The Darién Scheme of 1698, Scotland's Colonial Gamble That Killed 2,000 and Helped End Its Independence
In 1698 Scotland staked perhaps a quarter of its liquid wealth on founding a trading colony on the Darién isthmus of Panama. Disease, famine, Spanish arms, and an English embargo destroyed two expeditions and some 2,000 lives. The national bankruptcy that followed weighed heavily in Scotland's acceptance of the 1707 Union with England.
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