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The US-Canada border is a work of art—modern art that is because it looks like a three
year old drew it, they couldn’t even successfully draw a straight line, and it just doesn’t
make sense. The fact that this line was so poorly defined and drawn means that there
are still disputes today on exactly what is the US and what is Canada, but 200 years ago,
this line led to an entirely new country arising. For a short period, about 13 years, all of
this area was part of the British Empire. You see, for the longest while this area of
Canada was French but then Britain won it from the French in the 6 year, 8 month,
4 week, and 1 day long Seven Years’ War. That began the 13 year long glory period of
British rule over most of the inhabited part of North America but then oops, Britain decided
taxes were going to be a thing so the colonies decided that British rule wasn’t going to
be a thing and independence was declared in 1776. The two countries did some recreational
fighting for the next seven years but then they sat down and signed the Treaty of Paris.
Not the 1323 Treaty of Paris or the 1657 Treaty of Paris or the 1810 Treaty of Paris or the
1812, 1814, 1815, 1856, or 1857 Treaty of Paris, the 1783 Treaty of Paris. That 1783
Treaty of Paris defined in its second article the border between the US and British Canada
and included in that section was the line defining a portion of the New Hampshire border
as at, “the northwesternmost head of Connecticut River,” meaning the northwesternmost headwater
of the Connecticut River. The problem was that the US and Britain disagreed on what
that was. According to the US, you see, the northwesternmost headwater is Halls Stream
which flows directly into the Connecticut River. According to Britain though, the Northwesternmost
head of the Connecticut River started at the creatively named Forth Connecticut Lake, and
encompassed the streams that connected the third, second, and first Connecticut Lakes
and Lake Francis. Therefore, the US believed the border with British Canada to be this
while Britain believed it was this. This inevitably caused issues as both countries tried to administer
this small rural area. The area would see both Canadian and American
authorities acting as law enforcement but the most pressing issue was that both Canadian
and American tax collectors would come and collect tax. This double taxation was, in
the residents minds, unacceptable. Staying on brand with the American revolution, their
residents therefore declared independence. In 1832, the Republic of Indian Stream was
formed. The residents wrote and established a constitution, started a system of government,
passed laws, established taxes, they acted just as any other country and, at least based
off what we know, seemed to do pretty well considering they were all first time country
leaders. Understandably, the legitimacy of this declared
country was and is disputed. Of course, the process the Republic of Indian Stream went
through to declare their independence was not all that different than the process the
United States went through decades earlier and the US seems to be fairly well recognized
today, but the US had more people, guns, and George Washington’s. British Canada basically
ignored the claimed independence of Indian Stream and continued to send their law enforcement
and tax collectors while the US actually seemingly might have recognized the independence of
Indian Stream. The US apparently started charging import duties on goods coming from Indian
Stream just as it would for any other foreign country thereby confirming its independence.
Eventually the King of the Netherlands, who was acting as an arbitrator between the US
and Britain, declared the area part of Canada and the residents were therefore asked to
perform their mandatory military service for Britain. Indian Stream was having none of
that and wrote to the US attorney general asking to be part of the US, just not part
of New Hampshire. The attorney general said no and that they were still part of New Hampshire
so the New Hampshire militia got ready to invade Indian Stream and take it by force.
Canada then said that they would send their military to defend Indian Stream as they still
considered it theirs. After a long stalemate, though, New Hampshire called Canada’s bluff
and their militia invaded and occupied Indian Stream. It was then, by all measures, the
United States and the Republic of Indian Stream was happy because that’s what they wanted
all along, to be part of one country rather than two. The border was legitimized to make
Indian Stream American with a treaty in 1842 and the US went off happily in the sunset
never fighting with anyone ever again. If you want to both establish an independent
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