History Facts

• India's Economy

  • Overtakes China as the leading tea distributor. Thomas Lipton Tea Company dominates in the late 1800s
  • Dalhousie oversaw the creation of railways to connect rural India to the cities, improving the movement of goods
• India's Culture

  • Reverend Alexander Duff established the University of Calcutta, first girl's school and first medical school in India
  • Converted a small amount of Indians to Christianity, 3300 in 50 years
• India's Natives

  • Governor John Malcom banned the practice of Suttee
  • Scots crushed rebellion at Cawnpore, punished locals with forced consumption of meat, licking blood of dead British and executions via stabbing
• New Zealand's Economy

  • Brought sheep from Australia to New Zealand. Sheep in Otago raised from 60,000 to 700,000 in five years
  • Henry Nickol established a shipyard in Auckland where over 180 ships were built between the 1840s and '80s
• New Zealand's Culture

  • Reverend Thomas Burns helped develop Presbyterian colony in Otago
  • More that 100 schools founded by James MacAndrew
• New Zealand's Natives

  • 1840 treaty gave the British the right to rule New Zealand in exchange for protecting the natives, but they exploited it
  • More than 16,000 square km taken from Maori after the New Zealand wars.
• Australia's Economy

  • Clyde Company developed 44,000 acres of land for sheep farming
  • Robert McCracken introduced beer brewing to Melbourne
• Australia's Culture

  • Over 25% of poets were Scottish/of Scottish descent
  • Sister Mary Mackillop formed the largest order of Australian nuns and is an ordained saint
• Australia's Natives

  • Entire tribe of Aboriginals murdered in retaliation for the murder of 8 members of the Fraser family, the murders were a response to the Fraser's stealing their land
  • Angus McMillan slaughtered 80-200 Aboriginal people to avenge 1 white settler
• Canada's Economy

  • Hudson Bay Company important to the fur trade and dominated by Scots. Lord Selkirk was a majority shareholder
  • Transatlantic Canadian Pacific Railway had its development supported by many Scots like Sir John A. MacDonald, the first PM of Canada
• Canada's Culture

  • World famous McGill university established by Glasgow-born James McGill
  • St Andrew's & Caledonian societies formed, often holding yearly Highland Games
• Canada's Natives

  • Intermarriage led to creole language, Bungee, being formed as a combination of the Indigenous language and Gaelic
  • Indian Act of 1876 was driven by PM John A. MacDonald and aimed to 'kill the Indian in the child'
• Immigrant Impact on Society

  • Irish created football teams such as Hibernian and Celtic, popularising the sport. They were also crucial to the development of the labour party, many of their politicians were of Irish descent
  • Italian's boosted the economy with cafe's and their successful businesses (Nardini's, Janetta's). They established institutes such as the College of Italian Hairdressers with wealth earned through business
  • Jews valued education, creating well educated Scottish citizens that furthered fields such as law and medicine. Their businesses provided job opportunities for Scots
• Immigrant Impact on Economy

  • Jews created the tobacco industry in Glasgow and recruited a Jewish workforce to produce cigarettes. A. Goldberg and Sons were one of Scotland's most successful businesses . Jewish Tailors introduced paying on credit before credit cards, building the middle class
  • Restaurants used cheap, widely available ingredients to make food the working class could afford, creating takeaways. Businesses like Nardini's thrived and fed back into the Scottish economy
• Immigrant Impact on Culture

  • The Irish developed Catholic schools, improving Scottish education. Established Hibernian in Edinburgh and Celtic in Glasgow, the controversy and disputes surrounding this made football popular in Scotland. Orange Order created a stronger Protestant Identity in Scotland and generated more sectarianism
  • Italians developed cafe culture. Changed the alcohol culture in Scotland by providing an alternative to pubs. Created food with local ingredients, changing Scottish 'cuisine'
• Economic Reasons for Internal Migration

  • Potato blight forced Highlanders to the lowlands, 1846
  • Factory jobs in the city offered up to 50% higher wages that rural areas
  • Decline in the herring/kelp industry after WW1, never recovered due to international Competition
• Cultural & Social Reasons for Internal Migration

  • Highland clearances destroyed Clan culture, so the new generation was happy to leave
  • Entertainment was better in cities with theatres, music halls, dancing
  • Diseases like cholera and typhus were rampant in cities due to overcrowding
• Economic Reasons for External Migration

  • USA wages were significantly higher, granite workers could earn a weeks wage in just over a day
  • Skilled farmers could buy cheap land across the empire
  • South African gold and diamond mines discovered in the late 1800s
  • Easy and cheap transportation with the introduction of steam boats
• Cultural & Social Reasons for External Migration

  • Better medical schools and infirmaries across the England, especially Liverpool
  • Prisoners shipped to Australia decided to stay
  • Established communities, such as Dunedin, and family already abroad encouraged Scots
  • Missionaries aimed to spread Christianity across the empire
• Experience of Irish Immigrants

  • Irish Catholics denied fair pay or jobs based on religion, "Catholics need not apply." They lived in slums like the Gorbals, rife with disease and overcrowding
  • Protestants were skilled workers , many of whom were employed as weavers in Ayrshire/Glasgow. They also took up engineering in iron working firms like Bairds of Gartsherrie
• Experience of Italian Immigrants

  • Little discrimination as Scots both benefited from the businesses opened by Italians and did not feel as though their jobs were threatened by their arrival
  • They experienced backlash for opening late into the evenings and on sundays however as Protestant Scots saw this as promoting 'immoral' behaviour
• Experience of Jewish & Lithuanian Immigrants

  • Newspapers reported that Britain was a 'dumping ground' for Jewish immigrants. They were seen as a burden despite keeping to themselves
  • Lithuanian men were forced to either serve the British armed forces or be deported at the break of WW1, long before conscription was introduced, and most chose to leave with their families