99Panhard
Stainless
- Joined
- Feb 22, 2006
- Location
- Smithfield, Rhode Island
George,
I think you are probably wrong about the population make-up at the time of the Revolution. Aside from the Dutch in New York and the German-speaking people in Pennsylvania (few of which came from what was then, or is now, part of Germany — most came from German-speaking parts of what is now the Czech Republic) the population was overwhelming of British origin.
As to lingering resentment over the Revolution, much, if not most of this is a result of the stilted history we've been taught. The Revolution was not as popular, or widely supported as our popular historians have made it out to be. The general figure used now is that 1/3 of the population was for it, 1/3 against it and 1/3 were indifferent. One need only look at the large number of loyalists who emigrated after the war to understand this, despite the fact that the Treaty of Paris stipulated that all property confiscated from loyalists during the war had to be returned. Most of it was, and some returned to the United States but I know of at least one instance, in the last 20 years, where local popular resentment against the Revolution was mobilized to prevent the expansion of a Revolutionary battlefield National Park. I have to admit that really surprised me, because I can hardly imagine those memories having survived over two hundred years.
But this is straying very far from the original topic. As to water power vs. steam... New England has a plentiful supply of moving water, much more than most of Britain, so even after the invention of the steam engine it was less useful in an American context than it was in Britain. Added to that, because they came so late, our industrial centers often grew up around rivers. In Britain, this wasn't always the case. Birmingham, which was arguably the center of British metal manufacturing from at least the early 18th century has quite poor sources of water power. Even Boulton's famous Soho factory had to close down when the water levels fell. This never happened in Pawtucket. Also, New England didn't have deep pit mining and most of the early steam engines were erected for pumping out mines.
I think you are probably wrong about the population make-up at the time of the Revolution. Aside from the Dutch in New York and the German-speaking people in Pennsylvania (few of which came from what was then, or is now, part of Germany — most came from German-speaking parts of what is now the Czech Republic) the population was overwhelming of British origin.
As to lingering resentment over the Revolution, much, if not most of this is a result of the stilted history we've been taught. The Revolution was not as popular, or widely supported as our popular historians have made it out to be. The general figure used now is that 1/3 of the population was for it, 1/3 against it and 1/3 were indifferent. One need only look at the large number of loyalists who emigrated after the war to understand this, despite the fact that the Treaty of Paris stipulated that all property confiscated from loyalists during the war had to be returned. Most of it was, and some returned to the United States but I know of at least one instance, in the last 20 years, where local popular resentment against the Revolution was mobilized to prevent the expansion of a Revolutionary battlefield National Park. I have to admit that really surprised me, because I can hardly imagine those memories having survived over two hundred years.
But this is straying very far from the original topic. As to water power vs. steam... New England has a plentiful supply of moving water, much more than most of Britain, so even after the invention of the steam engine it was less useful in an American context than it was in Britain. Added to that, because they came so late, our industrial centers often grew up around rivers. In Britain, this wasn't always the case. Birmingham, which was arguably the center of British metal manufacturing from at least the early 18th century has quite poor sources of water power. Even Boulton's famous Soho factory had to close down when the water levels fell. This never happened in Pawtucket. Also, New England didn't have deep pit mining and most of the early steam engines were erected for pumping out mines.
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