Portal:Scotland/Selected article/Week 20, 2016

The Treaty of Union is the name given to the agreement that led to the creation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, the political union of the Kingdom of England (which included Wales) and the Kingdom of Scotland, which took effect on 1 May 1707. The details of the Treaty were agreed on 22 July 1706, and separate Acts of Union were then passed by the parliaments of England and Scotland to ratify the Treaty and put it into effect.

The idea of uniting the two sovereign states had been widely discussed since the Union of the Crowns in 1603, when King James VI of Scotland inherited the English throne from his double first cousin twice removed, Queen Elizabeth I. Fear of Scottish cooperation with France or in a French invasion was a constant concern in England. Three previous attempts to unite the two countries by Acts of Parliament, in 1606, 1667, and 1689 were unsuccessful, although the political and economic circumstances at the start of the 18th century were such that the Scottish political establishment, many of whom had lost large sums of money in the ill-fated Darién scheme which had failed due to administrative incompetence and military opposition from Spain, supported the idea, despite its being deeply unpopular among the Scottish population at large. The English had foreseen the political problems and refused to provide financial support, which meant that Scotland was forced to fund the venture alone.