Why Did Scotland Sign The Treaty Of Union

They say that misery loves company. In the years leading up to the Treaty of Union, Scotland’s otherwise reasonable steady existence began to deteriorate fast. Misfortune after misfortune kept hitting the nation, sending them into desperation and almost pushing them over the edge. Several factors play a role as to why Scotland agreed to sign the Treaty of union. Those reasons being the Seven ill years with various elements, the Darien scheme and lastly the French and English protectionism.
Starting with the French protectionism, the first thing to do is explain what protectionism means. “Actions of governments in different parts of the world to help their own country’s trade or industry by putting taxes on goods bought from other countries
This was supposed to be done by establishing a Scottish colony called "Caledonia" on the Isthmus of Panama on the Gulf of Darién, which would enable them to trade with the New World. This is also known as the Darien scheme, named after the gulf where they were supposed to settle. If Scotland could make relations with the East Indies, without getting into trouble with the settlers already there, the English and Spanish, it may be had been possible for them to turn their failing economy around. Scotland turned to England in hope of financial aid, unfortunately for Scotland, England was not on board with this. Scotland managed to collect the necessary funds and the first expedition took off. Upon their arrival, the illusion was shattered and hope slowly ebbed out. Nothing was as the Scottish settlers had been told and disease killed off many. Knowing nothing of the current state at home in Scotland, they sent off another expedition with even more settlers. They suffered the same fate as the first expedition. With no help from the English settlers in Jamaica and continuing attacks from the Spanish, the hope of a settler colony was dead. Only very few survived the expedition back. Scotland had truly hit rock bottom. Scotland being almost bankrupt by the Darien scheme later led to a dissolution of the Scottish parliament. This again led to Scotland agreeing to the Treaty of Union which took effect in 1707 . While many was happy and relieved that Scotland had been saved, there was still some sceptics who would rather have been without: “James Hodges, a pamphleteer at that time, wrote ‘all the Sugar of the English plantations shall not be able to sweeten the loss of Scotland’s independence’ ”. To this day, the discussion of whether Scotland should be a part of what became Great Britain is still