EDINBURGH, Scotland -- Scottish voters have rejected independence, deciding to remain part of the United Kingdom after a historic referendum.
The decision prevented a rupture of a 307-year union with England, bringing a huge sigh of relief to the British political establishment. Scots voted 55 percent to 45 percent against independence in a vote that saw an unprecedented turnout.
A majority of voters did not embrace Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond's impassioned plea to begin a new state, choosing instead the security offered by remaining in the United Kingdom.
Salmond conceded defeat, saying that "we know it is a majority for the 'no' campaign," and called on Scots to accept the results of the vote.
He said the vote "has been triumph for the democratic process."
Salmond had argued that Scots could go it alone because of its extensive oil reserves and high levels of ingenuity and education. He said Scotland would flourish on its own, free of interference from any London-based government.
Nonetheless, the skilled 59-year-old leader of the Scottish National Party came close to winning independence -- his long-cherished goal -- and still won a promise of new powers for Scotland from rattled London politicians.
The result saves British Prime Minister David Cameron from a historic defeat and also helps opposition chief Ed Miliband by keeping his many Labour Party lawmakers in Scotland in place. His party would have found it harder to win a national election in 2015 without that support from Scotland.
Former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, a Scot, returned to prominence with a dramatic barnstorming campaign in support of the union in the final days before the referendum vote. Brown argued passionately that Scots could be devoted to Scotland but still proud of their place in the United Kingdom, rejecting the argument that independence was the patriotic choice.
"There is not a cemetery in Europe that does not have Scots, English, Welsh and Irish lined side by side," Brown said in his final speech before the vote. "We not only won these wars together; we built the peace together. What we have built together by sacrificing and sharing, let no narrow nationalism split asunder."
For his part, Cameron -- aware that his Conservative Party is widely loathed in Scotland -- begged voters not to use a vote for independence as a way to bash his party.
The vote against independence keeps the U.K. from losing a substantial part of its territory and oil reserves and prevents it from having to find a new base for its nuclear arsenal, now housed in Scotland. It had also faced a possible loss of influence within international institutions including the 28-nation European Union and the United Nations.
The decision also means Britain can avoid a prolonged period of financial insecurity that had been predicted by some if Scotland broke away.
In return for staying in the union, Scotland's voters have been promised significant -- although unspecified -- new powers by the British government, which had feared losing Scotland forever.
The average turnout was 86 percent -- a record high for any Scottish election.
After the polls closed late Thursday, a nationwide count began immediately at 32 regional centers across Scotland. Many Scots settled in to stay up all night in homes and bars, awaiting the result that could have changed their lives.
At Highland Hall outside of Edinburgh, where the final result was expected to be announced today, vote counters at dozens of tables sorted through paper ballots, watched keenly by monitors from the pro-independence and anti-independence camps.
Voters lined up outside some polling stations even before they opened Thursday. More than 4.2 million people registered to vote in the referendum -- 97 percent of those eligible -- including residents as young as 16.
Only Scots were allowed to vote. The English -- who form the overwhelming majority of the 60 million-plus population of the United Kingdom, along with citizens of Wales and Northern Ireland -- had no formal say in the referendum, unless they also had Scottish residence.
For some Scots, Thursday was a day they had dreamed of for decades.
"Fifty years I fought for this," said 83-year-old Isabelle Smith, an independence supporter in Edinburgh's maritime district of Newhaven, a former fishing port. "And we are going to win. I can feel it in my bones."
The question on the ballot could not be simpler: "Should Scotland be an independent country?"
Yet it has divided Scots during months of campaigning, generating an unprecedented volume and intensity of public debate and participation. The pro-independence side, in particular, had energized young people and previously disillusioned working-class voters.
The vote carried vast implications not only for the people of Scotland but also for the 59 million people in the rest of the United Kingdom who would be left behind if Scotland had chosen to break away.
Many questions -- the currency an independent Scotland would use, its status within the 28-nation European Union and NATO, and the fate of Britain's nuclear-armed submarines, which are based at a Scottish port -- had remained uncertain or disputed after months of campaigning.
An independence vote would have triggered 18 months of negotiations between Scottish leaders and London-based politicians on how the two countries would separate their institutions before Scotland's planned Independence Day on March 24, 2016.
For Smith, who went to the polling station decked out in a blue-and-white pro-independence shirt and rosette, statehood for Scotland was a dream nurtured during three decades living in the U.S. with her late husband.
"The one thing America has that the Scots don't have is confidence," said Smith, who returned to Scotland years ago. "But they're getting it, they're walking tall."
After polls closed, some of those who opposed withdrawing from the United Kingdom said they were confident they had swayed enough undecided voters to stave off independence. They said they may have been helped by a last-minute offer for more powers for Scotland.
Nationalists said an independent Scotland, unshackled from London's austerity-minded Conservative-led government, would have been modeled on Scandinavian countries that spread their wealth broadly and offer their citizens a generous package of government support.
But many independent economists have questioned whether Scotland could have built the sort of egalitarian society that its leaders envision, especially with declining oil revenue and uncertainty hovering over its currency.
The pound climbed to a two-week high against the dollar early today as some polls suggested the independence bid may have failed.
On Thursday, independence campaigners insisted Scots would not allow a return to the status quo, even if the referendum failed.
"Whatever happens, Scotland is going to be different," said Luke Campbell, a member of the Radical Independence Movement. "People aren't going to go back to their sofas after this."
After weeks in which the British media talked of little else, the television airwaves were almost a referendum-free zone Thursday due to electoral rules. But on the streets, it was a different story, with rival billboards and campaigners outside many polling places.
At one Edinburgh polling station, Thomas Roberts said he had voted "yes" because he felt optimistic about Scotland's future as an independent country. He was looking forward to learning the outcome from the warm confines of a pub.
"Why not roll the dice for once?" he asked. "I'm going to sit with a beer in my hand watching the results coming in."
But some opponents said the pro-independence campaign had fueled bad feelings among neighbors.
"The country is divided with a hatchet. It's so awful -- and it was completely unnecessary," said Fiona Mitchell, distributing anti-independence leaflets outside a polling station.
If the pro-independence side had prevailed, Salmond would have realized a long-held dream of leading his country to independence from an alliance with England that was formed in 1707.
"This is our opportunity of a lifetime, and we must seize it with both hands," Salmond said in his final pre-vote speech.
There had been fierce disputes over whether an independent Scotland could continue to use the pound as its currency, and several companies have said they would move their headquarters from Scotland to England if the pro-independence vote prevailed.
Many independence supporters headed to symbolic spots such as Calton Hill, a United Nations World Heritage Site overlooking Edinburgh, hoping the sun would rise today on a new dawn of independence.
But financial consultant Michael MacPhee, who opposed independence, said he would observe the returns coming in "with anxiety."
Scottish independence is "the daftest idea I've ever heard," he said.
Information for this article was contributed by Jill Lawless of The Associated Press; by Griff Witte and Karla Adam of The Washington Post; by David Goodman and Candice Zachariahs of Bloomberg News; and by Alan Cowell, Steven Erlanger, Stephen Castle and Katrin Bennhold of The New York Times.
A Section on 09/19/2014