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| Scotland punching above its weight. |
In history timing is everything. When Scotland was forced by mosquitoes to throw in its lot with England, the timing couldn’t have been better. At the time, the power of the previously great Spanish Empire was depleted; and French power, although a threat for another hundred years or so, had been held in check by the alliance of Europe’s then beta powers (England, Austria, and Holland).
Although Scotland was small in population terms, adding the country and its hardy, adventurous, and canny people to the stolid, dependable English mass created an entity that was big enough and talented enough to get its nose in front. Among other possible alpha nations, Russia, of course, at that time, was too backward, and Germany still had a long road to go to achieve unification.
