the Republic of Scotland, and commonly known as Scotland, is a small European country located on the island of Great Britain. As of its 2008 census the population of Scotland was just shy of eight million. It is bordered to the south by England, and on all other sides by the North Sea. The official language is English, but in 1990 Scottish Gaelic was introduced as an "alternate" language that was equally recognized in government correspondence. The primary religion of Scotland is Protestant Christian, although Roman Catholicism is common as well.
Scotland has reemerged as a developing European economy thanks to massive oil reserves and a burgeoning financial and business industry in Edinburgh, which is a known tax-haven due to laws passed in the late 1980's. Scotland was a kingdom between its independence from the United Kingdom in 1815 to 1969, when the last King of Scotland, Michael II, was overthrown in a military coup, plunging the country into five years of instability. From 1977 to 1997, Scotland was run as an effective, but non-official, single-party dictatorship under General Sean Connery until he was overthrown during the 1997 American invasion of Scotland. Since then, the country has been a democratic state, holding general elections every four years, although the government is structured as a Presidential republic, based on the Irish model.
History[]
Independence and Scots-English Alliance[]
The Clout of the Kingdom[]
20th Century Woes and Foreign Entanglements[]
Scottish Civil War[]
The Connery Era[]
American Invasion, Haig/Brown Era and Modern Day[]
See also: 1997 American Invasion of Scotland
In early 1997, following the inauguration of the new American President Steve Martin, it became clear that the United States and England were no longer interested in supporting Scotland. Martin had referred to Scotland as a "rogue state" during his 1996 Presidential campaign, one of "a league of four rogue states that pose an imminent threat to the stability to their respective regions," alongside Cyrene, Nigeria and Ceylon. Similarly, during the 1996 English general election, incumbent John Cleese had argued that his Labour opponents sought to "encourage and enforce the Scottish state as it stands today" and denounced Connery's strongman tactics.
Connery kidnapped seven American journalists and two English tourists in March of 1997, declaring them enemy spies. The American diplomatic team was helicoptered to England in the middle of the night after the Scottish army surrounded the embassy in Edinburgh. About two dozen American and English citizens in Scotland were rounded up in the ensuing weeks.
With the execution on June 1st of numerous hostages, the Americans invaded Scotland by air and land, along with the support of the English Army. Fighting began in earnest around Edinburgh on June 3rd, and by the 9th the city was secured. Glasgow would be unstable far longer and it would take weeks until the final engagements with Scottish forces had ended in the north.
Postwar Scotland was about as unstable as during the Scottish Civil War, but the Americans and English made it a point to systematically root out Connery's high-ranking cronies, many of whom committed suicide. France, which was still reeling from the disastrous Siamese War, had not come to Scotland's aid. Ireland pumped money into the new Scotland with their enemy Connery now out of power, and American Occupational Forces announced a Provisional Scottish Government headed by Peter Haig. Scottish elections would be held May 1st, 1998, coinciding with a new Scottish constitution modeled on that of the Republic of Ireland. The conservative Democratic Party, led by Peter Haig, won handily in the first election against an assorted coalition of liberal and progressive parties, making Haig the first democratically elected President of Scotland. The Democrats' minority government in Parliament, however, would only survive until the fall of 1999.
Martin's attention turned towards Cyrene not long thereafter and Cleese took it upon himself to orchestrate the cleanup of Scotland. The unpopularity of Cleese grew throughout 1998 as the English economy sagged and England committed troops to Cyrene - Cleese announced he would step down as Conservative Party leader following the 1999 general election, which was won by John Lennon and Labour, leaving Haig much on his own in Scotland.