Why Did The Darden Scheme Fail

The Darien Scheme was an official over-seas trading scheme set up to help Scotland trade with the Americas. Scotland decided they needed to set up a colony in the Americas, so they chose Darien. The Scots created this scheme because after the union of the crowns the scots found it very challenging to trade with the rest of Europe as the English enemies had now become Scotland’s enemies too and the Navigation Acts stated that Scotland could not trade with any English colonies. The scots thrust £400 000 into the Darien scheme which was nearly all the governments money plus donations. They chose Darien as the ideal trading spot because it was in-between the Pacific and Atlantic Ocean meaning they could go to India by cutting through America. Unfortunately the Darien scheme failed, for many

The scots might have thought they had researched Darien enough but when they arrived they found it very different from their expectations. For example the ground was inhabitable, a marshy landscape covered by jungle, so the colonists found it very hard to grow food, which meant they were weak and illness was caught easier. Another thing the Scots failed to research was the climate, a hot, humid jungle climate with temperatures reaching over 40°C, meaning the scots weren’t prepared for Darien’s hot climate.

Another significant reason for the failure of the Darian Scheme was the amount of illness being spread across Darien. The Scots might have been able to live of scraps of food but there was no way to stop illness spreading across Darien. The island was infected with illness. Many diseases including malaria, rabies, tuberculosis and yellow fever lived in Darien and it wasn’t long before the Scots began to fall ill. Almost 2000 colonists died while in Darien and many suffered serious illness. This meant that there were few colonists alive and well meaning trade was very