America and the US
Posts in The Copybook tagged ‘America and the US’
In the year that Napoleon’s quest for European Empire faltered at Moscow, President Madison of the USA came to his aid.
In 1783, the American War of Independence ended with the creation of a new sovereign nation, the United States of America. Peace was short-lived, however, as zealous statesmen in Washington were itching to see revolution sweep on through Europe’s monarchies and across Britain’s Empire – especially Canada.
Georgian Britain braced for war as relations with France in North America, India and mainland Europe took a turn for the worse.
The Seven Years’ War (1756-1763) reached from French and British colonies in North America and India to states in modern-day Germany. It seemed glorious at the time for Britain, but it doubled the national debt, and measures to recover the costs triggered the American War of Independence.
A crackdown on dissent in England’s established Church drove a band of Nottinghamshire townspeople to seek new shores.
‘Mayflower’ was the ship taken by just over a hundred settlers in 1620, hoping to make a new life in England’s American colony of Virginia. Most were economic migrants, domestic servants or merchants, but those who emerged as leaders were Christians from the little village of Scrooby in Nottinghamshire.
When captain Richard Pearson of the Royal Navy surrendered to American revolutionary John Paul Jones, Jones naturally assumed that meant he had won.
Following the Declaration of Independence in 1776, American resentment towards King George III’s dastardly oppression reached such a pitch that they made common cause with that champion of republican liberty, King Louis XVI of France. One mustard-keen revolutionary, John Paul Jones, even buccaneered around Britain’s coastline harassing merchant shipping convoys, until the Royal Navy stepped in.
In 1859, peaceful co-existence on the Canadian border was severely tested by a marauding pig.
Even quite late in Queen Victoria’s reign, Britain and the United States of America were still carving up what had once been British colonial territory. One disputed region was San Juan Island near Vancouver, where a dead pig almost led to war.
The Jay Treaty can be seen as the start of the ‘special relationship’ between Britain and America.
In 1794, America had to choose between France, a new republic like herself, or Britain, whose oppressive rule she had just thrown off. America’s choice was surprising - but wise, as events quickly showed.