WEBVTT 1 00:00:21.120 --> 00:00:25.160 Hello, and Welcome to Western civ. Episode four hundred and 2 00:00:25.559 --> 00:00:31.120 eighty two, The Boiling Pot. The year seventeen sixty three 3 00:00:31.280 --> 00:00:34.399 should have been a year for Celebration and her colonies. 4 00:00:35.119 --> 00:00:37.759 The Treaty of Paris ended the French and Indian War 5 00:00:38.320 --> 00:00:43.399 with a resounding British victory. France seated all territory east 6 00:00:43.439 --> 00:00:48.520 of the Mississippi River, Spain traded Florida for Havana, and 7 00:00:48.600 --> 00:00:53.240 the British Empire now stretched across a vast swath of 8 00:00:53.280 --> 00:01:00.439 North America. But the war had been ruinously expensive. Of 9 00:01:00.880 --> 00:01:06.040 Britain's national debt had nearly doubled, rising from seventy five 10 00:01:06.159 --> 00:01:10.359 million to more than one hundred and thirty million. Interest 11 00:01:10.480 --> 00:01:15.359 alone consumed over half of the government's budget. Prime Minister 12 00:01:15.480 --> 00:01:19.200 George Grenville and other ministers believed the American colonies, which 13 00:01:19.200 --> 00:01:23.079 had gained protection and new economic opportunities from the war, 14 00:01:23.680 --> 00:01:27.879 ought to help pay for the empire's defense. As Grenville 15 00:01:28.000 --> 00:01:31.400 later told Parliament, quote, the nation has run itself into 16 00:01:31.439 --> 00:01:35.280 an immense expense to give them protection, and now that 17 00:01:35.319 --> 00:01:38.040 they are called upon to contribute a small share toward 18 00:01:38.120 --> 00:01:44.079 the public expense, they grudge to contribute anything now. Even 19 00:01:44.120 --> 00:01:47.280 before the peace was finalized, there were other issues. Of course, 20 00:01:48.159 --> 00:01:52.439 Native First nations across the Great Lakes in Ohio Valley 21 00:01:52.920 --> 00:01:58.000 resisted sudden British encroachment in what turned into Pontiac's rebellion 22 00:01:59.239 --> 00:02:02.400 in the aftermath of the French and Indian War. Britain's 23 00:02:02.480 --> 00:02:06.319 victory brought not only vast new territory, but also a 24 00:02:06.359 --> 00:02:10.319 deep unease among the Native nations of the Great Lakes. 25 00:02:11.400 --> 00:02:14.520 The removal of France as a colonial power didn't mean 26 00:02:14.719 --> 00:02:19.120 peace for them. British traders replaced French ones, but often 27 00:02:19.159 --> 00:02:25.639 with higher prices, stricter terms, and less diplomatic generosity for 28 00:02:25.840 --> 00:02:30.280 its garrisoned by redcoats, sprang up in Native homelands, while 29 00:02:30.319 --> 00:02:35.319 settlers quickly pressed into lands belonged the Appalachians. Many Native 30 00:02:35.400 --> 00:02:38.319 leaders saw this as a threat to their sovereignty and 31 00:02:38.360 --> 00:02:42.680 their way of life, and so in seventeen sixty three, 32 00:02:42.800 --> 00:02:46.639 an Ottawa war chief named Pontiac emerged as a central 33 00:02:46.680 --> 00:02:51.560 figure in uniting disparate tribes the Ottawa, the Delaware, the Shawnee, 34 00:02:51.919 --> 00:02:55.800 the Miami, and others in a coordinated effort to expel 35 00:02:55.879 --> 00:03:01.520 the British from their newly conquered lands, Pontiac delivered an 36 00:03:01.520 --> 00:03:05.680 impassioned speech urging resistance. Quote it is important to us, 37 00:03:05.960 --> 00:03:09.199 my brothers, that we exterminate from our lands this nation, 38 00:03:09.240 --> 00:03:13.000 which only seeks to kill us. End quote. His follower, 39 00:03:13.039 --> 00:03:17.120 is inspired by both traditional religious visions and political necessity, 40 00:03:17.639 --> 00:03:20.520 struck British forts and settlements. In a sudden wave of 41 00:03:20.560 --> 00:03:26.400 attacks from May to October seventeen sixty three, Native forces 42 00:03:26.400 --> 00:03:30.400 captured or destroyed nine of eleven British forts in the region, 43 00:03:30.879 --> 00:03:34.919 killing or driving off hundreds of settlers. The most famous 44 00:03:34.919 --> 00:03:39.039 siege was at Fort Detroit, where Pontiac himself directed months 45 00:03:39.080 --> 00:03:43.680 of attacks. While British troops eventually relieved some of the 46 00:03:43.680 --> 00:03:48.599 strongholds and counterattacked, the rebellion revealed the fragility of Britain's 47 00:03:48.599 --> 00:03:53.800 hold on the interior. In seventeen sixty four, British expeditions 48 00:03:53.840 --> 00:04:00.360 pushed west to reassert control, but peace was gradual and incomplete. 49 00:04:00.520 --> 00:04:05.520 Formal agreements were reached in seventeen sixty six, but the 50 00:04:05.560 --> 00:04:09.280 conflict left a lasting impact. There were thousands of people 51 00:04:09.280 --> 00:04:12.360 who had died as a result of this uprising that 52 00:04:12.719 --> 00:04:15.240 had in reality only lasted a year and a half. 53 00:04:15.360 --> 00:04:21.680 Or so, and frontier settlements had been destroyed. British policymakers, 54 00:04:21.759 --> 00:04:24.199 who were already dealing with the incredible weight of the 55 00:04:24.199 --> 00:04:28.399 war with France, realized that they had to prevent further 56 00:04:28.560 --> 00:04:31.600 costly wars, and to do that, what they had to 57 00:04:31.639 --> 00:04:36.439 do was restrict colonial expansion, because overall, what all of 58 00:04:36.519 --> 00:04:40.519 these first nations wanted was sovereignty, and that meaning that 59 00:04:40.560 --> 00:04:45.279 they had to keep English colonists from invading their lands. 60 00:04:45.319 --> 00:04:47.839 It was the only way to try to secure some 61 00:04:47.879 --> 00:04:53.120 sort of fragile peace, and as a result, what happened 62 00:04:53.319 --> 00:04:59.720 was the passing of the Royal Proclamation of seventeen sixty three. Now, 63 00:05:00.360 --> 00:05:05.040 if you are an American history buff you probably learned 64 00:05:05.040 --> 00:05:09.959 the Royal Proclamation of seventeen sixty three as the proclamation line, 65 00:05:10.480 --> 00:05:14.399 because that's what we call it in US history. But 66 00:05:14.560 --> 00:05:17.480 really what this meant was George the Third had issued 67 00:05:17.519 --> 00:05:22.600 a proclamation seeing settlement west of the Appalachian Mountains was 68 00:05:22.680 --> 00:05:26.319 now forbidden without royal permission. So this is a direct 69 00:05:26.680 --> 00:05:32.199 consequence of Pontiac's rebellion. Now, to British officials, this was 70 00:05:32.240 --> 00:05:38.720 simply pragmatic. It prevented another costly frontier war, but For 71 00:05:38.839 --> 00:05:43.040 many colonists, it felt like a betrayal. They had fought 72 00:05:43.079 --> 00:05:47.199 alongside British troops with the goal of expelling the French 73 00:05:47.480 --> 00:05:52.279 to get access to these lands. George Washington, who had 74 00:05:52.319 --> 00:05:57.079 speculated heavily in Western property, lamented privately that the proclamation 75 00:05:57.199 --> 00:06:01.399 would quote in effect and null every grant made for 76 00:06:01.480 --> 00:06:07.000 these lands end quote. And there was more to come, because, 77 00:06:07.120 --> 00:06:12.040 as I mentioned, Grenville and others believed that the colonists 78 00:06:12.079 --> 00:06:15.920 needed to shoulder some responsibility for the cost of the 79 00:06:15.920 --> 00:06:19.120 French and Indian War in North America the Seven Years' 80 00:06:19.160 --> 00:06:24.680 War in Europe, and so his first was a sugar act, 81 00:06:25.079 --> 00:06:31.879 Grenville's Sugar Act of seventeen sixty four. This actually ironically 82 00:06:32.600 --> 00:06:37.639 reduced the duty or tax on foreign molasses, but it 83 00:06:37.800 --> 00:06:44.240 gave customs officers much greater power to enforce it. Suddenly, 84 00:06:45.319 --> 00:06:50.040 colonial merchants saw it less as a tax break and 85 00:06:50.160 --> 00:06:55.800 more than an efficient way to catch smugglers. In other words, 86 00:06:56.639 --> 00:07:00.120 they were used to paying no tax because they were 87 00:07:00.160 --> 00:07:04.160 getting their molasses illegally. Molasses, by the way, a byproduct 88 00:07:04.240 --> 00:07:08.560 of sugar production, which is generally useless, but in this 89 00:07:08.600 --> 00:07:13.560 particular case very useful to the colonial economy, because the 90 00:07:13.560 --> 00:07:17.240 colonists were using it to create cheap rum, which they 91 00:07:17.240 --> 00:07:19.639 could then sell back to participate in the slave trade 92 00:07:19.680 --> 00:07:23.959 and all the other ingencies of the Triangle trade, or 93 00:07:24.000 --> 00:07:27.600 the North Atlantic trade as we still call it today. Now, 94 00:07:27.639 --> 00:07:31.439 while that was going on, at the same time, Grenville 95 00:07:31.480 --> 00:07:34.720 passed what was called a Currency Act, and this restricted 96 00:07:34.720 --> 00:07:38.759 the colonies from issuing their own paper money, which worsened 97 00:07:38.800 --> 00:07:44.480 an already existing shortage of hard currency. Boston Town leaders 98 00:07:44.800 --> 00:07:48.560 were quick to petition Parliament, warning that quote the trade 99 00:07:48.600 --> 00:07:51.920 of the province must most inevitably be ruined end quote 100 00:07:52.360 --> 00:07:57.319 if these restrictions were not eased. While opposition was initially 101 00:07:57.639 --> 00:08:02.439 economic rather than ideological, the seeds of resistance were clearly 102 00:08:02.600 --> 00:08:07.959 being planted. Now this got worse because it was followed 103 00:08:08.040 --> 00:08:11.639 up by another act, the infamous Stamp Act of seventeen 104 00:08:11.879 --> 00:08:16.240 sixty five. And again I called this episode the boiling 105 00:08:16.279 --> 00:08:19.079 pot because I think what you have to imagine is 106 00:08:19.639 --> 00:08:23.040 a situation between the British and their American colonists, much 107 00:08:23.160 --> 00:08:25.800 like a pot on the stove, and it's getting close 108 00:08:25.839 --> 00:08:27.879 to boiling over. Every once in a while it'll start 109 00:08:27.920 --> 00:08:29.879 to go down a little bit, but the heat just 110 00:08:29.959 --> 00:08:34.080 keeps getting turned up. Year and year things seem to 111 00:08:34.080 --> 00:08:37.200 get a little bit worse. And the Stamp Act of 112 00:08:37.279 --> 00:08:40.480 sixty five is a huge part of that because it 113 00:08:40.600 --> 00:08:46.600 required now that all newspapers, legal documents, licenses, even playing 114 00:08:46.679 --> 00:08:51.919 cards carry a revenue stamp. This was the first direct 115 00:08:52.200 --> 00:08:56.559 internal tax Parliament had ever levied on the colonies. And 116 00:08:56.600 --> 00:08:58.720 let me explain the clarity. What I mean by that 117 00:08:59.320 --> 00:09:03.279 is colonists were used to paying duties, so import dues 118 00:09:03.600 --> 00:09:06.960 on things that they got from colonies that belonged to 119 00:09:07.000 --> 00:09:11.159 maybe France or Spain, that they had never paid attax 120 00:09:11.559 --> 00:09:13.759 on something that went from the colony of New York 121 00:09:13.799 --> 00:09:17.399 to the colony of Massachusetts. This was the first time 122 00:09:17.759 --> 00:09:21.720 the British Parliament had ever attempted to do such a thing. 123 00:09:22.039 --> 00:09:25.759 And we're still from the colonists perspective, they're not even 124 00:09:25.799 --> 00:09:27.559 getting anything for it. At least, when you pay a 125 00:09:27.639 --> 00:09:31.279 duty on molasses, you get the molasses. Here, you just 126 00:09:31.320 --> 00:09:33.639 have to put a stamp on something that was created 127 00:09:34.200 --> 00:09:37.799 in the colonies. So from the colonist perspective, they're not 128 00:09:37.799 --> 00:09:43.080 getting jack for this. Patrick Henry, speaking before the Virginia 129 00:09:43.120 --> 00:09:48.440 House of Burgesses, electrified the Chamber by declaring Caesar had 130 00:09:48.519 --> 00:09:52.799 his brutus, Charles the first, his Cromwell, and George the 131 00:09:52.840 --> 00:09:56.639 third Trees and treason, cried several members, according to the records, 132 00:09:57.039 --> 00:10:01.559 may profit by their example. If this be treason, make 133 00:10:01.840 --> 00:10:06.159 the most of it. In Boston, the Sons of Liberty, 134 00:10:06.559 --> 00:10:10.120 a loose network led by Samuel Adams on effigies of 135 00:10:10.200 --> 00:10:15.960 stamp distributors from the Liberty Trees. Andrew Oliver, Massachusetts designated 136 00:10:15.960 --> 00:10:20.279 stamp Agent, resigned after his house was quite literally besieged. 137 00:10:21.720 --> 00:10:25.000 When delegates from nine colonies met at the Stamp Act 138 00:10:25.080 --> 00:10:28.480 Congress in New York, they adopted the Declaration of Rights 139 00:10:28.519 --> 00:10:33.559 and Grievances, asserting that quote no taxes have ever been, 140 00:10:33.960 --> 00:10:37.799 or ever can be constitutionally imposed on them, but by 141 00:10:37.840 --> 00:10:45.200 their respective legislatures. The economic boycott that followed hit Britain hard. 142 00:10:45.799 --> 00:10:49.840 London merchants petitioned Parliament to repeal the law, warning of 143 00:10:49.960 --> 00:10:53.440 quote the great injury to our trade and loss of 144 00:10:53.480 --> 00:10:58.919 our manufacturers end quote. Parliament did repeal the Stamp Act 145 00:10:58.919 --> 00:11:02.279 in seventeen sixty six, but it paired it with an 146 00:11:02.320 --> 00:11:07.279 important declaratory Act, insisting that it had full power and 147 00:11:07.360 --> 00:11:11.240 authority to make laws to bind the colonies and people 148 00:11:11.320 --> 00:11:17.039 of America in all cases whatsoever. And so the pot 149 00:11:17.639 --> 00:11:22.480 continued to boil. And this was all with them good, 150 00:11:22.480 --> 00:11:24.440 but it still left to Great Britain in desperate need 151 00:11:24.440 --> 00:11:28.320 of tax revenue. And so in seventeen sixty seven a 152 00:11:28.399 --> 00:11:34.360 new Chancellor, Charles Townsend, proposed new import duties on glass, lead, 153 00:11:34.519 --> 00:11:39.399 paper and tea. He insisted that these were external taxes 154 00:11:39.440 --> 00:11:46.519 and therefore not objectionable. The colonists disagreed. John Dickinson's widely 155 00:11:46.559 --> 00:11:50.200 read Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania countered the Parliament 156 00:11:50.279 --> 00:11:53.720 unquestionably possesses a legal authority to regulate the trade of 157 00:11:53.799 --> 00:11:57.120 Great Britain and her colonies. I have looked at every 158 00:11:57.279 --> 00:12:01.240 other statue relating to these colonies, find every one of 159 00:12:01.279 --> 00:12:05.120 them founded on this principle. Tell the Stamp Act administration, 160 00:12:05.759 --> 00:12:09.480 all duties for the purpose of raising a revenue are illegal. 161 00:12:10.559 --> 00:12:18.879 End quote. Colonial assemblies revived hitherto unused non importation agreements 162 00:12:18.919 --> 00:12:23.559 in efforts to boycott British goods and therefore force the 163 00:12:23.600 --> 00:12:28.240 mother country into submission. British officials in Boston found the 164 00:12:28.279 --> 00:12:33.399 situation so fraught that they had to call for Redcoat reinforcements. 165 00:12:33.440 --> 00:12:37.840 In seventeen sixty eight, two regiments of Redcoats marched into 166 00:12:37.879 --> 00:12:41.799 the city of Boston, an armed reminder of Imperial power, 167 00:12:43.159 --> 00:12:46.519 but the presence of troops in Boston created a tense 168 00:12:46.799 --> 00:12:50.480 powder keg atmosphere. On the evening of March the fifth, 169 00:12:50.799 --> 00:12:54.960 seventeen seventy, an argument between a soldier in a wigmaker's 170 00:12:55.000 --> 00:13:00.679 apprentice drew a crowd Snowballs gave way to rocks and clubs, 171 00:13:01.600 --> 00:13:05.639 and the confusion soldiers fired into the crowd, killing five, 172 00:13:06.200 --> 00:13:10.200 including Crispus Attics, a man of both African and Native 173 00:13:10.240 --> 00:13:13.919 descent who's often cited as the first casualty of the 174 00:13:13.960 --> 00:13:21.639 American Revolution. Paul Revere's engraving, which was widely circulated, depicted 175 00:13:21.720 --> 00:13:27.759 disciplined Redcoats simply firing into an unarmed crowd. Samuel Adams 176 00:13:27.759 --> 00:13:33.039 called it a massacre, using the event to rally public opinion. Now, 177 00:13:33.039 --> 00:13:36.759 the British captain Thomas Preston insisted that he had not 178 00:13:36.960 --> 00:13:41.440 ordered his men to fire future Patriot leader, though John 179 00:13:41.480 --> 00:13:46.440 Adams actually defended the British soldiers in court, and he 180 00:13:46.600 --> 00:13:51.120 reminded the jury that quote facts are stubborn things end quote, 181 00:13:51.720 --> 00:13:55.200 and that the law needed to apply evenly, even to enemies, 182 00:13:56.120 --> 00:14:00.279 that most of the soldiers were in fact acquitted. On 183 00:14:00.360 --> 00:14:04.679 that same day, Parliament quietly repealed most of the Townsend duties, 184 00:14:05.120 --> 00:14:10.720 retaining only the tax on tea. Oh, if only that 185 00:14:10.879 --> 00:14:15.039 were enough. The next flashpoint came with the t Act 186 00:14:15.080 --> 00:14:20.200 of seventeen seventy three, designed to aid the struggling British 187 00:14:20.240 --> 00:14:23.639 East India Company. It allowed the company to sell tea 188 00:14:23.840 --> 00:14:28.840 directly to the colonies, cheaper than smuggled British tea, but 189 00:14:29.000 --> 00:14:34.720 still taxed under the Townsend Acts. In a pamphlet, Samuel 190 00:14:34.720 --> 00:14:38.279 Adams warned that quote the monopoly on tea is a 191 00:14:38.519 --> 00:14:42.480 very dangerous precedent. If they have a right to tax 192 00:14:42.559 --> 00:14:45.519 us without our consent, they have a right to tax 193 00:14:45.600 --> 00:14:52.759 us in all things. On December sixteenth, seventeen seventy three, 194 00:14:52.879 --> 00:14:57.399 a group of men disguised as Mohawk Indians boarded three 195 00:14:57.480 --> 00:15:00.960 ships in Boston Harbor and dumped three hundred and forty 196 00:15:01.000 --> 00:15:05.759 two chests of tea into the water. One participant later 197 00:15:05.799 --> 00:15:09.799 recalled quote, we were merry in an undertone. But no 198 00:15:09.799 --> 00:15:12.960 one uttered a word above his breath, and no one 199 00:15:13.480 --> 00:15:16.320 in the course of the whole transaction appeared to be 200 00:15:16.440 --> 00:15:23.399 under any apprehension of danger. Parliament's response to the Boston 201 00:15:23.440 --> 00:15:29.960 Tea Party was swift and punitive. The coercive acts, which 202 00:15:30.120 --> 00:15:33.519 get called the intolerable acts if you are in America, 203 00:15:34.200 --> 00:15:38.679 closed Boston Harbor until the tea was paid for, which, 204 00:15:39.080 --> 00:15:41.879 if you're interested in knowing, the price tag on that 205 00:15:41.919 --> 00:15:47.519 in today's dollars was tens of millions of dollars. They 206 00:15:47.559 --> 00:15:52.360 also altered the Massachusetts Charter to limit town meetings. They 207 00:15:52.440 --> 00:15:55.919 allowed royal officials accused of crimes to be tried not 208 00:15:56.000 --> 00:15:59.759 in the Americas but back in Britain, and they expanded 209 00:15:59.759 --> 00:16:04.440 the ordering of British troops. The Quebec Act, passed at 210 00:16:04.480 --> 00:16:09.200 the exact same time, extended Quebec's boundaries into the Ohio 211 00:16:09.320 --> 00:16:14.600 Valley and recognized Kipolicism as an official religion, which was 212 00:16:14.720 --> 00:16:20.799 deeply upsettling to many Protestant colonists in the Americas. In Virginia, 213 00:16:21.320 --> 00:16:25.200 George Washington wrote to a friend that quote, the cause 214 00:16:25.240 --> 00:16:30.399 of Boston, the cause of America is now and ever 215 00:16:30.519 --> 00:16:35.440 will be considered as the cause of every virtuous American. 216 00:16:37.720 --> 00:16:42.200 In September of seventeen seventy four, delegates from twelve colonies 217 00:16:42.240 --> 00:16:47.200 met in Philadelphia at the First Continental Congress. They agreed 218 00:16:47.240 --> 00:16:51.120 to a colonial boycott of British goods, issued a declaration 219 00:16:51.200 --> 00:16:54.679 of rights and grievances, and called on each colony to 220 00:16:54.720 --> 00:16:59.879 prepare its militia. But King George the Third was on move. 221 00:17:01.000 --> 00:17:02.960 Before we go any further in this story, let's take 222 00:17:03.000 --> 00:17:05.920 a moment and let's go ahead and introduce George the Third, 223 00:17:05.920 --> 00:17:09.119 because obviously he's going to be an important character coming forward. 224 00:17:10.319 --> 00:17:15.400 George William Frederick was born on June fourth, seventeen thirty 225 00:17:15.440 --> 00:17:18.960 eight at Norfolk House in London. He was the son 226 00:17:19.000 --> 00:17:22.559 of Frederick, Prince of Wales, and Augusta of Saxy Gotha. 227 00:17:23.400 --> 00:17:26.880 As the grandson of George the Second, George was not 228 00:17:27.160 --> 00:17:30.880 initially the heir apparent. His father was young and healthy, 229 00:17:31.559 --> 00:17:36.319 in the line of succession seemed secure. George's childhood was 230 00:17:36.359 --> 00:17:40.279 shaped by his mother's influence and a sheltered, moralistic upbringing. 231 00:17:41.160 --> 00:17:45.559 Augusta instilled in him a sense of duty, frugality, and 232 00:17:45.640 --> 00:17:49.279 religious devotion, qualities that would mark his reign as both 233 00:17:49.359 --> 00:17:55.119 virtues and sometimes limitations. He was also an unusually diligent 234 00:17:55.160 --> 00:17:58.599 student for a royal child, with early tutors noting his 235 00:17:58.680 --> 00:18:04.200 keen interest in science, agriculture and philosophy. When George was twelve, though, 236 00:18:04.640 --> 00:18:10.119 tragedy changed his destiny. In seventeen fifty one, his father 237 00:18:10.240 --> 00:18:13.920 died unexpectedly from a lung injury, making George the new 238 00:18:13.960 --> 00:18:18.359 heir to the throne. His mother, fiercely protective, oversaw his 239 00:18:18.519 --> 00:18:23.039 education and surrounded him with advisers that she trusted, most 240 00:18:23.119 --> 00:18:26.680 notably a man by the name of John Stuart. He 241 00:18:26.759 --> 00:18:29.440 was the Earl of Brute. He would become George's political 242 00:18:29.519 --> 00:18:33.720 mentor and of course, one of the most famous political 243 00:18:33.759 --> 00:18:38.200 scientists of the eighteenth century. And so it was that, 244 00:18:38.279 --> 00:18:41.839 on the twenty fifth of October in the year seventeen sixty, 245 00:18:42.400 --> 00:18:44.480 George the Third ascended the throne at the age of 246 00:18:44.559 --> 00:18:48.359 only twenty two, following the death of his grandfather. His 247 00:18:48.440 --> 00:18:52.160 coronation marked a break from his Hanoverian predecessors in one 248 00:18:52.240 --> 00:18:55.759 crucial respect. He was actually born in Britain, and he 249 00:18:55.839 --> 00:18:59.240 spoke English as his first language, the first of the 250 00:18:59.279 --> 00:19:02.359 Hanoveran day and estey to do so. In his first 251 00:19:02.359 --> 00:19:06.680 address to Parliament, he famously declared born and educated in 252 00:19:06.680 --> 00:19:10.920 this country, a glory in the name of Britain. Now, 253 00:19:10.960 --> 00:19:13.960 the early years of his reign, of course, were dominated 254 00:19:14.000 --> 00:19:16.759 by the end of the Seven Years' War, which ended 255 00:19:16.759 --> 00:19:20.240 in seventeen sixty three, and that, of course, was when 256 00:19:20.599 --> 00:19:23.759 under William Pitt the Elder, Britain secured major victories against 257 00:19:23.759 --> 00:19:27.960 France in North America, Indian and on the seas. George, 258 00:19:28.079 --> 00:19:31.880 eager to assert royal influence over foreign policy, supported the 259 00:19:31.880 --> 00:19:34.400 peace negotiations that led to the Treaty of Paris in 260 00:19:34.440 --> 00:19:38.720 seventeen sixty three. While the Treaty, of course expanded Britain's 261 00:19:38.720 --> 00:19:44.799 colonial empire, it also sattled the government with significant war debts. Now, 262 00:19:44.839 --> 00:19:47.960 to be fair to George, he believed in upholding Parliament's 263 00:19:47.960 --> 00:19:51.480 authority over the empire, so he completely supported the efforts 264 00:19:51.519 --> 00:19:54.519 to try to get some tax revenue out of the colonies, 265 00:19:54.559 --> 00:19:57.799 including the Sugar Act, the Stamp Acts on and so forth. 266 00:19:59.039 --> 00:20:04.039 That being said, George's domestic politics were quite turbulent. He 267 00:20:04.119 --> 00:20:10.200 faced accusations of favoring John Stewart and interfering with parliamentary independence. 268 00:20:11.000 --> 00:20:14.559 Factionalism in the House of Commons saw ministries rise and 269 00:20:14.640 --> 00:20:20.200 fall with dizzying speed. Between seventeen sixty and seventeen seventy, 270 00:20:20.720 --> 00:20:25.079 no fewer than seven different prime ministers served under George 271 00:20:25.079 --> 00:20:29.559 the Third. The Boston massacre in that same year seventeen 272 00:20:29.680 --> 00:20:34.400 seventy deepened the rift with America, but at that point 273 00:20:34.480 --> 00:20:38.480 George still believed that the unrest could be contained through 274 00:20:38.559 --> 00:20:44.359 firmness and gradual conciliation. Now, the early seventeen seventies brought 275 00:20:44.400 --> 00:20:46.839 some moments of calm, but as of course we know, 276 00:20:46.960 --> 00:20:51.440 the t Act and subsequent Tea Party rekindled crisis, and 277 00:20:51.680 --> 00:20:55.480 all of the actions that Parliament took, including the coercive 278 00:20:55.559 --> 00:20:59.960 acts aka in tolerable acts, were backed by George, who 279 00:21:00.119 --> 00:21:03.960 ordered the imperial authority of Parliament and believed that all 280 00:21:03.960 --> 00:21:08.519 of this was necessary to maintain order. And that takes 281 00:21:08.559 --> 00:21:12.799 us up to early seventeen seventy five. In early seventeen 282 00:21:12.839 --> 00:21:17.119 seventy five, General Thomas Gage, the military governor of Massachusetts, 283 00:21:17.720 --> 00:21:21.680 ordered troops to seize colonial arms at Conquerd in Massachusetts. 284 00:21:22.799 --> 00:21:26.960 On the night of April eighteenth, seventeen seventy five, British 285 00:21:27.000 --> 00:21:30.519 General Thomas Gage ordered roughly seven hundred regulars to march 286 00:21:30.559 --> 00:21:35.440 from Boston to Concord, Massachusetts, to seize colonial military supplies 287 00:21:35.480 --> 00:21:40.319 stored there. Colonial intelligence networks, organized largely by the group 288 00:21:40.359 --> 00:21:43.720 the Sons of Liberty, had been watching British movements very closely. 289 00:21:44.400 --> 00:21:48.160 When the Redcoats began their march, Boston silversmith and patriot 290 00:21:48.200 --> 00:21:52.160 Paul Revere, along with William Dawes and later Samuel Prescott, 291 00:21:52.599 --> 00:21:56.319 set out to warn the countryside. Revere had arranged a 292 00:21:56.359 --> 00:21:59.720 pre arranged signal from the Old North Church in Boston 293 00:22:00.319 --> 00:22:03.240 two lanterns to indicate the troops were crossing the Charles River, 294 00:22:03.799 --> 00:22:07.759 and then rode swiftly to alert John Hancock and Samuel Adams, 295 00:22:07.759 --> 00:22:11.279 who were stationed in Lexington. Along the way, he stopped 296 00:22:11.279 --> 00:22:14.799 at homes and taverns, spreading the alarm the regulars are 297 00:22:14.799 --> 00:22:18.960 coming out. Although Revere was detained by a British patrol 298 00:22:19.000 --> 00:22:23.359 before he reached Concord, his mission had succeeded. Local militias 299 00:22:23.400 --> 00:22:28.960 were awake and mobilizing before dawn. At sunrise on April eighteen, 300 00:22:29.039 --> 00:22:32.880 seventy seventy five British troops arrived in Lexington to find, 301 00:22:33.319 --> 00:22:38.039 to their great surprise, seventy militiamen just simply waiting on 302 00:22:38.079 --> 00:22:44.119 the village, Green Captain John Parker, facing overwhelming arms against 303 00:22:44.160 --> 00:22:48.160 the British regular redcoats, reportedly turned and told to his men, 304 00:22:48.279 --> 00:22:51.920 quote stand your ground, don't fire unless fired upon. But 305 00:22:51.960 --> 00:22:53.599 if they need to have a war, let it begin 306 00:22:54.000 --> 00:22:59.160 here end quote a shot. Its source is still disputed 307 00:22:59.640 --> 00:23:03.920 rang and the British fired a ali killing eight colonists. 308 00:23:04.839 --> 00:23:08.279 The troops rushed on to Conquered where they destroyed some supplies, 309 00:23:08.319 --> 00:23:12.519 but faced armed resistance at the North Bridge. There, colonial 310 00:23:12.559 --> 00:23:16.880 militiamen exchanged fire with British soldiers, forcing them into a retreat. 311 00:23:18.119 --> 00:23:22.519 All along the road back to Boston, militiamen fought much 312 00:23:22.920 --> 00:23:25.519 like the indigenous peoples they had been fighting against in 313 00:23:25.559 --> 00:23:29.240 the woods and across the hills of Massachusetts for years 314 00:23:29.279 --> 00:23:33.880 and decades. They poured fire in from behind stone walls 315 00:23:33.880 --> 00:23:37.640 and trees, running away and melting into the woods before 316 00:23:37.680 --> 00:23:41.839 the British regulars could form up, and all along inflicted 317 00:23:41.880 --> 00:23:46.400 heavy casualties on the retreating British. By the day's end, 318 00:23:47.039 --> 00:23:49.319 the British had lost over two hundred and seventy men, 319 00:23:49.839 --> 00:23:53.079 and the colonies were effectively at war with their mother country. 320 00:23:54.279 --> 00:23:57.799 The ride of Revere and his companions, and the skirmishes 321 00:23:57.839 --> 00:24:01.880 at Lexington and Concord became immortalized as the spark of 322 00:24:01.920 --> 00:24:06.680 the American Revolution, what Ralph Waldo Emerson later called the 323 00:24:06.759 --> 00:24:12.599 shot heard around the world. In just over a decade, 324 00:24:12.759 --> 00:24:16.000 Britain and her colonies had moved from partnership to estrangement, 325 00:24:16.480 --> 00:24:22.240 from estrangement to war. The disputes began over taxation and policy, 326 00:24:22.920 --> 00:24:26.960 but each act, protest and reprisal deepened the mistrust until 327 00:24:27.000 --> 00:24:31.960 reconciliation seemed impossible. As Thomas Paine would later write in 328 00:24:32.039 --> 00:24:36.559 common Sense, quote, the cause of America is, in a 329 00:24:36.599 --> 00:24:39.720 great measure the cause of mankind.