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Leader of Scotland's Scottish National Party (SNP), Alex Salmond, holds a copy of the party's 'White Paper' during a news conference in Edinburgh - Source: Reuters -
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Scotland's First Minister Alex Salmond published details of a planned referendum on Scottish independence, setting out the case for breaking the 300-year-old union with England.
Here is a timeline on Scotland's relations with
England:
- The crowns of England and Scotland were united in 1603, when
James VI of Scotland succeeded Elizabeth to the English throne as
James I. James and his successors ruled England and Scotland but
each country retained its own parliament, church, laws and coinage
until 1707.
- Late 1600s - England places strict limits on Scotland's trade
with the New World, crippling the Scottish economy.
- Scots launch an ill-fated attempt to set up a colony in what is
now Panama. Scotland invests a significant amount of its capital in
the failed project, known as the Darien Venture.
January 16, 1707 - Scotland's parliament votes for the Treaty of
Union with England.
May 1, 1707 - Act of Union comes into effect.
- England grants Scotland 400,000 pounds to clear debts from the
Darien disaster.
1746 - The pretender to the Scottish throne, Bonnie Prince Charlie,
is defeated by royal troops at the Battle of Culloden, the last
battle fought on British soil.
1759 - National Scottish poet Robert Burns born on January
25.
1783-1881 - Highland Clearances. About 150,000 people are forced
off their land to make way for large-scale sheep farming.
1934 - Scottish National Party is founded after a merger of the
National Party of Scotland and the Scottish Party, and won seats in
the British parliament in 1945 and again in 1967.
March 1979 - A referendum in Scotland fails to produce clear
support for the devolution of power from London to a Scottish
assembly.
1989 - Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's government introduces
hugely unpopular poll tax in Scotland a year before England. The
tax is abolished in 1993.
1997 - In a two-part referendum, 74.3% of Scots vote for a
129-member parliament to administer many aspects of Scottish life,
and 63.5% voted to give it tax-varying powers. The parliament
controls schools, health service, environmental affairs and farm
support programmes.
May 12, 1999 - New parliament convenes. "This was the parliament
adjourned on the 25th of March in 1707 and is hereby reconvened,"
said the SNP's Winnie Ewing, oldest of the new members.
October 9, 2004 - Queen Elizabeth opens Scotland's new parliament
building, which was finished late and cost 430 million pounds, 10
times over budget.
May 16, 2007 - Alex Salmond, leader of the SNP which wants
independence from Britain is elected first minister of Scotland. In
that month's election, the SNP won 47 of the 129 seats in the
Scottish parliament, ending the 50-year dominance in Scotland of
the Labour Party.
- The SNP strikes a deal with the Green Party to build a minority
administration.
November 25, 2009 - Scotland will be given greater tax-raising
powers under the biggest shake-up in the nation's finances for 30
years, Britain says.
November 30, 2009 - Salmond sets out plans in a White Paper on
Scotland's future which could pave the way for a referendum on
independence from England.
