The un-United Kingdom: after more than 300 years of union, is Scotland ready to declare independence?

• Author: Smith, Patricia
• Position: Cover story

Scotland has been part of the United Kingdom for more than 300 years--and that's long enough if you ask Euan Ingram, a senior at the University of Glasgow.

"We want to strike out on our own on the world stage," says Ingram, a supporter of Scotland's independence movement. "It's a fallacy that we need England to survive--I don't buy that at all."

But 20-year-old Kirsten MacQuarrie, who's also a senior at the school, thinks independence would be a mistake.

"It would be a regressive step for Scotland," she says. "In this era of globalization, the objective should be to maximize connections with other nations, rather than to retreat into smaller groups."

The rest of Scotland is similarly divided about whether it should remain part of the United Kingdom--along with England, Wales, and Northern Ireland--or become an independent nation for the first time since the early 18th century. Scotland's leader, First Minister Alex Salmond, who favors secession, wants to have a referendum and let Scottish voters decide.

Even though Scotland has only 5 million of the 63 million people in the U.K., its departure would raise a critical question: Would the rest of the United Kingdom hold together if Scotland left?

Rising Support

There's been talk of Scottish independence for decades, but support for secession appears to be on the rise: Most polls put it at about 30 percent of Scotland's electorate.

Tensions between Scotland and England go back 2,000 years (see Key Dates, right). In 122 A.D., the Romans controlled most of present-day England and Wales. But the Emperor Hadrian gave up on subduing the Scottish tribes to the north; instead, he built a 75-mile wall to keep the "barbarians" out of Roman Britain. (Much of the wall still exists today.)

By the 11th century, Scotland's tribes had come together to form a kingdom. From the start, England was Scotland's greatest rival, periodically trying to gain control of its northern neighbor.

After coexisting under the same king for a century, a bankrupt Scotland agreed in 1707 to enter a union with England, in which Scotland gave up independence in return for access to English markets.

Even at the time, the union was denounced as a sellout. "We are bought and sold for English gold," wrote the great Scottish poet Robert Burns.

Scotland prospered under what eventually became the United Kingdom, but it has always maintained a distinct culture: Men wearing kilts, playing bagpipes, and flying the blue-and-white Scottish...