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To: Sopater

One minor quibble regarding the War of 1812: at best, the US came away with a draw. One of the stated goals was the annexation of Canada (Manifest Destiny). That did not happen, but the impressment of US citizens into the Royal Navy did stop after the conflict. The Brits also stopped with their insistence that the US was “merely a colony in revolt”.


5 posted on 01/25/2018 11:52:04 AM PST by Don W (When blacks riot, neighbourhoods and cities burn. When whites riot, nations and continents burn.)
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To: Don W
at best, the US came away with a draw. One of the stated goals was the annexation of Canada (Manifest Destiny). That did not happen, but the impressment of US citizens into the Royal Navy did stop after the conflict. The Brits also stopped with their insistence that the US was “merely a colony in revolt”.
In 1820 a British military strategist announced that any repeat of the War of 1812 would lose Canada to the US. I wish I could remember the title of the book I read that in, but it must have been ten years ago, I think. The point was the geometric growth of the American population at that time meant that at the time that war was declared, so many boys had already been born in America who would be of military age in 1820 that there would be no question of resisting them if they invaded Canada after that. So the only crucial objective of the US government was simply to maintain its independence and sovereignty for the eight years from 1812 to 1820. Once accomplish that, and the British threat to the US as a polity was moot.

That book also asserted that there was a death in the British government which, if known in the US at the time of the war vote, might have prevented the war altogether. In a situation in which time is on your side, you would take any opportunity to delay which presented itself. Even a year or two delay would, by that calculus, have been quite favorable to the US.


6 posted on 01/25/2018 1:01:33 PM PST by conservatism_IS_compassion (Presses can be 'associated,' or presses can be independent. Demand independent presses.)
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