Presentation Transcript

1. The Darien design and the context of Scottish imperialism

   Gabriel Glickman
2. Britain in the 1690s – the making of a world power Increased taxation agreed between king and parliament. Professionalisation/ modernisation of government machinery. Aim is to serve European, not imperial goals – keep Britain as active partner within the Grand Alliance. Domestic tension - question of the royal succession.
3. The isthmus of Panama (Darien)
4. The Darien design – key themes Not seen as frivolous or doomed to failure in contemporary opinion – taken seriously. Exposes limitations on Scottish independence – danger of antagonising English colonial interests. Clashes with European priorities of William III. Raises new questions over the future of Anglo-Scottish relations.
5. Scotland in the 1690s – politics and religion Radical settlement in 1689 – separate and independent terms reached with William III. But questions over how free and sovereign Scotland really is when kings reside in England. Religious divisions – radical Presbyterian settlement destroys Episcopalian Church. Political and military conflict over the Revolution 1689-82: Episcopalians becoming Jacobites.
6. Scotland in the 1690s – society and economics Heavily rural, subsistence economy vulnerable to agricultural downturns. Succession of famines 1690-96. Exacerbated by: Economic effects of 1689-92 civil conflict. Taxation levied for war in Europe. Effect of protectionist tariffs imposed in Europe/English Navigation Acts.
7. Mercantilism – key tenets National power created by taxable national wealth, not quality of armies or size of territories. Wealth created by trade. Trade/wealth in the world is finite. Trade therefore a zero-sum game - expansion of one nation’s resources always comes at the expense of another.
8. C17th Scotland - thwarted imperialism Collapse of schemes in Nova Scotia (1632) and Carolina (1686) . Navigation Acts aim to keep American Empire exclusively English. Scottish expansion largely into Northern Europe (‘forgotten diaspora’ in Sweden/Poland) and Ulster. National identity therefore less Atlanticist than that of England in 1689.
9. Creation of the Company of Scotland Original focus on Africa and India rather than America. Mobilise in London (1695) - attract merchants excluded by monopolies of English joint-stock companies. Early membership not just Scottish – English, Dutch, Sephardi Jewish directors. 1696 – forced to move base from London to Edinburgh after exposure by Westminster Parliament. Patriotic campaign for subscriptions – first colony to be christened Caledonia.
10. The Company of Scotland
11. William Paterson (1658-1719)
12. The shift to the Americas Isthmus of Panama weak link in the Spanish Empire. Spain seen as exhausted and declining power. Darien to be the focal point of a new empire: capture of trade over conquest of territory (long theme in English imperial thinking).
13. ‘The Door of the Seas and the Key of the Universe’ (Paterson)
14. Darien – reasons for failure Opposition from Spain and the Papacy - formal protests sent to London. William III – pre-eminence of European over imperial affairs. Opposition from the English colonial lobby – merchants, planters, governors: Darien seen as rival attraction for traders and settlers. Extent of opposition confirms that Darien seen as a very serious proposition in its own time.
15. Darien - the fall-out National humiliation for Scotland. Loss of £400,000 – 25 per cent of Scottish liquid capital. Seen as betrayal by William III and invasion of Scottish sovereignty by the English. Contemporaries fear re-run of Scottish rebellion against Charles I. Stark choice for Scotland: to push for greater independence from England - or closer union?