The Historical Journey Of The Ancient Scottish Nation

In the world history, almost all-existing national formation is the outcome of conflicts and convergence of different ancient ethnic groups, so is the Scottish nation. Historically, the Picts, the Britons, the Scots, the Angles, the Vikings all come to live in Scotland. After the conflicts and convergence of these ancient ethnic groups, the Scottish nation comes into being. In the 9^th century, the indigenous Picts and the Scots established a unified kingdom of Alba, a combination of both for the Scotch. The Scottish nation began from the convergence of two peoples and attained its present proportions by absorbing the Britons of the southern British Isles, the Angles from the European continent and the Vikings of the northern Europe. In the 16^th century, all races in Scotland come into being a steady community in possession of common religion and historical memories.This thesis mainly deals with the course of origin, evolution and amalgamation of the Scottish nation, and will try to do a diachronic analysis of the course so as to sort out some of the important historical facts on the whole.This thesis is divided into 4 parts:Part one is the introduction. Based on summarizing the previous research findings, the thesis will review and introduce the general situation of researches on the Scottish nation. Generally speaking, the European and American scholars have studied the above subject for hundreds of years and their studies involve Scotland's politics, the history, the religion and so on. Scholars at home haven't studied the subject thoroughly, so research findings are limited.In part two, based on the materials on the composition of the Picts and the archaeological evidence of the vestiges of the Picts in place names and documents, the thesis probes into the identity, custom and religion of the Picts.Part three introduces the main components of Scotland's other national ethnic groups, in this part, presented in chronological order of their arrival, disputes, interaction and amalgamation. With the arrival of the different ethnic groups, the original ethnic group has taken great changes, some are accepted voluntarily and some are compelled. But all these ancient groups lay indelible traces in the Scottish nation in one way or another.Part four mainly dissertates the establishment of the kingdom of the Scotland and the formation of the Scottish nation. The two processes may said that is simultaneously carries on, with the expansion and fixed of the territory of the kingdom of the Scotland, the Britons and the Angles join into the Scottish nation. In the struggle against the invasion of the England, the idea of Scottish nationality went up greatly. The Reformation enables the Scotland to become the Protestantism Presbyterian Church country; this also becomes one of the Scottish national characters. Although after the union of England and Scotland, the independent religion system and the intense national consciousness have still maintained its relatively independent status.