Colonisation in a Suit

There is a comforting story told about Britain.

It says the United Kingdom is a voluntary family of nations.

It says empire is over.

It says Scotland, Wales, and Ireland are partners in a union, not victims of conquest.

This story is tidy.

It is also wrong.

Empire Didn’t End — It Came Home

The British Empire is usually discussed as something that happened elsewhere — India, Africa, the Caribbean, Asia. Ships. Flags. Governors. Violence. Resistance.

But the truth is simpler and more uncomfortable:

The English monarchy perfected empire first at home, then exported the model abroad.

What Britain did overseas was not an anomaly.

It was a scaled version of what had already been done to its nearest neighbours.

England Was a Colonial Power — Not “Britain”

Let’s be precise.

The imperial engine was built by English monarchy and later branded as “British.”

That branding matters. It hides who held power and who was absorbed into it.

England:

• Controlled the crown

• Controlled Parliament

• Controlled foreign policy

• Controlled military force

• Controlled economic rules

Everyone else was managed.

Scotland: Colonised by Contract

Scotland was not “invited” into union.

It was:

• A sovereign state

• With its own parliament

• With its own crown

• With its own international standing

Colonisation is not just about land.

It is about identity destruction.

In Scotland:

• Gaelic was actively suppressed

• Children were punished for speaking it

• Education systems devalued it

• Economic survival required abandoning it

Traditional Highland dress and weapons were:

• Criminalised

• Restricted

• Treated as symbols of rebellion

Disarming a population culturally and physically is a classic imperial move.

Scotland was no exception.

Then came economic pressure, strategic isolation, and elite capture.

The Acts of Union 1707 did not represent popular will.

They represented:

• Bribery

• Threat

• Economic coercion

• Elite self-preservation

Scotland lost its parliament.

Decision-making moved south.

Resources flowed outward.

That is not partnership.

That is annexation with paperwork.

Colonisation does not stop being colonisation because it was done “legally.”

Law has always been one of empire’s favourite weapons.

Wales: Absorbed, Erased, Rebranded

Wales was colonised earlier and more brutally:

• Its laws abolished

• Its governance erased

• Its language suppressed

• Its identity folded into “England”

There was no pretence of equality.

Wales was absorbed, then forgotten — the quietest form of empire.

Ireland: The Colony Britain Can’t Pretend Away

Ireland exposes the lie most clearly.

Plantations.

Land theft.

Famine under export.

Military occupation.

Partition.

If Ireland was colonised — and no serious historian disputes that — then the question becomes unavoidable:

Why do Scotland and Wales get treated as exceptions?

The answer isn’t history.

It’s marketing.

Autonomy Is Not Freedom

Modern defenders of the UK point to devolved parliaments as proof that colonisation is “over.”

This is sleight of hand.

Autonomy that:

• Can be overridden

• Can be limited

• Can be removed

• Does not include sovereignty

…is not self-determination.

It is managed consent.

Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland do not control:

• Foreign policy

• Defence

• Immigration

• Currency

• Trade agreements

• Constitutional authority

Those powers sit where they always have: in London.

The Union Is a Brand, Not a Reality

The word “union” suggests equality.

The structure does not deliver it.

A union where:

• One parliament dominates

• One electorate decides for all

• One centre extracts and redistributes

• One narrative defines history

…is not a union.

It is an empire that learned to smile.

Why This Still Matters

Colonial relationships don’t disappear when the violence quiets down.

They persist through:

• Economic dependency

• Cultural framing

• Political limitation

• Narrative control

That is why the UK fights so hard against:

• Independence movements

• Historical re-examination

• Constitutional clarity

Because once people recognise colonisation at home, the moral authority of the empire collapses entirely.

The Bottom Line

England was a colonial empire.

Not just overseas — but internally.

Scotland, Wales, and Ireland were not partners in empire.

They were its first proving ground.

The fact that colonisation came wrapped in law, ceremony, and shared flags does not make it less real — it makes it more effective.

This isn’t ancient history.

It’s an unfinished one.

“But Scotland Benefited from Empire” — The Final Lie

Yes, some Scots benefited.

So did some Indians. So did some Irish landlords. So did some African intermediaries.

Empire does not enrich populations — it enriches collaborators.

The average Highlander:

• Lost land

• Lost language

• Lost community

• Lost autonomy

• Was exported, absorbed, or erased

That is not benefit.

That is survival under domination.

Why This Is Still Denied

Because acknowledging Scotland as colonised destroys a comforting hierarchy:

• England as ruler

• Ireland as victim

• Scotland as partner

That hierarchy collapses once you recognise that Scotland was both exploited and instrumentalised, just like other colonised nations — used when useful, suppressed when inconvenient.

The tools were the same:

• Law

• Economics

• Military force

• Cultural erasure

• Population control

Only the branding differed.

The Honest Conclusion:

Scotland was not gently joined.

It was systematically neutralised.

Not always with chains.

Often with law.

Sometimes with fire.

Always with intent.

The Highland Clearances, forced emigration, indentured servitude, military occupation, and cultural suppression were not side notes to British history — they were internal colonisation in action.

And the reason this still matters is simple:

A colonised people who are taught they were never colonised are far easier to govern.

But…

That story is finally cracking.