 When you think of Scotland, various things come to mind, but colonial power is usually not one of them, well think again. In the 17th century, Scotland tried to colonise part of the Americas, they must have been drunk. To be more specific, Scotland tried to establish a colony known as New Caledonia, in the Isthmus of Panama, known as the Darian Scheme. The colony was built in modern northeastern Panama, in the territory of the Guna Yalla, an indigenous territory inhabited by the Guna people. The idea was to create an overland route that would connect the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, allowing traders to use the New Caledonian services to move goods over land, and then load them on ships at the Pacific side of Panama. This would avoid ships having to take the perilous journey around the Ark, the bottom Ark of South America, in order to get to the Pacific Ocean and to the Far East. This service essentially would have served in a similar function to the Panama Canal today, which wasn't built until about 1914. With the volume of trade in the 17th century, if those Scots had effectively implemented the Darian Scheme, they would have been incredibly wealthy, given the volume of trade through that land, and they were obviously going to take a fee or a cut for moving goods across land to the other side of Panama. The intellectual architect of this plan was a man called William Patterson, whose main claim to fame was one of the founders of the Bank of England, an interesting fact for a man who was born in Dumfrieshire in Scotland. At the age of 17, however, Patterson moved to the Bahamas for a period, and it was during this time that Patterson had the idea of the Darian Scheme. A few years later, however, Patterson returned to London, and he made his fortune in part through the slave trade in the West Indies as well as starting a company that supplied water to London. During his time in London, Patterson had met a sailor called Lionel Wafer, a sailor who told stories of a paradise in the Isthmus of Panama with beautiful bays, friendly locals and arable fertile land, a place called Darian. This further sparked Patterson's imagination. He first turned, however, not to his native Scots, but to the Holy Roman Empire and the Dutch Republic, an abode to establish a colony in Panama. These proved unsuccessful. He soon turned to his native Scotland, however, where, during that time and around that time, Scotland had been home to famine, war and economic challenges, and they were in need of fresh new innovative ideas. This idea soon found a home in Scotland, and there was a rush to invest in the company of Scotland trading to Africa and the Indies, founded in 1695 to fund the venture. The scheme immediately had its enemies, however. The Spanish and the English East India Company felt threatened by this move. And the English East India Company even went so far as to lobby the English Parliament, forcing English investors to withdraw from the venture altogether. Lobbying isn't just a new thing. On phase, Patterson simply turned to the Scottish people and managed to raise an astonishing £400,000 in just six months, equivalent to over £50 million in today's money. The Darian chest, which was used by the company to store money and goods, literally looks like something out of Game of Thrones. The money was put to good use, however, building five ships. The St Andrew, the Caledonian, the Endeavour, the Dolphin and the Unicorn. Let's face it, some of these names are a bit cheesy, but it was the 17th century, so we can let them off. The first expedition sailed from Leith on the east coast of Scotland to have now been spotted by English warships, and arrived in the Darian in modern Panama on the 2nd of November 1698. They soon went to work and built the fort of St Andrew, their defensive stronghold, equipped with 50 cannons. Nearby, they began building huts and warehouses to form New Edinburgh, which was to become the main settlement of New Caledonia. The locals, however, were quite friendly to the new settlers, new colonisers, but they didn't buy the combs and trinkets that the Scots initially hoped they would buy, as the Scots were trying to generate a bit revenue. Agriculture also proved more difficult than they anticipated, and in the summer, only months after arriving in the Darian, a severe warm spell left many dead. The Scots, even in the 17th century, weren't great in the sun. Soon after arriving, only months after arriving, the Scots had to abandon the colony and return home to Scotland. Only 300 of the initial 1200 survived, and only one ship of the initial five arrived back in Scotland. Although the first expedition was a total disaster, the news of the sh** show in Panama did not reach Scotland until the 2nd expedition had set sail. Those colonisers or settlers who arrived in Panama in the 2nd expedition found New Edinburgh abandoned, and the colony incomplete tatters. Some even complained on arrival that they did not come to build a new colony, they wanted to be part of an existing colony. With the colony in tatters, the Scots of the 2nd expedition had another fear immediately on arrival, the Spanish. Fueled by this fear, they decided ultimately to attack the Spanish fort, a Spanish position nearby. They must have had too much tequila at that point. Fueled however by Dutch courage, they managed to have some success it seems initially. The Spanish at that time had fever running through their camp, and this soon affected the Scots as well. Ultimately however, a few thousand or few hundred Scots in Panama, far away from home, felt the wrath of the Spanish Empire. The Spanish retaliated and seized the fort of St Andrews for around a month. Many Scots died, through fever mainly to be honest, but also through this siege of St Andrews, the fort of St Andrews in New Caledonia. The Scots eventually surrendered, and the Spanish let the few hundred Scots that were still alive leave. The 2nd expedition had not fared any better than the 1st, perhaps even more devastating and embarrassing for Scotland. Needless to say, the colony of New Caledonia was a total disaster. Pressure from the English and the Spanish forces, ill-disciplined among the ranks and disease, had caused the Scots to leave, completely leave the colony and the idea of a colony only a couple years after arriving, with the Spanish siege in 1700 being the final straw. The company of Scotland trading to Africa and the Indies was in complete tatters. The problem was that 20% of the money circulating in Scotland at that point was wrapped up in this company. This company that was soon going bankrupt. Inevitably by 1707, the company trading to Africa and the Indies was completely defunct and dissolved. In Scotland there was various attempts to try and revise or recover some reputation and finances after the Darien scheme fiasco. Yet many didn't want to risk an all-out war between Scotland and Spain. The embarrassment and the financial losses to Scotland was one major pressure for why Scotland eventually merged with England in the Act of Union of 1707, which legally tied Scotland, England and Wales that was already tied to England into one United Kingdom. Scotland and England had had a shared monarchy for around 100 years prior to that. Yet the Darien scheme was essentially the final nail in the coffin of Scottish independence, Scottish through independence as a kingdom. And in 1707, May the 1st of 1707, Scotland and England, the Parliaments of Scotland and England, signed the Act of Union into force, unifying politically unifying the two countries, the two kingdoms into the United Kingdom alongside Wales as well. The Act of Union of course survives to today. Thanks for watching. Please support this work through Patreon, buyingmeacoffee.com and also PayPal. All the links are in the description below. Subscribe and hit the bell. Thanks again for watching. See you next time.