1. Scotland after the war: a perspective

2. Although there will be no questions in the exam about this final section, it provides an opportunity to think about what the Great War meant to the Scots and whether or not the war had any lasting effect on Scottish identity.

3. Before the war, most Scots were happy to be part of the union but the inter-war years were times of high unemployment and poverty and there were some Scots who believed that the union was no longer helping Scotland.

4. Many Scots no longer saw England and the empire as being able t provide resources and leadership to overcome the economic and social problems affecting Scotland.

5. Migration to England or the empire no longer promised a brighter future
Scotland was no longer the workshop of the empire.
During the inter-war period, large scale unemployment increased in traditional heavy industries such as shipbuilding, textiles and coal mining.
Central government was blamed for doing very little.

6. Nevertheless, most Scots did not question the place of Scotland within the Uk.

7. A small group of Scottish nationalists did campaign for Scotland to be represented at the Treaty of Versailles
This was to assert the principle of a small nation-but few Scots cared.
In 1918, the Labour Party promised to fight for the ‘Self-Determination of the Scottish People’ but there was little public support.
In the 1920s all three political parties accepted the United Kingdom.

8. However, in the 1920s, economic distress did make more people interested in the possibility of independence.
In May 1928, the National Party of Scotland was founded but it gained very few votes in the 1929 general election.

9. In the years after the Great War Scotland had to come to terms with the reality that had been growing before 1914.
Scottish industry was in decline and only temporarily rescued by the boom years of the war.
Across the nation in towns and villages war memorials were built commemorating Scots who had died for ‘King and Country’.

10. For most Scots the King they had fought for was the king of Great Britain and the country they had fought for was Britain.
However , most of the Scots who had fought had done so wearing the kilt and hearing the sound of the pipes and drums.
Politically, Scots accepted their part within the Uk but, at the same time, their country and identity remained Scottish.