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Chapter 11
THE HEMP WAR OF 1812
NAPOLEON INVADES RUSSIA
This is a piece of history that you may have been a little bit hazy
about when they taught it in school: You might well have asked,
"What the heck were we fighting about, anyway?"
Here we present the events that led up to the Battle of New
Orleans, which, due to slow communications, was actually fought on
January 8, 1815, two weeks after the war had officially ended on
December 24, 1814, by the signing of a peace treaty in Belgium.
TIME:
1700S AND EARLY 1800s
Cannabis hemp is, as it has been for thousands of years, the
biggest business and most important industry on the planet. Its fiber
(see chapter 2, "Uses") moves virtually all the world's
shipping. The entire world's economy uses and depends upon thousands
of different products from the marijuana plant.
1740 ON
Russia, because of its cheap slave/serf labor1, produces 80% of the
western world's cannabis hemp and finished hemp products, and is, by
far, the world's best-quality manufacturer of cannabis hemp for sails,
rope, rigging, and nets.
Cannabis is Russia's number-one trading commodity - ahead of its
furs, timber and iron.
1. Russia under the Czars' and Russian Orthodox Church's domination
continued to have virtual slave/serf/peasant labor for making hemp
until 1917. Cannabis is Russia's number one trading commodity ahead of
its furs, timber, and iron.
1740 TO 1807
Great Britain buys 90% or more of its marine hemp from Russia;
Britain's navy and world sea trade runs on Russian hemp; each British
ship must replace 50 to 100 tons of hemp every year or two.
There is no substitute; flax sails, for example, unlike hemp sails,
would start rotting in three months or less from salt air and spray!
1793 TO 1799 ON
The British nobility is hostile toward the new French government
primarily because the British are afraid that the 1789-93 French
Revolution of commoners could spread, and/or result in a French
invasion of England and the loss of its Empire and, of course, its
nobility's heads.
1803 TO 1814
Britain's navy blockades Napoleon's France, including Napoleon's
allies on the Continent. Britain accomplishes the blockade of France
by closing its (France's) English Channel and Atlantic (Bay of Biscay)
ports with its navy; also, Britain controls absolute access to and
from the Mediterranean and Atlantic, by virtue of its control of the
straits of Gibraltar.
1798 TO 1812
The fledgling United States is officially "neutral" in
the war between France and Britain. The United States even begins to
solve its own foreign problems by sending its navy and marines
(1801-1805) to the Mediterranean to stop Tripoli pirates and ransomers
from collecting tribute from American Yankee traders operating in the
area. "Millions for Defense not a penny for Tribute" was
America's rallying cry, and the incident came to be memorialized in
the second line of the Marine Corps' hymn: "To the shores of
Tripoli."
1803
Napoleon, needing money to press war with Great Britain and pursue
control of the European continent, bargain-sells the Louisiana
Territory to the United States for $15 million, or roughly
two-and-a-half cents per acre.
This area is about one-third of what is now the 48 contiguous
states.
TIME:
1803 ON
The Louisiana Purchase gives rise to some Americans' mostly
Westerners' dreams of "Manifest Destiny." That is, the
United States should extend to the utmost borders of North America:
From the top of Canada to the bottom of Mexico and from the Atlantic
to the Pacific.
1803 TO 1807
Britain continues to trade and buy 90% of its hemp directly from
Russia.
1807
Napoleon and Czar Alexander of Russia sign the Treaty of Tilset,
which cuts off all legal Russian trade with Great Britain, its allies,
or any other neutral nation ship acting as agents for Great Britain in
Russia.
The treaty also sets up a buffer zone, the Warsaw Duchy
(approximately Central Eastern Poland) between Napoleon's allies and
Russia.
Napoleon's strategy and his most important goal with the treaty is
to stop Russian hemp from reaching England, thereby destroying
Britain's navy by forcing it to cannibalize sails, ropes, and rigging
from other ships; and Napoleon believes that eventually, with no
Russian hemp for its huge navy, Britain will be forced to end its
blockade of France and the Continent.
1807 TO 1809
The United States is considered a neutral country by Napoleon, as
long as its ships do not trade with or for Great Britain, and the
United States considers itself to be neutral in the war between France
and Great Britain.
However, Congress passes the 1806 Non-Importation Pact: British
articles which are produced in the U.S., but which could also be
produced elsewhere, are prohibited. Congress also passes the 1807
Embargo Act, to wit: American ships could not bring or carry products
to or from Europe.
These laws hurt America more than Europe; however, many Yankee
traders ignored the law anyway.
1807 TO 1814
After the Treaty of Tilset cuts off their Russian trade, Britain
claims that there are no neutral countries or shipping lanes.
Hence, any ship that trades with Napoleon's "Continental
System" of allies are the enemy and are subject to blockade.
On this pretext, Britain confiscates American ships and cargo and
sends sailors back to the United States at American ship owners'
expense.
Britain "impresses" some American sailors into service in
the British Navy. However, England claims that they only
"impress" those sailors who are British subject and whose
American shipping companies refused to pay for the sailors' return
fares.
1807 TO 1810
Secretly, however, Britain offers the captured American traders a
"deal" (actually a blackmail proposition) when they "overhaul"Board
and confiscate an American ship and bring it into an English port.
The deal: Either lose your ship and cargos forever, or go to Russia
and secretly buy hemp for Britain, who will pay American traders with
gold in advance, and more gold when the hemp is delivered back.
At the same time, the Americans will be allowed to keep and trade
their own goods (rum, sugar, spices, cotton, coffee, tobacco) to the
Czar for hemp ß a double profit for the Americans.
1808 TO 1810
Our shrewd Yankee traders, faced with the choice of either running
British blockades and risking having their ships, cargo, and crews
confiscated or acting as secret (illegal) licensees for Britain, with
safety and profits guaranteed, mostly choose the latter.
John Quincy Adams (later to become president), who was American
Consul at St. Petersburg, in 1809 noted:
"As many as 600 clipper ships, flying the American flag, in a
two week period, were in Kronstadt" (the Port of St. Petersburg,
once called Leningrad in the former USSR) loading principally cannabis
hemp for England (illegally) and America, where quality hemp is also
in great demand.
(Bennis, John Q. Adam and the American Foreign Policy, New York,
NY, Alfred A. Knopf, 1949.)
The United States passes the 1809 Non-Intercourse Act which resumes
legal trade with Europe, except for Britain and France. It is soon
replaced with the Macon Bill resuming all legal trade.
1808 TO 1810
Napoleon insists that Czar Alexander stop all trade with the
independent United States traders as they are being coerced into being
illegal traders for Great Britain's hemp.
Napoleon wants the Czar to allow him to place/station French agents
and troops in Kronstadt to make sure the Czar and his port authorities
live up to the treaty.
TIME:
1808 TO 1810.
The Czar says "Nyet!" despite his treaty with France, and
turns a "blind eye" to the illegal American traders,
probably because he needs the popular, profitable trade goods the
Americans are bringing him and his nobles as well as the hard gold he
is getting from the Americans' (illegal) purchases of hemp for Great
Britain.
1809.
Napoleon's allies invade the Duchy of Warsaw.
1810.
Napoleon orders the Czar to stop all trade with the American
traders! The Czar responds by withdrawing Russia from that part of the
Treaty of Tilset that would require him to stop selling goods to
neutral American ships.
1810 TO 1812.
Napoleon, infuriated with the Czar for allowing Britain's life
blood of navy hemp to reach England, builds up his army and invades
Russia, planning to punish the Czar and ultimately stop hemp from
reaching the British Navy.
1811 TO 1812.
England, again an ally and full trading partner of Russia, is still
stopping American ships from trading with the rest of the Continent.
Britain also blockades all U.S. traders from Russia at the Baltic
Sea and insists that American traders have to now secretly buy other
strategic goods for them (mostly from Mediterranean ports),
specifically from Napoleon and his allies on the Continent who by this
time are happy to sell anything to raise capital.
TIME:
1812
The United States, cut off from 80% of its Russian hemp supply,
debates war in Congress.3
Ironically, it is representatives of the western states who argue
for war under the excuse of "impressed" American sailors.
However, the representatives of the maritime states, fearful of loss
of trade, argue against war, even though it's their shipping, crews,
and states that are allegedly afflicted.
Not one senator from a maritime state votes for war with Great
Britain, whereas virtually all western senators vote for war, hoping
to take Canada from Britain and fulfill their dream of "Manifest
Destiny," in the mistaken belief that Great Britain is too busy
with the European wars against Napoleon to protect Canada.
It's interesting to note that Kentucky, a big supporter of the war
which disrupted the overseas hemp trade, was actively building up its
own domestic hemp industry.
At this time, 1812, American ships could pick up hemp from Russia
and return with it three times faster than shippers could get hemp
from Kentucky to the East coast over land (at least, until the Erie
Canal was completed in 1825; shortening travel time dramatically by as
much as 90%).
The western states win in Congress, and on June 18, 1812, the
United States is at war with Britain.
America enters the war on the side of Napoleon, who marches on
Moscow in June of 1812.
Napoleon is soon defeated in Russia by the harsh winter, the
Russian scorched-earth policy, 2,000 miles of snowy and muddy supply
lines and by Napoleon not stopping for the winter and regrouping
before marching on Moscow, as was the original battle plan.
Of the 450,000 to 600,000 men Napoleon start with, only 180,000
ever make it back.
1812 TO 1814
Britain, after initial success in war with the United States
(including the burning of Washington in retaliation for the earlier
American burning of Toronto, then the colonial Canadian capitol),
finds its finances and military stretched thin with blockades, war in
Spain with France, and a tough new America on the seas.
Britain agrees to peace, and signs a treaty with the United States
in December, 1814. The actual terms of the treaty give little to
either side.
In effect, Britain agrees it will never again interfere with
American shipping.
And the United States agrees to give up all claims to Canada
forever (which we did, with the exception of "54-40 or
Fight").
1813 TO 1814
Britain defeats Napoleon in Spain and banishes him to Elba, but he
escapes for 100 days.
1815
Britain defeats Napoleon at Waterloo (June 18) and banishes him to
St. Helena Island off Antarctica where, in 1821, he dies and his hairs
and private parts are sold to the public for souvenirs.
JANUARY 1815
Tragically for Britain, more than two weeks after the December 24,
1814, signing of the Ghent peace treaty between the United States and
Britain, Andrew Jackson defeats a huge British attack force at New
Orleans (January 8, 1815) while news of the treaty slowly makes its
way across the Atlantic.
20TH CENTURY
American, British, French, Canadian, and Russian schools each teach
children their own, completely different versions of history with
virtually no mention of hemp in this war (nor, in the American
versions, at any other time in history).
Footnotes:
1. Russia under the Czars' and Russian Orthodox Church's domination
continued to have virtual slave/serf/peasant labor for making hemp
until 1917.
2. One of America's leading foreign trade deficits, until this
century, was to Russia for hemp.
3. Crosby, Alfred, Jr., America, Russia, Hemp & Napoleon, Ohio
State University Press, 1965. This situation only began to improve
after the 1898 (Spanish-American War) conquest and acquisition of the
Philippines with its (cheap) "coolie" labor and manila-hemp
(abaca).
4. Adams, John Q., microfilms, Mass. Historical Society, Boston,
MA.
AUTHOR'S NOTE:
I wish to apologize to history buffs for all the nuances I have
left out from the outline of the 1812 Wars (for example, the
involvement of the Rothschilds, the Illuminati, stock market
manipulations, etc., but I did not want to write "War and
Peace". It's been done. My intention is that our children are
taught a true, comprehensive history in our schools, not watered-down
nonsense that hides the real facts and makes the War of 1812 totally
unintelligible and seemingly without rhyme or reason when taught in
school by teachers who don't have the foggiest reason why it was
fought. But it's no wonder. Our American school teachers themselves
often haven't the foggiest understanding of why this war was really
fought. If they do know or have recently learned they are generally
much too intimidated to teach it.
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