Tuesday, August 23, 2005

Start of the American Revolution

It was this day, 230 years ago (1775), that the American revolution stared. King George III was reigning at that time and there were 13 colonies that then belonged to the British Empire. A small minority, known as loyalists, were against the war and eventually fled to Canada. They were also known as the Tories. A plurarity (about 45%) was for the war and were known as the Patriots (or Whigs).

The war lasted till 1783 with the Treaty of Paris.

August 15, which is a week before today, is also significant because India was partitioned and independence was granted to India and Pakistan in 1947. The horror stories of what happed in the aftermath of Aug 15th is legend by now. The violence was at its worst in the Punjab where Gandhi did not have a huge following. Gandhi did have considerable influence in the rest of the country and large scale blood baths were prevented.

India is still prospering and getting richer by the day, whilst Pakistan languishes with children growing up only with the knowledge of the Koran--naturally it gets poorer by the day. Anyone who can goes to the middle east where they get treated like dirt because of their dark skins (everyone knows the Arabs look down on dark skinned people).

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