{"id":903,"date":"2015-02-10T20:54:45","date_gmt":"2015-02-10T20:54:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uniofglos.blog\/?p=903"},"modified":"2024-11-05T14:34:08","modified_gmt":"2024-11-05T14:34:08","slug":"dates-that-changed-the-western-world-1707-and-the-act-of-union","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/history\/2015\/02\/10\/dates-that-changed-the-western-world-1707-and-the-act-of-union\/","title":{"rendered":"Dates That Changed The Western World: 1707 and the Act of Union"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-904\" src=\"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/history\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/159\/sites\/446\/2018\/05\/flag-pins-england-scotland.jpg?w=300\" alt=\"Flag-Pins-England-Scotland\" width=\"300\" height=\"240\" \/>Oh dear; dates are funny things aren\u2019t they &#8211; as this series has already demonstrated. Just when you think that you have hit on a genuine \u2018game-changer\u2019 then you are forced to think again. And so it is with 1707.<\/p>\n<p>On 5 February 1705 the House of Commons passed the Alien Act which led to the establishing of a Royal Commission to negotiate for union between England and Scotland. <em>The Union with England Act<\/em> duly followed in 1707. The wording of the title is not without significance!<\/p>\n<p>On the face of it and for England especially, the Union of English and Scottish Parliaments really is a date around which the world changed. It puts the seal on a process \u2013 the English ascendancy in Great Britain \u2013 that began with the Tudors, and sees, allegedly, the beginning of British Empire building. And yet\u2026\u2026 Empire building is a very tricky process to date. We can, for instance, date the establishing of the first English colony (note the English\/British difference) \u2013 Newfoundland \u2013 to 1497. But then, what about Wales, Ireland and Cornwall? In my module <em>History from the Periphery <\/em>I argue that we must see the first two at the very least as the earliest, permanent, English colonies.<\/p>\n<p>And then there is Scotland. Depending on which side of the independence divide your sympathies might lie, 1707 can be seen for the Scottish as either the logical culmination of a developing and mutually beneficial relationship, or a shark attack: a forced marriage consequent upon Scotland\u2019s own Imperial adventure \u2013 the disastrous <a href=\"https:\/\/staffmail.glos.ac.uk\/owa\/redir.aspx?C=0N4zlNyMp0mFOYDzKD55Eri-to28GNIIiiyWpKYcc2HrQO8sw5vWqcYgysjemChNKYwG7OgydyM.&amp;URL=http%3a%2f%2fwww.historytoday.com%2frichard-cavendish%2ffounding-darien-colony\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Darien Venture<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>But to look only to the end of the seventeenth century is short-termism. We must look to much longer processes and continuities. We must look to the impact on the individual and on daily lives. We must look at the Union of the Crowns in 1603. Virtually as soon as James VI of Scotland became James I of England he moved his court to London. Political power in Scotland moved with him. Economic power already lay with England. So you decide. Which was the game-changer? 1603 or 1707? Or neither?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Oh dear; dates are funny things aren\u2019t they &#8211; as this series has already demonstrated. Just when you think that you have hit on a genuine \u2018game-changer\u2019 then you are [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[778,779,154],"class_list":["post-903","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","tag-dates-that-changed-the-western-world","tag-iain-robertson","tag-scotland"],"blocksy_meta":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/903","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=903"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/903\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3569,"href":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/903\/revisions\/3569"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=903"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=903"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=903"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}