Between 1830-1930 Scottish people emigrated in large numbers and one of the main reasons for this is the highland Clearances. The Highland Clearances was a mass emigration between 1830-1930 it was when farmers would be kicked off their land by greedy landowners so that the landowners could put sheep on the land and make some more money. However, this was not the only reason there were others such as the highland potato famine, changes in farming the letters from relatives and the people that helped them move over to other countries.





The highland clearances were a mass emigration between 1830-1930 it was where greedy landowners would kick people off their land and the landowners would put a mass amount of sheep onto the land so they could make some more money. one of the reasons for them being kicked off was that they weren’t paying rent so some landowners in the highlands saw an easy way to kick people off their land that way was to raise the rent so they could kick people off their land and make more money. When people were kicked off their land their houses would be destroyed so they couldn’t come back. The highland clearances also meant that family’s in Scotland and all their family history would go away because they move to another country. https://britannica.com/topic/Highland-Clearances : “The Highland Clearances resulted in the destruction of the traditional clan society and began a pattern of rural depopulation and emigration from Scotland” this shows that clans and depopulation started to occur when the Highland Clearances happened. The highland clearances were important because they were there first big depopulation of Scotland in a lot of years and most of the other reason do sort of link back to the Highland Clearances.





However, this wasn’t the only reason for Scottish emigration. Another reason for Scottish emigration is the Highland potato famine. The Highland potato famine was a famine that hit Scotland between 1830-1930 this was a famine in which potatoes got this disease called potato blight this disease would make the potatoes all mushy and rotten so you couldn’t eat them or sell them this was a big reason why people moved because they couldn’t sell their potatoes so they couldn’t pay rent or even eat so they were starving and hungry and because of this they would leave to places such as America and Canada where there was clean land with no potato blight. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highland_Potato_Famine#Famine_.281846-7.29 says “The crofting areas lost about a third of their population between the early 1840s and the late 1850s” this shows that people were leaving their crofting areas where they were making potatoes and selling them. This, however, wasn’t a massive reason for emigration because the government stepped in and sent help to the highlands and got the famine erased from the soil.





Another reason they moved was because of the changing in Farming with the recent invention of new farming mechanisation such as tractors people was no longer needed on farms and for some people and family’s that was their only reason for making money by farming a lot of people left because they were crofters for landowners but when tractors came in they were no longer needed so the people left because they had no job and source of income so they left for Places such as Australia and America. Also at this time farming was becoming a very expensive thing to do with the rising costs in farming people were forced to move because they couldn’t live off anything if most of their money was going into farming.





Another reason people moved was because of letters they would receive from relatives who were already abroad in these letter people would say how good it is abroad and how the people still in Scotland so moves there as well. People moved abroad because of the family abroad because the family already in the countries would be friendly with almost everyone in the community so it would be easy for people to get jobs and cheap land because of the family and friends already in the countries. this is an important factor because some people moved because of their family already being there. This would make it easier to get jobs and land on the cheap in places like America and Canada.





Another reason f or Scottish emigration was the help that they would receive to help them move abroad some charities would help for example YMCA would help young men move to America and Australia and help them reach a family in these countries. Also Quarries Homes would help orphaned children reach places such as America and Australia and help them reach a family. Landowners also helped people emigrate they would kick people off their land and then would pay for them to move to America and Canada. The government also set up the Settlement and emigration act in where they would pay for people to move if they were in derelict homes and they weren’t making any money.





In conclusion, I think that the Highland clearances were the main reason for why so many Scots emigrated because I think most of the other reasons link back to the Highland Clearances. For example, the rising cost in farming and farmland I think is because of the greedy landowners who had kicked people off their land and raised the prices of their farmland.



