THEY starved Scotland's last colony to surrender, ruthlessly ending the country's imperial ambitions and bankrupting its elite.
Now Spain's victors at Darien have finally been thanked by their efforts. But by a Scottish politician.
Outgoing Tory MEP Struan Stevenson has expressed his gratitude to Spain for its siege of New Edinburgh in 1700, the final straw for the tiny but all important Scottish settlement in Panama, because he believes the action, a big humiliation in Scottish history, helped hasten the Treaty of Union through the bankruptcy that ensued.
Mr Stevenson has told journalists in Barcelona that he "wanted to give thanks to Spain" for Darien during a visit to Catalonia to back a new ultra-unionist political party, Vox, that has broken away from the Conservative PP ruling in Madrid.
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