Comments by "dixon pinfold" (@dixonpinfold2582) on "Voices of the Past"
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@Garret Phegley But the US did want it; it simply didn't have the appetite for another war with Britain. At least the people pulling the strings didn't. That's why they folded, for example, on the border dispute over British Columbia. 54'40" or Fight! ended up as "OK, you win, 49."
As the Civil War progressed, the Manifest Destiny crowd was clamoring for an invasion of Canada to replace the territory of the departed South. Britain and Canada paid close attention to that, and as the Americans closed their deal for Alaska (1867) they decided to end Canada's colonial status and make it a country of sorts on July 1st of that year (the qualifier is that it had no foreign office until around 1930).
American yahoos of course are always in favor of invading other countries, but they don't always get their way. That's good for America, since its record of success is very spotty, as you well know. For every Grenada there's a Vietnam, Cuba, or Afghanistan.
Even the war with Canada in 1812-14 didn't go so well, which is exactly why Americans today know so little of it. I would imagine a similar reason explains why you think the US didn't want Canada --- it doesn't have it, so surely it didn't want it. (And one could say Mexico now stands a little doubtfully in the win column, as that country is slowly reconquering the Southwest.)
Britain was simply too rich and powerful in the Manifest Destiny days. Americans forget how Britain towered above them in riches, productive capacity, and military might in the 19th century. US per-capita GDP didn't surpass Britain's until after the First World War.
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