Tea, Taxes, and The American Revolution: Crash Course World History #28

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 français comme un idiot.

[theme music]

So, intellectual historians might put the roots of the American Revolution earlier,

but I'm going to start with the end of the 7 Years War in 1763, which as you will recall

from last week was: 1. Expensive, and

2. 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 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 7 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 as you live under our roof, you live by our rules,” and so on, but eventually

the British backed down and repealed the Stamp Act. The repeal inspired a line of commemorative

teapots, thereby beginning America's storied tradition of worthless collectible ceramics.

But, in the end, this only emboldened the colonists when the British tried to put new

taxes on the Americans in the form of the Townshend Acts. These led to further protests

and boycotts and most importantly, more organization among the colonists.

The protests escalated: 1770 saw the Boston Massacre, which with its sum total of five

dead was perhaps the least massacrey massacre of all time, and in 1773, a bunch of colonists

dumped about a million dollars worth of tea into Boston Harbor, in protest of British