 The Kingdom of Scotland and the Kingdom of England fought each other countless times down through history, from the Scottish Wars of Independence to the Anglo-Scottish Wars. But when and why did the two kingdoms merge into one, under the name Great Britain? Today I've come to the remains of Berwick Castle, which is just close to the Scottish English modern border, a castle that has changed hands between Scotland and England countless times down through history. For an exclusive video on the history of Berwick Castle itself, please become a member of my Patreon page. All the links will be in the description below. There are obviously various reasons why Scotland and England merged into one in 1707, and please let me know your thoughts in the comments below. I'm going to focus on a few key reasons today that explain why Scotland and England merged in the 1707 Act of Union into Great Britain, although Scotland kept many aspects of its legal and religious systems intact after the union. Wales had already been largely controlled by English laws for hundreds of years by this point. The first thing to note is that the merger did not come out of the blue. Even though politically Scotland and England were separate kingdoms until 1707, they had shared the same mark for around 100 years prior to this. The Royal Link began in 1603 when the unification of the crimes took place, when James VI of Scotland, known as James I in England, who was already King of Scotland, also became the King of England and Ireland. James soon moved his court to London and established the Royal Postal Service between London and Edinburgh to keep in contact with the Scottish Privy Council. Although James, who was the son of Mary, Queen of Scots, took the first step towards the unification of the two kingdoms, politically the two kingdoms remained separate. One cannot talk about the 1707 Act of Union without talking about Scotland's failed attempt to establish a colony called New Caledonia in Panama, known as the Darien Scheme. The idea was to establish an overland route that would connect the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, allowing traders to use the New Caledonian services to move their goods on to land and across to the Pacific side of modern Panama. This service was intended to serve a similar function to the later Panama Canal, which wasn't built until 1914, in the sense that it would facilitate trade and save ships having to take the perilous journey, especially in the 17th century, around the bottom arc of South America. The colony of New Caledonia was a total disaster, however, only after a few years, pressure from the English government and the Spanish Empire, in addition to disease and ill-discipline among the ranks, meant that the colony came to an end after a siege by Spanish forces in 1700. The company of Scotland trading to Africa and the Indies, the financial company that was created in 1695 for ventures such as the Darien Scheme, was left in tatters. The problem was that nearly 20% of money circulated in Scotland had been invested into this company, and many normal Scots had invested in this company. By 1707, the company of Scotland was dissolved and defunct. Although I am going to make a video exclusively on the Darien Scheme in the future, it is clear for the purposes of this video that this was an embarrassing and financially devastating venture, and helped to pressure Scotland into signing the Acts of Union in 1707, less than a decade after landing in Panama. Interestingly, one of the intellectual architects of this scheme, William Patterson, went on to become an advocate of union with England, and was one of the founders of the newly created Bank of England. There is also another line of argument that asks whether Scottish representatives were bribed into merging with England. As a line from Robert Burns' poem, such a parcel of rogues in a nation states, we are bought and sold for English gold. Is there any truth to this, however? Well, just like today, corruption is the currency of politics, and many so-called Scottish representatives were probably incentivised to get the merger over the line. Various factors went into the merger of Scotland and England, however, with both countries having a variety of reasons and pressures. In the interest of simplifying, however, the dire financial situation in Scotland was probably the chief reason for its acquiescence to the merger. For England, they wanted to control the British Isles and secure the Northern Frontier, and this merger helped London project power globally under the banner of the British Empire for centuries to come, with many Scots benefiting economically from this reality. Glasgow, after all, became the second city of the British Empire.