The Climate of Union: An Environmental History of the Anglo-Scottish Union, circa 1660-1707

Abstract

The Climate of Union posits that climatic instability and environmental change during the last third of the Global Little Ice Age, a period of climatic instability (circa 1570-1720), fundamentally influenced economic activities, political thinking, and governmental decision-making during the negotiations for the 1707 Union between Scotland and England. It emphasizes the conjuncture and contingency of events at the turn of the eighteenth century that brought both Scotland and England to the negotiating table, and it builds upon the narrative of the General Crisis, a period of global social and political turmoil in the seventeenth century. From the perspective of early modern global history, it positions Scotland within a North Seas World and shows how environmental upheaval, economic decline, and geographical reorientation of a Dutch-focused North Seas World encouraged enterprising Scots to begin shifting their focus towards a much larger, British-focused Atlantic World focused on colonial trade by the early eighteenth century. Using an interdisciplinary approach emphasizing climatic reconstructions utilizing new data, a close examination of the North Seas fishing industry, and an oceanic world studies approach exploring Scotland’s economic and geopolitical relationship to the rest of the North Seas and Atlantic Worlds, this work highlights the disastrous conditions that impacted this region between circa 1660 and 1707. It explores why union—and the use of diplomacy and parliamentary debate to build something new—provided an attractive solution to the sense of crisis among political elites in both Scotland and England, particularly in the wake of the Great Storm of 1703, allowing them to avoid another confrontational war in the midst of the War of Spanish Succession. In sum, The Climate of Union demonstrates how environmental, economic, and social pressures influenced Scotland and England to join together based upon shared transnational concerns, and how these pressures were more easily buffered when part of a larger economic and political union—a long-standing consensus now gravely threatened by Brexit.