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From: franka@mmintl.UUCP (Frank Adams)
Newsgroups: net.politics
Subject: Re: our neighbors
Message-ID: <950@mmintl.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 27-Dec-85 06:05:45 EST
Article-I.D.: mmintl.950
Posted: Fri Dec 27 06:05:45 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 29-Dec-85 01:07:40 EST
References: <836@mmintl.UUCP> <5000167@uokvax.UUCP> <513@enmasse.UUCP> <1483@jhunix.UUCP> <640@utflis.UUCP>
Reply-To: franka@mmintl.UUCP (Frank Adams)
Organization: Multimate International, E. Hartford, CT
Lines: 34
Summary: 


In article <640@utflis.UUCP> brown@utflis.UUCP (Susan Brown) writes:
>Canada retained a link with Britain longer than they might otherwise have
>done because they had been massively invaded by their much larger neighbor
>*several* times between 1776 and 1869.  The War of 1812 is the best example.
>Yet Walter Cronkite et. al. go on saying that "The United States never lost
>a war until Vietnam."  

Did the U.S. really invade Canada after the end of the Revolutionary War,
with the exception of the War of 1812?  Please supply instances if this is
true.

I don't think it is appropriate to count events in the American Revolutionary
War as invasions of Canada.  That war was a rebellion by England's North
American colonies; the distinction between those that became part of the
United States and those that eventually became part of Canada was a
consequence of that war, not a precondition.

As for the War of 1812, that was a war between the U.S. and England, and
Canada was English territory at that point.  The U.S. invaded Canadian
territory, and were driven out; England invaded U.S. territory, and was
driven out.  I don't think it is accurate to say either side really won
the war.  (In some sense, that means both lost; but that isn't the way
these things are usually counted.)

I am quite prepared to believe that fear of a U.S. invasion delayed
Canadian independence.  On the other hand, I suspect that without the
successful American Revolution, England would not have voluntarily granted
independence to the rest of her colonies.

I do agree that the degree ignorance of history among Americans is shocking.
Let's do our bit to counteract that by talking about it here.

Frank Adams                           ihpn4!philabs!pwa-b!mmintl!franka
Multimate International    52 Oakland Ave North    E. Hartford, CT 06108