Changes

The effect of the battle on Great Britain is it made the British government realize the needed to find a way to integrate the highlands of Scotland and other areas where potential uprisings could occur. This was also a time when the British Empire was expanding through their colonial settlements in North America and elsewhere. Realizing this, the The British government began to send prisoners and others associated with the uprisings to the distant colonies as a way to banish potential threats from the homeland. Some of those who had ties to the battle at Culloden became supporters of the American Revolution, and even participated in the battles, but this was not universally true, as others supported the British government. In effect, the uprisings in Scotland and the battle specifically created a pattern that lasted through the 19th century, where the British government began to use its overseas territories as a way to remove elements it did consider desirable or as threats to the government. <ref>For more on British policy on how it dealt with rebellions in the 18th century, see: Jones, A.J. (1998) <i>Culloden to the colonies: the collected reminiscences of a McDonald family whose ancestor fought at the Battle of Culloden in 1746</i>. Brisbane, L.H. McDonald.</ref>

In addition to people being physically moved from Britain, Parliament passed laws, such as the Heritable Jurisdictions Act, which began to curtail the power of the clan chiefs in Scotland. In addition to reprisals and ethnic cleansing of clans in the highlands, the laws passed helped to weaken clan chiefs and their power. Ultimately, this weakening of the clans allowed the government to step into the highland regions and make them more formally as part of Great Britain through appointed government officials, sometimes coming from London, rather than local clan members.For others in Scotland, the downfall of the clan system in the Scottish highlands allowed new families to arise, in particular those with connections to the mercantile and trade towns that began to benefit from increased and expanding British trade in the 18th century. This included the cities of Glasgow and Edinburgh.<ref>For more on the downfall of the clan system in Scotland, see: Murphy, A. (2011) <i>Scotland Highlands & Islands handbook</i>. Bath, Footprint, pg. 424.</ref>