Description

Immediate dispatch from Somerset. Nice older book in great condition. Pages in good condition. No notes or highlighting. See images. Fantastic book.

About the book >.>.> A Scottish traveller may today visit any corner of the globe and reasonably expect to find a number of compatriots residing there. Indeed it seems that there are more full-blooded Scots and those claiming Scottish descent scattered around the world than there are remaining in their distant but fondly remembered homeland. As one observer notes ‘the Wandering Scot has become as much a part of history as the Wandering Jew or the Wandering Scholar’.? The Caledonian diaspora began in earnest of course with the Highland clearances during the decades following the Hanoverian triumph over the Jacobites at Culloden in 1746 when many of the displaced crofters were obliged to seek a new life overseas. In later years further waves of Scots moved abroad driven by ambition rather than by dispossession or abject poverty. Some of these emigrants rose to high positions in colonial society becoming the administrators and financiers who played so central a role in the expansion of the Empire; others sought their fortunes outside Great Britain’s domain in the developing United States. But numerous Scots headed elsewhere. In spite of the awareness of their overseas brethren that has long existed among Scots who stayed at home those who ventured to Latin America are seldom remembered. Three identifiable factors have contributed to this neglecte 1) South America is still a largely forgotten and much misunderstood continent from the Northern European perspective; 2) although their economic and cultural influence became considerable the number of Scots ventur- ing there was always small compared to other areas; 3) the majority of those who made the voyage did so as sojourners rather than immigrants that is they travelled there to undertake a job of work and moved on after its completion. (LL)