Canada, Eh!

We have some  questions here from Quora Digest that you might find interesting kids!

QUESTION: Why can a country like Canada with so few people and such underdeveloped technology exist in this world for so many years? AND: Has the U.S. never really tried to take over Canada?

By Carter Moore, American, former Congressional aide and Federal employee

 

You're right. I have no idea how Canada has managed to survive this long with our tiny population and underdeveloped technology.

I mean, there's the Canadarm (does stuff in space, or whatever), Insulin* (has saved millions of lives, but again, whatever), IMAX (revolutionary image and sound quality or something), BlackBerry (one of the first smartphones, I dunno what's special about that), pacemakers (apparently has also saved millions of lives, including my dad's, but who cares) Walkie-talkies (instrumental for military in World Wars I and II, but meh), electric wheelchairs (allows mobility to people who are disabled or old or injured, *shrug*) and hundreds of other inventions that have affected the lives of people globally, but whatever - this technology is obviously underdeveloped and nothing important.

This long list of Canadian inventions? Whatever. A mere handful of the most important Canadian medical breakthroughs? Meh. These Tech Inventions? Boring. Canada's highly successful tech start-up culture? Nothing special. Same with these seven Canadian tech startups garnering a lot of attention.

Yeah. We're way back in the prehistoric era.

By the way, I'm writing on my new 1984 Tandy 1000 super state-of-the-art computer that I just bought. And I love my dial-up Internet!





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By Robert P. Collins   working historian

 

But the U.S. has tried to take over Canada. We got beaten. Twice.

The first attempt was during the American Revolution, in 1775, before the United States had even declared independence. The Continental Army sent two forces north into Quebec, expecting to persuade the French Canadians to join the rebellion against Britain.

Gen. Richard Montgomery actually took the city of Montreal. He then moved on to Quebec City where he joined forces with Benedict Arnold, still a devoted patriot at the time. On New Year's Eve the Americans launched a disastrous attack on Quebec City; Montgomery was killed and Arnold was wounded. Before long the Americans retreated south.

Montgomery, the capital of Alabama, was named in honor of the general who got himself killed in Canada. The Continental Congress planned to take another crack at Canada, but it never happened. [Source: Invasion of Canada (1775)]

The second attempt was during the War of 1812. The British were busy fighting Napoleon in Europe, so "War Hawks" in the United States Congress calculated that Canada would be easy pickings; in fact, it was one of the principal war aims.

The United States was a lot smaller then — only 18 states — but Canada was even smaller, consisting of two small provinces called Upper and Lower Canada, more or less equivalent to southern Ontario and Quebec. The U.S. attacked both provinces a number of times, usually losing. This time the Americans never made it to Montreal, and the last attempt at an invasion of Canada ground to a halt July 1814 in Niagara Falls, at the Battle of Lundy's Lane. [Source: War of 1812]

You asked who would believe that the U.S. really tried in earnest to take over Canada. Well, every military historian of the American Revolution or the War of 1812 believes it. Almost every educated Canadian believes it, because these events are not swept under the rug there. In the U.S. we prefer not to think much about the War of 1812 — or when we do, we remember the battles we won at sea and the one really great victory we won at New Orleans, even though it happened after the peace treaties had been signed. We also remember that the British occupied Washington and burned the White House, because that's hard to overlook. But we tend to have amnesia about our failed invasions of Canada.

There were at least two other occasions when an invasion of Canada was contemplated. The first was during the dispute with Britain over the Oregon Country, when hawkish Americans vowed to go to war unless the USA got all the territory up to what is now the northern boundary of British Columbia. Well, they didn't get it, but they contented themselves with seizing a lot of Mexican land instead (Mexican–American War). The second was in 1861 during the American Civil War, when a U.S. warship stopped and boarded a British ship to remove two Confederate diplomats. The British protested, and the two countries threatened war before the incident (the Trent Affair) was smoothed over. Had a war broken out, the U.S. would almost certainly have invaded Canada.

 

 http://www.quora.com/Question-that-contains-assumptions-Why-can-a-country-like-Canada-with-so-few-people-and-such-underdeveloped-technology-exist-in-this-world-for-so-many-years-Has-the-U-S-never-really-tried-to-take-over-Canada