Darien Scheme

The colonization project that becomes known as the Darien Scheme or Darien Disaster is an unsuccessful attempt by the Kingdom of Scotland to become a world trading nation by establishing a colony called 'Caledonia' on the Isthmus of Panama in the late 1690s.

The aim is for the colony to have an overland route that connects the Pacific and Atlantic oceans.

From the beginning the undertaking is beset by poor planning and provisioning, divided leadership, lack of demand for trade goods, devastating epidemics of disease, and failure to anticipate the Spanish Empire's military response. It is finally abandoned in April 1700 after a siege by Spanish forces, which also blockades the harbor.

As the Darien company is backed by about a quarter of the money circulating in Scotland, its failure leaves the Lowlands nobles and landowners – who have suffered a run of bad harvests – almost completely ruined and is an important factor in weakening their resistance to the Act of Union (finally consummated in 1707).

Although the scheme fails, it has been seen as marking the beginning of the country's transformation into a modern nation oriented toward business.

Within a generation, Scotland has one of the most advanced commercial cultures in the world.

The land where the Darien colony was built is virtually uninhabited today.