American Revolution

[Whitey]

What are you taught as far as history about this event? We are taught King George was a tax collecting hustler, jailed men for speaking, destroyed the press and disallowed freedom of religion. That Washington was the second coming of Christ almost and we fought a reluctant war of freedom with a rag tag army and we won because we were good, but are the best of friends with Britan all the same. Thats what they teach us in school, in College they teach King George was alright, just the colonist's were greedy bastards.

I'm not trying to start shit, just interrested on how this bit of history is taught in Jolly Old England

[Topper]

I wasn't taught anything about that war at school, i did get pissed off when our school insisted upon celebrating a war we lost to a foreign country on the 4th July. It maybe a source of historical pride to many Americans, but i can't undertsand why people over here celebrate it, i mean why don't we celebrate Sion Kop in the Boer War?
I suppose people might think the victory has something to do with democracy, in that case why don't people celebrate Eagle Day or something more relevant.

[Sticky Blue]

Never coverd it in school. We only did the Industrial Revolution, WW2, WW1 and a few other bits about the UK.

[Maria]

Never covered it in school and don’t believe it is covered in many schools these days either. Most of the history at school focused on the Romans, the Industrial Revolution and WWI (obviously from the same generation as Sticky ). Barely touched on WWII but there was the added bonus of the Union of the Crowns .

[owdun]

I made a promise to myself,that I would no longer get involved with threads outside the RM forum. But this history question really does rile me. I've said it before, and will again, take away a countries history, and you can do as you want with it's people. There has been a concerted effort by government and the educational liberals,to denigrate our history, or indeed refuse to teach anything but 20th century details of it. The result is generations of young people with no knowledge of their history, the Empire builders are an unknown quantity, the likes of Drake, Raleigh are just names,even Nelson and Wellington are a mystery to most young people, and it is still going on, the young wrap flags around themselves to worship some bloody football team, they have no idea what that flag really means. I'm just glad that I am an old man, I dont wish to see my country decline any more than it already has.

Aye Owdun

[lew]

I’m obviously from the younger generation of posters on here, and we don’t get taught about the American Revolution, everything I know from this period is either off of documentaries or discussion with older folk...

Just one thing though, I’m not sure if anyone has ever thought of this, but we never actually lost to America over the war of independence, as at the time it was a British colony, and there fore was a civil war, in effect we beat ourselves, the first amendment (bill of independence) I’m not to sure which, wasn’t created until the war was over and then America was created...

lew

p.s. this is not an attack on any of you americans or your history...

[Whitey]

Well I was just wondering, because we don't teach it much here either anymore. We get about 2 pages of it, since Washington was a slave owner and Jefferson liked to have relations with his help (Slaves) they have been labeled "Evil Men" we concentrate on the Socialist aka Great Emancipator Lincoln and how he was the greatest man since John the Baptist. He freed the slaves and replaced them with illegal aliens from Mexico, (Joke) We really get into the industrial revolution, WW1 we get some congressional and presidential orders, we cover WW2 not in depth but length, especially Hitlers abuse of the Jews. And we really get in on the hate the Japs, they bombed Pearl Harbor you know. We were taught to forgive the evil hun, but if the Japanese ever got greedy again we would show them the face of God in the form of a mushroom cloud. In the 80's we had bumper stickers with slogans about that, we hadones for Iran too then, "Nuke their ass and take their gas" I think it said for that one.
I don't think Korea made it into the book, we get a paragraph on Vietnam, and thats where we stopped when I was in school.

Lew, You are right, Britian didn't really get beat, they just got tired of dealing with us. Plus you'd be suprised at the letters between Washington and Cornwallis. We had one decent victory, but no hardly enough of a defeat had England thought it was worth the head ache. Only 15% of colonist's supported the war. Britian had bigger fish to fry I think, like us in Vietnam, just wasn't worth the trouble.

Yeah our history has been watered down too. I was just wondering how your schools put the spin on things.

[spitz]

You don’t get taught this stuff unless you do a history degree.

A few of facts I do know are, the role of the frontier rifleman has been exaggerated, their rifles were slow to reload and lacked a bayonet which proved to be a liability in battle. The intervention of the USA’s oldest ally won the war, i.e. the French (now there’s a statement to PO some cousin’s). If the Royal Navy not didn’t have to deter the Franco-Spanish fleet in home waters the whole of the East Coast would ‘ve been blockaded.

Opposition to the war in Britain was also vocal, Washington employed a German to train his army and Admiral Rodney used tactics that broke the French line and changed naval history.

I agree with Owdun 100%, British history and influence is portrayed as negative and evil, that’s partly the reason my children are home-schooled.

[Whitey]

I agree with that, My main agenda here was to see how history has been manipulated there, not to start a who won this or that debate. British people are the only allies I trust and if for some reason we keep at this war on terror for the next 20 years I'd only trust my sons life if ever serving under foreign command to a Brit officer. You know Coalitions these days. As for here our history is being manipulated for reasons I'm not sure also. We only teach the good now. In college we are required to read the works of Karl Marx, Lincoln, and Moa, and taught nothing of the constitution, and we are told our founders were evil, greedy men. Revolution or not America would have been granted Independence like Canada I'd think.

Also in our military you take an oathe to the constitution, but you aren't allowed to talk openly about the document, nor allowed to educate troops on the dangers and signs of communism.

I ask these questions because I see alot of similaraties in the way our societies are evolving, just yours has evolved faster. Your history is our future I think. Tell me what you think?

As for France yep they trained our Army, but you provided the model for our Navy and Marines (The best two branches in my opinion)

I want to learn from you all here, and to speak my mind from time to time.

I still like the French some what, they couldn't help much in Iraq anyway, their Army is small and tied up in Africa, they just changed currency, and war wasn't economically or politically sound this time around for them. Plus their Army hasn't been much to rave about since Napolean was sent to Elbe.
Home school, yep pissed American parents are doing the same here.

[Aldo]

Did anyone see Rebels and Redcoats on BBC2? It was a good documentry and answered alot of questions I had.

Made a nice change from watching The Patriot on Sky

[mattt_h]

wasnt taught at school, but at TA we were taught that we were winning in washington DC then raided the white house ate the victory banquet then burnt it to the ground and decided that america wasnt worth the hassle and went home

im not sure if true but its what i was taught

[Dmanton300]

wasnt taught at school, but at TA we were taught that we were winning in washington DC then raided the white house ate the victory banquet then burnt it to the ground and decided that america wasnt worth the hassle and went home

ROFL! If only all history could be taught in one sentence like that I reckon more people would take an interest!

[lew]

ohh you have an evil streak in you I agree that Mel does seem to have something against us brits...or maybe its the big $$$$ that get driven up to his door...


lew

[harry hackedoff]

Does anyone know who Winston Smith was?
And no, he wasn’t the one who penned the immortal lines
"We fired our guns, but the British kept a`coming. There wasn’t not as many as there was, a while ago.
We fired our guns, and they began a`running. Down the Mississippi, to the Gulf of Mexico"

Whitey, I used to live six miles from Sulgrave Manor, the place in lil ole England where Washington’s family came from. The place used to swarm with a "certain type" of American tourist. Enjoying a drink in a near-by pub, I was accosted by one. Fed up with (pissed at) his stupid questions about Washinton`s father, I said " he still lives in the next village"
"Oh really" says Elmer, "could we get to meet with him?"
"Er, no mate, but I could probably get you his phone number"

Who was Winston Smith?
Aye,

[sunman]

Harry......George Orwells 1984 tells the story of
citizen Winston Smith played by John Hurt.
A beurocratic bookkeeper whose job it is to errase certain
people from existance and rewrite history for the government.
Big Brother,the autocratic symbol of an oppresive regime that
has forbidden such things as freethinking,expression and sex.
Winston breaks the law by becoming involved in an illicit love
affair with Ministry of Truth worker Julia.Unfortuanatly for Winston,
a high ranking member of the government, O'Brian.....Richard Burton
who has looked upon him as a protege',discovers the rebellion.
Winston is imprisoned by the Thought Police, tortured and brainwashed
into a system of belief that he loves the State.
By the way this was Burton's last role.

Bit like a moderator on here Harry.......Enjoy.
So really the origonal Citizen Smith is your answer.

Aye Sunman .