Re: CHAT: "have a Canadian day"

"Thomas R. Wier" wrote:
>
> Robert Hailman wrote:
>
> > Nik Taylor wrote:
> > >
> > > Robert Hailman wrote:
> > > > I should have said that was the main reason for the invasion of Canada,
> > > > the war of course had other reasons. One can't doubt that at the time
> > > > the Americans had an eye to rule Canada.
> > >
> > > Don't forget that during the Revolution, Benjamin Franklin was sent to
> > > Quebec to try to convince them to join in the Revolution.  So, that
> > > desire certainly wasn't new with the War of 1812 [which has to be the
> > > worst name ever for a war, IMHO; why not, say, the Anglo-American War?]
> > >
> >
> > No, it certainly wasn't a new idea, but it had become more popular by
> > the time 1812 rolled around.
> >
> > I admit it is a pretty stupid name, how about the North American War?
>
> Because it wasn't fought in just North America.  What North Americans
> call the "War of 1812" was in fact probably more of an extension of the
> third worldwar, the Napoleonic Wars (1799-1815), after the Seven Years' War
> (1756-1763) and the War of American Independence (1775-1783), the
> first and second worldwars, respectively.
>
Please explain to me how the War of American Independence is a world
war, I'm not aware of any fighting in far off lands.

> (The way the War of 1812 grew out of the European conflict is analogous
> how the French and Indian War -- what we North Americans usually call the
> Seven Years' War, except that it lasted from 1754-1763 -- grew into
> a general conflict, and how the Japanese war with China starting in 1937
> grew into the Second World War (1939-45).)
>
> But anyways, as Saussure pointed out, names are entirely arbitrary.   If you
> choose to identify some subset as a war, that's fine, even though you are
> implicitly ignoring all the context of that war.  It's for that reason that we
> read of the Peloponnesian War, instead of at least three distinct periods of
> official war, and why many scholars choose to group what are commonly
> called the First World War and Second World War really as one giant
> bloodbath with a short breathing space in between.
>
You are completely right here. The definition of what is a war and what
isn't is abitrary indeed.

--
Robert