The Suppressed Side of the Scottish Enlightenment

They tell you the Scottish Enlightenment was a product of Union.

They don't tell you what was lost - or what was silenced.

This is the story of the Enlightenment that could have been & how Empire shaped the one we got.

🧵👇1/ The official version celebrates Hume, Smith, Robertson, Reid.

But why is Sir James Steuart — author of the first full treatise on political economy in English — barely mentioned?

Because Steuart was a Jacobite.

And that tells you everything.

2/

Jacobitism: The Suppressed Root of Anti-Colonial Socialism?

You’ve been told the Jacobites were doomed romantics.

But what if some were the first anti-colonial republicans of the modern age?

A suppressed revolution that shaped the modern world - & even Karl Marx.

🧵👇1/ Sir James Steuart Denham - Jacobite exile, political economist, and key influence on Marx.

Expelled from Scotland after the ’45, he wrote from the margins of Empire.

His Principles of Political Economy (1767) predates Smith — but was erased.

2/

🧵 Why the 1714 Coronation of George I Led Scotland to Rise Against the Union in 1715

1/ In October 1714, George I was crowned King of Great Britain.
It seemed like a routine ceremony.
But to many in Scotland, it confirmed a grim truth:
The Union was no partnership.
It was annexation.
Within a year, the country rose in revolt. Here's why. 👇🧵

2/

🧵THREAD: The Coronation Oath & the Death of the Union

Since 1707, every British monarch has sworn an oath.
But did you know that oath is English, not British?

The result? A constitutional framework that quietly erased Scotland’s sovereignty.

Let’s unpack this. 👇🧵

1/ The Coronation Oath Act 1688 was passed by the English Parliament.
It was never revised for the new United Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707.

Instead, it was simply carried over, almost word for word.

2/

The furious replies to the attached thread tell us something important.

The British state needs you to believe the Jacobites were backward rebels,not anti-colonial fighters.

Why? Because if that myth falls, the whole foundation of UK Union begins to crack.

Let’s unpack it.

1/

https://twitter.com/SymbolStones/status/1941261987553607720

Here’s what we saw in response to the thread:

– Gatekeeping: Some rushed to remind us only official historians can define the past.
– Downplaying: Others claimed the Jacobites were 'just' Highlanders, or 'just' Catholics.

2/

🧵 The Jacobite Risings Were Mass Anti-Colonial Uprisings - Not Marginal Rebellions

You've been told they were fringe movements.

You've been told Scotland accepted the Union.

You’ve been lied to.

Let’s look at the numbers - and the system that buried them.

🧵👇1/ In 1715, ~22,000 Scots joined the Jacobite army.
Government forces numbered ~11,000.
That means 2 out of every 3 men under arms in Scotland were fighting against the British state.
(Source: Murray Pittock, Scotland and the Exiled Stuarts)

2/

Culloden: The Imperial Lie

Unionists descended on this one like a bunch of maurading Redcoats after a battle - loud, rattled, and ready to rewrite history.

So let’s remind them what actually happened. 👇🧵

1/7

https://twitter.com/SymbolStones/status/1939762603686764990

The British state needed to portray the Jacobites as barbaric.

Because if they weren’t?
Then Culloden was a colonial crime - the violent suppression of a political uprising.

"... Lands & People added to the English Empire.”

So the state created a myth. Let’s look closer. 2/7

The British state shows all the hallmarks of late-stage empire - and Scotland is caught in its grip.

This isn’t metaphor. It’s history repeating. Let’s unpack it. 👇🧵

1/ Late-stage empires rely on force, denial, and memory.

They suppress dissent, extract resources, and mock those who challenge the centre. Legitimacy fades - but control becomes more brittle, not more secure.

Sound familiar?

2/

Ever been debating a Unionist who sounds supremely confident - even when you know they're wrong - and you suddenly start to doubt yourself?

That's not weakness. That’s not lack of evidence.

That's internalised colonialism.

1/ Internalised colonialism is the quiet voice in your head that says:

"They must know more than me"

"Maybe I’ve misunderstood"

"I need to double check my facts again…"

Even when you're quoting verifiable evidence.

Even when they’re bluffing.

2/

Where did Scotland’s money go?

Between 1900–1921, UK records show Scotland raised far more in tax than was ever spent there. The difference - often 60–75% - was siphoned to Westminster as 'Imperial Services."
This was colonial extraction in practice. 👇🧵1/7 In 1911, Scotland raised £22.3m in revenue. Just £7.9m was spent in Scotland.
In 1921, Scotland raised £120m. Only £34m came back. £86m went to England.
This was not redistribution. It was extraction without representation - the hallmark of colonial finance.

2/7

There's a lot more to unpack than the quoted thread below so let's look at the psychological issues/tendencies Unionists exhibit & why they behave as aggressively, unreasonably & closed mindedly as they do.

Lets unpack & arm ourselves against it:

🧵👇👇👇1/

https://twitter.com/SymbolStones/status/1936874712032034880

I've already noted that Unionists often reflect motivated reasoning: the tendency to interpret facts or history in ways that support a preferred conclusion, regardless of contrary evidence as a form of cognitive dissonance management (quoted thread above).

2/

Here’s a constitutional bombshell: in 1707, Queen Anne dissolved the Scottish Parliament by Royal Proclamation, bypassing Scotland’s own constitutional order.

That move was legally invalid & unconstitutional under Scots law.

🧵👇1/ -Unlike England, Scotland’s constitution was unicameral, but sovereignty rested in a separate institution-the Estates of the Realm (nobility, clergy & burgh commissioners)
-These commissioners represented the people-they sent anti-Union petitions from the burghs.

2/

🧵 The Aftermath of the 1707 Union – What Really Happened?

Most people assume Scotland gained prosperity from the Union. But the reality was far darker - one of betrayal, economic decline, and rebellion.

Let’s break it down. 👇

1/ The Union of 1707 was deeply unpopular. Secured by threat of war, blockade & bribes - it was a forced ‘incorporation’, not a union of equals.

2/

A swingeing legal submission to the UN ripping the UK’s foundation myth apart:

"Scotland was nominally incorporated into the so-called "new" state of Great Britain
in 1707 (now the United Kingdom of Great Britain & Northern Ireland) through the Treaty of Union of 1707.

1/17 "However, there was no popular vote, public consultation, or
democratic participation in the process—conditions which, under contemporary international law, would be considered incompatible with the right of peoples to self-
determination."

2/17

Ethnic cleansing by the British Army in the Scottish Highlands, 1746:

“Glorious Fireworks

We're encamped near the ruins of Fort Augustus, our tents among the cattle of a thousand hills, for our parties hourly bring in large droves. Every tent has it's goat or two..."
1/9 "Our fellows grow so fat they'll seem like strangers to a campaign soon.

We're amongst hills, some are 7 miles high. Yet daily we erect pyramids higher than those made of smoke. Thirty houses are now burning in my view. Glorious fireworks!"
2/9

"No battle in British history is more systematically & widely misremembered" Professor Murray Pittock, Glasgow University.

The truth about what really happened at Culloden, a (long) thread with maps:

1/46 Forming up Position [A, B, C, D]

The Jacobite Army forms up between the walls of the Culloden Parks [A] and Culwhiniac Enclosure [B] (outside the current NTS site).

2/46