politics

The Mayor of Basingstoke & Deane BC, the Worshipful Cllr Jacky Tustain, was the guest of honour at the latest meeting of the Probus Club of Basingstoke.  She spoke about her aim to be more community focussed with charities that are trying to improve circumstances for young people especially in the job market. Basingstoke has a positive image with 7,000 business employing 85,000 people generating £8 billion per annum for the local economy.

The Probus Club of Basingstoke was please to make a donation to the mayor’s charity appeal.

The guest speaker was historian Dr Stephen Goss whose subject title “America is Lost” was topical as it was 250 years ago, on 4^th July 1776, the Declaration of Independence was signed on behalf of the thirteen colonies situated on the eastern side of America.

Declaration of Independence signed on 4 July 1776 Author Thomas Jefferson owned hundreds of slaves

The principal author was Thomas Jefferson, a member of the Continental Congress. It was a statement of universal rights with the famous phrase “all men are created equal” that set the tone for the world’s first modern republic.

The American War of Independence began as tensions between Great Britain and its North American colonies escalated beyond repair. What started as disputes over taxation, representation, and imperial authority that included the demand that locals provide quarters for up to 10,000 Red Coats soon grew into a full‑scale struggle for self‑government.

Driven by a rising sense of political identity and resentment toward British control, the colonies ultimately chose to fight for a new nation built on principles of liberty and democratic rule.

An example of intervention by foreign powers was the smuggling of tea by the Dutch was seen by the British as a loss of tax revenue which brought about the closure of Boston harbour. The infamous Boston Tea Party took place in December 1773 as locals dressed as native American Indians threw over 300 cases of tea into the Boston harbour to the value of £10,000, a fortune in yesterday’s money.

The colonists resisted what they saw as escalating tyranny by Britain whereas Britain saw things differently, as was the case with many proposals during what became a seven years’ war that involved other countries. France, Spain and the Netherlands sided with the colonists while the Prussians were on Britain’s side as were most native American Indians who supported Britain’s view that the colonies should not be permitted to expand westwards of the Mississippi river.

The Americans had an unequal split of opinion as to the merits of fighting for recognition. This was also the case in Britain with an increasing appreciation of the difficulties and cost in fighting a war at least 3,000 miles away that was spreading into the Caribbean, the Mediterranean and even as far as India.

The colonists saw things in simplistic terms – liberty versus tyranny, the new world versus the old world, citizen farmers versus professional Red Coats. 

George Washington led the Continental Army but did not normally attempt frontal assaults against members of the most powerful army in the world at that time but relied on short skirmishes to harry the British. Bunker Hill, Lexington, Concord, Germantown and the defeat of the British at York Town by the combined forces of the Continental Army, supported by the French military and French navy, are names made famous in this revolutionary war.

Final agreement was made in the Treaty of Paris in 1783 being signed by Benjamin Franklin and John Adams, and others, on behalf of the colonists. British policy was to be generous to the colonists, formally recognising the United States as an independent and sovereign nation. It set boundaries between British North America, later known as Canada, and the United States. The purpose was to establish good trading links with the expanding market in north America without having the responsibility and cost of governing the country.

As part of the reparations and settlements on all sides the Spanish regained Menorca but gave up all claims to Gibraltar. A situation that in very recent times has seen Spain dismantle all border controls between itself and this British Overseas Territory.