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Canadian here.. why do we keep seeing these stories about how the US invaded "canada"? wasnt "Canada" created as part of the British North America Act (1867)? Didnt canada do a big "150" thing in 2017? The US invaded "british north america" in 1812. The article is also mistaken when it talks about "canadians" defending British North America. They were british citizens.
If only the US had won, then all those canadian programmers in Vancouver and Toronto wouldn't have to migrate to get a decent paying job.
" Eschew flamebait. Don't introduce flamewar topics unless you have something genuinely new to say. Avoid unrelated controversies and generic tangents. " https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
PS: I've not read the history of both the nations (yet to open the book 1491), but I do know what the Britisher's did to India.
French Canadian here... My impression on the 1812 war is that if the French had won the 1759 Battle of Quebec ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Plains_of_Abraha... ) then they would likely have lost to the Americans in 1812 ... There would be no Canada today. But of course, this is just speculation.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The US barely won the revolution. Luckily during the war, a volcano (Laki, Iceland) threw Europe & much of the British empire (including India & Africa) into a multiyear drought, causing one of the coldest/longest winters in the USA. About 3 months after the eruption formal negotiations to end the war began. No eruption, possibly no USA but historical accounts I've seen rarely mention the role of mother nature.
I don't think the timing makes sense for that. The Laki eruption was eight months long. Three months isn't enough time for Britain to have felt economic pressure from crop failures and related impacts and then for that pressure to build into political change.
"The system erupted violently over an eight-month period between June 1783 and February 1784 from the Laki fissure and the adjoining volcano Grímsvötn, pouring out an estimated 42 billion tons or 14 km3 (3.4 cu mi) of basalt lava and clouds of poisonous hydrofluoric acid and sulfur dioxide compounds that contaminated the soil, leading to the death of over 50% of Iceland's livestock population, and the destruction of the vast majority of all crops. This led to a famine which then killed approximately 25% of the island's human population.[4] The lava flows also destroyed 20 villages.
The Laki eruption and its aftermath caused a drop in global temperatures, as 120 million tons of sulfur dioxide was spewed into the Northern Hemisphere. This caused crop failures in Europe and may have caused droughts in North Africa and India."
It goes on, in relation to the UK...
"Inhaling sulfur dioxide gas causes victims to choke as their internal soft tissue swells – the gas reacts with the moisture in lungs and produces sulfurous acid.[20] The local death rate in Chartres was up by 5% during August and September, with more than 40 dead. In Great Britain, the east of England was most affected. The records show that the additional deaths were among outdoor workers; the death rate in Bedfordshire, Lincolnshire and the east coast was perhaps two or three times the normal rate. It has been estimated that 23,000 British people died from the poisoning.[21]"
Canadian here.. why do we keep seeing these stories about how the US invaded "canada"? wasnt "Canada" created as part of the British North America Act (1867)? Didnt canada do a big "150" thing in 2017? The US invaded "british north america" in 1812. The article is also mistaken when it talks about "canadians" defending British North America. They were british citizens.
The War of 1812 is a fascinating study in the ways we record and teach history. The US teaches it as a US victory because the US got everything it went into the war looking for and repulsed a British invasion. Canada teaches it as a British/Canadian victory because they too got everything they went into the war looking for and repulsed an American invasion.
> The Americans also captured York (now Toronto) and burned several government buildings there, an act the British reciprocated the following year (1814) in Washington, D.C. The Canadian version sounds better: "Yeah! We burned down the White House!".
It's amazing how many Americas have no clue the White House was burned down by an invading army. Interesting what the US history books choose to leave out.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burning_of_Washington
The next foreign attack on Washington DC would be on 9/11.