Migrants to and from Britain

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James I wanted to secure Ulster and prevent another rebellion like the Nine Years' War by filling it with loyal Protestant settlers. He also wanted to stop Catholic Spain using Ireland as a base to attack England.

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Source A is very useful for studying the reasons for the Highland Clearances because it explains them from the point of view of the people who carried them out. James Loch planned the Sutherland clearances as the chief agent of the Marquess of Stafford and the Countess of Sutherland, so he knew exactly why they were done. He gives two main reasons. The first is profit: the interior of Sutherland was 'better suited to sheep', which brought 'higher rents'. This matches my knowledge that sheep farmers, often from the Lowlands or northern England, paid far more rent than the small tenants of the glens. The second is the idea of 'improvement': Loch argues that the people lived in poverty and hunger in the glens and would be better off on the coast, with crofts and work in fishing. This reflects a common belief of the time that the traditional Highland way of life was backward, and the Staffords did spend large sums on roads, harbours and new villages such as Helmsdale.

However, the provenance means the source must be used carefully. Loch published the book in 1820, after the clearances had been strongly criticised and after the factor Patrick Sellar had been tried in 1816 for culpable homicide during the Strathnaver evictions. His purpose was to defend his employers and himself, so he presents a policy that increased the landlords' income as an act of kindness. He says nothing about tenants being evicted against their will, about houses being burned, or about the poor land of the coastal crofts, which led many people to emigrate to Canada.

The source also does not mention some wider reasons for the Clearances, such as the collapse of the clan system after Culloden, which turned chiefs into commercial landlords, or the later effects of the potato famine of 1846.

Overall, Source A is very useful as evidence of the landlords' own reasons, profit and 'improvement', because it comes from the man who planned the Sutherland clearances. But it is not reliable about the effects on the tenants, because it was written to justify those clearances.

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The emigration of Ulster Scots to America was significant first because it showed that the plantation of Ulster led to new migrations. The Ulster Scots were mostly the descendants of Scottish Presbyterians who had settled in Ulster during the plantation and in the 1690s. In the 18th century many faced rising rents when their leases ended, poor harvests and hard times in the linen trade. As Presbyterians they also faced discrimination, since the Test Act of 1704 excluded them from public office. From 1717 they emigrated in waves, often through Philadelphia, and well over 100,000 left during the century, some as indentured servants.

Secondly, the Ulster Scots were significant for the expansion of the American colonies. Many moved to the frontier, settling western Pennsylvania and then moving down the Great Valley into Virginia and the Carolinas. They pushed settlement onto Native American land and were often in conflict with Native peoples; in 1763, for example, the Paxton Boys in Pennsylvania attacked and killed peaceful Conestoga people. Frontier settlers like these resented the British government's Proclamation of 1763, which tried to stop settlement west of the Appalachians.

Thirdly, and linked to this, the Ulster Scots played a part in Britain's loss of its American colonies. Having left Ireland partly because of discrimination by the British state and the Anglican Church, many had little loyalty to Britain, and large numbers supported the Revolution and fought in the Continental Army. So a migration that began with the plantation of Ulster in the 17th century helped to bring about the end of British rule in America in the 18th.

In the long term, the Ulster Scots shaped American society and identity, especially in the South and the Appalachian region. Many famous Americans had Ulster Scots ancestry, including President Andrew Jackson, whose parents emigrated from County Antrim in 1765. Their story shows how migration to and from Britain and Ireland connected the history of Britain, Ireland and America.

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War has played a major part in shaping the identity of the people of Britain, especially in creating a sense of English and then British national identity before 1945. However, migration has been at least as important, because the people of Britain have been shaped by waves of newcomers from Viking times to the present, and religion and empire have also been central to how they see themselves.

War helped to create English identity in the first place. Alfred's wars against the Vikings in the 9th century, and the reconquest of the Danelaw by his successors, helped to create the idea of a single English kingdom, united under Athelstan by 927. The Hundred Years' War (1337-1453) strengthened English national feeling: victories such as Agincourt in 1415 became sources of pride, and English replaced French as the language of government, while the loss of France by 1453 turned England away from the continent. In the 16th century, war with Catholic Spain and the defeat of the Armada in 1588 made Protestantism and sea power central to English identity, and Drake became a national hero.

War also helped to create a British identity. After the Union of England and Scotland in 1707, more than a century of wars against Catholic France united English, Scots and Welsh as 'Britons', celebrated in songs like 'Rule, Britannia!' (1740) and in heroes such as Nelson. Highland regiments, recruited after Culloden, became symbols of Britain's army. In the 20th century the two world wars, especially Dunkirk and the Blitz in 1940, created a powerful memory of Britain standing together, which still influences how many British people see their country and its relationship with Europe.

However, migration has shaped the people of Britain even more fundamentally. The Vikings and the Normans changed the English language, place names and the ruling class. Flemish weavers, Huguenots, Irish and Jewish migrants added to Britain's population, skills and culture. After 1948 migrants from the Caribbean, India, Pakistan and Bangladesh made Britain a multicultural society, seen in the Notting Hill Carnival and in buildings such as 59 Brick Lane, which has been a Huguenot church, a synagogue and a mosque. Emigration to Ulster, North America and Australia also spread British identity around the world.

Other factors were important too. Religion, especially Protestantism after the Reformation, was at the heart of British identity for centuries, while the Catholic Irish and later Muslim, Hindu and Sikh communities added other identities. Empire shaped identity through pride in imperial power, through everyday goods such as sugar and tea, and through the Commonwealth. Government decisions, from the Acts of Union of 1707 to devolution in 1999 and membership of the EEC in 1973 and its end in 2020, have also changed how people see themselves.

Overall, war has been the main factor in shaping British national identity - the sense of being English or British in contrast to enemies such as France and Spain - for most of the period. But it has not been the main factor in shaping the identity of the people of Britain as a whole, because migration has made the population itself, and has done most to create the diverse, multicultural Britain of today.