I was reading Chris Brogan’s 4th of July inspirational post (nice work btw Chris) and it reminded me of something I’ve been meaning to talk about on the show for sometime.
It’s my understanding that American “Independence” was mostly about the British East India Company deciding to buy itself a country to escape the pressures of regulation in England. It’s a little understood fact that for the first 12 months of US “independence”, the American flag was actually the BEIC flag. Check out this article. So the 4th of July is really about celebrating that moment when a corporation (one of the world’s first corporations) actually managed to buy itself a whole country to call it’s very own.
If you haven’t read much about the East India Company, I highly recommend it. It’s a fascinating tale. It was their products that were involved in the Boston Tea Party (they had a monopoly on selling tea to American) and there have been suggestions over the years that the EIC was involved in deliberately starting the whole debacle in order to escalate tensions.
Pretty stupid post.
“So the 4th of July is really about celebrating that moment when a corporation (one of the world’s first corporations) actually managed to buy itself a whole country to call it’s very own.”
Except you’ve done nothing to show BEIC “bought a country”, benefited in any way from the War of Independence, ever had any special control over the United States, etc.
Sounds like you’re regurgitating a half-remembered conspiracy theory. The links you provide offer no support for your “theory” (even ignoring the fact they point at wikipedia).
Cite a reputable source to support your babble or STFU.
Your own source (Wikipedia) doesn’t even say what you claim it does.
Your claim: “the American flag was actually the BEIC flag”
No, the American flag was the American flag. It may have been more or less identical to the BEIC flag at one time, and may have been inspired by the BEIC flag (though this is evidently not proven), but that is rather different from your claim.
Wikipedia: “At the time of the American Revolution the East India Company flag would have been identical to the Grand Union Flag. The flag probably inspired the Stars and Stripes (as argued by Sir Charles Fawcett in 1937). [7] Comparisons between the Stars and Stripes and the Company’s flag from historical records present some convincing arguments. ”
“The design of the Grand Union Flag is similar to the flag of the British East India Company. Indeed, the design in use since 1707 when the canton was changed from the flag of England to that of Great Britain, was identical, save for the fact that the number of stripes varied from 9 to 15. That that flag was potentially well known by the American colonists has been the basis of theory of the origin of the Grand Union Flag’s design.”
ff, the “Grand Union Flag”, which was the official flag from December 3, 1775 – June 14, 1777, was the BEIC flag.
Incorrect. The Grand Union Flag was the Grand Union Flag. It may have been identical in appearance to the BEIC flag (though the number of stripes on the BEIC flag apparently varied), but since the Grand Union Flag was adopted by a different body for a different purpose with a different name, it is obviously not “the BEIC flag”.
You have answered none of my other objections.
You obviously have no clue about American history (hint: the BEIC monopoly on the tea trade was enforced by the British government; yeah, I’m sure the BEIC was just thrilled when the American colonies gained independence.)
and you obviously either aren’t intelligent enough to read between the lines or are so blind to a whitewashed American history that you still think the European invaders the the Indians a favour.
People didn’t (and still don’t) choose flags indiscriminately. They selected the design of a flag with the utmost consideration. If the original flag of the United States was a direct copy of the BEIC flag, then it carried a lot of significance.
And as far as I can see you haven’t stated any objections to be answered, just made a series of ad hominem insults.
When you post something like this, you deserve ad hominem.
I asked you to reference a single reputable source that supports your bizarre re-imagining of American history. Clearly, you can’t, since your response consists of claiming I’m “not intelligent enough” to “read between the lines” and see that a corporation with a trade monopoly in the American colonies granted by the British crown would foment rebellion against the crown.
Just admit you’re a gullible, American-hating leftist twat who can’t support his assertions, and move on.
My “reputable source” for the flag analysis was Wikipedia. If you think it is in error, give me your preferred source. But you don’t, because you stated that the Grand Union Flag “may have been identical in appearance to the BEIC flag”. And yet you still haven’t explained why that should have been the case, why the founders of a new country would adopt, as their flag, the flag of the supposed enemy.
As for the BEIC’s role in the founding of America, I’d suggest anyone interested start with the writings of L. Fletcher Prouty ,late high ranking AMERICAN Colonel with the Pentagon and Joint Chiefs of Staff, and R. Buckminster Fuller, AMERICAN architect and engineer.
Were they “gullible, American-hating leftist twats” as well?
Prouty seems to be a kook who promotes some silly conspiracy theories, but not the one you’re promoting here. This is what he claims:
When the Bostonians attacked the ship Dartmouth and threw the tea in Boston Harbor at the Boston Tea Party, they took the flag down off the Dartmouth. It was the East India flag with the red and white stripes and the blue rectangle. They saved it as a memento of that battle. When George Washington went to Boston to assume command of the armies of the rebellion against England, he asked Betsy Ross to take the emblem off the flag and to put stars in its place. All Betsy Ross did that night was not create a flag. She simply snipped out the East India emblem and put in 13 little white stars. And the American flag is the East India flag. So when you hear people of what you might call “ancestral backgrounds” in this country demanding that we pledge allegiance to the flag, you may sometimes wonder if in their seances they don’t see the East India flag, instead of the American flag, as the driving force.
You seem to have taken Pouty’s rhetorical flourish in the last sentence and run with it.
Buckminster Fuller may be a sligthly better grade of kook, but he is not a historian and, again, as far as I know, he has never made the claim you’re making here.
The flag connection is historical trivia that does not so much as suggest what you think it proves. You’re going to need a lot better evidence if you want to re-write American history.