Scotland



A Brief History
Humans inhabited Scotland about 12,000 years ago, after the last ice age. These humans were nomadic. The Romans arrived on the island in the middle of the first century AD. Skirmishes, battles, and walls were created, but the Romans finally withdrew unable to conquer the area. The Picts were the dominate force in northern Scotland with various tribes occupying the south.
Scotland was converted to Celtic Catholicm by the Irish from the 5C - 7C which may have helped continue the Gaelic language in Scotland.
At the end of the 9th century, the Vikings invaded the north of the island and center to what is now known as England. The land in the middle was termed Scotia later evolving into Scotland with its own ruling kings.
With the death of the King Alexander III in 1286, there were 14 rivals for the Scottish crown. The king of England was asked to arbitrate but required Scotland to be a feudal dependent to England. There were many battles between England and Scotland and in 1314 the Scots would defeat England and create the Declaration of Arbroath to which Pope John XXII agreed and Scotland became a recognized independent country.
In 1603 James VI, king of Scotland, succeeded to the English crown as the Queen of England died with no children. He would rule both as separate nations. In the mid 17th century Oliver Cromwell of England would invade and defeat the Scots beginning another set of battles until Scotland became a part of the United Kingdom in 1707.
In 2012 the Edinburgh Agreement was signed between Scotland and England which allowed Scotland to vote for independence from England. The vote was held on September 18, 2014: 45% in favor of independence, 55% voted no.
Scottish spoken in 2011 census

SkateTier, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
Coat of arms: By Royal_Coat_of_Arms_of_the_Kingdom_of_Scotland.svg, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=10956033
File:Thistle Royal Badge of Scotland.svg: Sodacanderivative work Sodacan, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
