Ethnic Problems Of The Age Of Eighteenth Century In Scotland

Before the Consolidated Bill was passed in1707, Scotland’s national identity was established because of fighting against England’s imperial and colonial attempt. However, Scotland lost its political status as an independent state and its traditional national identity after this Bill, which at once maintained the glorious independent coveted by England. Faced with the impact of England advanced culture, the core of political nationalism is to maintain the independence and freedom. While for Scotland in the phase of ignorance and in the increasingly commercialized society, it must establish new national identity, which was the introduction of England’s commercial civilization and political structure in order to achieve the "civilizing". It was on the basis of this concept that Scotland completed the integration of political, religious, legal and cultural aspects and built a new kind of national identity, namely, British national identity. As a part of the new British political body, Scotland shared the interests of the English Empire in trade, and also made considerable improvement in social development. As a result, it embraced the glorious era in1730-1800.The formation of a new British national identity not only brought the British island peace, order and prosperity, but also laid the foundation for decisive victory for the British in the18th century war of colonial hegemony. However, Scotland, after all, was a fully independent country, and also a country with a sense of national identity early in the14th century. So it still retains considerable independence and distinctive national tradition. After the British Empire began to decline, the Scots increasingly enhanced their recognition of the national culture identity and the ethnic separatist movement began to develop. However, Scotland, the so-called desire for independence was only to strive for more autonomy, but its real economic and social conditions decided she was also very difficult to leave the United Kingdom. Scotland has a lot of social problems need the help of the United Kingdom. It can be said that Britain was still in quite a long time in the era of nationalism.The first part describes the historical background of the merger in Scotland and England. English and Scots not only lack of common in the history, but also had a deep historical animosity arising from frequent wars. The two Kingdom achieved the throne of the joint in1603, but they were still two independent conflict-ridden countries. As the common lord increasingly the King England and everything had to be England’s interests first, Scotland actually became the subsidiary in England. In the end of17th and early18th century, England and France inevitably became the main characters of the modern European hegemony. However, the Scottish Parliament had replaced the common lord to become the center of power in Scotland. That is to say, England no longer be able to pass the throne jointly to control the purpose of Scotland. In order to prevent the re-alliance of Scotland with France, England ultimately merged into the United Kingdom Great Britain and Scotland.The second part discusses the new British national identity in Scotland’s performance. On the basis of the concept of national identity in Britain, Scotland critically absorbed England’s system and culture and made an integration of politics, religious, legal and cultural aspects. It put its self-development under the framework of the United Kingdom, thus became the part of the new British Kingdom. On the political part, Scotland no longer set up the Parliament but sent representatives to the new parliament of Great Britain and had the right to speak in the affairs of Great Britain. On the religious part, although there existed a huge difference between the Scottish Presbyterian Church and the Anglican, they reached a compromise and used the form of bills to ensure that they could co-exist in the United Kingdom but be independent at last. On the legal part, the two countries had its own laws before the merger. England belonged to the common law system, while Scotland had a continental law system by the tradition influence of Roman law. On the balance and compromise, they finally reached a certain degree of understanding on legal issues, which was the unity of public law between the two countries, thus could maintain their private law independent and complete. After the merger Scotland canceled its own parliament. Even the highest instance in civil cases could only be heard in the Westminster Parliament, and thus began to be deeply influenced by the English common law jurisprudence and developed into a mixed system in the end. On the cultural part, the Scottish Enlightenment thinkers used the "historical narrative" as a means. It made Scotland’s traditional and historical identity as "barbaric" and England’s as "civilized", which could establish the identity of England and Britain on the basis of the subversion of the Scottish nature and thus melted the time spirit of the18th century of Scotland. According to the new British identity, the importance based on the diversity culture and the heterogeneity differences between the ethnics was extremely weakened, while the importance based on the homogeneity differences of the universal "civilization was highly phrased. This is also a manifestation of the nationalist, because it is also views the nation’s interest as the core of national development priorities, reflecting the deep love of the nation, but only in the choice of the path of national development.The third part discusses the impact of the new British national identity formation. Through the construction of the merger with new national identity, Scotland won the rights of free trade with England and it’s colonial. By this opportunity, Scotland became the first nations to finish Industrial revolution in the human history. The economic prosperity brought about cultural prosperity, and thus the "Scottish Enlightenment" is the summary expression of the thinking-cultural movement by the descendants. In the18th century Great Britain, Scotland was the center of the academic thinking but not England. Its capital Edinburgh was phrased as "the Athens of the Great Britain", which not only won itself the revered vision for knowledge innovation, but also produced a broad and far-reaching impact to the Enlightenment movement in Europe and the United States. However, Scotland still retained considerable independence and distinctive national traditions after the merger. The Scottish’s recognition of their national culture and identity was increasing with the decline of the British Empire. But the United Kingdom of300years had created the reality that the distant grievances in the national memory wouldn’t put into effect if there was no real interest.The final part concludes the formation of the new British national identity is a major event in British history and also a successful example of solving ethnic problems in the world history, which left us lessons in many aspects. Carefully sum up and absorb the lessons from this period will have an important reference for the study of the formation of the British nation-state and the right way to deal with ethnic issues and international relations.