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<\/a>Scotland is divided into 32\u00a0administrative subdivisions<\/a>\u00a0or local authorities, known as council areas.<\/sup>\u00a0Gla<\/a>sgow City<\/a>\u00a0is the largest council area in terms of population, with\u00a0<\/span>Highland<\/a>\u00a0being the largest in terms of area. Limited self-governing power, covering matters such as education, social services and roads and transportation, is devolved from the Scottish Government to each subdivision.<\/span><\/sup>\u00a0Scotland is the second largest country in the United Kingdom, and accounted for 8.3% of the population in 2012.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n The\u00a0Kingdom of Scotland<\/a>\u00a0emerged as an independent\u00a0sovereign state<\/a>\u00a0in the\u00a0Early Middle Ages<\/a>\u00a0and continued to exist until 1707. By inheritance in 1603,\u00a0James VI of Scotland<\/a>\u00a0became king of\u00a0England<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Ireland<\/a>, thus forming a\u00a0personal union<\/a>\u00a0of the\u00a0three kingdoms<\/a>. Scotland subsequently entered into a\u00a0political union<\/a>\u00a0with the Kingdom of England on 1 May 1707 to create the new\u00a0Kingdom of Great Britain<\/a>.<\/sup><\/sup>\u00a0The union also created the\u00a0Parliament of Great Britain<\/a>, which succeeded both the\u00a0Parliament of Scotland<\/a>\u00a0and the\u00a0Parliament of England<\/a>. In 1801, the Kingdom of Great Britain entered into a political union with the Kingdom of Ireland to create the\u00a0United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland<\/a>\u00a0(in 1922, the\u00a0Irish Free State<\/a>\u00a0seceded from the United Kingdom, leading to the latter being\u00a0officially renamed<\/a>\u00a0the United Kingdom of Great Britain and\u00a0Northern Ireland<\/a> in 1927).<\/p>\n Within Scotland, the\u00a0monarchy of the United Kingdom<\/a>\u00a0has continued to use a variety of styles, titles and other royal symbols of statehood specific to the pre-union Kingdom of Scotland. The\u00a0legal system within Scotland<\/a>\u00a0has also remained separate from\u00a0those of England and Wales<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Northern Ireland<\/a>; Scotland constitutes a distinct jurisdiction in both public and private law.<\/sup>\u00a0The continued existence of legal,\u00a0educational<\/a>,\u00a0religious<\/a>\u00a0and other institutions distinct from those in the remainder of the UK have all contributed to the continuation of\u00a0Scottish culture<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0national identity<\/a>\u00a0since the 1707\u00a0incorporating<\/a> union with England.<\/p>\n In 1999, a\u00a0Scottish Parliament<\/a>\u00a0was re-established, in the form of a\u00a0devolved<\/a>\u00a0unicameral legislature<\/a>\u00a0comprising 129\u00a0members<\/a>, having authority over many areas of\u00a0domestic policy<\/a>.<\/sup>\u00a0The head of the\u00a0Scottish Government<\/a>\u00a0is the\u00a0first minister of Scotland<\/a>, who is supported by the\u00a0deputy first minister of Scotland<\/a>.<\/sup>\u00a0Scotland is represented in the\u00a0United Kingdom Parliament<\/a>\u00a0by 59\u00a0MPs<\/a>. Scotland is also a member of the\u00a0British\u2013Irish Council<\/a>,<\/sup>\u00a0sending five members of the Scottish Parliament to the\u00a0British\u2013Irish Parliamentary Assembly<\/a>,<\/sup>\u00a0as well as being part of the\u00a0Joint Ministerial Committee<\/a>, represented by the first minister.<\/p>\n Repeated glaciations, which covered the entire land mass of modern Scotland, destroyed any traces of human habitation that may have existed before the\u00a0Mesolithic period<\/a>. It is believed the first post-glacial groups of\u00a0hunter-gatherers<\/a>\u00a0arrived in Scotland around 12,800 years ago, as the ice sheet retreated after the\u00a0last glaciation<\/a>.<\/sup> At the time, Scotland was covered in forests, had more bog-land, and the main form of transport was by water.\u00a0These settlers began building the first known permanent houses on Scottish soil around 9,500 years ago, and the first villages around 6,000 years ago. The well-preserved village of\u00a0Skara Brae<\/a>\u00a0on the mainland of\u00a0Orkney<\/a>\u00a0dates from this period.\u00a0Neolithic<\/a>\u00a0habitation, burial, and ritual sites are particularly common and well preserved in the\u00a0Northern Isles<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Western Isles<\/a>, where a lack of trees led to most structures being built of local stone.<\/sup>\u00a0Evidence of sophisticated pre-Christian belief systems is demonstrated by sites such as the\u00a0Callanish Stones<\/a>\u00a0on\u00a0Lewis<\/a>\u00a0and the\u00a0Maes Howe<\/a> on Orkney, which were built in the third millennium BC.<\/p>\n The first written reference to Scotland was in 320 BC by Greek sailor\u00a0Pytheas<\/a>, who called the northern tip of Britain “Orcas”, the source of the name of the Orkney islands. During the first millennium BC, the society changed dramatically to a chiefdom model, as consolidation of settlement led to the concentration of wealth and underground stores of surplus food.<\/p>\n The\u00a0Roman conquest of Britain<\/a>\u00a0was never completed, and most of modern Scotland was not brought under Roman political control.<\/sup>\u00a0The first Roman incursion into Scotland occurred in 79 AD, when\u00a0Agricola<\/a>\u00a0invaded Scotland; he defeated a Caledonian army at the\u00a0Battle of Mons Graupius<\/a> in 83 AD.\u00a0After the Roman victory, Roman forts were briefly set along the\u00a0Gask Ridge<\/a>\u00a0close to the\u00a0Highland line<\/a>, but by three years after the battle, the Roman armies had withdrawn to the\u00a0Southern Uplands<\/a>.<\/sup>\u00a0Remains of Roman forts established in the 1st century have been found as far north as the\u00a0Moray Firth<\/a>.<\/sup>\u00a0By the reign of the\u00a0Roman emperor<\/a>\u00a0Trajan<\/a>\u00a0(r<\/abbr>.\u00a098\u2013117), Roman control had lapsed to Britain south of a line between the\u00a0River Tyne<\/a>\u00a0and the\u00a0Solway Firth<\/a>.<\/sup>\u00a0Along this line Trajan’s successor\u00a0Hadrian<\/a>\u00a0(r<\/abbr>.\u00a0117\u2013138) erected\u00a0Hadrian’s Wall<\/a> in northern England\u00a0and the\u00a0Limes Britannicus<\/a><\/i> became the northern border of the Roman Empire.\u00a0The Roman influence on the southern part of the country was considerable, and they introduced\u00a0Christianity<\/a> to Scotland.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The\u00a0Antonine Wall<\/a>\u00a0was built from 142 at the order of Hadrian’s successor\u00a0Antoninus Pius<\/a>\u00a0(r<\/abbr>.\u00a0138\u2013161), defending the Roman part of Scotland from the unadministered part of the island, north of a line between the\u00a0Firth of Clyde<\/a>\u00a0and the\u00a0Firth of Forth<\/a>. The successful\u00a0Roman invasion of Caledonia 208\u2013210<\/a>\u00a0was undertaken by emperors of the imperial\u00a0Severan dynasty<\/a>\u00a0in response to the breaking of treaty by the Caledonians in 197,<\/sup>\u00a0but permanent conquest of the whole of Great Britain was forestalled by the death of the senior emperor\u00a0Septimius Severus<\/a>\u00a0(r<\/abbr>.\u00a0193\u2013211) while on campaign at\u00a0Eboracum<\/a>\u00a0(York<\/a>), and the Caledonians were again in revolt in 210\u2013211.<\/sup>\u00a0Forts erected by the\u00a0Roman army<\/a>\u00a0of the Severan campaign were placed near those established by Agricola and were clustered at the mouths of the\u00a0glens<\/a> in the Highlands.<\/p>\n To the Roman historians\u00a0Tacitus<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Cassius Dio<\/a>, the\u00a0Scottish Highlands<\/a>\u00a0and the area north of the\u00a0River Forth<\/a>\u00a0was called\u00a0Caledonia<\/a>.<\/sup>\u00a0According to Cassius Dio, the inhabitants of Caledonia were the\u00a0Caledonians<\/a>\u00a0and the\u00a0Maeatae<\/a>.<\/sup>\u00a0Other ancient authors used the adjective “Caledonian” to pertain to anywhere in northern or inland Britain, often mentioning the region’s people and animals, its cold climate, its pearls, and a noteworthy region of wooden hills (Latin<\/a>:\u00a0saltus<\/i>) which the 2nd-century AD Roman philosopher\u00a0Ptolemy<\/a>, in his\u00a0Geography<\/i><\/a>, described as being south-west of the\u00a0Beauly Firth<\/a>.<\/sup>\u00a0The name Caledonia is echoed in the place names of\u00a0Dunkeld<\/a>,\u00a0Rohallion<\/a>, and\u00a0Schiehallion<\/a>.<\/p>\n <\/sup>The\u00a0Great Conspiracy<\/a>\u00a0against Roman rule in Britain in the later 4th century, in which the\u00a0Scoti<\/a>\u00a0participated, was defeated by the\u00a0comes<\/i>\u00a0Theodosius<\/a>. The formation of a new province, called\u00a0Valentia<\/a>\u00a0after the reigning emperor\u00a0Valens<\/a>\u00a0(r<\/abbr>.\u00a0364\u2013378), which may have been in Scotland, resulted.<\/sup>\u00a0Roman military government was withdrawn from the island altogether by the early 5th century, resulting in the\u00a0Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain<\/a>\u00a0and the immigration of the\u00a0Saxons<\/a> to southern Scotland and the rest of eastern Great Britain.<\/p>\n Beginning in the sixth century, the area that is now Scotland was divided into three areas:\u00a0Pictland<\/a>, a patchwork of small lordships in central Scotland;\u00a0the\u00a0Anglo-Saxon<\/a>\u00a0Kingdom of Northumbria<\/a>, which had conquered southeastern Scotland;\u00a0and\u00a0D\u00e1l Riata<\/a>, founded by settlers from Ireland, bringing Gaelic language and culture with them.\u00a0These societies were based on the family unit and had sharp divisions in wealth, although the vast majority were poor and worked full-time in\u00a0subsistence agriculture<\/a>. The Picts kept slaves (mostly captured in war) through the ninth century.<\/p>\n Gaelic influence over Pictland and Northumbria was facilitated by the large number of\u00a0Gaelic-speaking clerics<\/a> working as missionaries.\u00a0Operating in the sixth century on the island of\u00a0Iona<\/a>,\u00a0Saint Columba<\/a> was one of the earliest and best-known missionaries.\u00a0The\u00a0Vikings<\/a>\u00a0began to raid Scotland in the eighth century. Although the raiders sought slaves and luxury items, their main motivation was to acquire land. The oldest Norse settlements were in northwest Scotland, but they eventually conquered many areas along the coast.\u00a0Old Norse<\/a>\u00a0entirely displaced Gaelic in the\u00a0Northern Isles<\/a>.<\/p>\n In the ninth century, the Norse threat allowed a Gael named\u00a0Cin\u00e1ed mac Ailp\u00edn<\/a> (Kenneth I) to seize power over Pictland, establishing a royal dynasty to which the modern monarchs trace their lineage, and marking the beginning of the end of Pictish culture.\u00a0The kingdom of Cin\u00e1ed and his descendants, called Alba, was Gaelic in character but existed on the same area as Pictland. By the end of the tenth century, the\u00a0Pictish language<\/a> went extinct as its speakers shifted to Gaelic.\u00a0From a base in eastern Scotland north of the\u00a0River Forth<\/a>\u00a0and south of the\u00a0River Spey<\/a>, the kingdom expanded first southwards, into the former Northumbrian lands, and northwards into\u00a0Moray<\/a>. Around the turn of the millennium, there was a centralization in agricultural lands and the first towns began to be established.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, with much of Scotland under the control of a single ruler and united by the Gaelic language, a modern\u00a0nation-state<\/a>\u00a0first emerged, as did\u00a0Scottish national consciousness<\/a>. The domination of Gaelic was diminished during the reign of\u00a0David I<\/a> (1124\u201353), during which many English-speaking colonists settled in Scotland. David I and his successors centralized royal power\u00a0and united mainland Scotland, capturing regions such as Moray,\u00a0Galloway<\/a>, and\u00a0Caithness<\/a>, although he did not succeed at extending his power over the\u00a0Hebrides<\/a>, which had been ruled by various\u00a0Scottish clans<\/a>\u00a0following the death of\u00a0Somerled<\/a>\u00a0in 1164.<\/sup>\u00a0The system of\u00a0feudalism<\/a> was consolidated, with both Anglo-Norman incomers and native Gaelic chieftains being granted land in exchange for serving the king. The Scottish kings rejected English demands to subjugate themselves; in fact, England invaded Scotland several times to prevent Scotland’s expansion into northern England.<\/p>\n The death of\u00a0Alexander III<\/a>\u00a0in March 1286 broke the succession line of Scotland’s kings.\u00a0Edward I of England<\/a>\u00a0arbitrated between various claimants for the Scottish crown. In return for surrendering Scotland’s nominal independence,\u00a0John Balliol<\/a> was pronounced king in 1292.<\/sup>\u00a0In 1294, Balliol and other Scottish lords refused Edward’s demands to serve in his army against the French. Scotland and France sealed a treaty on 23 October 1295, known as the\u00a0Auld Alliance<\/a>. War ensued, and John was deposed by Edward who took personal control of Scotland.\u00a0Andrew Moray<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0William Wallace<\/a>\u00a0initially emerged as the principal leaders of the resistance to English rule in the\u00a0Wars of Scottish Independence<\/a>,<\/sup>\u00a0until\u00a0Robert the Bruce<\/a>\u00a0was crowned king of Scotland in 1306.<\/sup>\u00a0Victory at the\u00a0Battle of Bannockburn<\/a>\u00a0in 1314 proved the Scots had regained control of their kingdom. In 1320 the world’s first documented declaration of independence, the\u00a0Declaration of Arbroath<\/a>, won the support of\u00a0Pope John XXII<\/a>, leading to the legal recognition of Scottish sovereignty by the English Crown.<\/p>\n A civil war between the\u00a0Bruce dynasty<\/a>\u00a0and their long-term rivals of the\u00a0House of Comyn<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0House of Balliol<\/a>\u00a0lasted until the middle of the 14th century. Although the Bruce faction was successful,\u00a0David II’s<\/a>\u00a0lack of an heir allowed his half-nephew\u00a0Robert II<\/a>, the\u00a0Lord High Steward of Scotland<\/a>, to come to the throne and establish the\u00a0House of Stewart<\/a>.\u00a0The Stewarts ruled Scotland for the remainder of the\u00a0Middle Ages<\/a>. The country they ruled experienced greater prosperity from the end of the 14th century through the Scottish Renaissance to the\u00a0Reformation<\/a>,\u00a0despite the effects of the\u00a0Black Death<\/a> in 1349\u00a0and increasing division between\u00a0Highlands<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Lowlands<\/a>. Multiple truces reduced warfare on the southern border.<\/p>\n The\u00a0Treaty of Perpetual Peace<\/a>\u00a0was signed in 1502 by\u00a0James IV of Scotland<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Henry VII of England<\/a>. James married Henry’s daughter,\u00a0Margaret Tudor<\/a>.\u00a0James invaded England in support of France under the terms of the Auld Alliance and became the last British monarch to die in battle, at\u00a0Flodden<\/a>\u00a0in 1513.<\/sup>\u00a0In 1560, the\u00a0Treaty of Edinburgh<\/a>\u00a0brought an end to the Anglo-French conflict and recognized the Protestant\u00a0Elizabeth I<\/a> as Queen of England.\u00a0The\u00a0Parliament of Scotland<\/a>\u00a0met and immediately adopted the\u00a0Scots Confession<\/a>, which signaled the Scottish Reformation<\/a>‘s sharp break from papal authority and Roman Catholic teaching. The Catholic\u00a0Mary, Queen of Scots<\/a> was forced to abdicate in 1567.<\/p>\n In 1603,\u00a0James VI, King of Scots<\/a>\u00a0inherited the thrones of the\u00a0Kingdom of England<\/a>\u00a0and the\u00a0Kingdom of Ireland<\/a>\u00a0in the\u00a0Union of the Crowns<\/a>, and moved to London.<\/sup>\u00a0The first\u00a0Union Jack<\/a>\u00a0was designed at James’s behest, to be flown in addition to the\u00a0St Andrew’s Cross<\/a>\u00a0on Scots vessels at sea. James VI and I intended to create a single kingdom of Great Britain, but was thwarted in his attempt to do so by the\u00a0Parliament of England<\/a>, which supported the wrecking proposal that a full legal union be sought instead, a proposal to which the Scots Parliament would not assent, causing the king to withdraw the plan.<\/p>\n With the exception of a short period under\u00a0the Protectorate<\/a>, Scotland remained a separate state in the 17th century, but there was considerable conflict between the crown and the\u00a0Covenanters<\/a>\u00a0over the form of\u00a0church government<\/a>.\u00a0The military was strengthened, allowing the imposition of royal authority on the western Highland clans. The 1609\u00a0Statutes of Iona<\/a> compelled the cultural integration of Hebridean clan leaders.\u00a0In 1641 and again in 1643 the Parliament of Scotland unsuccessfully sought a union with England which was “federative” and not “incorporating”, in which Scotland would retain a separate parliament.<\/sup> The issue of union split the parliament in 1648.<\/p>\n After the execution of the Scottish king at\u00a0Whitehall<\/a>\u00a0in 1649, amid the\u00a0Wars of the Three Kingdoms<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0its events in Scotland<\/a>,\u00a0Oliver Cromwell<\/a>, the victorious\u00a0Lord Protector<\/a>, imposed the British Isles’ first written constitution \u2013 the\u00a0Instrument of Government<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 on Scotland in 1652 as part of the republican\u00a0Commonwealth of England, Scotland, and Ireland<\/a>.<\/sup>\u00a0The Protectorate Parliament was the first Westminster parliament to include representatives nominally from Scotland. The monarchy of the\u00a0House of Stuart<\/a>\u00a0was resumed with the\u00a0Restoration in Scotland<\/a>\u00a0in 1660.<\/p>\n The Parliament of Scotland sought a commercial union with England in 1664; the proposal was rejected in 1668.<\/sup>\u00a0In 1670 the Parliament of England rejected a proposed political union with Scotland.<\/sup>\u00a0English proposals along the same lines were abandoned in 1674 and in 1685.<\/sup>\u00a0The\u00a0Battle of Altimarlach<\/a>\u00a0in 1680 was the last significant clan battle fought between\u00a0highland clans<\/a>.<\/sup>\u00a0After the fall and flight into exile of the Catholic Stuart king,\u00a0James VII and II<\/a>\u00a0the\u00a0Glorious Revolution in Scotland<\/a>\u00a0and the\u00a0Convention of Estates<\/a>\u00a0replaced the House of Stuart in favour of\u00a0William III<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Mary II<\/a> who was Mary Stuart.\u00a0The Scots Parliament rejected proposals for a political union in 1689.<\/sup>\u00a0Jacobitism<\/a>, the political support for the exiled Catholic Stuart dynasty, remained a threat to the security of the British state under the Protestant\u00a0House of Orange<\/a>\u00a0and the succeeding\u00a0House of Hanover<\/a>\u00a0until the defeat of the\u00a0Jacobite rising of 1745<\/a>.<\/p>\n In common with countries such as France, Norway, Sweden and Finland, Scotland experienced\u00a0famines<\/a>\u00a0during the 1690s. Mortality, reduced childbirths and increased emigration reduced the population of parts of the country about 10\u201315%.<\/sup>\u00a0In 1698, the\u00a0Company of Scotland<\/a>\u00a0attempted a project to secure a trading colony on the\u00a0Isthmus of Panama<\/a>. Almost every Scottish landowner who had money to spare is said to have invested in the\u00a0Darien scheme<\/a>.<\/sup><\/p>\n After another proposal from the English House of Lords was rejected in 1695, and a further Lords motion was voted down in the House of Commons in 1700, the Parliament of Scotland again rejected union in 1702.<\/sup>\u00a0The failure of the Darien Scheme bankrupted the landowners who had invested, though not the burghs. Nevertheless, the nobles’ bankruptcy, along with the threat of an English invasion, played a leading role in convincing the Scots elite to back a union with England.<\/sup><\/sup>\u00a0On 22 July 1706, the\u00a0Treaty of Union<\/a>\u00a0was agreed between representatives of the\u00a0Scots Parliament<\/a>\u00a0and the\u00a0Parliament of England<\/a>. The following year, twin\u00a0Acts of Union<\/a>\u00a0were passed by both parliaments to create the united\u00a0Kingdom of Great Britain<\/a>\u00a0with effect from 1 May 1707<\/sup>\u00a0with popular opposition and anti-union riots in\u00a0Edinburgh<\/a>,\u00a0Glasgow<\/a>, and elsewhere.<\/sup><\/sup>\u00a0The newly formed\u00a0Parliament of Great Britain<\/a>\u00a0rejected proposals from the\u00a0Parliament of Ireland<\/a> that the third kingdom be incorporated in the union.<\/p>\n With trade tariffs with England abolished, trade blossomed, especially with\u00a0Colonial America<\/a>. The clippers belonging to the Glasgow\u00a0Tobacco Lords<\/a>\u00a0were the fastest ships on the route to\u00a0Virginia<\/a>. Until the\u00a0American War of Independence<\/a>\u00a0in 1776, Glasgow was the world’s premier tobacco port, dominating world trade.<\/sup>\u00a0The disparity between the wealth of the merchant classes of the Scottish Lowlands and the ancient clans of the Scottish Highlands grew, amplifying centuries of division.<\/p>\n The deposed\u00a0Jacobite Stuart<\/a>\u00a0claimants had remained popular in the Highlands and north-east, particularly amongst non-Presbyterians<\/a>, including Roman Catholics and\u00a0Episcopalian Protestants<\/a>. However, two major Jacobite risings launched in\u00a01715<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a01745<\/a>\u00a0failed to remove the\u00a0House of Hanover<\/a>\u00a0from the British throne. The threat of the Jacobite movement to the United Kingdom and its monarchs effectively ended at the\u00a0Battle of Culloden<\/a>, Great Britain’s last\u00a0pitched battle<\/a>.<\/p>\n The\u00a0Scottish Enlightenment<\/a>\u00a0and the\u00a0Industrial Revolution<\/a>\u00a0turned Scotland into an intellectual, commercial and industrial powerhouse<\/sup>\u00a0\u2013 so much so\u00a0Voltaire<\/a>\u00a0said “We look to Scotland for all our ideas of civilisation.”<\/sup>\u00a0With the demise of Jacobitism and the advent of the Union, thousands of Scots, mainly Lowlanders, took up numerous positions of power in politics, civil service, the army and navy, trade, economics, colonial enterprises and other areas across the nascent\u00a0British Empire<\/a>. Historian Neil Davidson notes “after 1746 there was an entirely new level of participation by Scots in political life, particularly outside Scotland.” Davidson also states “far from being ‘peripheral’ to the British economy, Scotland \u2013 or more precisely, the Lowlands \u2013 lay at its core.”<\/p>\n In the Highlands, clan chiefs gradually started to think of themselves more as commercial landlords than leaders of their people. These social and economic changes included the first phase of the\u00a0Highland Clearances<\/a> and, ultimately, the demise of clanship.<\/p>\n The\u00a0Scottish Reform Act 1832<\/a>\u00a0increased the number of Scottish MPs and widened the franchise to include more of the middle classes.<\/sup>\u00a0From the mid-century, there were increasing calls for Home Rule for Scotland and the post of\u00a0Secretary of State for Scotland<\/a>\u00a0was revived.<\/sup>\u00a0Towards the end of the century Prime Ministers of Scottish descent included\u00a0William Gladstone<\/a>,<\/sup>\u00a0and\u00a0the Earl of Rosebery<\/a>.\u00a0In the late 19th century the growing importance of the working classes was marked by\u00a0Keir Hardie<\/a>‘s success in the\u00a0Mid Lanarkshire by-election, 1888<\/a>, leading to the foundation of the\u00a0Scottish Labour Party<\/a>, which was absorbed into the\u00a0Independent Labour Party<\/a> in 1895, with Hardie as its first leader.<\/p>\n Glasgow became one of the largest cities in the world and known as “the\u00a0Second City of the Empire<\/a>” after London. After 1860 the Clydeside shipyards specialized in steamships made of iron (after 1870, made of steel), which rapidly replaced the wooden sailing vessels of both the merchant fleets and the battle fleets of the world. It became the world’s pre-eminent shipbuilding center.<\/sup> The industrial developments, while they brought work and wealth, were so rapid that housing, town-planning, and provision for public health did not keep pace with them, and for a time living conditions in some of the towns and cities were notoriously bad, with overcrowding, high infant mortality, and growing rates of tuberculosis.<\/sup><\/p>\n While the Scottish Enlightenment is traditionally considered to have concluded toward the end of the 18th century,<\/sup>\u00a0disproportionately large Scottish contributions to British science and letters continued for another 50 years or more, thanks to such figures as the physicists\u00a0James Clerk Maxwell<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Lord Kelvin<\/a>, and the engineers and inventors\u00a0James Watt<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0William Murdoch<\/a>, whose work was critical to the technological developments of the Industrial Revolution throughout Britain.<\/sup>\u00a0In literature, the most successful figure of the mid-19th century was\u00a0Walter Scott<\/a>. His first prose work,\u00a0Waverley<\/a><\/i>\u00a0in 1814, is often called the first historical novel.<\/sup> It launched a highly successful career that probably more than any other helped define and popularize Scottish cultural identity.<\/sup>\u00a0In the late 19th century, a number of Scottish-born authors achieved international reputations, such as\u00a0Robert Louis Stevenson<\/a>,\u00a0Arthur Conan Doyle<\/a>,\u00a0J. M. Barrie<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0George MacDonald<\/a>.<\/sup>\u00a0Scotland also played a major part in the development of art and architecture. The\u00a0Glasgow School<\/a>, which developed in the late 19th century, and flourished in the early 20th century, produced a distinctive blend of influences including the\u00a0Celtic Revival<\/a>\u00a0the\u00a0Arts and Crafts movement<\/a>, and\u00a0Japonism<\/a>, which found favor throughout the modern art<\/a>\u00a0world of continental Europe and helped define the\u00a0Art Nouveau<\/a>\u00a0style. Proponents included architect and artist\u00a0Charles Rennie Mackintosh<\/a>.<\/p>\n This period saw a process of rehabilitation for Highland culture. In the 1820s, as part of the\u00a0Romantic revival<\/a>,\u00a0tartan<\/a>\u00a0and the\u00a0kilt<\/a> were adopted by members of the social elite, not just in Scotland, but across Europe,\u00a0prompted by the popularity of Macpherson’s\u00a0Ossian<\/a> cycle\u00a0and then Walter Scott’s Waverley novels.<\/sup>\u00a0However, the Highlands remained poor, the only part of mainland Britain to continue to experience recurrent famine, with a limited range of products exported out of the region, negligible industrial production, but a continued population growth that tested the subsistence agriculture. These problems, and the desire to improve agriculture and profits were the driving forces of the ongoing\u00a0Highland Clearances<\/a>, in which many of the population of the Highlands suffered eviction as lands were enclosed, principally so that they could be used for sheep farming. The first phase of the clearances followed patterns of agricultural change throughout Britain. The second phase was driven by overpopulation, the\u00a0Highland Potato Famine<\/a>\u00a0and the collapse of industries that had relied on the wartime economy of the Napoleonic Wars.![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2021\/09\/George-Square-Glasgow-300x169.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>History:<\/h2>\n
Early History:<\/span><\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/thumb\/d\/d2\/Skara_Brae_house_1_5.jpg\/220px-Skara_Brae_house_1_5.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>Middle Ages:<\/span><\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/thumb\/d\/d8\/Early_Medieval_Scotland_areas.png\/164px-Early_Medieval_Scotland_areas.png\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/thumb\/c\/c5\/Kingdom_of_Mann_and_the_Isles-en.svg\/220px-Kingdom_of_Mann_and_the_Isles-en.svg.png\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/thumb\/9\/99\/The_Wallace_Monument_Aerial%2C_Stirling.jpg\/250px-The_Wallace_Monument_Aerial%2C_Stirling.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>Early Modern Period:<\/span><\/h3>\n
16th Century:<\/span><\/h4>\n
17th Century:<\/span><\/h4>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/thumb\/9\/9f\/Portrait_of_King_James_I_%26_VI_%281618-1620%29.jpg\/170px-Portrait_of_King_James_I_%26_VI_%281618-1620%29.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>18th Century:<\/span><\/h4>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/thumb\/d\/d5\/The_Battle_of_Culloden.jpg\/220px-The_Battle_of_Culloden.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>19th Century:<\/span><\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/thumb\/2\/21\/Tourists_posing_at_the_National_Monument_of_Scotland.jpg\/220px-Tourists_posing_at_the_National_Monument_of_Scotland.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/thumb\/a\/a7\/Sir_Henry_Raeburn_-_Portrait_of_Sir_Walter_Scott.jpg\/170px-Sir_Henry_Raeburn_-_Portrait_of_Sir_Walter_Scott.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>