A MILITARY HISTORY OF ANGLO AMERICAN RELATIONS – PART ONE
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A MILITARY HISTORY OF ANGLO AMERICAN RELATIONS – PART ONE Many, perhaps most, Englishmen of any influence in the early 1770s saw nothing oppressive about asking the American colonists to contribute to the cost of their own defence. ‘No taxation without representation’ hardly washed when the vast majority of British residents had no vote, but assuredly paid taxes on much of what they used and consumed. Many Englishmen did, however, object strongly to Lord North’s government’s policy of threatening and then using force when some Americans decided that they would not pay. In the House of Lords of the British parliament one of the most vociferous opponents of coercion was Charles Cornwallis, who had succeeded to his father’s earldom in 1762. But Cornwallis was a soldier, and a good one, and whatever soldiers’ personal or political views may be, in a mature nation they do what they are told and implement to the best of their ability even those policies with which they disagree. It was ironic, therefore, that it was General Earl Cornwallis, besieged by over twice his own numbers of American and French troops at a place called Yorktown, at the tip of the Virginia peninsula, and with control of the seas temporarily lost, who surrendered to George Washington on 19 October 1781. Cornwallis pleaded sickness to avoid signing the instrument of surrender himself, and he went on to be an effective Commander in Chief India, and Master General of the Ordnance in the British cabinet. As Colonel of the 33rd Foot Cornwallis had as the commanding officer of his regiment from 1793 Lieutenant Colonel Arthur Wesley, later Arthur Wellesley and later still the First Duke of Wellington.
A MILITARY HISTORY OF ANGLO AMERICAN RELATIONS – PART ONE
A MILITARY HISTORY OF ANGLO AMERICAN…
A MILITARY HISTORY OF ANGLO AMERICAN RELATIONS – PART ONE
A MILITARY HISTORY OF ANGLO AMERICAN RELATIONS – PART ONE Many, perhaps most, Englishmen of any influence in the early 1770s saw nothing oppressive about asking the American colonists to contribute to the cost of their own defence. ‘No taxation without representation’ hardly washed when the vast majority of British residents had no vote, but assuredly paid taxes on much of what they used and consumed. Many Englishmen did, however, object strongly to Lord North’s government’s policy of threatening and then using force when some Americans decided that they would not pay. In the House of Lords of the British parliament one of the most vociferous opponents of coercion was Charles Cornwallis, who had succeeded to his father’s earldom in 1762. But Cornwallis was a soldier, and a good one, and whatever soldiers’ personal or political views may be, in a mature nation they do what they are told and implement to the best of their ability even those policies with which they disagree. It was ironic, therefore, that it was General Earl Cornwallis, besieged by over twice his own numbers of American and French troops at a place called Yorktown, at the tip of the Virginia peninsula, and with control of the seas temporarily lost, who surrendered to George Washington on 19 October 1781. Cornwallis pleaded sickness to avoid signing the instrument of surrender himself, and he went on to be an effective Commander in Chief India, and Master General of the Ordnance in the British cabinet. As Colonel of the 33rd Foot Cornwallis had as the commanding officer of his regiment from 1793 Lieutenant Colonel Arthur Wesley, later Arthur Wellesley and later still the First Duke of Wellington.