Comic Discussion > QUESTIONABLE CONTENT
WDCT 10-14 January 2011 (1836-1840)
Carl-E:
Fine, fine, you can consider yourself a northern sympathizer all you want. Doesn't change the geography - Arlington is in VA, and that's the south!
Akima:
--- Quote from: Odin on 17 Jan 2011, 09:44 ---The US was also one, that was the joke (even though I was referencing Australia).
--- End quote ---
The United States Of America is a legal and political entity, which did not come into existence until after the American Revolution (arguably not until the Treaty Of Paris in 1783), and so was certainly never a British penal colony. Any convicts shipped from Britain would have been received by its American colonies, not the by United States.
Wraith11B:
Is not Australia a former colony?? Are they not a legal and political entity? Australia as a commonwealth did not exist until 1901...
Akima:
--- Quote from: Wraith11B on 19 Jan 2011, 07:12 ---Is not Australia a former colony?? Are they not a legal and political entity? Australia as a commonwealth did not exist until 1901...
--- End quote ---
Exactly. If someone specifically referred to the Commonwealth Of Australia (born 26th January 1901) as a penal colony, they would be just as incorrect as if they called the United States Of America one. If they use the informal term "Australia", that is fair enough because the modern country is coterminous with the geographical entity of the same name that was used as a dumping ground for the British Empire's undesirables, and five of our six states were indeed once penal colonies (South Australia was founded "free" and stayed that way). By contrast, most of the USA's territory was conquered, purchased or otherwise acquired after its founding, and never had British colonial status in the first place.
jwhouk:
Truth is, if the USA hadn't started things in 1776, India, Australia, Canada and several other ports of call would still be British "Colonies" and not "Commonwealths".
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