EvanL
05-22-2004, 01:39 PM
With France finished as a military force in North America, the Thirteen Colonies were free to nurse their grievances against Britain -- and to rebel. Or so says a British author. Randy Boswell reports.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Canada was the Ground Zero of modern history, says a controversial new book by a bestselling British author.
Historian Frank McLynn says the Battle of the Plains of Abraham, long understood by Canadians to be the pivotal event in this country's past, should really be seen as the turning point in the entire history of the modern world.
The victory over the French not only marked the birth of the British Empire and ensured the global dominance of the English language but also made possible the existence of the United States, he claims.
In 1759: The Year Britain Became Master of the World, Mr. McLynn urges scholars to reconsider the collective significance of a series of resounding British victories over France in Europe, India, the West Indies and North America.
He places Gen. James Wolfe's Sept. 13, 1759 triumph at Quebec City over the Marquis de Montcalm at the centre of his narrative.
The victory helped eliminate future military threats from the French in North America and finally allowed Britain's restless Thirteen Colonies to begin imagining and plotting their independence.
"The taking of Quebec was probably the most spectacular success in the year of victories and certainly had the most momentous consequences," writes Mr. McLynn, whose other works have included epic treatments of Napoleon and the British exploration of Africa.
"The summing up is simple; no 1759, no victory in the Seven Years War, no victory in North America, no expansionist British Empire, no break-away colonies and therefore, conceivably, no United States of America."
The book is not yet available in Canada. Reviewers in Britain have heaped praise on the sprawling study, with the Sunday Times calling it "a marvellous book: elegantly written, convincingly argued."
But Mr. McLynn's thesis that 1759 should rank with 1066 -- the year of the Norman conquest of Anglo-Saxon England -- as the two greatest dates in British history has sparked some debate.
"Most of the other, better known school history dates pale into insignificance," he says, insisting that "the Magna Carta of 1215 changed nothing" and the famous victories at Trafalgar in 1805 and Waterloo in 1815 "changed little" compared with the sweeping effects of 1759.
"The entire history of the world would have been different but for the events of 1759," says Mr. McLynn. "If the French had prevailed in North America, there would have been no United States (at least in the form we know it), for it is inconceivable that France would ever have ceded any of its North American possessions."
While Mr. McLynn paints Wolfe's successful storming of the cliffs at Quebec as globally historic, the author utterly savages the legendary general himself, contending that he has been mythologized as a brilliant commander but was, in fact, "almost supernaturally lucky" and a borderline "war criminal."
Mr. McLynn says Wolfe's "murderous rage" was routinely unleashed upon captured French soldiers, French Canadians and native people.
The author is also critical of the "death-hail" of cannon fire Wolfe had heaped upon Quebec -- its homes and military installations alike -- throughout the summer months in advance of the Sept. 13 assault.
"Wolfe's real aim was to cow the Canadians by terror," Mr. McLynn says.
Wolfe died on the battlefield at the very hour of his historic victory. While Mr. McLynn credits Wolfe's luck for success in what should have been a suicidal rampage on the heavily fortified Quebec, he also blames Montcalm's lieutenant, Louis Antoine de Bougainville, for inexplicably failing to lead his reinforcements into battle against the British.
In a larger context, Mr. McLynn says British Prime Minister William Pitt's single-minded push to prevail in North America stood in sharp contrast to France's muddled imperial strategy under Louis XV's increasingly corrupt and bankrupt regime.
In fact, asserts Mr. McLynn, France's final futile investments to try to prevent defeat in North America while waging a "pointless war" on a second front in Germany so weakened the monarchy that the Plains of Abraham disaster might be seen, too, as a prelude to the French Revolution.
"To contrast Britain and France in the Seven Years War is to compare two oligarchic elites, one united and self-confident, the other riven by conflict, factionalism and self-doubt," he writes. "The consequences of 1759 were momentous; it really was a hinge on which all of world history turned."
-------------------
Hist2004, i think you might enjoy this one ;)
Cheers
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Canada was the Ground Zero of modern history, says a controversial new book by a bestselling British author.
Historian Frank McLynn says the Battle of the Plains of Abraham, long understood by Canadians to be the pivotal event in this country's past, should really be seen as the turning point in the entire history of the modern world.
The victory over the French not only marked the birth of the British Empire and ensured the global dominance of the English language but also made possible the existence of the United States, he claims.
In 1759: The Year Britain Became Master of the World, Mr. McLynn urges scholars to reconsider the collective significance of a series of resounding British victories over France in Europe, India, the West Indies and North America.
He places Gen. James Wolfe's Sept. 13, 1759 triumph at Quebec City over the Marquis de Montcalm at the centre of his narrative.
The victory helped eliminate future military threats from the French in North America and finally allowed Britain's restless Thirteen Colonies to begin imagining and plotting their independence.
"The taking of Quebec was probably the most spectacular success in the year of victories and certainly had the most momentous consequences," writes Mr. McLynn, whose other works have included epic treatments of Napoleon and the British exploration of Africa.
"The summing up is simple; no 1759, no victory in the Seven Years War, no victory in North America, no expansionist British Empire, no break-away colonies and therefore, conceivably, no United States of America."
The book is not yet available in Canada. Reviewers in Britain have heaped praise on the sprawling study, with the Sunday Times calling it "a marvellous book: elegantly written, convincingly argued."
But Mr. McLynn's thesis that 1759 should rank with 1066 -- the year of the Norman conquest of Anglo-Saxon England -- as the two greatest dates in British history has sparked some debate.
"Most of the other, better known school history dates pale into insignificance," he says, insisting that "the Magna Carta of 1215 changed nothing" and the famous victories at Trafalgar in 1805 and Waterloo in 1815 "changed little" compared with the sweeping effects of 1759.
"The entire history of the world would have been different but for the events of 1759," says Mr. McLynn. "If the French had prevailed in North America, there would have been no United States (at least in the form we know it), for it is inconceivable that France would ever have ceded any of its North American possessions."
While Mr. McLynn paints Wolfe's successful storming of the cliffs at Quebec as globally historic, the author utterly savages the legendary general himself, contending that he has been mythologized as a brilliant commander but was, in fact, "almost supernaturally lucky" and a borderline "war criminal."
Mr. McLynn says Wolfe's "murderous rage" was routinely unleashed upon captured French soldiers, French Canadians and native people.
The author is also critical of the "death-hail" of cannon fire Wolfe had heaped upon Quebec -- its homes and military installations alike -- throughout the summer months in advance of the Sept. 13 assault.
"Wolfe's real aim was to cow the Canadians by terror," Mr. McLynn says.
Wolfe died on the battlefield at the very hour of his historic victory. While Mr. McLynn credits Wolfe's luck for success in what should have been a suicidal rampage on the heavily fortified Quebec, he also blames Montcalm's lieutenant, Louis Antoine de Bougainville, for inexplicably failing to lead his reinforcements into battle against the British.
In a larger context, Mr. McLynn says British Prime Minister William Pitt's single-minded push to prevail in North America stood in sharp contrast to France's muddled imperial strategy under Louis XV's increasingly corrupt and bankrupt regime.
In fact, asserts Mr. McLynn, France's final futile investments to try to prevent defeat in North America while waging a "pointless war" on a second front in Germany so weakened the monarchy that the Plains of Abraham disaster might be seen, too, as a prelude to the French Revolution.
"To contrast Britain and France in the Seven Years War is to compare two oligarchic elites, one united and self-confident, the other riven by conflict, factionalism and self-doubt," he writes. "The consequences of 1759 were momentous; it really was a hinge on which all of world history turned."
-------------------
Hist2004, i think you might enjoy this one ;)
Cheers