Scotland Background

Background.

Contents:
Capital City.
Population 2022 census
Languages.
Economy:
Martiality.
Intellect
The Scottish Overseas.
Social Problems.
Religion.
Jews and Scotland.
Anti-Zionism and Anti-Semitism.
Scotland History
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Capital City.
The capital city is Edinburgh, whilst Glasgow is the largest city and the most populous of the cities of Scotland. 

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Population 2022 census
5,439,842
Scotland is the most sparsely populated country of the United Kingdom.

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Languages.
Scotland has three indigenous languages: English, Scots, and Scottish Gaelic.
Scots descended from Early Middle English. Most commonly spoken in the Scottish Lowlands, the Northern Isles of Scotland, and northern Ulster in Ireland (where the local dialect is known as Ulster Scots), it is sometimes called Lowland Scots, to distinguish it from Scottish Gaelic, 
Some decades ago we came across a dictionary of Scots. Our impression was that it has even more words of apparent Hebrew origin than English has.
Scottish Gaelic is related to Irish. It was historically restricted to most of the Scottish Highlands, the Hebrides, and Galloway (southwest Scotland) after the 1500s.

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Economy:
Scotland has a Western-style open mixed economy, considered one of the leading financial centres in Europe, and is the largest financial centre in the United Kingdom outside of London.
Scotland's primary goods exports are mineral fuels, machinery and transport, and beverages and tobacco.
 Its largest international export market is the European Union. Scotch whisky is one of Scotland's more known goods of economic activity. In 2024, whisky exports from Scotland contributed #5.4 billion in revenue towards the economy, accounting for 74% of all Scottish food and drink exports internationally in 2023. In the past Scotland was one of the industrial powerhouses of Europe from the time of the Industrial Revolution onwards, being a world leader in manufacturing.

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Scotland History

The earliest known settlement is that of Skara Brae on the Isle of Orkney. Evidence of possible Egyptian  and Israelite settlement is known from this area.
The Scots like other inhabitants of the British Isles are descended from part of the Lost Ten Tribes of Israel. Scotland is dominated by the Tribe of Manasseh son of Joseph with a substantial minority from the Tribe  of Asher, along with minority elements from other Tribes.

The Romans never succeeded in conquering all of Scotland.
One of the earliest known peoples is the Caledonians whose name could also be pronounced with a "G" suggesting "Gilead" of Manasseh.

Cairns and Megalithic monuments from the Neolithic and the Bronze Age are to  be found in Scotland.  Hill forts were another feature.  From the Early and Middle Bronze Age there is evidence of cellular round houses of stone, as at Jarlshof and Sumburgh in Shetland. There is also evidence of the occupation of crannogs, roundhouses partially or entirely built on artificial islands, usually in lakes, rivers and estuarine waters.In the early Iron Age, from the 600s BCE, cellular houses began to be replaced on the northern isles by simple Atlantic roundhouses, substantial circular buildings with a dry stone construction. From about 400 BC, more complex Atlantic roundhouses began to be built, as at Howe, Orkney and Crosskirk, Caithness. The most massive constructions that date from this era are the circular broch towers, probably dating from about 200 BC. This period also saw the first wheelhouses, a roundhouse with a characteristic outer wall, within which was a circle of stone piers (bearing a resemblance to the spokes of a wheel), but these would flourish most in the era of Roman occupation. There is evidence for about 1,000 Iron Age hill forts in Scotland, most located below the Clyde-Forth line, which have suggested to some archaeologists the emergence of a society of petty rulers and warrior elites recognisable from Roman accounts.

In 79 CE the Roman Governor of England, Agricola, invaded. He defeated a Caledonian army at the Battle of Mons Graupius in 83 CE. Forts were established in the north close to the Highland area.
The Romans eventually retreated. Hadrian (r. 117-138 CE) erected Hadrian's Wall  in the north of England to keep the Scots away.
Antoninus Pius (r. 138-161 CE) built the Antonine Wall  in 142  more to  the north defending the Roman part of Scotland from the unadministered section of the island.
 As Rome finally withdrew from Britain, a Gaelic tribe from Ireland called the Scoti began colonizing Western Scotland and Wales.
The main people in the north were the Scotti who were also became identified with the Picts though  originally they had been separate peoples.

Scotland was divided into four areas: Pictland, a patchwork of small lordships in central Scotland; the Anglo-Saxon Kingdom of Northumbria, which had conquered southeastern Scotland;  Northern Brittonic territory likely centred on Alt Clut (Dumbarton Rock) and the Clyde valley; and Dal Riata, which included territory in western Scotland and northern Ireland, and spread Gaelic language and culture into Scotland. These societies were based on the family unit and had sharp divisions in wealth, although the vast majority were poor and worked full-time in subsistence agriculture. The Picts kept slaves (mostly captured in war) through the ninth century.

In the 800s CE due to pressure from the Vikings in the north the Gaels and Picts united in the Kingdom of Scotland.
The first rulers were the House of Alpin. Several war were fought against England who on several occasions attempted to conquer Scotland.
Norman settlers from England and the Continent migrated to Scotland and some of them were absorbed amongst the Scottish aristocracy. These included future monarchs of Scotland.

 James-6 King of Scots was the son of the daughter of the sister of King Henry-8 of England.
In 1603, he inherited the throne of the Kingdom of England and became King James I of England, leaving Edinburgh for London and uniting England with Scotland under one monarch. The Union was a personal or dynastic union, with the Crowns remaining both distinct and separate, despite James's best efforts to create a new "imperial" throne of "Great Britain". The acquisition of the Irish crown along with the English facilitated a process of settlement by Scots in Northern Ireland in the kingdom in Ulster, with perhaps 50,000 Scots settling in the province by the mid-1600s.

Henceforth Scotland and England were two parts of one country.

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Martiality.
The Scottish (both Highlanders and Lowlanders) were known for their martial qualities. Both as military commanders and as serving troops Scottish (and Scotch-Irish) soldiers were much esteemed. Even today a good portion of British top echelon commandoes (such as the SAS) come from the Scottish Highlands.

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Intellect
In the past Scotland had a reputation for intellectual achievements and educational arrangements. In many ways its intellectual achievements (especially those of the Lowlands) were among the highest in the world. Many important inventions came from Scotland.
This has declined.
Scottish music, sings, bagpipes, etc, has many followers.
Scottish Literature in the past was internationally admired with authors and poets such as Robert Burns,  Walter Scott,  Robert Louis Stevenson, Arthur Conan Doyle. 
In recent years the Scottish may have deliberatedly "dumbded themselkves down."
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The Scottish Overseas.
Most US Presidents were at least partially of Scottish and/or Scotch-Irish descent.
Many of the inhabitants of Ulster (especially the Protestant ones) are of Scottish descent. The distance between Ulster and Scotland is not great and the two entries are intertwined. Descendants of Scotsmen in the USA and Canada came to outnumber the number in Scotland.
So too, many Scots people emigrated to New Zealand and Australia.
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Social Problems.
Many are unemployed, and on welfare. Substance abuse (alcohol and drugs) is a problem along with Violent crime. Tiny insects known as "midges, are found over large areas in the countryside and are mildly troublesome. 

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Religion.
As of the 2022 census, "None" i.e. No Religion" was the largest category of belief in Scotland, chosen by 51.1% of the Scottish population identifying when asked: "What religion, religious denomination or body do you belong to?"[

38.8% identified as Christian with most of them declaring affiliation with the Church of Scotland (52.5% of Christians; 20.4% of the total population) and the Catholic Church (34.3% of Christians; 13.3% of the total population).  Muslims at 2.2%.
The Church of Scotland, a Presbyterian denomination often known as The Kirk, is recognised in law as the national church of Scotland.
The Catholic Church is especially important in West Central Scotland and parts of the Highlands.  
Scotland's third largest church is the Scottish Episcopal Church.
There are also multiple smaller Presbyterian churches, all of which either broke away from the Church of Scotland or themselves separated from churches which previously did so.
In the 1500s Scotland had undergone its own Protestant Reformation gaining rise to Presbyterianism based on the Calvinist teachings of John Knox. 
Religion in the past in Scotland was very intense. Much missionary activity overseas emanated from Scotland.
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Jews and Scotland.
Jews.
Jews were probably to be found in Scotland from the earliest times. Scottish tradition speak of this. Many Scottish Gentiles considered themselves descendants of Jews or of the Lost Ten Tribes of Israel.
Lord George Gordon, the youngest son of the third Duke of Gordon, converted to Judaism sometime in the 1780s, taking the name Yisrael bar Avraham Gordon. he was responsible for political agitation and promoting attacks against Catholics in England.

OId Testament culinary restrictions were observed by many Scottish Gentiles to some degree, as discussed below.
 2011 census the number of Jews was 5,887.
Most Scottish Jews today are of Ashkenazi background who mainly settled in Edinburgh, then in Glasgow in the mid-1800s.
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Anti-Zionism and Anti-Semitism.
In March 2008, a Jewish tartan was designed by Brian Wilton[30] for Chabad rabbi Mendel Jacobs of Glasgow and certified by the Scottish Tartans Authority.[31] The tartan's colors are blue, white, silver, red and gold. According to Jacobs: "The blue and white represent the colours of the Scottish and Israeli flags, with the central gold line representing the gold from the Biblical Tabernacle, the Ark of the Covenant and the many ceremonial vessels ... the silver is from the decorations that adorn the Scroll of Law and the red represents the traditional red Kiddush wine."[32] 

In 2012, the Scottish Jewish Student Chaplaincy and the Scottish Council of Jewish Communities reported a "toxic atmosphere" at the University of Edinburgh, in which Jewish students were forced to hide their identity

Scottish trade unions have been in the forefront of the boycott, divest and sanction group, calling for cutting ties with the Jewish state. In 2013, the Church of Scotland issued a blistering report denying the legitimacy of Zionism and the right of Israel to exist as a Jewish state.
During the recent war in Gaza, anti-Zionist sentiment hit new highs, with local governments in Fife and Glasgow flying Palestinian flags above official buildings. In August 2014, the Scottish Council of Jewish Communities called on national bodies to recognize growing levels of anti-Semitism in the country. 'The level of anxiety is unprecedented' said the leader of the Glasgow Jewish Representative Council.

See:
6 Surprising Facts about Jewish Scotland
https://aish.com/6-surprising-facts-about-jewish-scotland/

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