Military Governors and Imperial Frontiers C. 1600-1800: A Study of Scotland and Empires

This volume examines Scotland’s experience of and reaction to European expansion between c. 1600-1800. Although Scotland lacked an independent empire in the seventeenth century, it gained unfettered access to the global empire of England after 1707. The volume argues that, beneath this seemingly stark discontinuity, there lay considerable continuity. Using a series of case studies on Scottish governors serving in the empires of Denmark-Norway, Weden, and their eighteenth century Russian and British equivalents, it highlights the previously underestimated chronological and geographic extent of Scotland’s engagement in European expansion. It concludes that a blend of informal networks of kinship and local association complemented the official status of Scottish governors and produced a relatively distinctive and effective strategy for participating in imperialism.

Andrew Mackillop, Ph.D. (1969) in Scottish History, University of Glasgow, is a Lecturer in History at the University of Aberdeen. He recently published the monograph More Fruitful than the Soil: Army, Empire and the Scottish Highlands, 1715-1815 (East Linton, 2000) and is co-editor of the volume Fighting for Identity: Scottish Military Experience, c. 1550-1900 (Brill, 2002).

Steve Murdoch, Ph.D. (1998) in British Scandinavian History, University of Aberdeen, lectures in Scottish History at the University of St Andrews. He recently published the monography Britain, Denmark-Norway and the House of Stuart 1603-1660: A Diplomatic and Military Analysis (East Linton, 2000) and edited Scotland and the Thirty Years War 1618-1648 (Brill, 2001). He is also co-editor of the volume Fighting for Identity: Scottish Military Experience, c. 1550-1900 (Brill, 2002).