Changes

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. While reprisals drove people from their homes, including arguably a concerted ethnic cleansing of clans in the highlands, the laws passed helped to begin the process of weakening the traditional clan chiefs and their power, including such families as the MacDonalds. Ultimately, this weakening of the clans allowed the government to step into the highland regions and make them more formally part of Great Britain through appointed government officials, sometimes coming from London, rather than local clan members. This also brought the highland regions into the economy of Great Britain. 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, where people from these towns began to have greater economic and political power in the highlands.<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>

===Effect on North America===