AHC: Independent Scotland

[NKVD]

Not a thread about the 2014 referendum.

Your challenge, if you choose to accept it, is to have Scotland become an independent country with a p.o.d. no earlier than the start of World War I, and ideally no p.o.d. later than, say, 1950. Because reasons. But ignore the latter requirement if you'd like. Scotland can become independent at any time after 1914 -- that's just the p.o.d.

Would Scottish independence be more likely in a timeline where Germany wins WWI?

 

[AdmiralBlake]

Not a thread about the 2014 referendum.

Your challenge, if you choose to accept it, is to have Scotland become an independent country with a p.o.d. no earlier than the start of World War I, and ideally no p.o.d. later than, say, 1950. Because reasons. But ignore the latter requirement if you'd like. Scotland can become independent at any time after 1914 -- that's just the p.o.d.

Would Scottish independence be more likely in a timeline where Germany wins WWI?

possibly, but I don't think an independent Scotland by 1950

would be interesting if there was an independent Scotland in the 1970s, when there was a big wave of SNP support

 

[Lindseyman]

How about the 1913 Home Rule Bill is passed and enacted after WWI. Scotland follows its own course out of the depression and agitates for dominion status as per Irish Free State and after WWII gets it?

 

[Expat]

I can see it happening in an alternate-alternate history of A Shift In Priorities.*

German victory in WWI, Britain turns left, elects a staunch leftist majority to Westminster, a reactionary coup plunges the country into civil war. Scotland pleads its case for intervention with the new Mitteleuropan order, who agree and quickly force both sides to accept a separate Scotland as part of a peace deal.

A funny/annoying (depending on your mileage) twist is when the Germans put Rupprecht of Bavaria- the Jacobite pretender at the time- on the Scottish throne to secure the country's loyalty.




*I know some people have a problem with the POD of the TL, but I think it could be engineered to work with many German victory TLs.

 

[Dub_Phil]

Have the industrial unrest of the Dublin lockout in 1913 spread to Glasgow (maybe a company that has premises in both Dublin and Glasgow either have staff strike in solidarity or the owners make a poor attempt at 'encouraging the others'). James Connolly's movement gains traction in Scotland as well as Ireland. Conscription in Scotland becomes as unpopular as it was in Ireland.

1916, the Dublin and Glasgow Easter Risings. Basically a coordinated uprising in both cities, put down brutally in both with patrol boats sailing up the Liffey and the Clyde to shell both cities. This is followed by a brutal crackdown involving "Black and Tan" auxiliary units which eventually lead to the Irish and Scottish wars of Independence between 1919 and 1921 which leads to the Treaty of London of 1922 resulting in Irish and Scottish independence and the repeal of the Act of Union.

Ah feck, just realised I was a year early with the POD

 

[Seleucus]

It's hard to see Scotland actually achieving independence in the 1920s, but perhaps an aborted attempt brutally crushed that results in eventual independence down the line thanks to lingering anger?

 

[libbrit]

Basically, Britain needs to be occupied in WW2, and the pro nazi leader of the SNP at the time, whose name eludes me, installed as head of a puppet government. Apart from that, i cant see it happening.

 

[idonotlikeusernames]

Is a German victory in WWI really necessary? What if the US was truly neutral in WWI. From what I understand that would most likely mean WWI ends in a stalemate.
After that you'll have a bankrupt Britain desperately trying to cling to an empire without the prestige of a WWI victory. There's lots of ways that could go wrong.

 

[Dathi THorfinnsson]

Not a thread about the 2014 referendum.

Your challenge, if you choose to accept it, is to have Scotland become an independent country with a p.o.d. no earlier than the start of World War I, and ideally no p.o.d. later than, say, 1950. Because reasons. But ignore the latter requirement if you'd like. Scotland can become independent at any time after 1914 -- that's just the p.o.d.

Would Scottish independence be more likely in a timeline where Germany wins WWI?

Nope.

The only reason Scotland is even considering independence is because the EU provides an umbrella for small nation states. If there were active hostile European powers around still, Scotland would be clinging to England like a limpet.