1.
Corps of Colonial Marines
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The Corps of Colonial Marines were two Marine units raised from former slaves for service in the Americas by the British at the behest of Alexander Cochrane. The units were created at two different times, and were disbanded once the military threat had disappeared. The first Corps was a unit that served in the Caribbean from 1808 to 12 October 1810. The locally-recruited men were less susceptible to tropical illnesses than were troops sent from Britain, the Corps followed the practice of the British Armys West India Regiments in recruiting slaves as soldiers. The second, more substantial, Corps served from 18 May 1814 until 20 August 1816, the greater part of the Corps was stationed on the Atlantic coast, with a smaller body occupying a fort on the Gulf coast in Florida. Recruits were accepted from among escaped slaves who had gained their freedom on coming into British hands. The establishment of the force sparked controversy at the time, the arming of former slaves representing a threat to the slave-owning society of the Americas). As a consequence, the two officers of the Corps in Florida were demonised in Niles Register for their association with the Corps. At the end of the War of 1812, as the British post in Florida was evacuated the Corps Florida detachment was paid off, although several men accompanied the British to Bermuda, the majority continued to live in settlements around the wooden stockade the Corps had garrisoned. This legacy of a community of armed fugitive slaves with an arsenal would lead to tensions with the United States of America. Those remaining later took part in the Battle of Negro Fort in July 1816, after which joined the southward migration of Seminoles. Members of the Colonial Marine battalion who were deployed on the Atlantic coast withdrew from American territory and they would continue in British service as garrison-in-residence at Bermuda until 1816, when the unit was disbanded and the ex-Marines resettled on Trinidad. Rear Admiral Sir Alexander Cochrane raised the first Corps of Colonial Marines in 1808 while commander-in-chief of British naval forces on the Leeward Islands station during the Napoleonic Wars. The British had captured the island of Marie Galante earlier that year, Cochrane named the ex-slaves the Corps of Colonial Marines, which was enlarged with fugitive slaves from Guadeloupe. The Corps was paid from Marie Galante revenues, clothed from Royal Navy stores and they saw no further action as a distinct body, but were listed in ships musters among supernumeraries for wages and victuals under the description Colonial Marine until mid-1815. Rear Admiral George Cockburn, Cochranes second-in-command on the Atlantic coast and it served as part of the British forces on the Atlantic and Gulf coasts of the United States during the War of 1812. On 2 April 1814, Cochrane issued a proclamation to all wishing to emigrate. By 10th May, Tangier Island off the Virginia coast had been occupied by the British, male refugees were given the option to become blue Jackets, take up arms or join the working party constructing Fort Albion and its infrastructure
2.
African Americans
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African Americans are an ethnic group of Americans with total or partial ancestry from any of the Black racial groups of Africa. The term may also be used to only those individuals who are descended from enslaved Africans. As a compound adjective the term is usually hyphenated as African-American, Black and African Americans constitute the third largest racial and ethnic group in the United States. Most African Americans are of West and Central African descent and are descendants of enslaved peoples within the boundaries of the present United States. On average, African Americans are of 73. 2–80. 9% West African, 18–24% European, according to US Census Bureau data, African immigrants generally do not self-identify as African American. The overwhelming majority of African immigrants identify instead with their own respective ethnicities, immigrants from some Caribbean, Central American and South American nations and their descendants may or may not also self-identify with the term. After the founding of the United States, black people continued to be enslaved, believed to be inferior to white people, they were treated as second-class citizens. The Naturalization Act of 1790 limited U. S. citizenship to whites only, in 2008, Barack Obama became the first African American to be elected President of the United States. The first African slaves arrived via Santo Domingo to the San Miguel de Gualdape colony, the ill-fated colony was almost immediately disrupted by a fight over leadership, during which the slaves revolted and fled the colony to seek refuge among local Native Americans. De Ayllón and many of the colonists died shortly afterwards of an epidemic, the settlers and the slaves who had not escaped returned to Haiti, whence they had come. The first recorded Africans in British North America were 20 and odd negroes who came to Jamestown, as English settlers died from harsh conditions, more and more Africans were brought to work as laborers. Typically, young men or women would sign a contract of indenture in exchange for transportation to the New World, the landowner received 50 acres of land from the state for each servant purchased from a ships captain. An indentured servant would work for years without wages. The status of indentured servants in early Virginia and Maryland was similar to slavery, servants could be bought, sold, or leased and they could be physically beaten for disobedience or running away. Africans could legally raise crops and cattle to purchase their freedom and they raised families, married other Africans and sometimes intermarried with Native Americans or English settlers. By the 1640s and 1650s, several African families owned farms around Jamestown and some became wealthy by colonial standards and purchased indentured servants of their own. In 1640, the Virginia General Court recorded the earliest documentation of slavery when they sentenced John Punch. One of Dutch African arrivals, Anthony Johnson, would own one of the first black slaves, John Casor
3.
War of 1812
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Historians in the United States and Canada see it as a war in its own right, but the British often see it as a minor theatre of the Napoleonic Wars. By the wars end in early 1815, the key issues had been resolved, the view was shared in much of New England and for that reason the war was widely referred to there as Mr. Madison’s War. As a result, the primary British war goal was to defend their North American colonies, the war was fought in three theatres. Second, land and naval battles were fought on the U. S. –Canadian frontier, Third, large-scale battles were fought in the Southern United States and Gulf Coast. With the majority of its land and naval forces tied down in Europe fighting the Napoleonic Wars, early victories over poorly-led U. S. armies demonstrated that the conquest of the Canadas would prove more difficult than anticipated. Despite this, the U. S. was able to inflict serious defeats on Britains Native American allies, both governments were eager for a return to normality and peace negotiations began in Ghent in August 1814. This brought an Era of Good Feelings in which partisan animosity nearly vanished in the face of strengthened American nationalism, the war was also a major turning point in the development of the U. S. military, with militia being increasingly replaced by a more professional force. The U. S. also acquired permanent ownership of Spains Mobile District, the government of Canada declared a three-year commemoration of the War of 1812 in 2012, intended to offer historical lessons and celebrate 200 years of peace across the border. At the conclusion of the commemorations in 2014, a new national War of 1812 Monument was unveiled in Ottawa. The war is remembered in Britain primarily as a footnote in the much larger Napoleonic Wars occurring in Europe, historians have long debated the relative weight of the multiple reasons underlying the origins of the War of 1812. This section summarizes several contributing factors which resulted in the declaration of war by the United States, as Risjord notes, a powerful motivation for the Americans was the desire to uphold national honour in the face of what they considered to be British insults such as the Chesapeake–Leopard Affair. The approaching conflict was about violations of American rights, but it was also vindication of American identity. Americans at the time and historians since often called it the United States Second War of Independence, in 1807, Britain introduced a series of trade restrictions via a series of Orders in Council to impede neutral trade with France, with which Britain was at war. The United States contested these restrictions as illegal under international law, the American merchant marine had come close to doubling between 1802 and 1810, making it by far the largest neutral fleet. Britain was the largest trading partner, receiving 80% of U. S. cotton, the British public and press were resentful of the growing mercantile and commercial competition. The United States view was that Britains restrictions violated its right to trade with others, during the Napoleonic Wars, the Royal Navy expanded to 176 ships of the line and 600 ships overall, requiring 140,000 sailors to man. The United States believed that British deserters had a right to become U. S. citizens and this meant that in addition to recovering naval deserters, it considered any United States citizens who were born British liable for impressment. Aggravating the situation was the reluctance of the United States to issue formal naturalization papers and it was estimated by the Admiralty that there were 11,000 naturalized sailors on United States ships in 1805
4.
Royal Naval Dockyard, Bermuda
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HMD Bermuda was the principal base of the Royal Navy in the Western Atlantic between American independence and the Cold War. Bermuda had occupied a position astride the homeward leg taken by many European vessels from the New World since before its settlement by England in 1609. French privateers may have used the islands as a place for operations against Spanish galleons in the 16th century. Bermudian privateers certainly played a role in many Imperial wars following settlement, in 1818 the Royal Naval Dockyard, Bermuda officially replaced the Royal Naval Dockyard, Halifax as the British headquarters for the North America and West Indies Station. In the decades following American independence, Britain was faced with two threats to its maritime supremacy, the first was French, as Napoleon battled Britain for military, political, and economic supremacy in Europe, closing continental ports to British trade. He also unleashed a storm of privateers from the French West Indies in an attempt to cripple British trade in the New World, the Royal Navy was hard-pressed in Europe, and unable to release adequate forces to counter the menace of the privateers. In any case, multi-decked ships-of-the-line were designed to each other in slow-moving, opposing lines. However many guns they might have to bring to bear, they were not able to run down, or outmanoeuvre the small privateers. The successful English colony in the United States, Jamestown, Virginia and this was at a time when Britain, and much of Europe, had long been stripped almost clear of trees. American timber had been one of the enablers of Britains ascendancy to maritime supremacy, and, by 1776, a significant part of Britains merchant fleet was made up of American ships. The British Admiralty was also enraged by the habit of American merchant, the US also had its own interest in breaking Britains supremacy on maritime trade, and from the first days of the Republic it has often claimed to champion free trade. The Royal Navy sought to counter the threat of French privateers in the New World by commissioning its own light vessels, built along the lines of traditional Bermuda sloops. The first three vessels commissioned from Bermudian shipyards were 200 ton, 12-gun sloops-of-war, ordered in 1795, over the next fifteen years, the Admiralty would commission a great many more vessels from Bermudian builders, manned by locally recruited officers and crews. They were also used for reconnaissance and maintaining pickets, in addition to ships commissioned by the Admiralty, Bermudian merchant vessels were also bought-up and commissioned for this purpose. The most famous was undoubtedly HMS Pickle, which carried the news of British victory back from Trafalgar, the Royal Navy began to invest into Bermudian real-estate in 1795. Very early, it began to buy islands at the West End of the chain, unfortunately, at that time, there was no known channel wide and deep enough to allow large naval vessels to gain access to the Great Sound. Initially, the Royal Navy bought and developed property in and around the capital of St. Georges. These included Convict Bay, which became a Royal Canadian Naval Base, HMCS Somers Isles, during the Second World War, and the building now housing the Carriage House Museum
5.
Trinidad
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Trinidad is the larger and more populous of the two major islands and numerous landforms which make up the island nation of Trinidad and Tobago. The island lies 11 km off the northeastern coast of Venezuela, though geographically part of the South American continent, from a socio-economic standpoint it is often referred to as the southernmost island in the Caribbean. With an area of 4,768 km2, it is also the sixth largest in the West Indies, many believe the original name for the island in the Arawaks language was Iëre which meant Land of the Hummingbird. Some believe that Iere was actually a mispronunciation or corruption by early colonists of the Arawak word Kairi which simply means Island, Christopher Columbus renamed it La Isla de la Trinidad, fulfilling a vow he had made before setting out on his third voyage of exploration. Caribs and Arawaks lived in Trinidad long before Christopher Columbus encountered the islands on his voyage in 1498. Tobago changed hands between the British, French, Dutch and Courlanders, but eventually ended up in British hands, Trinidad remained Spanish until 1797, but it was largely settled by French colonists from the French Caribbean, especially Martinique. In 1889 the two became a single British Crown colony. Trinidad and Tobago obtained self-governance in 1958 and independence from the United Kingdom in 1962, major landforms include the hills of the Northern, Central and Southern Ranges, the Caroni, Nariva and Oropouche Swamps, and the Caroni and Naparima Plains. Major river systems include the Caroni, North and South Oropouche, there are many other natural landforms such as beaches and waterfalls. Trinidad has two seasons per year, the rainy season and the dry season. El Cerro del Aripo, at 940 metres, is the highest point in Trinidad and it is part of the Aripo Massif and is located in the Northern Range on the island, northeast of the town of Arima. Diversity is the status quo in Trinidad and it is sometimes known as a rainbow island or more fondly a callaloo. There is a range of ethnicity, religion, and culture. As of the 2011 Trinidad and Tobago Census, the population was 34. 22% East Indian,35. 43% African,7. 66% Mixed - African and East Indian, and 15. 16% Mixed - Other. Venezuela has also had a impact on Trinidads culture, such as introducing the music style parang to the island. Many of these groups overlap heavily due to admixture, for example Dougla is a term used to describe a person who is of African and East Indian descent. Trinidad religion primarily centers round Roman Catholic, Anglican, other Christian denominations, Hindu, catholicism constitutes the largest religious denomination of the country. There are also multiple festivals featuring the music of the Caribbean and the steelpan and these festivals include the world-famous Carnival, Jouvert, and Panorama, the national steel pan competition
6.
American Revolution
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The British responded by imposing punitive laws on Massachusetts in 1774 known as the Coercive Acts, following which Patriots in the other colonies rallied behind Massachusetts. Tensions escalated to the outbreak of fighting between Patriot militia and British regulars at Lexington and Concord in April 1775, the conflict then developed into a global war, during which the Patriots fought the British and Loyalists in what became known as the American Revolutionary War. The Continental Congress determined King George IIIs rule to be tyrannical and infringing the rights as Englishmen. The Patriot leadership professed the political philosophies of liberalism and republicanism to reject monarchy and aristocracy, Congress rejected British proposals requiring allegiance to the monarchy and abandonment of independence. The British were forced out of Boston in 1776, but then captured and they blockaded the ports and captured other cities for brief periods, but failed to defeat Washingtons forces. After a failed Patriot invasion of Canada, a British army was captured at the Battle of Saratoga in late 1777, a combined American–French force captured a second British army at Yorktown in 1781, effectively ending the war in the United States. The Treaty of Paris in 1783 formally ended the conflict, confirming the new nations complete separation from the British Empire. The United States took possession of all the territory east of the Mississippi River and south of the Great Lakes, with the British retaining control of Canada. Among the significant results of the revolution was the creation of a new Constitution of the United States. Historians typically begin their histories of the American Revolution with the British victory in the French and Indian War in 1763, the lands west of Quebec and west of a line running along the crest of the Allegheny mountains became Indian territory, temporarily barred to settlement. For the prior history, see Thirteen Colonies, in 1764, Parliament passed the Currency Act to restrain the use of paper money which British merchants saw as a means to evade debt payments. Parliament also passed the Sugar Act, imposing customs duties on a number of articles, none did and Parliament passed the Stamp Act in March 1765 which imposed direct taxes on the colonies for the first time. All official documents, newspapers, almanacs, and pamphlets—even decks of playing cards—were required to have the stamps, the colonists did not object that the taxes were high, but because they had no representation in the Parliament. Benjamin Franklin testified in Parliament in 1766 that Americans already contributed heavily to the defense of the Empire, stationing a standing army in Great Britain during peacetime was politically unacceptable. London had to deal with 1,500 politically well-connected British officers who became redundant, in 1765, the Sons of Liberty formed. They used public demonstrations, boycott, violence, and threats of violence to ensure that the British tax laws were unenforceable, in Boston, the Sons of Liberty burned the records of the vice admiralty court and looted the home of chief justice Thomas Hutchinson. Several legislatures called for united action, and nine colonies sent delegates to the Stamp Act Congress in New York City in October 1765, moderates led by John Dickinson drew up a Declaration of Rights and Grievances stating that taxes passed without representation violated their rights as Englishmen. Colonists emphasized their determination by boycotting imports of British merchandise, the Parliament at Westminster saw itself as the supreme lawmaking authority throughout all British possessions and thus entitled to levy any tax without colonial approval
7.
Company (military unit)
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A company is a military unit, typically consisting of 80–250 soldiers and usually commanded by a major or a captain. Most companies are formed of three to six platoons, although the number may vary by country, unit type. Usually several companies are grouped as a battalion or regiment, the latter of which is formed by several battalions. Occasionally, independent or separate companies are organized for special purposes and these companies are not organic to a battalion or regiment, but rather report directly to a higher level organization such as a Marine Expeditionary Force headquarters. The modern military company became popularized during the reorganization of the Swedish Army in 1631 under King Gustav II Adolph, for administrative purposes, the infantry was divided into companies consisting of 150 men, grouped into regiments of eight companies. Tactically, the companies were organized into battalions and grouped with cavalry troops. From ancient times, some armies have used a base administrative. Furthermore, recent studies have indicated that humans are best able to maintain stable relationships in a group numbering between 100-250 members, with 150 members being the common number. The advent of accurate, long-range rifle fire, repeating rifles and this, coupled with the advent of radio communication, permitted relatively small numbers of men to have much greater firepower and combat effectiveness than previously possible. Companies, however, continue to remain within the range of 100-250 members, perhaps validating the premise that men fight best in organizations of around 150 members. These companies were not organic to any intermediate headquarters, but rather reported directly to the division headquarters, rifle companies consist of three platoons and a company headquarters. Until after the Second World War, the Royal Engineers and Royal Signals had both squadrons and companies depending on whether the units were supporting mounted or foot formations. The British Army infantry normally identifies its rifle companies by letter within a battalion, usually with the addition of a headquarters company and a support/heavy weapons company. Some units name their companies after regimental battle honours, this is commonly the case for composite units, for example the London Regiment with its Somme, Messines and Cambrai companies. The foot guards regiments use traditional names for some of their companies, for example Queens Company, Left Flank, Royal Marines companies are designated by a letter that is unique across the corps, not just within their command. The Intelligence Corps, Royal Army Medical Corps, Royal Military Police, the defunct Royal Army Service Corps, Royal Pioneer Corps and Royal Army Ordnance Corps had companies, the Royal Corps of Transport had squadrons. British companies are commanded by a major, the officer commanding. The Honourable Artillery Company is in fact a regiment, not a company, in terms of organisation, canadian Army organisation is modelled after the British
8.
Chesapeake Bay
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It is the largest estuary in North America. With its northern portion in Maryland and the part in Virginia. More than 150 major rivers and streams flow into the bays 64, 299-square-mile drainage basin, the bay is approximately 200 miles long from its northern headwaters in the Susquehanna River to its outlet in the Atlantic Ocean. It is 2.8 miles wide at its narrowest and 30 miles at its widest, total shoreline including tributaries is 11,684 miles, circumnavigating a surface area of 4,479 square miles. Average depth is 21 feet, reaching a maximum of 174 feet, the bay is spanned twice, in Maryland by the Chesapeake Bay Bridge from Sandy Point to Kent Island and in Virginia by the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel connecting Virginia Beach to Cape Charles. Known for both its beauty and bounty, the bay became emptier, with crabs, oysters. Recent restoration efforts begun in the 1990s have been ongoing and show potential for growth of the oyster population. The health of the Chesapeake Bay improved in 2015, marking three years of gains over the past four years, according to a new report by the University of Maryland, the word Chesepiooc is an Algonquian word referring to a village at a big river. It is the seventh oldest surviving English place-name in the U. S. first applied as Chesepiook by explorers heading north from the Roanoke Colony into a Chesapeake tributary in 1585 or 1586. The name may refer to the Chesepian or Chesapeake people. They occupied an area which is now the Norfolk, Portsmouth, Chesapeake, in 2005, Algonquian linguist Blair Rudes helped to dispel one of the areas most widely held beliefs, that Chesapeake means something like great shellfish bay. The name might actually have meant something like great water, or it might have just referred to a location at the bays mouth. In addition, the name is almost always prefixed by the in usage by local residents, The Chesapeake, The Chesapeake Bay, the Chesapeake Bay is an estuary to the North Atlantic, lying between the Delmarva Peninsula to the east and the North American mainland to the west. It is the ria, or drowned valley, of the Susquehanna River and it is not a fjord, because the Laurentide Ice Sheet never reached as far south as the northernmost point on the bay. The large rivers entering the bay from the west have broad mouths and are extensions of the ria for miles up the course of each river. The bay was formed starting about 10,000 years ago when rising sea levels at the end of the last ice age flooded the Susquehanna River valley. Parts of the bay, especially the Calvert County, Maryland and these cliffs, generally known as Calvert Cliffs, are famous for their fossils, especially fossilized shark teeth which are commonly found washed up on the beaches next to the cliffs. Scientists Cliffs is a community in Calvert County named for the desire to create a retreat for scientists when the community was founded in 1935
9.
Georgia (U.S. state)
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Georgia is a state in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1733, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies, named after King George II of Great Britain, Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2,1788. It declared its secession from the Union on January 19,1861 and it was the last state to be restored to the Union, on July 15,1870. Georgia is the 24th largest and the 8th most populous of the 50 United States, from 2007 to 2008,14 of Georgias counties ranked among the nations 100 fastest-growing, second only to Texas. Georgia is known as the Peach State and the Empire State of the South, Atlanta is the states capital, its most populous city and has been named a global city. Georgia is bordered to the south by Florida, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean and South Carolina, to the west by Alabama, the states northern part is in the Blue Ridge Mountains, part of the Appalachian Mountains system. Georgias highest point is Brasstown Bald at 4,784 feet above sea level, Georgia is the largest state entirely east of the Mississippi River in land area. Before settlement by Europeans, Georgia was inhabited by the mound building cultures, the British colony of Georgia was founded by James Oglethorpe on February 12,1733. The colony was administered by the Trustees for the Establishment of the Colony of Georgia in America under a charter issued by King George II. The Trustees implemented a plan for the colonys settlement, known as the Oglethorpe Plan. In 1742 the colony was invaded by the Spanish during the War of Jenkins Ear, in 1752, after the government failed to renew subsidies that had helped support the colony, the Trustees turned over control to the crown. Georgia became a colony, with a governor appointed by the king. The Province of Georgia was one of the Thirteen Colonies that revolted against British rule in the American Revolution by signing the 1776 Declaration of Independence, the State of Georgias first constitution was ratified in February 1777. Georgia was the 10th state to ratify the Articles of Confederation on July 24,1778, in 1829, gold was discovered in the North Georgia mountains, which led to the Georgia Gold Rush and an established federal mint in Dahlonega, which continued its operation until 1861. The subsequent influx of white settlers put pressure on the government to land from the Cherokee Nation. In 1830, President Andrew Jackson signed the Indian Removal Act into law, sending many eastern Native American nations to reservations in present-day Oklahoma, including all of Georgias tribes. Despite the Supreme Courts ruling in Worcester v. Georgia that ruled U. S. states were not permitted to redraw the Indian boundaries, President Jackson and the state of Georgia ignored the ruling. In 1838, his successor, Martin Van Buren, dispatched troops to gather the Cherokee
