 Did the Highland Clearances destroy the Scottish clan system? Well sort of, but it's not that simple. Few events in Scottish history had such a profound impact as the Highland Clearances. Not only on the Scottish clan system, but the resulting immigration from Scotland is one of the key reasons why so many people of Scottish heritage live in places such as the United States, Canada and Australia to name a few. Now I know that many people that watch this channel are based in America, in Canada and Australia, in New Zealand and various other places around the world. But if you have a story of the Highland Clearances and your family heritage, please let me know in the comments below. I would be fascinated to read these stories. So on a very high level, the Highland Clearances were the first eviction of numerous inhabitants in the Highlands and the Western Isles of Scotland, beginning in the 18th century and moving into the 19th century. People were forced to leave their land, land that their families had occupied, their clans had occupied for hundreds of years in some instances, and their cottages and their places where they lived were burned, literally burned to the ground. And one of the main reasons cited for this was to make room for more sheep, as sheep was considered more profitable than people. The Highland Clearances also had a profound impact on the Highland way of life and the clan system, but the destruction of the clan system in Scotland did not start with the Highland Clearances. It started hundreds of years prior to this. The story starts with this guy. What the hell is he wearing, eh? Imagine walking down the earth part of Glasgow today with that on. He ruled as the King of Scotland as James VI, from 1567, and King of England and Ireland as James I. From the Union of the Scottish and English Crimes on the 24th of March, 1603, until his death in 1625. So it's quite confusing that James VI, also known as James I, has two names. He obviously wasn't thinking about a YouTuber in 2023. So for this video, I'm simply going to refer to him as James I or just James. When James I ascended to the English throne in 1603, he immediately moved to Westminster, he moved to London, and only visited Scotland again once more before his death in 1625. Traitor. For any Irish viewers as well, it was under his reign that the Ulster plantation began. James I was very suspicious of Highland clans, and when we tried to control these clans and control the North in general, was demanding that clan chiefs would go on extended breaks, extended trips away from their people. The reason for this was to chime break in the connection between the clan chiefs and his people, as he basically wanted the people of the Highlands to pledge allegiance to their King as opposed to their clan chief. Official documents from the time described the people of the Highlands as void of knowledge who were prone to all kinds of barbarous and beast-style cruelties. The Gaelic language became known in the time of James I as Ayrs or Irish, implying that it was foreign in nature. In 1597, the McLeod clan chiefs were served papers from the government, stating that despite their centuries long feudal tenure of the Isle of Lewis, the lack of legal paperwork exposed the lands to claims from the Crown. This stemmed from an act of parliament requiring all Highland clan chiefs to provide legal ownership of their land. The following year, James I authorised the Gentleman Adventures of Fife to civilise the most barbarous Isle of Lewis. These were a group of eleven noblemen slash colonists, largely from Easter and Fife awarded rights from King James I to colonise the Isle of Lewis. As you can see, the cracks were beginning to show. The crime was going after the clans in a very meaningful way. There had been previous seizures of land down through the centuries, but it was getting serious at this point. The next pivotal event in the decline of the clan system, however, took place in 1745, when channels Edward Stewart, known as the young pretender, or Bonnie Prince Charlie, led the Fifth Jacobite Rebellion that the House of Stewart had undertaken in an attempt to reclaim the British throne. Charles's grandfather was James II, who had been disposed during the Glorious Revolution of 1688-89. When he was removed by William of Orange, yes, that's King Billy, and his wife, Mary II of England. Charles had one support amongst the Scottish Highlanders to battle the English and many Scottish Lowlanders for the British Crown. After some initial success, the Jacobite rebellion of 1745 was eventually defeated at the Battle of Culloden on April 16th 1746. So I'm actually going to make a video on location at the Battle of Culloden, hopefully in the next few weeks, as soon as it stops raining, which may be a while in Scotland. In the weeks and months after the Battle of Culloden, over 1000 Highlanders were hunted and killed. And aftermath of the Battle of Culloden, the British government waged complete warfare against the Highland way of life and the Gaelic culture, imposing numerous restrictive laws, including the 1747 Act of Prescription, also known as Disarming the Highlands Act, the latest attempt to disarm the Highlands. In this time, Highland dress was banned and tartan coats were banned, other than for officers and soldiers of the British army. Any Highlander wearing Highland dress was to be imprisoned and repeat offenders were to be transported to any of His Majesty's plantations beyond the seas, there to remain for a space of seven years. The government also cleared the way for outside forces to control the land of the Highlands. The Heritable Jurisdictions of Scotland Act 1746 was passed, an act for taking away and abolishing the heritable jurisdictions in Scotland, and for restoring such jurisdictions to the crown. Judicial rights that were held by Scottish heritors were a significant source of power, especially for clan chiefs, since it gave them a law's measure of control over their tenants. So to put this simply, after the Battle of Culloden, the British crown came to take away, once and for all, the land, the arms and the culture of the Highlanders. It was complete warfare against the Highlanders of Scotland. The message was clear, either submit, die or leave. New landlords moved into the Highlands and they set to replicate the agricultural models that were seen in the Lowlands. And this speaks to another crucial part of the story, the split between the Highlands and the Lowlands in 18th century Scotland. By the 18th century, the Lowlands were more urbanised and anglicised, compared to the rural and gaelic-speaking Highlands that still had a clan system. Members of the clan lived together in agricultural townships that functioned like collectives or joined tenancy forums. The land was controlled by the chief, but at least from him, by tax men, who rented it to tenant farmers, who in turn employed quotas to help cultivate it. The new landlords that moved into the Highlands believed that sheep were more profitable than people, partly due to the wool trade that had exploded around this time. What followed was the possible removal of an entire people from the land. Some Highlanders and some clans had lived in the same cottages for 500 years, down through the generations, and suddenly they were turfed out and their cottages were set ablaze. There are numerous stories of people not escaping their cottages before they were burned. Two of the most controversial figures were the Duchess and Duke of Sutherland, who evicted thousands of people off their lands in the early 19th century. In general, during the Highland clearances, it is estimated that around 70,000 Highlanders emigrated between the 1760s and 1803, while other sources show that over 150,000 people were forced off their lands from 1783 to 1881. Many people were forced to coastal areas, where they were forced to work on farms of barely cultivatable land, and had to supplement their income to make ends meet by smelting kelp and fishing as well. Shortly after however, famine hit in the form of the Highland potato blight during the mid 19th century. For many, this was the final straw. They took what little possessions they had left along with their family members, and went in search of a better life to places such as America, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and other places. Some went voluntarily, whilst others were sold as indentured servants. The Highland clearances were the final nail in the clan coffin, but there had been numerous nails prior to this. The British throne had waged complete warfare on the Highland clans, and the throne ultimately won. By the end of the Highland clearances, the Scottish clan system was a shadow of itself, and the Highland way of life was destroyed to a lost degree. It was not all lost, however. Many emigrated to the likes of the United States, to Canada, to Australia, to New Zealand and other places, took their clan name, their heritage and parts of their way of life with them. We still see remnants of this heritage in many parts of the world, the United States, Canada, Australia, etc. that still have Highland games, and still have various other celebrations of that Scottish heritage. Like I said at the start of this video, it'd be interesting to hear people that are living in different parts of the world, but have Scottish heritage. Have you any stories of the Highland clearances in your family histories? Please let me know in the comments below. Speaking of Scotland and clans, however, why did Scotland have clans, and why did Scottish clans evolve in such a distinct manner? To find out, please click here. Thanks for watching. If you would like to support this work through Patreon and other means, they will be in the description below. Thanks to everyone who does support this work, please subscribe and hit the bell, and tell your friends and family about this channel, and please let me know your thoughts in the comments below as well. Thanks again for watching, and I'll see you next time.