Immigrants from Geben

When it comes to military expansion in the contemporary world, the first topic that people will think of is the United States of America. Since World War II, the United States has fought several tough battles around the world, including losing troops and getting into the quagmire of war, and it won quickly. Some scholars believe that Americans' warrior spirit is hidden in their bones, and European refugees who immigrated to the United States brought their ambition to seek wealth and their Germanic warrior spirit in their historical tradition.

However, it is somewhat surprising that Mexico, which is adjacent to the United States, was robbed of California and other large areas of land by the United States, while another neighbor of Uncle Sam, Canada, which was once one of the British colonies, was able to maintain its independent status and compete with the United States, even though the two sides were not in the same breath in terms of comprehensive national strength.

In fact, what really makes Canada and the United States equal is not the so-called * * * same cultural tradition, or just one of the reasons. Japan, China and North Korea, separated only by a strip of water, are deeply influenced by Chinese civilization, but it still does not prevent Japan from meeting "cultural friends" three times in more than a thousand years. Therefore, what really saved Canada from being annexed by the United States should be its good military performance, which was the result of the war, and this is exactly the case.

Canada was originally a colony of France. After the seven-year war, Canada was defeated and had to hand over large colonies in North America to Britain. The British were also exhausted by the war, and it was inconvenient to push their luck, so they agreed that French immigrants should enjoy autonomy in Canada, keep their own laws, maintain their Catholic beliefs, and even have their own parliament. This preferential treatment to some extent eliminated the French resistance to British rule.

However, thirteen states in North America east of the Appalachian Mountains don't think so. Originally, they stood on the side of the British empire (that is, the suzerain country) to fight against the French in the Seven-Year War, and Canada turned its enemies into friends. This hostility cannot be reversed in a day or two. Secondly, in order to defend the colonies in North America, Britain consumed a lot of manpower and material resources, so the London authorities, which were short of money, decided to levy taxes on 13 colonies in North America, but they were rejected.

There is only one reason. North American immigrants think that their representatives have not entered the imperial parliament, so they cannot pay taxes, which naturally intensifies the opposition with the British colonial authorities. At this time, the English tea boat from India unloaded at Boston Port in North America. As a result, before the tea was sold, all North Americans dressed as Indians threw it into the sea. The British authorities thought it was offended and immediately attacked the North American militia ammunition depot in Lexington. The two sides met and finally torn their faces.

A dozen Canadian soldiers will be defeated.

Seeing that the British turned against themselves, thirteen States in North America immediately formed a continental congress, and assembled the militia of each state into a continental army to fight against the British. At the same time, in order to strengthen their own momentum, they also sent people to inform Canada, which had just been conquered by Britain, to cooperate with their own actions and jointly fight against Britain. Unexpectedly, French immigrants in Canada chose decline and neutrality. The North American Continental Congress thought it was humiliated and immediately set up an expeditionary force to Canada as punishment. This is the first time that American troops invaded Canada.

The expedition ended in failure. First of all, the Continental Expeditionary Force wanted to attack Ottawa, the capital of Canada, by water. As a result, due to poor shipbuilding technology, it failed, so we had to go on an expedition on foot. When they arrived at the gate of Canada in a threatening manner, their opponents were ready to wait and defeat the Continental Army. In addition, the winter in Canada came, and the soldiers of the Continental Army were short of clothes and clothes, so they were tortured by the winter and had to flee hastily. The powerful American army was defeated by the Canadians, and the plan to annex Canada ended in bankruptcy.

Of course, Americans who have always been martial can't swallow this tone. Shortly after the victory of the War of Independence, the United States encountered a rather thorny diplomatic dispute. At that time, in order to fight against the military group under the leadership of French emperor Napoleon I, the British side made every effort to recruit sailors from all over the world to serve the navy. Many sailors on American merchant ships were also requisitioned for free, which caused great economic losses to the United States and humiliated the national dignity of the United States to the victim's home country. The American protest was invalid and decided to fight back against the "criminal behavior" of the British under the leadership of the Madison government.

(British troops during the Napoleonic Wars)

24 fires in Canada are raging.

Where should we start? Americans have turned their attention to their neighbor Canada again. This time, the United States is proud of having a considerable number of navies and quickly mobilized and assembled tens of thousands of militia. Under the command of William Hull, a veteran of the War of Independence, the second expedition to Canada (18 12) is imperative.

Hull himself, as the commander-in-chief of an army, held a negative attitude towards this military action. At first, the troops assembled slowly, and time was delayed during the trek to Canada. After arriving in Toronto, Ottawa and other important Canadian cities, he was hit head-on by his opponent. What needs to be mentioned here is that at that time, the United States believed that the standing army was a symbol of authoritarian centralization, so it did not care about the maintenance of conventional armed forces and only relied on the militia of various States. And we also know that the militia can't meet the needs of conventional warfare, although they are not only defensive. Under the charge of Canadian and British troops, the militia collapsed at the touch of a button, which made the American commanders miserable, while the British took the opportunity to burn the war to the United States.

Fortunately, due to the active resistance of the US Navy, the British Navy was defeated in the Great Lakes and Niagara Falls, which effectively stopped its offensive momentum. On the other hand, due to the shortening of the front, the US military gradually recovered from its previous failures and formed a series of defense lines. In a better mood, the British army temporarily stopped attacking and the two sides confronted each other.

The time to break the deadlock is coming soon. In order to cope with the friendly attack from Canada, British general Alexander Cochrane landed from the west and went straight to Washington, DC ... The United States left it alone because there were only a few thousand people, and organized more than 10 thousand militia to stop it. The result was defeated again. Cochrane went straight to Washington, the president of the United States fled hastily, and the White House, the political symbol of the United States, was also burned.