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Catholic attitude toward Labour was shaped by the papacy’s hostility to Socialism as atheistic. There were also fears that Labour would introduce non-denominational schooling, ending the Catholic Church’s control of the education of Catholic children.
Irish Catholics continued to support the Liberal Party, but then again most Scots did. Liberalism and the kind of values it stood for – such as anti-landlordism – resonated with the Scottish people, many of whom had first-hand experience of famine and Clearance. As a Labour Party inquiry in 1911 stated: ‘Scotland stood by the Liberal Government so solidly because it hates the House of Lords and the landlords.’
Liberalism restored
Just when it seemed that the party was over for the Liberals, they went on to win a stu
Another action that incensed the Scots was the decision of the House of Lords to award half the properties of the Free Church to a small minority, the Wee Frees, to merge with the United Presbyterians to form the United Free Church. As defenders of the prerogatives of the Lords, the Unionists bore the brunt of the anger. Maybe it’s hard for people to understand their anger today, but people took their religion seriously.
To mend the damage, the Unionists introduced the Scottish Churches Act, but it was too late. Between 1902 and 1904, the government lost every by-election in Scotland, a fact that restored the Liberal majority north of the border. By the time of the 1906 general election, the Liberals were in good shape, standing for their core principles. A crushing victory was achieved, with the Liberals wi
So, in the last election before the First World War the Liberals were restored to the position they had enjoyed for most of the 19th century. As long as morality and moral conduct were at the heart of political debate, Liberalism remained the rallying point for the political allegiances of the Scottish people. However, when class and class interests moved to the forefront of politics – as they did after 1918 – then the values that Liberalism was based on seemed out of touch with the new political realities (see Chapter 15). But in 1914, no one was in a position to predict this.
Emigration and Empire
Liberal MP Sir Charles Dilke, writing in 1888, remarked that: ‘In British settlements, from Canada to Ceylon, from Dunedin to Bombay, for every Englishman that you meet who has worked himself up to wealth from small begi
The Scots had made a major contribution to the expansion of the British Empire as administrators, engineers, entrepreneurs and soldiers (see Chapter 13), so much so that historians have talked about the ‘Scottish Empire’. The influence of the Scots could be felt all over the globe – from North America to Australasia, from Asia to Africa. Yes, they were everywhere.
But the Scots didn’t come just to exploit other peoples and resources; they also came as settlers, with their distinctive culture and religious traditions. Even today, Scottish food, culture and athletics are celebrated in the many Highland gatherings, Burns’ Clubs and Caledonian Societies in North America and farther afield.
North America
In the United States, the Scots made important contributions to the development of the economy. For example, the following men were all Scottish:
Andrew Carnegie,
an iron and steel manufacturer
David Dunbar Buick,
a car manufacturer
William Blackie,
a tractor manufacturer
In Canada, Lord Mount Stephen was behind the creation of the great Canadian Pacific Railway, and other Scotsmen dominated the economy to the extent that one-third of the country’s business elite were of Scottish origin.
Environmentally, the Scot John Muir was the driving force behind the establishment of National Parks Movement in the United States.
Culturally, American gospel music is accredited by some historians to Scottish Gaelic speakers from North Uist.
India
The Scottish presence was also strongly evident in India. The first three governors-general of India were Scots. Vast fortunes were made by imperial administrators and entrepreneurs. However, there were also scholars and scientists who made important contributions to Indian culture and society, including
Colin Campbell,
who completed the first geographical survey of India
Robert Kydd,
who created the botanic gardens in Calcutta
Even after the dissolution of the East India Company in 1857 and the introduction of competitive entry into the British administration, Scots still played a disproportionate part in the ru
India became a massive market for the British economy, but more importantly for the metal industries of Scotland. Practically all the railway engines in India were built in Springburn in Glasgow. The east of Scotland was also strongly linked economically through the jute trade. Dundee became the centre of jute making in the world and the Camperdown works of the Baxter Brothers was the largest jute mill in the world.
Australasia
It was not always the pursuit of filthy lucre that was the driving force behind imperial expansion. Religious impulses were behind the desire to populate New Zealand and to create ‘little Scotlands’. The Otago settlement in the South Island and the Waipu settlement in the North Island were the products of two Scottish ministers. Dunedin (Gaelic for ‘Edinburgh’) became the capital of the Otago settlement and already had a university by 1869. In Waipu, Gaelic was the first language in people’s homes until the 1880s and many still spoke it in the 1920s.
In neighbouring Australia, the Scots were attracted like others because of the ‘Gold Rush’ of 1851, although prior to that, immigrants were drawn from displaced Highland peasantry and others looking for a better life. Between 1832 and 1851, around 50,000 Scots settled in Australia. Some Scots made notable contributions to Australian society. Governor Lachlan Macquarie, from Ulva, the I
The dark side
The British Empire’s growth involved the suppression of local peoples and their cultures. This was graphically illustrated in Australia with the brutal treatment of the Aborigines. The Scots were at the forefront of this assault on native peoples, showing themselves to be as ruthless as any other ethnic group when it came to land grabbing. This was also true in New Zealand were the Maori population fell from around 150,000 in 1800 to 37,000 in 1872 as a result of a protracted struggle with the settlers over land rights.
So, although the Scots distinguished themselves in many areas of cultural and economic life, the story of conquest and settlement was not always a pretty one.
Africa
Much of the justification for imperial expansion was based on the idea of the civilising mission of higher racial groups toward more backward and racially inferior peoples. Basically, we were doing them a favour. British rule was extended throughout the less-developed world through a mixture of the Bible and gunpowder. However, it was not so much as settlers that the Scots played a significant role in British expansion in Africa, but more as individuals working through the Scottish missions.
The explorer and missionary David Livingstone inspired many others to follow him to Africa, the ‘dark continent’. Mary Slessor, a mill girl from Dundee, was one of them. She, like her idol, went ‘literally where no white man had gone before’ in her quest to save souls in the Bight of Biafra on the coast of Nigeria (formerly known as Calabar). However, by driving into the uncharted interiors of the continent and encouraging trade between the natives and British traders, they opened up the territories to further imperial expansion.
As to their mission to save souls, they were spectacularly unsuccessful. Still, men and women, such as Livingstone and Slessor, helped in the long run to change deeply entrenched notions regarding the divine right to rule ‘lesser races’ to a more ethical imperial policy.
Slessor, in particular, felt the native population to be only inferior to Europeans in as much as they were without God. Their desire to bring education to Africans unconsciously created national independence movements in central, eastern and southern Africa, as well as India. Moreover, it was the educational work of Presbyterian missionaries that was largely responsible for creating the widely held belief that Scottish education was the best in the world.
A Scottish Empire?
The Scots were important to the development of the British Empire in diverse ways: as businessmen, as educators, as missionaries, as imperial administrators and as soldiers. Their contribution was so substantial that it has influenced some historians refer to ‘the Scottish Empire’. Although the Scots were hugely important to the growth globally of British influence, to argue that the empire was
essentially
their creation would be to ignore the role of the British state and other national groups such as the English and the Irish. The Scots may have run the empire and profited by it, but at the end of the day it was London that decided its fate. It was English laws and civil institutions that the Scots were to uphold and live by.
The War to End All Wars
The ‘scramble for Africa’ in the closing decades of the 19th century highlighted the tensions that existed between the imperial powers in Europe. Britain had an empire the sun never set on, and others wanted a piece of the action. Still it took the assassination of a little-known aristocrat, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, in Sarajevo, Bosnia, in June 1914, to precipitate a war of massive proportions.
War was to affect Scotland socially, economically and politically.
The social costs of war
The onset of war saw a great deal of patriotic breast-beating. Young men couldn’t wait to get out of dull, boring jobs and travel and experience adventure in a war that would be over by Christmas – or so the politicians claimed. The enthusiasm for war can be shown statistically:
By the end of August 1914, 20,000 men had been processed by the recruiting office in the Gallowgate, Glasgow.