1.26.2022

Continuing from yesterday, the topic today was on the history of Scotland and how it came to stay in the UK. I have not learned world history since coming to this school, so I was genuinely excited to gain knowledge on this. Going back in time, Henry the 8th was ruling England. He was infamous for chopping off his wife's head for the benefit of his affairs, and he created a new religion against the roman catholic church to allow divorce. This break-off gave James Stuart a chance to become more powerful. In the end, James was deemed to be both king of Scotland and England. However, due to the powering economic status of England, James decided to shift his business and policies in favor of England. For example, despite having a long history of camaraderie between France and Scotland, since Scotland had to obey James, they were incentivized to go to war. If I was a Scottish person at that time, I would have not enjoyed the biased ruling of James, and neither did Scotland. Fortunately, James transitioned into a Catholic which upset the protestant majority of English people. As such, Mary, James' sister convinced her husband William to take authority and overthrow James. Hearing this opportunity, William fights with James and wins, hence becoming the new ruler. Despite James retaliating and initiating another battle, the opposition was suppressed. In return, Scotland was treated unfairly. William allowed protestant Scottish, Walsh, and English citizens to live in a Catholic Ireland and take control. Moreover, when Scotland invested a quarter of its budget and tried building a bridge at the edge of North America for world trade, William banned support from sister countries, which resulted in Scotland's bankrupcy.

From hearing what Scotland has been through, it's hard not to feel sorry. Having to be suppressed because an adjacent country wields more power is unfair. Knowing how the decision to combine nations has impacted the present severely, shows the scale of impact control over a country can have. Moving on, due to Scotland becoming bankrupt, England decided to unionize hence the birth of the UK. However, conflicting religious views have resulted in the independence of the South of Ireland. Unfortunately, due to having a population of protestant immigrants, the North of Ireland stuck with the UK. I was always curious why on maps the UK includes North Ireland, so hearing this story was very useful. According to my mother, when she visited England, she had heard about terrorist crimes related to North Ireland. Although there may be less crime currently, I still felt the struggle of trying to make peace with two conflicting cultures. Whether or not Scotland should become independent or not was decided in a large referendum. At first, I didn't think of questioning the final decision that Scotland stayed in the union. However, learning from Mr. Paterson, I started believing otherwise.

Two notable problems can be indicated in the election. One is voter eligibility. Scotland's population is about 5.5 million. 0.5 million are English, Irish, and Walsh, and the rest are Scottish. However, the eligibility for voting was specifically for people living in Scotland. This meant that first, the 0.5 million non-Scottish people were allowed to decide on a crucial decision for citizens who were historically conflicting. Second, Scottish people who are living outside of Scotland couldn't vote. By restricting voter conditions, the UK may have succeeded in lowering pro-independence voters. As mentioned before, Scotland is rich in natural resources, so it would be an advantage if England gets to keep Scotland. A second problem was breaking the purdah before the election. Normally, there is a set quota for deciding on the final result, this being the majority vote. At that time, 38% of voters agreed to independence. However, just before the official results, the British government planned votes under 40% to be ineligible. From the above, we can say that manipulation goes beyond just shrinking Scotland's landmass. In its extremes, it can shape public policy and the potential freedoms of people, and I reconsidered Japan's historical manipulative tactics as well to gain and maintain power.