A lot of people think Scotland is a part of England , but, as any Scotsman will tell you , it certainly is not. In fact, until the eighteenth century Scotland was an independent country, with a parliament of its own. The English had tried many times over many centuries to bring Scotland under their rule. They succeeded at last in 1707, and some Scots have never forgiven them. Scotland is now governed from London, but in some ways it is still a separate nation. It has its own capital city(Edinburgh),its own law, and its own stamps, it even has a language of its own, spoken now by only a few people in the islands. In some ways Southern Scotland is like England, with his good farmland and low green hills. Central and Northern (the Highlands) have high mountains and deep valleys, fast rivers and cold lakes. These days, of course, there are good roads and railways all through Scotland. Aberdeen, the northeast city where the oil from the North Sea comes to land, is especially easy to reach. But it can still be quite different to travel in the winter when the hills are covered with snow. It always takes a long time to visit the beautiful but far-off islands on the west coast. One reason why Scotland has stayed so different from England is the wildness of the land. It has always been difficult to get around there. From the history of the Great Britain we can know Scotland  _  .
had been an independent country by the 19th century had been a dependent country by the 18th century was a separate country before the 18th century was a dependent country before 18th century