The Monument to the American Empire

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Last week I did a video on conspiracies. I only picked a few, because it was already a 20-minute video, but I left out a rather big one that was a key plot point in National Treasure 2. Borglum commissioned to destroy landmarks in sacred Black Hills Mountains. Borglum? Mount Rushmore? Mount Rushmore was a coverup. Who would have thought… Mount Rushmore was a conspiracy to cover up landmarks that led to the lost City of Gold by literally blowing up the Black Hills. Okay maybe not. But let’s talk about what this monument to American Empire really does stand for. Mount Rushmore was originally going to be sculpted in the Needles, a different area of the Black Hills, and be a monument to the Louisiana Purchase, with figures like Louis and Clark. But it was switched to its current location and to the four presidents who are most credited with massive territorial gains, preserving the union, and founding the American Empire. Construction began in 1927 and ended in 1941. Many people know this already, but the sculpture was originally intended to show everyone down to the waist, but a lack of funding simply ended the project. Its location was also quite controversial, because the site demolished parts of the sacred Black Hills… in somewhat of a final middle finger to the native peoples whose land the American Empire was founded on. So why these four? Well I’m glad you asked that, rhetorical version of me. Let’s start with the obvious first one. George Washington. The guy who is on the one dollar bill and the quarter… for some reason. The first President of the United States. I can’t believe I even have to explain this. And before you could say “I cannot tell a lie” George Washington is elected the first president of the United States. Everyone knows that, right? He was the first President of the United States. This is one of those things that somewhat smart people like to say in order to sound smart. When you’re in elementary school, you’re taught that he was the first president. Then you go to college and take an intro to American History class and you find out that before the Constitution, we had the Articles of Confederation, which had a leader named “president.” So you go around telling everyone how wrong they are about George Washington being the first president. But if you ever bothered to actually finish college, you’d realize what a moron you sound actually like. The Articles of Confederation established a Congress with equal voting power from each of the thirteen states – much like the Senate today. They appointed a leader to serve a one-year term who was called the President of the Congress. That person had no executive power and was not in charge of anything more than calling the Congress to order and keeping the debate civil. Much like the leader of today’s senate, who is also called the President (of the Senate). These people were not Presidents of the United States. George Washington was the first and became President in 1789. The war for independence ended six years earlier, when he was just the Commander in Chief of the Continental Army. He didn’t sign the Declaration of Independence, but he is considered to be a founding father because of he was a war hero who helped the US gain its first real independent territory, and because he was the first president. He was elected unanimously. Which I’ve always found a little suspicious. Not only did he win the electoral college, but 100% of the popular vote. You mean to tell me that not even the person running against him voted for himself? While I have absolutely no proof of this, this seems a little too perfect to be true and like one of those things they just washed over in order to inspire people. But anyway. Funny enough, George Washington did not meet one of the major requirements to be elected President. In order to be president you must: 1. Be at least thirty-five years old. 2. Be a resident of the United States for fourteen years. 3. Be a natural-born citizen. George Washington was not a natural-born citizen, because the United States obviously didn’t exist when he was born. Because of that obvious weirdness, they had to add a provision to the Constitution that anyone residing within the United States at the time of the adoption of the Constitution was to be considered naturally born. The first actual natural-born citizen to become President was Martin Van Buren, the eighth president, elected in 1837. So what does it mean to be a naturally born citizen? Oh god, you’re gonna talk about o- Yeah. In order to be a natural-born citizen you must be born in one of two conditions – not both, just one: 1. Be born in the United States or one of its outlying possessions. 2. Be born to at least one United States citizen parent. So let’s get the obvious out of the way. If Obama was born in Kenya – he wasn’t, he was born in Hawaii, which was part of the United States – but if… it doesn’t matter. Because his mother was indisputably American. So that alone makes him a natural-born citizen. Several other presidential candidates have had questionable citizenship. Like John McCain, who was born in the Panama Canal Zone, which I’ll get to later, but that’s an outlying possession so it’s okay. Or Ted Cruz, who was born in Alberta, Canada… his father was Cuban, but his mother was American. I wonder why nobody questioned these two guys’ citizenships, but they denied Obama’s for years… hmm, weird. Anyway, moving on. Thomas Jefferson was the third President of the United States, and is on the two dollar bill and the nickel. Just a side note, the two dollar bill is real currency, but it’s also not some special collector’s item, they make new ones just about every year. Jefferson is on the monument for the Louisiana Purchase, which nearly doubled the territory of the United States. Under the French, Louisiana existed solely to provide food for Haiti. Haiti was a French territory which grew almost exclusively sugar, and nothing else. So food was brought in from New Orleans. Haiti went through a slave revolt in the 1790s and when it became apparent to Napoleon that they were going lose control of it, Louisiana was of no further value. So he offered to sell it to the US. This caused somewhat of a constitutional crisis in America however. Jefferson was a strong believer in a strict interpretation of the Constitution, which did not give the government or the president power to purchase land. But it would have been absolutely stupid to refuse this deal. For 15 million dollars (250 million in current dollars) the price for the 828,000 square miles was far too good to pass up ($301 per square mile). So they said the acquisition was not a “purchase” but a treaty, which the government was totally allowed to do. Another major issue with the purchase was what to do with the 60,000 French inhabitants of the land, half of which were freed African slaves. Do we make them citizens? What would that do to the democracy of the United States – to allow so many non-Americans automatic citizenship. This argument should remind you of a current situation facing a similar issue. Napoleon made it part of the “treaty” that everyone currently residing in the territory must be granted citizenship, so, that issue was put to bed rather quickly. Mount Rushmore lies in the middle of the Louisiana Territory, and as I said in the beginning, it was originally meant to be a monument to that purchase. The same year of the purchase, Jefferson commissioned the Corps of Discovery Expedition, or more commonly known as the Louis and Clark Expedition, whose purpose was threefold: 1. Explore and map the territory. 2. Find a practical route to the Pacific Ocean. 3. Establish an American presence in the territory. They established several forts on their way westward, burying supplies along the way, and reached the Pacific coast of Oregon in November 1805, and then walked all the way back in Spring 1806. The entire expedition took 17 months, making 140 maps, establishing diplomatic relations with 70 Native American tribes, and discovering over 200 new species of plants and animals. Next is Lincoln, the sixteenth president, also on the five dollar bill and the penny. The penny, a coin so worthless, if you melted it down and sold the metals, you’d make a 250% profit. But that’s a different story for a different time. Lincoln is on the monument for two reasons, but they’re probably not the two you’re thinking of. Well okay one of them is probably right. First of all, let’s go ahead and talk about your two guesses… 1. Preserving the Union. 2. Freeing the Slaves. Okay, first of all, he obviously preserved the Union by being President during the Civil War. While I could probably make a dozen videos on the Civil War, just really quick, this is another dumb thing smart people say in order to sound smart: “At the beginning of the war, if you were a betting man, you would have put your money on the South winning.” Yeah, if you were a betting man who hates winning maybe. While at the beginning, yes, the South had a larger army and they were fighting in home territory, the North had a much larger population, a much more robust manufacturing industry, and most importantly, far more railroad infrastructure. Which meant that they could mobilize a much larger army much more quickly. The war did not start over slavery per se. Lincoln never ran on the platform of ending slavery. But the south was afraid that they were going to eventually lose their slaves because of western expansion. According to the Missouri Compromise, states were admitted into the union in twos, one free, one slave. But the west was running out of slave states to admit, so they knew the end was near, so pre-emptively seceded when Lincoln was elected. The war was simply to stop the rebellion and bring the south back into the union. But it became about slavery when the tide began to turn against the south, two years into the war. At that point, Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation – which only freed the slaves in any territory in active rebellion against the United States. So in the four loyal slave states (Kentucky, Maryland, Delaware, Missouri) and the occupied areas of Tennessee and Louisiana, slavery was still legal until the 13th Amendment was passed, two years after that. Lincoln was alive when the amendment was proposed, but died before it passed. So did he free the slaves? Pretty much yeah, but not entirely. As I discussed in my railroad video, originally, the first transcontinental railroad was supposed to connect Texas and Louisiana to Southern California. But since Texas had joined the South in seceding, Lincoln approved the central route, from Omaha to San Francisco. It was completed in 1869, thus joining the West with the rest of the country. Before the railroad, you either had to take a several months long journey along the Oregon or Overland trails or set sail around the very southern tip of South America. So why was Lincoln included on the monument? 1. For bringing the South back into the fold. 2. For bringing the West into the fold. And finally, Teddy Roosevelt. Who actually hated being called Teddy, but it did well with voters so they ran with it. He’s not on any money… but at least he has a stuffed animal I guess? Like Lincoln, Roosevelt is also on the monument for two reason. Firstly, like Washington, he was a war hero. He was a colonel of a cavalry unit, named the Rough Riders, during the Spanish-American war. This is the war that really cemented the idea of American Empire. Geez, it took you almost ten minutes to finally talk about the thing this video is about. The Spanish-American war was when we acquired Puerto Rico, Guam, the Philippines, and Cuba. We liberated Cuba in exchange for being able to lease a naval base there – if you can name that naval base, ten points to Gryffindor – which we still pay rent for by the way. We also gave the Philippines their independence… after a few rebellions and occupation by Japan during World War 2. But before that, it was granted commonwealth status. Which is what Puerto Rico has today. Every year, we are setting a new record in how long the United States has gone without adding a new state. This is the longest we have ever gone…. Now this is… N- Puerto Rico is obviously next in line, and while some people there want to become a state, it is often blocked by Congress. Why? Because about a hundred years ago, Congress locked themselves in at 435 seats, if they didn’t they’d currently have over 10,000 seats. This means if Puerto Rico were to become a state, it would take away seats – and electoral votes – from current states. Puerto Rico would get five seats and votes, all of which would be democratic party seats (Taking away from: CA, TX, FL, WA, and MN). So it’s kind of easy to see why Puerto Rico is still just a commonwealth. Not like Guam, which is an unorganized territory… along with American Samoa, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the US Virgin Islands… and so many Pacific islands that it would take forever to name to name all of them, and nobody lives there anyway so I won’t offend anyone if I leave them out. But Roosevelt is also on there for building the Panama Canal. Where John McCain was born. In order to cross the isthmus, ships enter locks that raise the ships 85 feet above sea level and then back down. Another fun fact, the Atlantic entrance to the canal is more west than the Pacific entrance. In exchange for construction, the United States and Panama jointly controlled the canal until 1999, and the Panama Canal Zone, which extended 5 miles out from each side of the canal, was treated much like an overseas military base in terms of sovereignty. But this is where the idea of American Empire really took shape, which is why Roosevelt is the playable American character in Civilization 6. Welcome to the United States of America! Now, not only did we control a good chunk of the North American continent, but trade across our hemisphere, and island territories around the globe. Which set us up to become a super power after the world wars. So the next time someone asks you why those four people are on Mount- Wait, what about the Mexican-American war or… Hawaii and Alaska? Sigh, am I really going to have to make another one of these? Okay fine… at least for now, you know better. Hey guys I just wanted to let you know that I’ll be live streaming and commenting on the State of the Union address Tuesday night, much like I did with the final debate. But if you liked this video or you learned something, make sure to give that like button a click. If you’d like to see more from me, I put out new videos every weekend, so make sure to imperialize that subscribe button. But in the meantime if you’d like to watch one of my older videos, how about the one that’s been floating around for the last few seconds?
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Channel: Knowing Better
Views: 508,179
Rating: 4.764596 out of 5
Keywords: history, mount rushmore, rushmore, george washington, thomas jefferson, abraham lincoln, teddy roosevelt, obama, mccain, cruz, citizen, president, presidents, independence, louisiana purchase, transcontinental railroad, louis and clark, union pacific, civil war, slavery, emancipation proclamation, panama canal, spanish-american war, puerto rico, statehood, rough riders, territory, possession, commonwealth, state, united states, america, union, citizenship, manifest destiny, guam
Id: 0Vhn-Fd4R8k
Channel Id: undefined
Length: 13min 41sec (821 seconds)
Published: Sun Feb 26 2017
Reddit Comments

It's always nice getting out of school and seeing that you have posted a new video.

👍︎︎ 5 👤︎︎ u/MrLonely_ 📅︎︎ Feb 27 2017 🗫︎ replies
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