Everything about Scottish Colonization Of The Americas totally explained
Scottish colonization of the Americas consisted of a number of failed or abandoned
Scottish settlements in
North America, a colony at
Darien,
Panama, and a number of wholly or largely Scottish settlements made after the
Acts of Union 1707.
Nova Scotia (1621)
Although it's sometimes claimed that
Henry Sinclair, 1st Earl of Orkney, a Scottish nobleman, explored North America in the 14th century, the first documented Scottish settlement in the Americas was of
Nova Scotia in 1621. On
29 September 1621, the charter for the foundation of a colony was granted by
James VI of Scotland to Sir
William Alexander, and in 1622 the first settlers left Scotland, though this settlement initially failed and a permanent colony wasn't established until 1629. The colony's charter, in law, made Nova Scotia (defined as all land between
Newfoundland and
New England) a part of mainland Scotland; this was later used to get around the English
navigation acts.
Due to difficulties in obtaining a sufficient number of skilled
emigrants, in 1624, James VI created a new order of
Baronets; admission to this order was obtained by sending six labourers or artisans, sufficiently armed, dressed and supplied for two years, to Nova Scotia, or by paying 3,000
merks to William Alexander. For six months, no one took up this offer until James compelled one to make the first move. In 1627, there was a wider uptake of baronetcies, and thus more settlers available to go to Nova Scotia. However, in 1627, war broke out between
England and
France and the French re-established a settlement at
Port Royal, Nova Scotia, which they'd originally settled in 1604. Later that year, a combined Scottish and English force destroyed the French settlement, forcing them out. In 1629, the first Scottish settlement at Port Royal was inhabited. However, this didn't last long: in 1631, under
Charles I, the
Treaty of Suza was signed, which returned Nova Scotia to the French. The Scots were forced to abandon their
Nova Scotia colony in its infancy.
Cape Breton (1625)
In 1625 a charter was given by James VI for a settlement at
Cape Breton, New Galloway. However, this land was never colonised likely due to the problems over the settlement of Nova Scotia.
East New Jersey (1683)
On
23 November 1683,
Charles II granted a charter for the colony of
New Jersey to 24 proprietors, 12 of whom were Scots. The colony was to be split between an English settlement in
West Jersey and a Scottish settlement in
East Jersey. The driving force among the Scots was
Robert Barclay of Urie, a prominent
Quaker and the first Governor of East Jersey.
Although the Quakers were an important force, making up all of the proprietors of East Jersey, the settlement was marketed as a national, rather than a religious, endeavour, partially due to persecution of the Quakers in the 1660s and 1670s.
During the 1680s, around 700 Scots emigrated to East Jersey, mostly from
Aberdeen and
Montrose, and around 50% of those travelled as
indentured servants. From 1685, there was further emigration, albeit unsought by the emigrants, with the deportation of captured
Covenanters. They were originally to have been placed in indented servitude on arrival; however, they were declared by the courts to be free men, as they hadn't voluntarily indented. In the 1690s, the pace of Scottish immigration slowed, due to opposition by
William III of England and II of Scotland to those proprietors who supported
James II; it didn't pick up again till the 1720s.
The initial immigrants to East Jersey were Quakers,
Episcopalians and
Presbyterians; by the 1730s, Presbyterianism had become the dominant religion.
Until 1697, every Governor of East Jersey was Scottish, and Scots maintained great influence in politics and business even after 1702, when East Jersey and West Jersey were merged to become a Royal Colony.
Stuarts Town, Carolina (1684)
Although the
Province of Carolina was an English colony in the early 1680s, Sir
John Cochran of
Ochiltree and Sir
George Campbell of
Cessnock negotiated the purchase of two counties for Scottish settlement. These were intended, with the support of the
Earl of Shaftesbury, the leader of the Carolina Proprietors, to provide a safe haven for
Covenanters, as these Scots were given a guarantee of freedom of conscience and autonomous control of their colony, which extended from Charles Town (
Charleston) towards Spanish territory.
In 1684, 148 Scots settlers arrived to build a settlement at
Port Royal, the site of former French and Spanish settlements. This was renamed by the Scots as Stuarts Town.
Once settled, there was frequent conflict, both with Spanish allied Indians and with the English at Charles Town, the latter over English attempts to assert authority over the Scots and rights to the lucrative Indian trade. The Scots also carried out frequent raids on Spanish allied Indians and raided the Spanish mission at
Santa Catalina as well as encouraging (and arming) the Indians they traded with to attack the Spanish directly. In 1686, the Spanish retaliated and sent three ships with 150 Spanish troops and Indian allies to attack Stuarts Town. Due to a recent sickness, the Scots had only 25 effective fighting men able to mount a defence and the town was wiped out. There was no retaliation by the English, who were warned by the Proprietors not to interfere.
The Darién Scheme (1695)
The
Darién Scheme is probably the best known of all Scotland's colonial endeavours, and the most disastrous. In 1695, an act was passed in the
Scottish Parliament establishing The Company of Scotland Trading to Africa and the Indies and was given the
Royal assent by the Scottish representative of King William II of Scotland (and III of England). This act gave the company a 31-year monopoly on trade with
Africa and
Asia, authorising it to arm and equip ships and to establish colonies in uninhabited or unclaimed areas of America, Asia or Africa. These powers were similar to those of the
English East India Company, which opposed the establishment of a Scottish rival.
Capital for the company of £400,000 (estimated at one-third to one-quarter of the liquid wealth of Scotland) was raised solely in Scotland, due to intrigue by English merchants and the English government which prevented shares being sold in
Amsterdam and
Hamburg. This opposition also prevented shares being sold in England, as was the original intention.
In 1696, 2,500 Scottish settlers, in two expeditions, set out to found a Scottish trading colony at
Darién on the isthmus of
Panama. These settlers were made up of ex-soldiers, ministers of religion, merchants, sailors and the younger sons of the gentry, to receive 50 to 150 acres each. The government of the colony was run by a committee, the chairman of which changed every two weeks, thus preventing any real sustained progress in solving the problems faced by the settlers.
These problems included a lack of provisions due to famine in Scotland, the Scots' lack of colonising experience, diseases such as
malaria, poor weather and the proximity of the Spanish, who claimed the land the Scots had settled on.
Also, for a trading colony established to trade with passing ships in both the
Pacific and
Atlantic Oceans, they carried a poor choice of trade goods, including wigs, shoes, bibles, woolen clothing and clay pipes.
The colony received no assistance from the crown or English colonies in the
West Indies or
Jamaica, despite having been promised, in the 1695 act, the assistance of William II. Thus, the Scots faced assaults by the Spanish on their own. In 1699, they dealt with this by recruiting a Jamaican captain to raid Spanish shipping as a
privateer, but this achieved little. Soon thereafter, the Spanish mounted an expedition of 500 men to wipe out the Scots. This was effective, as most settlers had already succumbed to disease or starvation.
Darien, Georgia (1735)
Darien, Georgia, was a Scottish settlement in the British
Province of Georgia. It was named after the previous failed settlement on the Isthmus of Panama, though it was, for a time, also known as "New Inverness".
It was founded in January 1736 by 177
Highland Scots (men, women and children) recruited as settler-soldiers by General
James Oglethorpe. They had a dual role of establishing a new settlement and acting as a buffer, protecting the rest of Georgia from the Spanish to the south. The Scots quickly established a number of military forts in the surrounding area and, after initial poor success in farming, concentrated on
cattle rearing and the felling of
timber for survival.
In 1739, eighteen prominent members of the colony signed the first into Georgia. This was in response to pleas to Oglethorpe and the Trustees by inhabitants of Savannah to lift their prohibition on slavery. The Highlanders' petition was successful for a time; slavery wasn't introduced until ten years later, in 1749.
Despite conflicts between
Jacobite and
Hanoverian settlers, the colony did reasonably well, with additional settlers arriving in 1737 and 1741. However, there was frequent conflict with the Spanish and their allied Indians. On the outbreak of the
War of Jenkins' Ear in October 1739, the Scots seized five Spanish forts and attempted a siege of
St. Augustine. However, they were defeated in the subsequent
Battle of Fort Mosa that resulted in the death or capture of fifty-one of the Darien settlers. Despite this, Scottish settlement in Georgia continued.
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