Colonialism welcomed by some
A smart guy I know said to me that the union between Scotland and England was not colonial in nature, because many Scottish people welcomed it. The problem with that is we can find NO example of colonialism in the world, looking at it from that definition. Since in all, or 99% of cases, when some invading force came in to colonise another country, there were some groups who welcome them, collaborated, or benefitted from working with the colonial power. that was standard operating procedure in the British empire. For example, playing different Indian princes off each other. Therefore Scotland is not unique in that way - some groups, some people, did welcome union or even domination by England, worked with that and benefitted from it. As did some native Americans, and Bengal princes and Chinese warlords. Yet it is still relevant to see it as a colonial type of relationship.
A smart guy I know said to me that the union between Scotland and England was not colonial in nature, because many Scottish people welcomed it. The problem with that is we can find NO example of colonialism in the world, looking at it from that definition. Since in all, or 99% of cases, when some invading force came in to colonise another country, there were some groups who welcome them, collaborated, or benefitted from working with the colonial power. that was standard operating procedure in the British empire. For example, playing different Indian princes off each other. Therefore Scotland is not unique in that way - some groups, some people, did welcome union or even domination by England, worked with that and benefitted from it. As did some native Americans, and Bengal princes and Chinese warlords. Yet it is still relevant to see it as a colonial type of relationship.