> From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of > [email protected] > > Okay, all glibness aside your question (as you likely know) has no easy > answer. > > The Americans think they won, and they kind of did: they repulsed the > invasions of the European imperial power from whom they wrested > independence barely 35 years prior. > > The colonists of British North America (present day Canada) think they > did because they resisted the invasions of those land-hungry Americans > who wanted to annex British North America (or so Canadians thought). > > The British didn't lose BNA to those upstart Yanks, but more important > (to present day Canada, at least), England realized that sending its > army over here every time there was some stupid war would be a very > expensive long term proposition. They very seriously started > considering how they might unload us, which pretty much led directly to > our independence only 53 years later. (okay, it took a while but things > moved much slower back then). >
Few people over here in the old imperial power have ever heard of the 1812 war. It was never taught when I was at school and probably isn't now. To us, 1812 means Napoleon's retreat from Moscow. By coincidence it was only a few weeks ago that this 1812 war first impinged on my conscious awareness, and I can't for the moment remember how or why, but the reason given for us not paying much attention to the it is that we were too preoccupied with Napoleon. > On paper the war was a stalemate (the Treaty of Utrecht left the > borders virtually unchanged) but each side could claim bragging rights > and it did have an impact on North America's development. > > I know your question was tongue in cheek, but I thought there might br > those out there, especially in places other than this hemisphere who > might not know why Stoufville had parade. > If I lived in Stouffville that would be reason enough. What a name, what a town! B -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
