The Bankrupt Nation

"The Bankrupt Nation - The failed jungle colony that forced a country to sell itself" recounts the tragedy of the Darien Scheme. In the late 1690s, Scotland tried to become a global trading power by establishing a colony called "Caledonia" on the Isthmus of Panama. The nation went all in, investing nearly 20% of its total circulating wealth into the venture. Historian Fiona Black details the disaster that followed. The settlers were decimated by malaria, Spanish attacks, and their own incompetence (they brought wool clothes to the tropics). When the scheme collapsed, Scotland was financially ruined. The desperation was so great that the Scottish elite agreed to the Act of Union in 1707, merging with England largely to secure a bailout for their losses. "The Bankrupt Nation" is a story of high-stakes gambling on a national scale. It shows how a single bad investment decision in a swamp in Central America erased a nation's independence and created the United Kingdom.