• justOnePersistentKbinPlease@fedia.io
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    25 days ago

    The seven years war is fantastic and is utterly critical to understanding the US Revolution as well as understanding how the Iroquois pulled a power move on the other first nations that worked, but later led to the current situation with first nations in North America.

    On the revolution: Namely that corruption was so endemic in the colonies that when the UK actually started to do something about it the revolution happened albeit with a lot of pushing from the upper crust of the colonies.

    • wjrii@lemmy.world
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      25 days ago

      Fun couterfactual to consider: how many MPs would “the colonies” have needed to blunt popular support for the revolution?

      Probably can’t go very high, but maybe one per charter? If not that high (Scotland only had 45, I think), then what would have been enough “representation” to preclude the American elites from making a compelling case, or what paths to personal status would have tempted enough of them that there wouldn’t have been a critical mass of will and resources?

      The British colonized the Americas, particularly North America, very differently than Spain and France did, but didn’t seem to think of the purpose or integration of colonies as any different.

      • justOnePersistentKbinPlease@fedia.io
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        25 days ago

        The answer would probably be “none”.

        For example, the factors that led the average member of “sons of liberty” in New York after the initial elite only membership was worried about the elites owning massive tracks of land and driving up the cost of land for them.

    • Sergio@slrpnk.net
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      25 days ago

      TIL:

      It is now believed that the Ottoman military was able to maintain rough parity with its rivals until the 1760s, falling behind as a consequence of a long period of peace on its western front between 1740 and 1768, when the Ottomans missed out on the advances associated with the Seven Years’ War.[66]

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ottoman_decline_thesis

  • Count042@lemmy.ml
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    25 days ago

    The seven year war, which is what the rest of the world calls the French Indian war should actually have been called World War One.

    It was also started by an incompetent 22 year old George Washington being sent out in his first command who ignored the equivalent of the sergeant put in charge of the new lieutenant advice and executed a French person he shouldn’t have.

    The taxes that started the revolutionary war? Those were to pay the war debts on the seven year war. Dude literally led an army to avoid paying the consequences of his actions.

    EDIT: it’s also possible to draw “ALL WARS”

    • azi@mander.xyz
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      25 days ago

      In the Pays d’en Haut Anglo settlers were moving in, French forts were rapidly expanding and militarizing, and both colonial powers were jockeying for Indigenous allies and exclusive trade partners. And in Acadia the oaths issue was still unresolved and considerable swaths of the country that France ‘ceded’ to Britain was under the control of the French-allied Wabanaki.

      Another war was inevitable, Washington just lit the powderkeg.

  • explodicle@sh.itjust.works
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    25 days ago

    WWIII nut here.

    Get yourself a Red Cross emergency kit, a lot of water jugs, and ramen. You’re underestimating your chances of survival and how much you’ll want to.

  • lime!@feddit.nu
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    25 days ago

    i got the soviet-afghan war and wow did that recontextualize a lot of things about the modern world

      • lime!@feddit.nu
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        25 days ago

        bear in mind i was 10 during 9/11 so a lot of it was just upending things i had taken for granted. but like, how the US was pretty much allied with the taliban throughout the 80s, giving them training and weapons to fight against the soviet-friendly progressive, secular government of afghanistan.

  • stevedice@sh.itjust.works
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    24 days ago

    I got the second Punic war, but I think that’s just a freebie. I also spent a lot learning about the Falkland’s war just to annoy Argentinians online.

  • GreenKnight23@lemmy.world
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    24 days ago

    I’m glad I missed this.

    btw, did you know that the Australian government killed almost 1000 Emus in the Great Emu War and still lost?

    The military used over 10,000 rounds of ammunition. that would mean they used around 10 rounds per Emu.

    • stevedice@sh.itjust.works
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      24 days ago

      They also used actual military tactics to fight the Emus, like mapping their routes and setting up ambushes. In one of these, they managed to get close to a flock of about a thousand emus and attacked them with machine guns only allowing the escape of… lemme check… about a thousand emus.

    • domdanial@reddthat.com
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      24 days ago

      I typically have a 60% accuracy in Helldivers 2 and I’m fighting swarms of giant bugs. I think I’ll forgive the Australians for 10 rounds per bird, especially since winging an emu probably doesn’t stop it.

    • e8d79@discuss.tchncs.de
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      24 days ago

      Compared to the amount of bullets expended per casualty in any modern war that is actually very good. The US probably fired thousands of bullets for each insurgent killed in Iraq or Afghanistan.

    • m0darn@lemmy.ca
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      25 days ago

      I just watched The Cynical Historian’s review of the recent Napoleon flick. It was great. The review I mean, not the movie. It tried to tell Napoleon’s whole story, which is just not feasible in the span of a single film.

      I had no idea there were 7 coalition wars, that’s crazy.