Text 12376, 60 rader
Skriven 2007-02-18 16:01:30 av Jeffrey MacHott (15819.babylon5)
  Kommentar till text 12350 av rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated (15793.babylon5)
Ärende: Re: Interesting story to follow for B5 fans
===================================================
Richard Fallstrom wrote:
> In article <ygxBh.35$VE5.10@fe01.news.easynews.com>, Jeffrey MacHott
> <Raguleader@netzero.net> wrote:
> 
>> Angelika Tobisch wrote:
>>> Yeah, and most of the US is where it is today because of the
>>> intervention of the French during the American Revolutionary War or,
>> Random amusing historical thought: 20 years before the French joined the 
>> fight against the British, the Americans (in this context, the 13 
>> Colonies) were fighting against the French.  15-20 years *after* the 
>> American Revolution, the Americans were again fighting the French.
>>
>> Doesn't have anything to do with anything in this conversation, but it's 
>> something I like to bring up when France's help in the American 
>> Revolution comes up.
> 
> I somehow missed the part of fighting against the French in my history
> classes. I knew about he Brits (1812) but where did the French creep
> in?
> 
> Rick (sometimes is a GentleRF and sometimes is not)
> .

 From 1798 until 1800, fought entirely at sea.  Basically, the French 
navy started seizing American ships and searching them for British 
cargo, declaring the ships to be carrying contraband if they found so 
much as "a British handkerchief in the captain's pocket".  The US sent 
an envoy to Paris, and they were told by three French officials 
(identified in public records as X, Y, and Z for some reason or another) 
that relations between the US and France would be restored in exchange 
for a payment of a large sum of money.  The XYZ Affair was considered to 
be a slap to the face by the US government, and war shortly followed 
with ships of the US Navy and the Revenue Cutter Service (one of the 
precursors of the Coast Guard) fighting the French navy and their 
privateers up and down the southeastern coast of the US and throughout 
the Carribean.

What's funny is, this all happened when the US and the UK weren't 
exactly on friendly terms.  That said, England was more than happy to 
sell the American warships supplies and ammunition, the two navies 
developed a system of signals for recognizing each other at sea, and 
merchantmen from either country could join American or British convoys 
for protection against the French.

Lots of the folks involved in this war would become more prominent 
during the Barbary Wars and the War of 1812, but the Quasi War and the 
Barbary Wars have been somewhat blurred over (if mentioned at all) in 
history classes lately.  I suppose part of it is if you need to cover 
200+ years of US history, some of the relatively minor wars get left 
out, part of it might be that folks don't want to confuse kids by 
pointing out that we were enemies with the French for a short period of 
time, or bring up wars with countries that arguably no longer exist 
(Tripoli and the other Barbary States).

-- 
--Jeffrey MacHott

"Sola bona lingua est mortua lingua"
--- SBBSecho 2.12-Win32
 * Origin: Time Warp of the Future BBS - Home of League 10 (1:14/400)