The country was originally called Caledonia, the name Scotland deriving from Scotia--a tract settled by the tribe of Scots who had migrated from Ireland. After being independent until 1707, Scotland assented to the Act of Union with England and became an integral part of the United Kingdom. It had no separate legislature until 1999 when the Scottish Parliament was formed; it still has 72 seats in the United Kingdom's House of Commons.   All Scottish peers are entitled to sit in the House of Lords.   Scotland had, until recently, no sovereign executive or political power, yet it retained vestiges of ancient sovereignty in its own legal and educational systems, a national church, and a separate administration.

Despite their diverse origins--including Celts, Angles, and Normans--the Scots in time have been fused into a fairly homogeneous population. English is the principal language; the Church of Scotland (Presbyterian) is the established religion.

Scotland is generally hilly, and it is traditionally divided into three geographic regions from north to south: the Highlands, the Lowlands, and the Southern Uplands. The Highlands are bisected from northeast to southwest by the fault line of the Great Glen, which is occupied by a series of lochs (lakes), of which Loch Ness is the best-known. The North West Highlands lie to the north of the Great Glen, and the more extensive Grampian Mountains lie to the south. The Lowlands region is low by comparison with adjoining areas but is by no means flat. The landscape is varied by series of hills and includes some of Scotland's best areas for arable farming. The Southern Uplands are not as high in elevation as the Highlands or as fractured in appearance.

Glaciation has led to narrow, flat valleys separating table mountains throughout much of the region. Toward the southeast the Uplands open out into the Tweed Valley, which broadens into rich alluvial farmland, and to the southwest they slope toward the Galloway Peninsula.

Most of Scotland's hills and mountains are covered with grasses and shrubs. Peat, which occupies nearly one-tenth of Scotland's total area, is widespread in the lowlands and moors. Heather and bracken are typical large plants of the peat lands.

Scotland's climate is a temperate oceanic one that is milder than might be expected given Scotland's northerly latitude. Tiree (Tyree), in the Inner Hebrides off the western coast of Strathclyde region, has a mean temperature in winter of 41° F (5° C) in the coldest month, whereas Dundee on the east coast has 37° F (3° C). Dundee's mean temperature in the warmest month is 59° F (15° C), and Tiree's 57° F (14° C). Rainfall varies greatly. In the flat Outer Hebrides it does not exceed 40 inches (1,000 mm) a year, while, in the Ben Nevis area in the Highland region, rainfall is 142 inches (3,600 mm). Most of the east coast receives 25 to 32 inches (630 to 810 mm), but some two-thirds of Scotland's surface receives more than 40 inches (1,000 mm).

Until the growth of the North Sea oil industry, development of the Scottish economy had been slow. During the 1970s and early 1980s, however, tens of thousands of jobs were created by onshore oil-related enterprises, such as building oil-production platforms and servicing North Sea operations. In the late 1980s, however, as a result of a continuing depression in world oil prices, petroleum production declined and many of these jobs were lost.

Coal is Scotland's chief mineral resource, and the main mining areas are in Lothian, Fife, and Strathclyde regions. Other minerals that have been worked intermittently include gold, silver, lead, and chromite. Although peat is available to a depth of 2 feet (0.6 m) or more over extensive areas of the country, its economic value is limited. Water is a valuable resource, especially for generating electricity. Scotland also has coal- and oil-fired generating stations, but nuclear installations at Chapelcross, Hunterston, and Dounreay supply about two-fifths of Scotland's total electricity.

Scotland's marine-fishing industry accounts for more than two-thirds of all of the United Kingdom's fish and shellfish catch. Peterhead ranks as the top whitefish landing port of the European Community, and the Grampian region is one of the United Kingdom's main centres of fish processing. Agricultural development is moving toward greater efficiency through mechanization. In the Southern Uplands and the Highlands regions, hill-sheep farming is important, while in the northeast livestock rearing combined with the growing of animal-feed crops predominates. In the southwest, dairy farming is widespread. Wheat and barley are important crops, and specialized kinds of farming flourish in certain areas--e.g., market gardens in East Lothian, raspberry fields in the Tayside region, and tomato farming under glass and the intensive cultivation of fruits in the Clydesdale district, Strathclyde region.

Forestry is also an important industry in Scotland, and one that has helped retain the population in rural areas. The electronics industry has expanded greatly since the 1960s, especially in Fife, Lothian, and Strathclyde region. Automobile manufacturing came to Scotland on a large scale in the early 1960s, while Scottish manufacture of clocks, watches, cash registers, precision instruments, and earth-moving machinery dates from World War II. The textile industry remains vital in the towns of Hawick, Galashiels, Selkirk, Peebles, Glasgow, and Ayr. The steel and shipbuilding industries, once mainstays of Scotland's economy, are now in decline. Printing and brewing are well-established industries in Edinburgh and Glasgow. Scottish ports handle many goods--more imports than exports, with a large proportion of the former for re-export. Air transportation has grown steadily from the major airports at Glasgow, Aberdeen, Prestwick, and Edinburgh.

A total of eight institutions of higher learning are found in Edinburgh (the political and cultural capital), Glasgow, St. Andrews, Aberdeen, Dundee, and Stirling. The annual Edinburgh International Festival has become one of the world's largest cultural events. The Scottish National Orchestra and the Scottish ballet enjoy excellent reputations, while folk songs and music are popular. Scottish writers can choose among three languages: Gaelic, Scots, and English--although English is by far the most prevalent. Scotland also boasts a National Gallery, a National Portrait Gallery, and the Royal Scottish Museum.

History.     Evidence of human settlement in the area later known as Scotland dates from the 3rd millennium BC. By the time of the birth of Christ, the inhabitants were organized into many tribes of diverse origin. Between AD 82 and AD 208 the Romans invaded the region several times but failed to establish a lasting foothold there.

By the middle of the 9th century the separate kingdoms of the region became united into a largely Celtic monarchy that lasted until the end of the reign of Macbeth in 1057.     Under Malcolm III, who followed Macbeth, and his successors, English influence was introduced into the country.    When King Edward I of England attempted to impose direct English rule over Scotland in 1296, a revolt for independence broke out, which ended in 1328, when the English King Edward III recognized Robert Bruce, a leader of the revolt, as King Robert I of Scotland.

The Stuart (Stewart) monarchs who followed Bruce's son, David II, maintained close ties with France, England's enemy. With the onset of the Scottish Reformation led by John Knox, however, French influence and the Catholic church came under attack, and in 1567 the Catholic monarch, Mary, Queen of Scots, was forced to give up the Scottish throne in favour of her infant son, James VI. Thereafter the Presbyterian Church became established as Scotland's national church.

When Elizabeth I, Queen of England, died in 1603, James VI of Scotland, a relative of Elizabeth, succeeded her on the English throne as King James I. Scotland and England remained separate kingdoms under a single monarch--except for the brief period during the English Civil Wars when the monarchy was deposed--until 1707, when the parliaments of both countries passed the Act of Union, which, together with Wales, joined the countries into the Kingdom of Great Britain. As a result of the Act, Scotland dissolved its parliament and sent representatives to the Westminster Parliament, after receiving guarantees of autonomy for Scottish laws and courts and the Presbyterian established church.

When Queen Anne, the last monarch of the house of Stuart, died in 1714, the house of Hanover came to the British throne. Many Highland Scots remained loyal to the Stuart line, however, and rebelled twice, in 1715 and 1745, to attempt to restore various Stuart pretenders to the British throne. Known as the Jacobites, after the Latin name of their leader, James Edward Stuart, the rebels were defeated both times by government forces. The second Jacobite rebellion was the last effort to resist English control, and thereafter the history of Scotland became part of the history of Great Britain.

From the 1820s onward the Industrial Revolution was in full swing in Scotland, and with it came a dramatic increase in the country's population. Shipbuilding, coal mining, and iron and steel production replaced textiles as Scotland's chief industries at this time. The Liberal Party (from the mid-19th century) and then the Labour Party (from the early 20th century) tended to dominate modern Scottish politics. The late 20th century saw a decline in Scotland's traditional heavy industries as the country became a centre of electronics manufacturing and a base for the offshore extraction of petroleum from the North Sea fields. Area 30,418 square miles (78,783 square km). Pop. (1991 prelim.) 4,957,300.