It's little wonder that our War of 1812 is not remembered on your side of the pond. As you said, Britain was far more concerned with what was going on in Europe with Napoleon. Ours was little more than a local skirmish involving a couple of thousand ex-pat farmers. Until the European war ended Britain only sent around 2,000 troops over here; after Nappy was finally dealt with another 8,000 or 10,000 were dispatched. One can imagine how much that would have cost!
The only reason England got British North America in the first place was so the French wouldn't have it. I'm sure that if you Brits would have foreseen the American Revolution you wouldn't have bothered with Canada at all. Besides, once beaver hats went out of style in Europe our economic advantage diminished considerably. So in reality the War of 1812 was little more than a financial drain for England. No wonder you don't care to remember it. As an aside, I remember as a child expressing surprise that Tchaikovsky would write an overture about a North American war. My father informed me that there was another war going on at the same time which was just a bit more important to the Russians. ;-) cheers, frank "What can be asserted without proof can be dismissed without proof." -- Christopher Hitchens --- Original Message --- From: Bob W <[email protected]> Sent: June 17, 2012 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. -- 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.
