AMERICAN REVOLUTION, PART 1 - OVERSIMPLIFIED - Historian Reaction

welcome back everybody to another reaction video today we're going to be looking at over simplifieds american revolution part one and i'm excited about this one i haven't actually watched it yet i've been trying to do reaction videos to videos i've had not actually seen before because i thought it would make for more genuine reaction and be more interesting that way but let me know your thoughts if you've got a particular request for an uh reaction video you'd like me to do or even some just suggestions or requests about videos in general you'd like to see use that comment section below let me know your own thoughts about this video drop a like if you would make sure you hit that notification bell after you subscribe so that you don't miss any future content and join us through the link over on patreon where we're having this discussion as well so let's dive into today's video and suddenly the race was on to explore and conquer the new world after a couple centuries of warring with the natives and each other the european powers had claimed quite a lot of land including this area which both the english and the french claimed as theirs one day the french said i'm gonna build some forts along here and the english were like could you not and the french said sorry but no i could not not and they went ahead and built their forts which pissed off the english so they sent an up-and-coming british lieutenant colonel by the name of george washington with a combined force of british troops and native americans after a short battle the french commander said alright alright we surrender okay boys pack it up there's surrender oh sorry was i not meant to split his head open with the tomahawk don't worry it's not like this will start a seven year long major global conflict and what happened next was a seven year long major global conflict which great britain won at the peace negotiations spain gave up florida while france gave up all of its territories in north america so it's interesting because growing up here in the united states we learned about that war as the french and indian war but that's not what it was the french and indian war which was it also sounds like it's a war between the french and the indians it's not it was a war between the british and native americans against the french and their allied native americans fighting against each other but it was only the north american part of what was a much larger conflict that was going on uh in europe as well so it really was world war one if you think about it that way and really it was george washington that kind of helped start that war um and he built a fort called fort necessity and uh eventually had to surrender that fort and a year later george washington comes back at the beginning of the french and indian war as we know it here and um and he's part of uh he's actually a military advisor who's actually a lieutenant colonel of virginia militia attached to the command of the the overall british commander in north america named braddock and general braddock leads what is called the braddock expedition toward what is modern-day pittsburgh to take fort duquesne which was taken uh controlled by the french and in this group of people uh under braddock's expedition which was the largest army ever assembled in the north american continent that we know of to that point so there's braddock in command you've got george washington there daniel boone's there as a wagoner so is daniel morgan thomas gage who is later the british commander in north america um horatio gates is there charles lee who were both american commanders later on in the war so you have all of these people who would play a role in the next war who are gathered as a part of this army but of course uh he kind of he isn't really talking about that he's talking about the revolution so he doesn't talk too much about all that but britain's victory came at a cost a 60 million pound cost they were now broke in a lot of debt and had to come up with some way to repay it so they went to the colonies and said okay listen up so a huge part of the war was spent protecting you from the french and now we have no money because of it so i'm not sure what you're saying here okay so we spent a lot of money protecting you from the french right right and now we're broke that certainly is a pickle listen to me we spent all of our money protecting you and now we need money [Music] can you please pay us back some money no okay we're just gonna go ahead and tax you in 1764 britain introduced the sugar act forcing the colonists to import sugar and molasses exclusively from the british and to pay duties on them then a year later they introduced the extremely controversial stamp act and it worked a little something like this hello shopkeep hello mr bungleberry here's the deed for your new shack stamp that'll be three pence please wait what was that it's the new tax i get a stamp on any paper documentation i make and you have to pay for it would you like to see this pamphlet that explains everything okay stamp two pens please this is awful you know what just give me a deck of cards so i can go gamble my paint away okay no don't do it i love how he does that damp so here's the deal uh and in hindsight it's it's easy to look at this and you know again as an american from my perspective we were raised thinking man this is really patriotic that they rebelled against these taxes and in hindsight you could look and think man it really wasn't that unreasonable for the british government to expect that these taxes would help recover some of the money that was spent on the colonies and the issue that the colonists had was not with the tax themselves it was how the tax these taxes were levied on the colonies it was the fact that they had no uh right of self-determination they had no say they had no voice in the government in applying these taxes it was the whole idea of taxation without representation that was really what the colonists were objecting to like hey my dudes this new tax legislation right here this is bs until now they have enjoyed relative freedom to rule themselves and now suddenly britain was asserting its control they were especially unhappy because they didn't have any representatives in the parliament that was levying taxes on them so they protested or raiders gave fiery speeches british goods were boycotted and anyone loyal to the british found themselves increasingly harassed the whole thing actually began to take quite a toll on british business and after just a couple years the british were forced to repeal the stamp act but we still desperately need money what should we do we could try taxing the colonies great idea wait didn't we literally just try that and failed miserably man look at me i look fabulous have you ever seen such a handsome boy so let's talk about george a third for a second he hasn't been king that long and he's actually fairly young at this point he is uh the part of a relatively new dynasty in the british royal family it's the hanover dynasty started with george the first who didn't even speak english george the first was the king of hanover and he was something like 70th in line to the throne when he took over but he was the first person in line to the throne who wasn't catholic so they bring over this german to rule the nation he spends as much time in germany as he does in britain then his son george ii uh takes the throne and he's a little more english but not quite and then it's george ii's grandson who is george the third who eventually takes over and he's really kind of the first hanovering king who's completely english no sorry georgie no way you're the handsomest smartest most popular king that ever lived and everybody likes you you're doing such a good job your majesty oh you're still here get the hell out so in 1766 the british made a declaration saying we can do what we want cause we're in charge and you can all go suck it then they levied a whole bunch of new taxes on the americans by import duties glass there's a tax for that lead there's a tax for that and once again the americans boycotted british goods british business felt the pinch and the british had to back down all right this is ridiculous they're my colonies and i have to be able to assert my control repeal all the new taxes except for the one and t also send 1 000 troops to boston to take control oh and make the colonists pay for them and as british troops arrived the tension in boston was palpable you could cut it with a knife and it was all about to come to a head on march 5th a band of local patriots began heckling a british guard at the customs house more and more americans joined in the heckling while more british troops turned up in support of their comrade snowballs were thrown at the british the snowballs turned to rocks the rocks to oyster shots the soldiers outnumbered panicked one thing leads to another and you can see where this is going five civilians were killed the patriot press throughout the colonies declared the boston massacre an unwarranted crime committed against the people of boston by the cruel british and the anger continued to grow a british so this was really interesting because the boston massacre as it's come to be known and again being raised in america i was raised about how this is this patriotic act and they were just protesting and they were murdered you know that wasn't at all what happened these people were being brutal to these soldiers they were basically a riot and they were like like he said they were throwing it wasn't just snowballs it was rocks it was they were egging these soldiers on this is the outcome that they were hoping would happen because they're trying to make the british look bad revenue schooner that ran aground in rhode island was burned by the locals when it came to light that the governor of massachusetts supported the suppression of the colonists his house was burned by the locals and next the colonists would set their sights on the remaining tax on tea so i want to mention two before i get too far because he didn't touch on this the uh when the boston massacre happened they were looking for a lawyer to defend these guys because originally they were going to take them back to britain to stand trial but it was insisted that they stand trial in boston and so they were looking for a lawyer who would defend them but nobody would defend these guys because nobody wanted to be the lawyer who was defending the british soldiers in the boston massacre but they found somebody who would and there was a young lawyer named john adams and john adams for the most part got all of these guys off i had them found not guilty because well the facts beared that out uh and for a while adams was viewed very poorly and he was seen as being a loyalist but he was anything but on december 16 1773 a band of patriots known as the sons of liberty disguised themselves as native americans marched down to boston harbor boarded a british merchant ship loaded with tea and in front of thousands of spectators through nearly ten thousand pounds worth of tea overboard the british were disgusted and they finished massachusetts with a they dissolved its general assembly revoke their charter and sent 3 000 more troops to occupy the city meaning boston and massachusetts were now essentially under the direct rule of great oh boy were the people pissed the other colonies saw what was happening and worried they might be next so they called a brain trust to decide what to do 56 delegates from 12 colonies gathered and met in philadelphia at the first continental congress and the roll call read like a who's who of america's finest thinkers i'm talking lawyers extraordinaire johnny a and johnny j experienced military commander george washington businessman and future alcoholic beverage samuel adams fiery or raider patty h guy who married a rich lady big j dickinson and while they weren't present at the first congress soon names like james madison benjamin franklin thomas jefferson and much later alexander hamilton would all serve time in the continental congress the question now though was what to do about the british after much bitter debate and disagreement they eventually agreed on an amazing solution they would simply ask the british to stop oh you stopped competition it didn't work okay so they send what's known as the olive branch petition and the argument here was that hey just because massachusetts is having an issue with the king doesn't mean that the other 12 colonies are having an issue with the king and so there wasn't a lot of support among the representatives from the other colonies to actually go to war or anything like that and so they send what's known as the olive branch petition basically asking the king to listen to his subjects and he basically sends back and by this point the war is already broken out but he basically sends back a letter saying uh you my colonists my subjects are being misled by these people and if you will turn from your wicked ways basically i will receive you with tenderness and mercy due to my children but if you don't the people who persist in their trees in the punishment shall be death by hanging and it was there that supposedly benjamin franklin said well now we shall all hang together or we will all hang separately but i might be getting a little ahead of myself okay then tell the local militias to start arming and be ready at a minute's notice and across the colonies these minutemen stood ready for the beginning of the american revolutionary war now having your colonies in open rebellion is one thing once they start arming themselves that's when it really hits the fan so british general thomas gage ordered 700 troops from boston out into the rebel-controlled massachusetts countryside to destroy stores of arms and ammunition held by the rebels in concord the british set out in the middle of the night patriots including paul revere wrote ahead to warn that the british were coming giving the rebels time to prepare now let's stop there for a second uh paul revere was not the only guy there were several men who wrote out uh and actually one of the reasons that the the troops were sent out was not only to get the weapons in supplies but they were also sent out to arrest paul revere and also sam adams and paul revere and sam adams were at a little tavern in lexington uh and they barely got away in fact paul revere actually got captured uh and was able to escape because uh they heard the sound of the gunfire when things opened up at lexington but um one thing that's a misconception too paul revere did not yell the british are coming the british are coming because first of all it wouldn't have made any sense because they were all british it would be like me riding through the streets of my town here in ohio saying the americans are coming well we're all americans it doesn't make sense what he actually probably yelled was the regulars are out the regulars are out and they all knew what that meant two sites met in lexington as the sun began to rise they faced off against each other and in the confusion somebody shot first the shot heard around the world marked the beginning of that's actually wrong um the part known as the shot heard around the world was not what happened at lexington and if you go there they will tell you that the shot heard around the world was the shot that was fired uh at the bridge at concord and uh this was the place where the british uh first faced uh a actual organized group of uh rebels fighting back and it was where the americans first turned the tide and and turned the british back and they had to run back uh all the way to boston so uh the shot heard around the world that's often mistaken for the shot that was fired at lexington but it actually refers to what happened at concord a little bit later that day of the american war of independence the rebels were outnumbered and had to fall back to concord as the british split up to search for rebel supplies however more and more patriot rebels kept showing up and this time it was the british who were outnumbered as more fighting kicked off in concord the most professional army in the world was forced to flee back to boston at the hands of local poorly trained militiamen and all along the british were back to boston patriot rebels continued to gather and open fire on the retreating british when the british reached boston the rebel militia surrounded them boston and the british were now under siege as small land and naval skirmishes continued around the city and the british would suffer another embarrassing blow this time in upstate new york colonel benedict arnold concocted a plan to take the british stronghold fort ticonderoga which held a large amount of guns and ammunition he set off towards the fort alone hoping to recruit men along the way when he came across the green mountain boys led by ethan allen who as it turned out had the exact same plan he did so they decided to work together but i'm in charge no i'm in charge no i'm in charge no i'm in charge no i'm in charge no i'm in charge no i'm in charge this went on for some time until the green mountain boys threatened to go home and arnold had to concede the group raided the fort at night while the redcoats were asleep and she caught them completely by surprise taking the fort and all of its munitions with almost no resistance wow great job ethan very impressive by the way what happened to that other guy we sent to take the fort who benedict arnold never heard of him ouch ouch what the nobody knew what was going on the colonies were an open rebellion and for now they even seem to be winning so king george fired general gage replaced him with general william howe and ordered the rebellion to be put down immediately okay the british are definitely going to retaliate for all of this so we should probably put together a proper army first we need to pick a commander-in-chief and i think we can all agree that that job should go to the man the myth the legend george washington my friends i am humbled and honored that you would consider me for such an important uniform i did not expect for this all right you've been showing up in a military uniform every day for the last 10 months we all know you wanted this so cut the crap george that's fair too cause george washington did come across as very humble and saying i don't know if i'm equal to this task but he had been wearing his military uniform making sure everyone knew that he was military trained and it was important that they did this because everybody assumed that the massachusetts delegation was going to want somebody from massachusetts to lead the army because it was in massachusetts there were troops from other new england states but it was basically a new england army but this was a brilliant move by john adams in nominating george washington to be uh the commander-in-chief of the army because he was a virginian and virginia was the the largest most powerful most influential state it was a southern state it was a very different economy a very different culture and by doing this it helped unite the colonies behind the cause in massachusetts dude uncool so washington began his journey up to boston to take command of the newly established continental army just as the british made their first major attempt to break the siege they made plans to take the high ground on bunker hill but spies warned the continentals of the british plans so they fortified bunker hill and set up defensive positions on nearby breeds hill the day of the battle came and as the british advanced a barrage of continental gunfire was opened up on them twice they tried to climb the hill twice they were pushed back the battle lasted three hours until the continentals finally ran out of ammunition and had to retreat allowing the british to take the hill while technically a british victory they suffered nearly 1000 casualties to the continentals 400. the colonists showed the british that this wasn't just a rebellion it was war and and uh actually killed at that battle was joseph warren who was john adams personal physician but also was one of the leaders of the rebellion and he had actually just been appointed as a general uh but he was actually fighting in in a private capacity at that battle and he was actually bayonetted uh and mutilated afterwards it was a horrifying thing and it actually that warren's death actually helped he kind of became one of the first martyrs for the cause also killed in that battle was major pitcairn who had been in command of the british troops that had marched on lexington and concord he was killed in i think the last charge and he's actually buried in old north church in boston they were ready for it but one thing they weren't sure about was why they were fighting well some radicals were starting to throw around the i word most hoped to eventually repair their relationship with great britain so they sent a letter to king george saying hey man looks like things aren't going remove your taxes and let's be friends i'm gonna kick your ass send that to the colonies your majesty your handwriting is terrible are you sure just do it what does it say he's gonna lick my so for the remainder of the year small engagements continued to occur around the colonies the british burned down the towns of falmouth massachusetts and norfolk virginia as revenge for earlier anti-british incidents these actions played right into the hands of patriot propaganda overseas the british were seen as brutes and the french and spanish would soon begin sending supplies to the rebel cause during this time there was also minor fighting going on between patriot and loyalist militias in the southern colonies benedict arnold was still on a mission to win some personal glory for himself so he headed up an attempt to invade canada in a two-pronged attack the continentals managed to capture some british forts and the city of montreal but a hard snowstorm with some smallpox on the side saw them defeated and pushed back at quebec city and they were forced to retreat all the way to fort ticonderoga speaking of which remember all those guns and ammunition well this guy's got a plan for what to do with him he uses oxen to drag a hundred and twenty thousand pounds of artillery for two months through the harsh winter 300 miles all the way to washington and his continental army surrounding boston boom washington's got himself some big guns which is fortunate because up until now his army had been suffering through the cold winter not knowing when the siege would end now they could make a move washington wanted to launch a full assault on the city but as junior officers felt the british were too fortified and to his credit washington was great at hearing and taking on board the ideas of others instead the continentals worked through the night setting the guns up on dorchester heights overlooking the city and when dawn broke and the british saw the guns they knew they were toasted their positions were completely exposed it was checkmate they had no choice but to abandon the city 120 ships carried 9000 redcoats and 2000 loyalists away to an unknown fate now here's the thing about that you might wonder why in the world if the americans have the british surrounded why would they just let them leave like that it was actually something that was allowed to happen because the the concern was the threat that the british would actually burn the city of boston and so to save the city they allowed the british to withdraw but the problem was they all kind of knew they were coming back and they were going to come back stronger and against new york city had his first victory of the war washington then moved his army to new york knowing that when the british returned they would probably land there in the meantime a friendly looking old man by the name of thomas payne had written and published a pamphlet called common sense in which he advocated for total independence from great windows right across the colonies like wildfire and to this day remains the best-selling title in america it was read aloud in taverns and meeting holes and brought the idea of independence into the mainstream congress began to seriously consider the idea thomas jefferson was selected to write up an official declaration of independence and he went hard writing that all men are created equal with certain inalienable rights including life liberty and the pursuit of happiness of course jefferson had over 100 slaves but we don't have to talk about that on the second and it wasn't just jefferson it was actually um so um so lee is the guy who um it's the delegate from virginia who proposes independence and they put together a committee of five men including john adams thomas jefferson uh and benjamin franklin and there were two others i don't know if rutledge was one of them um but there were five men total and jefferson was the primary author but his was not the only voice that went into what was said second of july congress voted unanimously in favor of independence and john adams declared that the 2nd of july would go down as the most remembered day in american history then a couple days later independence actually came into effect the united states of america was born there was no turning back now the americans tore down a statue of king george in new york and melted him down into 42 000 musket bowls to the british it was treason and if the king had his way season then um and something else about this you know you see that famous painting that's in the capitol building in washington dc of the signing of the declaration of independence it didn't happen that way a couple guys would sign one day some other guys would sign another day they were in and out of the city so it wasn't until august i think until everybody had actually signed but they didn't all gather in one big kind of formal signing ceremony that the way it's portrayed washington and all of congress would be hung speaking of the british guess who's back the king sent an intimidating force of 130 warships and 25 000 men to new york washington knew that taking on the most powerful military in the world wouldn't be easy the british set up camp on staten island as the americans dug into defensive positions around brooklyn heights waiting for an attack to come but the british just waited wearing down their opponent's nerve while building their own strength at one point they launched a big scary artillery brush and then said you know if i was you right now i'd probably sue for peace but washington told them to shove it the americans kept holding out for what was coming and when they now kind of true again but again there was at least an attempt made at peace uh because general howe and his brother admiral howe uh who were in command um they were given permission to negotiate a piece if it meant that basically they would they would give up and they actually met with a delegation from the continental congress that included john adams again and benjamin franklin um but there was really nothing that could they could agree on they finally hit they hit hard fifteen thousand british troops approached the american position and the two sides fired on each other in massive rows but what the americans didn't realize was they were only fighting a decoy the main british force was going around to flank the americans from behind and when they arrived they inflicted heavy casualties they then found themselves trapped between the british army and the river it looked as though the war was already lost but luckily instead of attacking the british decided to dig in for a siege and then a thick fog set in allowing washington's army to escape across the river unimpeded the british continued to chase and engage the americans out manhattan and the americans suffered defeat after defeat after defeat it was a disaster washington's leadership was called into question as thousands of american pows were left to rot as traitors washington's army fled through new jersey all the way down to pennsylvania rarely had an army been so badly beaten yet survived to fight another day all right so uh yeah new york was a disaster and here's the thing about george washington george washington was not a great military strategists he he got beat multiple times with that same strategy of faint around the front while we sneak troops around the rare it happened to him again brandywine um so he wasn't great at that but george washington was a phenomenal leader of men he he knew how to hold the army together he knew what it took to win and i don't know that anybody else could have done that i'm sure we'll talk more about that as we get into things like the battle of trenton and beyond but let me know your thoughts use the comment section below check out some links that i've put in the description to my visits to places like the uss constitution uh and also bunker hill battlefield that are associated with this and and let me know what you think let me know what you would add to what i've said here thanks for watching we'll see you again soon

Channel: Vlogging Through History

Views: 486,976

Keywords: american revolution, american revolution reaction, history reaction, american revolution oversimplified, george washington, oversimplified reaction, oversimplified american revolution, oversimplified american revolution reaction, reaction video

Id: S1GZCuC0tRc

Length: 25min 30sec (1530 seconds)

Published: Sun Dec 13 2020