Did Canada Ever Apologize for Burning Down the White House?

This one makes me laugh every time. How many out there were ever taught this piece of history while in school?

The Burning of Washington in 1814 was an incident during the War of 1812 between the forces of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and those of the United States of America. On August 24, 1814, after defeating the Americans at the Battle of Bladensburg, a British force led by Major General Robert Ross occupied Washington, D.C. and set fire to many public buildings. The facilities of the U.S. government, including the White House and U.S. Capitol, were largely destroyed.[3] The British commander's orders to burn only public buildings and strict discipline among the British troops are credited with preserving the city's private buildings.
This was the only time since the Revolutionary War that a foreign power captured and occupied the United States capital.[4]

en.wikipedia.org...

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Whoever tells you it was Canadians doesn't know that Canada wasn't a country until 1867. The British did it, not Canadians.

Apologize?
It gave the best reason to renovate...

Good point Superman

Originally posted by winterkill
How many out there were ever taught this piece of history while in school?

Raises hand.

And your title is misleading by the way.

when was young... learned it in school... surprised its even known now with all the rewriting of history and the seriously declining standards in education....

Why would they? The US was attempting to invade Canada, and the British response was not only to repel the invasion but to then march on and burn Washington D.C. Perhaps the only thing that saved the US from being re-absorbed back into the British Empire was Napoleon, who was keeping the Brits a bit busy at the time.

reply to post by winterkill


We started it,
we burn down some town in Canada.
British responded by crossing the border,
and burning down every town they could.
America changed the rules when they,
burned civilians property down.
And then the United States did it again during the civil war
and burned most of Georgia down.
Before both of those wars we only burned Indian villages down.
Now I think it is only middle eastern towns we burn down.

reply to post by winterkill

I was in a British school, but this particular British victory was never mentioned.
Our attention was focussed on the more urgent business of Wellington and Nelson fighting the Frogs.
("I do not say that the French will not come.
I only say that they cannot come by sea")

In fact I learned about the "burning Washington" incident from a copy of National Geographic.

reply to post by winterkill


And wasn't it ... um ... convenient ... how they managed to burn all the documents of the first several years of legislating.

Of course it was even more convenient for Thomas Jefferson who sold his private library to the government (now the ONLY record of those early proceedings) for the tidy sum of $23,950.

myloc.gov...

And we will ignore all those news stories
with flame throwers in Vietnam
on the nightly news.

NO!
And truth to tell, we are not that effin sorry.....

Der Spiegle here, Canadian.


Um....

The British burned down your WHITEHOUSE....


SS

Originally posted by winterkill
This one makes me laugh every time. How many out there were ever taught this piece of history while in school?

The Burning of Washington in 1814 was an incident during the War of 1812 between the forces of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and those of the United States of America. On August 24, 1814, after defeating the Americans at the Battle of Bladensburg, a British force led by Major General Robert Ross occupied Washington, D.C. and set fire to many public buildings. The facilities of the U.S. government, including the White House and U.S. Capitol, were largely destroyed.[3] The British commander's orders to burn only public buildings and strict discipline among the British troops are credited with preserving the city's private buildings.
This was the only time since the Revolutionary War that a foreign power captured and occupied the United States capital.[4]

en.wikipedia.org...

I cant believe the Irish would have anything to do with it. Maybe North Irish.....but their not really Irish.

This was after a hockey game probably...

Ya, dats it dare.

Dose Washington Capitals, da hockey team. We wouda beat em but da refs made a bad call.

So we burned the town, you bet...

But we still love you silly guys south of the border...

Here, have a real beer (instead of that American yellow water stuff) in a loving neighbourly gesture of friendship.

reply to post by winterkill


Did the US ever apologize for the attempted annexation of Canada in the first place?

btw I'm British-Canadian, and we kicked your butts

reply to post by winterkill


Americans were trying to conquer us, to make us part of the States. Also, Americans burned down the original Toronto. Angry Canadians took British vessels to Washington, burned down the White House and wanted to burn down the rest of Washington, but the British caught up with them and basiclly said, "Alright now, I think you've made your point."

So, we're even. Sort of.

en.wikipedia.org...
www.forces.gc.ca...
1812.gc.ca...

Originally posted by superman2012
Whoever tells you it was Canadians doesn't know that Canada wasn't a country until 1867. The British did it, not Canadians.

Sorry, our defence was made up of British regulars, Canadian militias and First Nations. It was Upper and Lower Canada at the time. Just so's you know, a lot of our Canadian militias were made up of former Americans who declined your invitation of Manifest Destiny.

And no, we won't apologise for the White House until y'all apologise for burning down York.

I wonder how many Americans even knew about the towns in (now Canada) being burned ?

Anybody remember any school lessons on this topic ?

I don't.

Not many Americans may know about "Upper Canada" either.

from this map on wikipedia, it looks like somebody wanted full control of the Great Lakes ?

The Province of Upper Canada (French: province du Haut-Canada) was a part of British Canada established in 1791 by the British Empire to govern the central third of the lands in British North America and to accommodate Loyalist refugees from the United States of America after the American Revolution. The new province remained the government of the colonial territory for the next fifty years of growth and settlement.

Upper Canada existed from December 26, 1791 to February 10, 1841 and generally comprised present-day Southern Ontario. The prefix "upper" in its name reflects its geographic position higher up the river basin or closer to the headwater] of the Saint Lawrence River than that of Lower Canada or present-day Quebec to the northeast.

Upper Canada included all of modern-day southern Ontario and all those areas of northern Ontario in the pays d'en haut which had formed part of New France, essentially the watersheds of the Ottawa River, Lake Huron, and Lake Superior. It did not include any lands within the watershed of Hudson Bay....

Upper Canada

Hmmm.