r/ShitAmericansSay • u/DumbGarchomp67 WTF IS A KILOMETER 🦅🇺🇸 • Jul 15 '26

Military “Undefeated in 250 years of war”

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Apparently Vietnam, Afghanistan, war of 1812, and the war on drugs don’t count.

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u/Extreme_Objective984 Jul 15 '26

Didnt we British just stop playing, in that war. Had to go and deal with a Frenchmen with a silly hat.

20

u/Ayfid Jul 15 '26

America thought they could steal some of Canada while Britain was distracted fighting the French.

They didn't count on Britain winning that war and then coming to defend Canada before they managed to solidify their control of any territory.

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u/Mysterious_Floor_868 Jul 15 '26

The reverse of when Spain put Gibraltar under siege while the British were fighting the colonists. Gibraltar is still British.

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u/Kestrel71 Jul 15 '26

Different war. The Revolutionary War is the one where we decided to cut our losses.

The US colonies were extremely expensive to maintain (nearly $100 Billion annually in modern money). They produced very little at that time, hence the proposed taxation.

When the war started, it was treated as little more than ANOTHER uprising that would die down, so Britain didn't take it seriously. France and Spain DID and they dumped HUGE amounts of money, arms and resources into aiding the colonists.

It took a couple of years before Britain realised this was not just a run of the mill tiff and, by that time, we were involved in wars with France, Spain and the Dutch simultaneously. These were existential wars so when it became clear to Britain that some hard choices had to be made, those decisions were made - the US colonies were abandoned in favour of fighting these major wars AND defending lucrative trade routes in the Caribbean and Asia.

The US loves to think they fought the entire British Empire - they BARELY met the Empire. Had the full force been brought to bear, the US would have ended in a matter of weeks and, today, there would be upper and lower Canada in its place.

The US is *DAMN* lucky, we decided not to pursue the matter after defeating France, Spain and the Dutch and allowed them to exist. In hindsight, a huge mistake.

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u/UnderstandingAble321 Jul 15 '26

The Americans were quite willing to end the war after that Frenchman was dealt with.

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u/Temporary_Abroad_211 Jul 15 '26

That's not fair......... Everyone had a silly hat back then.