Highland Clearances

Historical Context Essay

Brooke McLaughlin Mitchell (Wingate University)
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Concentrated largely within the nineteenth century, the Highland Clearances constituted one of the most significant transformations of Highland life with the removal of many crofters from the land of their hereditary chiefs, the sundering of communal bonds, and the destruction of their cultural tradition.

Although the Clearances began in the 1790s and lasted until the 1880s, they originated in earlier history, particularly in the Jacobite Rebellion and the defeat of the Young Pretender, Charles Edward Stewart, by a combination of North English and Lowland Scottish forces, aided by some Irish, Hessian, and Austrian troops, at the Battle of Culloden in 1746. This victory for Hanoverian Britain signaled the triumph of insurgent market capitalism and modernity over the residual and customary

6866 words

Citation: McLaughlin Mitchell, Brooke. "Highland Clearances". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 03 May 2013 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=195, accessed 19 March 2024.]

195 Highland Clearances 2 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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