Sometimes its easy to forget that the literal only thing which stopped us getting ‘manifest destinied’ was US fear of the British Empire.Â
thrilled_to_be_there on
The genius of the Quebec Act at the time saved Quebec and therefore British North America from joining the USA. Ben Franklin was probably the wrong man to convince a population he thought heretical to join the American cause when guarantees already existed to protect French culture in BNA but no such guarantees could be given to Quebec inside the USA.
Laval09 on
I tried to annex Canada. Ben Franklin in the devil! (Waterboy reference lol)
Anyway, i find it weird that there’s been several articles recently about Ben Franklins meddling in Canada when just a few years ago, Canada Post put out a Ben Franklin stamp to celebrate his contribution to setting up Canadas postal system. Ben Franklin was a fellow subject of the Empire until 1776. A guy with a British accent who was 100% fluent in French living in the new world would hardly of been considered a foreigner by the people of Upper and Lower Canada.
I personally find there’s no real correlation between Ben Franklins efforts to annex, based on his knowledge, worldview and the geopolitics of the 1700s….with modern day US threats. Its just not the same thing. Back then England was the world hegemon and US annexation would have been the only viable way to leave the Empire in order to pursue an anti-imperial self determination. The modern day US threats are about wanting to create a new Empire.
Wind_Best_1440 on
What a lot of people seem to forget is that the original colonizers from Britain and France to Canada were ex soldiers. It’s like people forgot that the early years of Canada most Canadians were pretty well trained and armed.
It’s why Canada was so willing to send such large armies during WW1 and WW2, in fact the weird thing about Canada is disarming a lot of the military and navy after WW2. Canada after WW2 held one of the most powerful navies in the world at that point and a large standing military on its own.
People seem to to think that the USA could have toppled Canada at any point, and that just wasn’t the case. It was said that to take over Canada would require vastly more troops then the US had at the time, an insurgency of Canadians would be disastrous.
The original Canadian stock were competent fighters and pretty vicious in wars, it’s why WW1 and WW2 Canadians were feared by opposing forces. (Canadians for one thing enjoyed close combat and trench raids in WW1)
USA has wanted to annex Canada since the early days. Benjamin Franklin wanted to do it and failed.
There was also the war of 1812, when James Madison thought Canada would roll over and be conquered quickly, and he was VERY incorrect about that and it became a quagmire very quickly.
During the American civil war, William H seward tried to manifest destiny Canada and wanted to invade Canada and take the land and openly discussed it. (This was Licoln’s chief of staff.) However Lincoln rejected it as stupid to have two fronts.
And in 1888-1893 Benjamin Harrison wanted to Annex Canada through buying them up, while William McKinly (This is Trumps idol as president) Put in the Mckinly tariff act, which was designed to put harsh tariffs on Canada to force their economy into submission so America could annex them. At the time William Mckinly is said that he thought the larger military/economy/population of the states at the time would force Canada into submission to become part of the states.
Canada at the time was in the middle of an election and the party in power was about to lose, however the party about to take power was seen as helpful and friends with the US and William Mckinly, this closeness was then used by the party in power in Canada at the time. “A vote for the opposition is a vote for Annexation!”
They would later go on to win, and then cut ties with the states even under harsh tariffs and then renew trade with Britain/France/Spain instead of the US and gave the middle finger to the states for the next 20 years until WW1 happened which thawed relations between Canada and the US.
Business-Hurry9451 on
The U.S. has always wanted to annex Canada and always will. Sure it may ebb and flow but it’s always there. Just because the alligator has eaten and isn’t hungry now doesn’t mean he’s your friend, never, ever think he is.
8 Comments
Sometimes its easy to forget that the literal only thing which stopped us getting ‘manifest destinied’ was US fear of the British Empire.Â
The genius of the Quebec Act at the time saved Quebec and therefore British North America from joining the USA. Ben Franklin was probably the wrong man to convince a population he thought heretical to join the American cause when guarantees already existed to protect French culture in BNA but no such guarantees could be given to Quebec inside the USA.
I tried to annex Canada. Ben Franklin in the devil! (Waterboy reference lol)
Anyway, i find it weird that there’s been several articles recently about Ben Franklins meddling in Canada when just a few years ago, Canada Post put out a Ben Franklin stamp to celebrate his contribution to setting up Canadas postal system. Ben Franklin was a fellow subject of the Empire until 1776. A guy with a British accent who was 100% fluent in French living in the new world would hardly of been considered a foreigner by the people of Upper and Lower Canada.
I personally find there’s no real correlation between Ben Franklins efforts to annex, based on his knowledge, worldview and the geopolitics of the 1700s….with modern day US threats. Its just not the same thing. Back then England was the world hegemon and US annexation would have been the only viable way to leave the Empire in order to pursue an anti-imperial self determination. The modern day US threats are about wanting to create a new Empire.
What a lot of people seem to forget is that the original colonizers from Britain and France to Canada were ex soldiers. It’s like people forgot that the early years of Canada most Canadians were pretty well trained and armed.
It’s why Canada was so willing to send such large armies during WW1 and WW2, in fact the weird thing about Canada is disarming a lot of the military and navy after WW2. Canada after WW2 held one of the most powerful navies in the world at that point and a large standing military on its own.
People seem to to think that the USA could have toppled Canada at any point, and that just wasn’t the case. It was said that to take over Canada would require vastly more troops then the US had at the time, an insurgency of Canadians would be disastrous.
The original Canadian stock were competent fighters and pretty vicious in wars, it’s why WW1 and WW2 Canadians were feared by opposing forces. (Canadians for one thing enjoyed close combat and trench raids in WW1)
USA has wanted to annex Canada since the early days. Benjamin Franklin wanted to do it and failed.
There was also the war of 1812, when James Madison thought Canada would roll over and be conquered quickly, and he was VERY incorrect about that and it became a quagmire very quickly.
During the American civil war, William H seward tried to manifest destiny Canada and wanted to invade Canada and take the land and openly discussed it. (This was Licoln’s chief of staff.) However Lincoln rejected it as stupid to have two fronts.
And in 1888-1893 Benjamin Harrison wanted to Annex Canada through buying them up, while William McKinly (This is Trumps idol as president) Put in the Mckinly tariff act, which was designed to put harsh tariffs on Canada to force their economy into submission so America could annex them. At the time William Mckinly is said that he thought the larger military/economy/population of the states at the time would force Canada into submission to become part of the states.
Canada at the time was in the middle of an election and the party in power was about to lose, however the party about to take power was seen as helpful and friends with the US and William Mckinly, this closeness was then used by the party in power in Canada at the time. “A vote for the opposition is a vote for Annexation!”
They would later go on to win, and then cut ties with the states even under harsh tariffs and then renew trade with Britain/France/Spain instead of the US and gave the middle finger to the states for the next 20 years until WW1 happened which thawed relations between Canada and the US.
The U.S. has always wanted to annex Canada and always will. Sure it may ebb and flow but it’s always there. Just because the alligator has eaten and isn’t hungry now doesn’t mean he’s your friend, never, ever think he is.
What a hoser.
[removed]
And Canadians would have been better off for it.