Read this and find out if you’ll be eligible for Scottish passport in 10 days

Santiago, Chile
Anyone who’s ever seen the movie Braveheart has heard of William Wallace, one of the original heroes of Scottish independence.
Though Mel Gibson’s highly fictionalized account was one of the most historically inaccurate movies in modern cinema, Wallace did, in fact, lead Scottish rebels against English invaders. And he died for his cause.
Wallace was severely tortured after being convicted of high treason against King Edward I; he was dragged by horses, hung nearly to the point of death, revived, relieved of his manhood, ritualistically disemboweled, made to watch his entrails set ablaze… then finally beheaded.
Not the way you want to go.
That said, the movement for Scottish independence lived on, and England folded in 1357, ending a 60-year war between the two nations.
For the next 350 years Scotland remained an independent state until… go figure… a financial crisis.
In a desperate attempt to become (almost overnight) a major world trading power in the 17th century, the government of Scotland backed a comically ill-fated attempt to colonize Panama.
It failed miserably. Yet the investment in the Darien Scheme (as it was known) amounted to up to half of Scotland’s total money supply.
When it went bust, Scotland was nearly broke.

This post was published at Sovereign Man on September 9, 2014.