Americans have become so used to having too friendly neighbours with Canada and Mexico that they take for granted how much nationalism in both societies is shaped by acute anxiety over how far Americans can be trusted.
Comments
Log in with your Bluesky account to leave a comment
Distrust of American intentions lurks just below the surface of Canadian national identity. It won't take much for it to resurface as a renewed strand of Canadian nationalism.
If there has been an important geopolitical lesson over the past few years, it is in how the foreign policy and military elites of global empires often understand the societies bordered closest to their own the least.
The Mexican oil expropriation was in *1938* and the industry was opened to outsiders in *2013*
It's both unsurprising and somehow surprising the GOP and associated elites have no real sense that the main achievement of NAFTA was binding Mexico to a Washington led order
In a way, that is natural. The neighbours learn to deal with the empire through the empire’s culture. The empire then sees local culture as folklore, but it isn’t. It is central to locals and not an adjunct at all. There’s a whole culture going on that is invisible to the empire.
Absolutely true. 👍 The neighbour know everything about the great power next door - but the hegemon is often utterly oblivious to even the basics of the political/social/cultural/historical context of their (often contentious) relationship.
"the war of 1812 only knows winners: the Americans because they think they have won. The Canadians because they know they have won. And the British because they forgot about it."
It’s funny as a UK immigrant living in Maryland. The war of 1812 is a big thing over here because of Ft. McHenry but in the UK it’s completely unheard of. It’s not even mentioned in schools.
As we Aubrey-Maturinistes are reminded about a third of the way through each circumnavigation, the War of 1812 was, from the British perspective, an irritating minor distraction from the Real War (with France). As, indeed, was the American War of Independence.
Currently a lot of Canadian right wing nationalism is just a local version of Trumpism kind of interesting to see how that will develop if Trump becomes actively hostile to Canadians
Or Canadian stand up Mike Wilmot's opening lines when playing in the UK: "In the snow, among the French, next door to the Americans. So when I say I'm pleased to be here..."
Yup I found in my MA thesis a long time ago that North America was a pretty violent region in 19th century w/nationalisms of both Canada & Mexico from birth deeply shaped by fears of US expansionism/manifest destiny https://bsky.app/profile/dovlevin.bsky.social/post/3le7j4xxbcc2c
Comments
It's both unsurprising and somehow surprising the GOP and associated elites have no real sense that the main achievement of NAFTA was binding Mexico to a Washington led order
"the war of 1812 only knows winners: the Americans because they think they have won. The Canadians because they know they have won. And the British because they forgot about it."