CC-Tea-Taxes-and-the American-Revolution-CCWH-28.pdf -...

Transcript
Tea, Taxes, and The American Revolution:
Crash Course World History #28
How revolutionary was the American Revolution? This video examines how the
aftermath of the Seven Years War collided with Enlightenment ideas about
sovereignty and equality to create revolution. The revolution did have far-
reaching impacts, such as getting rid of the aristocracy. But for a revolution
that claimed “all men are created equal”, it benefited rich white men much
more than it benefited women, enslaved people, and men who didn’t own land.
The same rich white men who held power in the Thirteen Colonies continued
to hold power after they became the United States of America.

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Transcript
Tea, Taxes, and The American Revolution: Crash Course World History
#28
Timing and description Text
00:01
Animated bald eagle flying
into the scene
John Green as his younger
self
CCWH theme music plays
(eagle cawing) Hi, I’m John Green. this is Crash Course World History, and today
you aren’t going to get a blow-by-blow chronology of the American Revolution, and
you aren’t going to get cool biographical details about Thomas Jefferson or George
Washington, but you are going to get me not wearing any pants.
Mr. Green, Mr. Green, did you know that George Washington might have had slave
teeth implanted into his jaw?
Yeah, I did, Me from the Past, and while it’s fun to focus on metaphorically
resonant details, what we’re concerned with here is why the American Revolution
happened and the extent to which it was actually revolutionary. Plus, for the first
time in Crash Course history, I have a legitimate chance of getting through an
entire episode without butchering a single pronunciation. Unfortunately, next week
we will be in France, and je parle francáis comme un idiot.
00:51
Photos of newspaper
headlines about the stamp
tax
Animated King George III
(the British Government)
argues with animated
Benjamin Franklin
(colonists)
So, intellectual historians might put the roots of the American Revolution earlier,
but I’m going to start with the end of the Seven Years’ War in 1763, which as you
will recall from last week was one, expensive, and, two, a victory for the British,
including British subjects living in America, who now had more land and therefore
more money.
Right, so, in 1765 the British government was like, “Hey, since we went into this
debt to get you all this new land, we trust that you won’t mind if we pass the
Stamp Act, in which we place a fancy stamp on your documents, newspapers,
playing cards, etc., and in return, you give us money.? Well, it turns out the
colonists weren’t so keen on this, not so much because the tax was high, but
because they had no direct representation in the parliament that had levied the
tax. And plus they were cranky about the Crown keeping large numbers of British
troops in the colonies even after the end of the Seven Years’ War. And then the
British government was like, “You are inadequately grateful,” and the colonists
were like, “Shut up, we hate you.” And the British government was like, “As long