CAA: Christian Anime Alliance

This thread should be closed because it's very political...
...
that would be the case about 230 years ago. I think it's pretty safe material nowadays

You know, here in American history classes, we look upon the signing of the Declaration of Independence and the Revolutionary War (and all the other events like that which supported American freedom) as a very kewl thing. We celebrate the 4th of July (Independence Day) as a holiday that rivals Christmas festivities often. It is a happy thing for us.

But I was wondering... what is the British view of such things (like in British history books)? Are our actions still looked upon as simply unjustified rebellion? Or... what?

(This is something that I'm honestly curious about. I don't think that it can turn into a debate, but if you have the urge to make it into one... Don't.)

I used to wonder about this myself. The Lord takes a dim view of rebellion. No ruler has any more authority than has been ordained to him by God. It's dangerous to go against God-ordained authority.

For this reason, I questioned which side of the revolution I would have been on. (Only 1/3 of colonists actively participated in the revolution. 1/3 supported the crown, and the remaining 1/3 stayed out of it.)

On a visit to Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia, though I heard a very compelling argument that convinced me it was right and just to take up arms against my king. An actor playing Patrick Henry was fielding questions from the audience. A lady asked him something like this, “I’ve heard you mention God several times in your speech. As Christians, we are to submit to civil authority, so how do you justify advocating rebellion?â€

I understand that every year the UK Parliament still sends the US Congress a bill for the tea lost during the Boston Tea Party, and every year Congress refuses to pay it. It's now done for humourous ceremony these days, I presume. ^_^

At the time, there were some prominent Englishmen who supported or at least sympathisized with the revolt because they recognized that some of the colonist's grievances would have been intolerable in England as well. These include both John Locke (a liberal) and Edmund Burke (a conservative). Of course, it was a lot less popular in other circles.

I can't speak for the current British opinion, but I can offer a Canadian one. We also have to study the American revolution in our history classes, because of it's importance to the founding of our own country (or at least the English speaking part of it). Our own view is considerably less romantic then your own both in how we view the causes and the effects of the revolution. Some of the motives for the revolt are treated with a certain degree of sympathy (e.g. taxation), while others are a little less pretty (the colonies' anti-Catholicism, particularly directed at the newly acquired province of Quebec).

Likewise, the revolution was also not quite the romantic struggle against British colonial authority; it was also a vicious civil war. Many colonists remained loyal to the crown, and fought in militia forces in the various colonies. Many lost homes and loved ones as a result*. The punishments meted out to suspected 'Tories' were hardly pleasent either. As one Loyalist lament of the time goes "We've exchanged one tyrant 3,000 miles away for 3,000 tyrants one mile away". In the end, the United Empire Loyalists sought refuge further north, founding the colonies of New Brunswick and Upper Canada (now southern Ontario).

Lastly, to Canadians there is also the historical fact that the new country periodically invaded or supported invasions of Canada itself. Throughout the 19th century there were those in the United States who considered the existence of Canada to be an unfinished part of the revolution (e.g the invasions of 1812-1814, 1838 as well as the willingness of Andrew Johnson to play footsie with the Fenian raiders in 1866).

*A few years ago, an MP jokingly suggested that Canadian's whose families property was confiscated as a result of the revolution should sue the U.S government for compensation or for the return of property. This was prompted by the Helms-Burton act which threatened any company operating in Cuba using property confiscated during their revolution.

I'm not sure about mainland UK, but I know Northern Ireland.

We don't study it, we don't care.
From what I remember we look at

World War 1
World War 2
Troubles in Ireland.
Potato famine (where all the Irish lot went to America)
Cold War.

Partly general, partly Ireland specific.


Personally one thing I find annoying about after all that is that you changed the spelling of words.

I use colour - You use color
I use valour - You use valor
I use Saviour - You use Savior

It gets annoying... especially in programming...

Iv done a litte bit of Canadian history and you don't want to know what whent on in there heads. It was way back in the 1780's I think.......is when Canada was just growing.

My maternal grandmother's people were in Ireland at that time.Also some of
my maternal grandfather's were still in Germany.

Syaoran wrote:Iv done a litte bit of Canadian history and you don't want to know what whent on in there heads. It was way back in the 1780's I think.......is when Canada was just growing.

Well yeah, we fought several battles to keep the Americans out, which is something that's hard to forget when you live as close as I do to many of the places where those battles were fought. The closest one incidentally, is just across town (i.e. the battle of Stoney Creek); there's a pretty big monument commerating it as a significant victory for our side.

oh I agree on the spelling thing. I like the look of colour and armour over Americanized spelling. The one word that I prefer Americanized is Theater and not Theatre.

Hmm, we never did much on the american revolution, in our history class, it was much more focused on the formation of the american government after the revolution, the civil war, slavery, the campaigns against the indians, and so forth, but form the little we talked about it seems theres no real hard feelings, at least not in the little bit we looked at.