Scots are more likely to see Scotland as having been a subject, rather than a partner, in the British Empire
In a speech to the Scottish Parliament last year, former first minister Humza Yousaf called on schools to confront Scotland’s colonial past.
Notably, Yousaf described Scotland as having played a “regrettably leading role” in the British empire. This is a key point that separates him from many Scottish nationalists, who describe Scotland as having effectively been a colony within the British Empire, rather than a driving force.
Indeed, a recent YouGov survey shows that 40% of Scots consider Scotland to have been “more of a subject country in the British Empire”, compared to only 29% who see it as having been “more of a partner with England in the British Empire”. Among 2024 SNP voters, 60% espouse the ‘Scotland-as-subject’ view, as do 55% of those who voted for independence at the 2014 referendum.
The results form part of a wider study on attitudes to the British Empire in Scotland, which also draws comparisons with attitudes across Britain as a whole.
Scottish attitudes to the British Empire
It will be no surprise to anyone that negativity towards the British Empire is higher in Scotland than in the wider country.
While Britons are more likely to feel the British Empire is something more to be proud of (33%) than ashamed (21%), these numbers effectively reverse in Scotland – 30% see it more as a source of shame compared to 22% a source of pride. In both countries, however, the most common answer is that the empire is something to be neither ashamed nor proud of – and at about the same rates (39% of Britons, 41% of Scots).
One in six Scots (17%) go so far as to say they wished Britain still had an empire – a figure slightly lower than the 22% in Britain as a whole.
Scottish desire for its own empire
Dislike for the British Empire is not necessarily a rejection of imperialism, however. One in six Scots (18%) say they wish that Scotland had had its own empire at the same time as other European powers – a figure which rises to 25% among SNP voters, and 27% among those who voted for independence at the 2014 referendum.
Scotland did in fact undergo its own attempts to build a colonial empire. The best known of these endeavours – the Darien scheme, an attempt to build a colony in what is now Panama – failed so disastrously that the financial losses involved are attributed by some historians to Scotland’s subsequent decision to enter into union with England.
Most Scots are under no illusions that a Scottish Empire would have been an exception when compared to historical European empires – 55% believe it would have behaved similarly to such empires, while only 13% think it would have behaved differently.
Those Scots who wish there had been a Scottish Empire are more likely to believe it would have acted differently to other European empires (22%), although the majority still think it would have been similar to the rest (59%).
Scottish beliefs about Scotland’s place within the British Empire
As has already been noted, Scots tend to see their country as having been a subordinate within the empire (40%) rather than a partner (29%). Among those Scots who say they know a great deal or fair amount about Scotland’s role in the British Empire, the Scotland-as-partner view is more common (50%) than the Scotland-as-subject view (39%).
Those Scots who admit to knowing little or nothing about Scotland’s role in the empire are twice as likely to see Scotland as having been a subject country (40%) than a partner (18%).
Nevertheless, Scots tend to think that, relative to its size, Scotland made a very or fairly large contribution to the success and running of the British Empire (42%). Fewer (30%) think Scotland’s contribution was small.
Most of those Scots who see Scotland as having been more of a partner in the British Empire believe it played a large role in the empire’s success (72%), while those who see Scotland as having been more of a subject country are split: 40% say it played a large role while 42% think it played a small one.
Those Scots who say they know a great deal or fair amount about Scotland’s involvement in the British Empire are significantly more likely to think Scotland played a large role (77%), while those who confess to knowing less tend to think its role was small (36%) rather than large (22%) – although unsurprisingly they are most likely to answer “don’t know” (41%).
Overall, 35% of Scots think that Scotland benefitted more than it suffered for being part of the British Empire – about the same number who think so of Canada (38%) and Australia and New Zealand (35%), and higher than the number who think Wales benefitted (30%).
By contrast, fully 73% of Scots consider England to have benefitted more than it suffered from the empire.
A further 16% of Scots think Scotland benefitted and suffered equally under the empire, while 22% think the nation suffered more than it benefitted. This latter figure rises to 44% among those who voted for the SNP in 2024.
Scottish views on teaching about the British Empire
Yousaf’s speech to the Scottish Parliament had been on the topic of the empire on the school curriculum, a contentious issue in recent years.
Half of Scottish adults (50%) claim they know at least a fair amount about the British Empire, although this figure falls to 35% for Scotland’s role in the British empire specifically.
There is widespread agreement that the British Empire should be included in the curriculum in schools (74%), with effectively the same number saying Scotland’s role as part of the empire should also be taught (73%).
When it comes to how the subject should be taught, the large majority of Scots (73%) say that teaching “should contain a mixture of positive and negative aspects of the British Empire, so pupils are given a comprehensive balanced view”.
Around one in eight (13%) take the view that “teaching should concentrate mainly on the negative aspects of the British Empire, to correct against a historically rosy view of the empire, make sure pupils are under no illusions that imperialism is bad, and make sure that pupils are aware of the harms Britain committed in the past”, while fewer still take an exclusively pro-Empire approach, with 5% saying “teaching should concentrate on mainly the positive aspects of the British Empire, so that pupils are taught to be proud of Britain's history and accomplishments”.
See the full results for Scotland here
See the comparison Wales results here
See the comparison Britain and England results in the UK-wide sister article
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Picture: Getty
