UNIT 3 1754-1800
All right, it's time to go over everything you need to know about a push unit 3. And look, I'm not going to sugarcoat it. This is the Wendy's T-Rex
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equivalent of units thus far. And by the end, if you don't feel like you've dislocated your jaw to fit this thing in
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your mouth hole, then you're doing it wrong. So, if you're ready to get them brain cows milked, let's get to it. Okay, as is my custom, let me start by
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giving you the big idea that will act as the connective tissue holding this beast of a unit together. The time period is
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1754 to 1800, which corresponds to the beginning of the French and Indian War and ends with the election of Thomas
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Jefferson. And basically the whole narrative here has three acts. The first act is the causes of the American Revolution. The second act is called a
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new republic. And the third act is migration and conflict. Okay, so that's where we're going and that's enough mouth hole flapping by way of prelude.
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So let's jump into the first act. Okay, now if the climax of this unit is the American Revolution, then the inciting incident for sure is the French and
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Indian War. So basically this was a conflict between France and Great Britain over disputed territory here in the Ohio River Valley. And as it turned
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out, British colonists in North America were rapidly uh multiplying, and that meant that they very much wanted to
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migrate west into the Ohio country to find better accommodation. But as it further turns out, the French claimed
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that territory, and they were ready to give the migrants a good French slap if they started squatting on their land. And to even further complicate the
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matter, several indigenous groups also lived there, and they were none too pleased to see those wy British folk
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moving in. Therefore, several American Indian groups led by the Shaunies and the Delawarees allied together in order to defend their rights to this
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territory. So when the British colonists considered all of that, it put them in a proper huff because as you might know,
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the heart wants what it wants. And what their heart wanted was the dang Ohio country. Now, I'm not going to go into all the details of the war except to say
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this. The conflict erupted in 1754 because of a military blunder by our boy George Washington. Although it started
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on the North American continent, the war soon spread to Europe and parts of India and Africa as well. And that's when the conflict became known as the Seven Years
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War, which arguably was the first proper World War. So, here's where I tell you that Great Britain won the war to the
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great annoyance of the French who retired to their secret base, twisted their mustache, and plotted their revenge, and they will get that revenge,
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baby. But not yet. Just put that juicy bit in your pocket, and we'll get back to it. But for our purposes, what you really need to focus on is the effects
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of this war. So, you know, let's talk about it. But before I do, let me just mention that if this video is helping you and you want even more help getting
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an A in your class and a five on your exam in May, you might want to check out my A Push Heimler review guide. It's got everything you need to study as fast as
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possible, including exclusive videos that are not here on YouTube, practice questions, practice exams, and all the rest. So, if that's something you're
2:20
into, that link is in the description below. Okay, so effect number one, the Treaty of Paris, signed in 1763 changed
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the map of British North America. First of all, Spain seated Florida to Great Britain. Wait a minute, why in the fresh heck is Spain involved in this all of a
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sudden? Well, to keep things simple, I didn't mention before that later in the war, Spain allied with France, so they also had to make some concessions to
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Great Britain in the peace treaty. Okay. Second, France gave up their territory west of the Mississippi River to Spain. And then third, and most important,
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France seated their territory in the Ohio River Valley to Great Britain. And hey, that's everything the colonist ever
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dreamed of, right? Like westward migration level 10 commence. But hold on right there, because the second effect
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of the war was that Great Britain went ahead and prevented westward expansion for its colonists. And they did this by drawing the proclamation line of 1763,
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which forbade British colonists from migrating west beyond the Appalachian Mountains. And the reason Big Mama Britain laid down this law is because
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winning this war cost her a fortune. And that meant she had no additional boom boom to spend on resolving conflicts
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between the American Indians and the migrating colonists. And to be clear, this was not just theoretical. You see, colonists had already started a conflict
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with an alliance of American Indians known as Pontiacs Rebellion. But even so, the colonists were, as we say here
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in the South, matter than a wet hen at this proclamation. They believed that they were owed this land on account of
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their participation in the war that helped Britain win it. And then the third effect of this war, which I already hinted at, was the problem of
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Britain's war debt. Not only did it cost a fortune to win the war, but the cost of running the colonies had increased five-fold, owing to the rapid population
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growth there. Therefore, at this point, Great Britain began implementing policies aimed at tighter control over the colonies so that they could earn
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some muchneeded tax revenue. Okay. So, at the end of the war, King George appointed George Grenville as the British prime minister, and he helped
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develop a plan to reassert control in the American colonies. First, Grenville began enforcing existing laws that
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colonists had routinely flouted on account of salutary neglect. And chief among these laws were the Navigation Acts that restricted colonial trade to
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Great Britain alone. Second, certain wartime policies were kept in force after the war was over. Especially nasty was the Quartering Act, which required
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colonial subjects to house and feed members of the British military who were there in response to the French and Indian War as well as Pontiac's
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rebellion. And then third and most significant, Grenville persuaded Parliament to enact a series of new taxes on the colonies that would help
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pay down Britain's war debt. Now, to keep things simple, let's just focus on one taxation law in particular, namely the Stamp Act of 1765. This was just
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attacks on paper items like newspapers or diplomas or playing cards. And while that may not seem like a huge deal, it provoked colonial displeasure, something
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awful. Now, there are several reasons for that displeasure, but chief among them was that the colonists resented that they were being taxed without any
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representation in parliament. In other words, laws were being imposed on them without their consent. And the whole
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reason they felt thusly imposed upon was because the colonists had grown used to a significant degree of self-governance.
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And so, they summarized their grumpies with the now famous phrase, no taxation without representation. Now to George
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Grenville, this protest was altogether puzzling. He argued that the colonists did in fact have representation, namely
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virtual representation in parliament. In other words, members of parliament represented the interest of all English
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subjects, whether they were home or living in a colony. And to be clear, this was how all British subjects on the mainland were represented in Parliament.
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So, you know, the colonists were not special here. But the colonists saw things differently. You see, because they had developed habits of self-ruule
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over time, colonists believed that representation must be local. And since there were no members of the colonies in
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Parliament, they believed that they therefore had no representation. Now, Grrenville ignored the colonist plea with a mixture of broiling resentment
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and classic British restraint and just kept squeezing all the cash he could out of the colonies. And that reality in
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turn united the colonies in protest against these grievous laws. Some gave impassioned speeches or wrote pamphlets.
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But the most significant mode of protest was the formation of committees of correspondence. By 1774, all but one of
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the colonies had created a network of these committees which organized and spread information about colonial grievances with speed. Additionally,
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merchants, traders, and artisans created groups like the Sons of Liberty and the Daughters of Liberty, who fought for the repeal of the Stamp Act. However, the
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most formal and organized protest came in the form of the Stamp Act Congress, which convened in 1765. Here, delegates
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from nine colonies formally petitioned Parliament to repeal the Stamp Act because taxation without representation
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amounted to tyranny. However, there's one very important point to remember here. Neither the colonists nor the delegates at the Stamp Act Congress were
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agitating for independence from Britain at this point. No, what they wanted was to remain British subjects without
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experiencing the infringement of their British rights. Anyway, the work of Congress combined with the widespread boycotts of goods taxed by the Stamp Act
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led Parliament to repeal the Stamp Act in 1766. But about 5 minutes after that, they also passed the Declaratory Act,
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which essentially said that Parliament is still in charge and could pass any dang laws they wanted to. Look, I repealed the Stamp Act because I wanted
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to, not because you nagged me. Sure. Sure. Now, this spat would go on for the next few years. After all, Big Mama
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still needed that colonial scratch for her bank account. And so, Parliament would pass new taxation laws, and colonists would boycott the goods or
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find other ways to frustrate Grenville's plans. But starting in the 1770s, three developments seriously cranked up the
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heat on these tensions. First was the Boston Massacre in 1770. Long story short, occupying British soldiers opened
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fire on a group of protesters in Boston and end up killing five Bostononians. Second was the Boston Tea Party in 1773.
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Here, colonists protesting Britain's increased efforts to control the colonies dumped 50 tons of British tea into the Boston Harbor. And then third,
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Britain responded to this offense with the Coercive Acts in 1774. Now, these laws closed the Boston Harbor until the
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tea was paid for and introduced a new quartering act which mandated even more soldiers must be accommodated in
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colonial homes. You don't have to guess how the colonists felt about that since these laws in the colonies were policies known as the Intolerable Acts. And such
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a name made sense to the colonists because this set of laws in their minds represented the most significant grab for power and control that they had yet
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experienced from parliament. But even with all this pressure on the colonies, you still need to remember that for them revolution was not yet the move. Even
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now they wanted to remain British subjects while enjoying the fullness of their British rights. But all those taxes and developments I just mentioned
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combined with a piping hot stew of ideas began to tip the scales into revolution territory. So let's talk about that.
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First, the proliferation of enlightenment ideals contributed to a revolutionary mindset. And there are two of these ideas you'll need to know,
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although there are certainly more you could know. First is the idea of natural rights, which by definition argues that human beings are born with certain
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rights, namely life, liberty, and property. And those rights are given to each individual by God and not a monarch. Second, you have the social
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contract. The idea here is that human beings endowed with natural rights must construct governments of their own will
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and that the main purpose of that government is to protect their natural rights. Therefore, if the government becomes tyrannical, thus violating the
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contract, then the people have the right to overthrow that government and replace it with a new one. And then the second set of ideas that contributed to a
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revolutionary mindset were religious ideas. Now recall that it was only a few decades prior to this that the great awakening had occurred. And this
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movement emphasized individual religious awakening and individual communion with God. Like the emphasis was don't listen
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to what the old crusty pointyatted church hierarchy tells you to do. Listen to what God tells you to do by means of
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your own interpretation of the Bible. And if you're paying attention, that clearly signals a growing colonial conviction to challenge traditional
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authority structures. And one of the chief effects of this widespread movement was that the colonists started believing that the liberty they enjoyed
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was actually a gift from God. And so when the dumb king and parliament came in trampling on that liberty, it wasn't
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just the colonists they were challenging, but the dang almighty himself who gave the colonies this liberty. Therefore, as the colonist mind
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were shaped by these ideas, they began to believe that individual talent trumped hereditary power. What I mean is enlightenment ideas argued that
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individuals had rights given by God and that no arbitrary power structure could infringe on those rights. The religious
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ideas argued that individuals could decide for themselves what God was saying instead of relying on the power structures found in the church. And I
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think you begin to see how ideas like this combined with all those curtailments of liberty that I mentioned before could start riing folks up for
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revolution. But even still, the revolution loaf had not yet risen in the oven to its full doughy goodness. Like even after the colonist convened the
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first Continental Congress to centralize resistance to British policy, still they wanted to remain British subjects with
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their full British rights. And even after they convened the second Continental Congress in response to actual British aggression at Lexington
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and conquered, many delegates maintained that the best course of action was to negotiate with Britain. And that was in
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1775. But 1776 was the year of revolution. So what in the fresh heck change? Well, a very significant factor
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was the publication of a deeply sassy pamphlet by our boy Thomas Payne. It was called Common Sense and it argued that
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British tyranny had reached its peak and the only way for the colonist to preserve their liberty was to declare
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independence. And this pamphlet sold like crazy throughout the colonies and convinced many folks that revolution was
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inevitable. And one of the reasons it spoke to so many people is that Payne used the kind of arguments and evidence that aligned with ideas already deeply
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held by the colonists. For example, Payne used enlightenment ideas like natural rights and the social contract and republicanism to demonstrate that
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Britain was a tyrannical turd that needed to be flush. He also used biblical arguments and illusions, most notably the development of monarchy in
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the Old Testament and how God considered it a sin. So by 1776, it was independence time. So Thomas Jefferson
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wrote the Declaration of Independence and made the argument for separation using, you guessed it, enlightenment ideas like natural rights and the social
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contract. And that, my dear pupils, is how you start a revolution. Okay. Now, before you get out your fireworks and your star spangled tank tops, I need to
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tell you why the Americans should not have won this war. And then I'll tell you why they ultimately did. And at that point, you may excuse yourself and
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high-five as many bald eagles as you wish. But first, there were two main factors that should have contributed to
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a British victory in the American Revolution. First was the presence in the colonies of a significant loyalist opposition. Now a loyalist was just
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someone who did not support the revolution and wanted to remain loyal to Great Britain. And the best estimates say that about 15 to 20% of the
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colonists were loyalists. And to be clear, only about half the population supported the patriot cause for independence. So that means the other
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roughly 30% of the folks just didn't want anything to do with either side and wanted to keep as far from the troubles as they could. But then the second
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reason the British should have won is the indisputable fact of their military superiority. Like it wasn't even close.
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Great Britain, if you'll recall, had spent the majority of their time in the last century building a global maritime empire, the size of which would have
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made Julius Caesar poop his pants or, you know, his toga. I don't know. Did do they have pants under the toasa?
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Anyway, not the point. The point is, in order to establish and maintain that empire, Great Britain had a massive army
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and the world's deadliest navy. And those troops had plenty of practice mowing down their enemies on account of the nearly constant wars Great Britain
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found themselves in. So, it's not looking good for the colonists who just declared independence. But, and I hope this isn't a spoiler, the Americans did
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win, and that was because of three very important factors. First, we have the leadership of George Washington. Now, it's true that the soldiers that made up
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the colonial militias and the Continental Army were in general poorly equipped, poorly trained, and often deserted their post. And that meant in
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the first six years of the war, the Continental Army never won a single victory in battle, and it appeared that
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the overwhelming forces of the British would prevail. But Washington was an exceedingly capable leader, and he was able to score some important victories.
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First, his surprise attack at the Battle of Trenton against Britain's hired Hessen troops, while not a major strategic victory, proved that the
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Americans could in fact win. Second, Washington enlisted a Prussian officer named Friedrich Wilhelm von Stuben to
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train the soldiers in the Continental Army, and he was able to make a lot of progress on their discipline. Okay. Now, the second factor in the American
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victory was their alliance with France. You see, the Continental Congress had sent Benjamin Franklin to France in 1776 to try to enlist their help against
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Great Britain. But thus far, the French would not ally with the colonist. And that's mainly because the Americans hadn't really proven that they could
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actually win. And you know, like that's important. But that changed with the Battle of Saratoga in 1777, in which
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patriot militias won a resounding victory against British forces. And after proving they could actually win, the French went ahead and joined the war
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against the British, sending aid and troops and ships and all manner of supplies that would ultimately lead to an American victory. And finally, the
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third factor that contributed to an American victory was the colonist ideological commitment and resilience. And although this was kind of an
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intangible factor, it was real potent nonetheless. Like think about it. The British motivation for fighting the war was to maintain their economic and
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political dominance in North America. Lame. But for the patriots, the war was an existential battle to secure liberty
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and throw off tyranny. And I don't think it's too hard to judge which was the more powerful set of ideas. Now ultimately those factors led to the
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patriot victory and the American Revolution in 1781. The final battle being won at Yorktown. And in 1783, the
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Treaty of Paris was signed, which both ended the war and doubled the land holdings of the freshly born United States. And that's the end of act one.
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So let's take a brief intermission. Okay, that's enough. We need to move on to act two. Okay, now before we get to talking about all the flurry of
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developments that created new constitutions and governments and all of that, let's stick for a moment with the revolutionary ideals that helped sustain
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the patriot victory. Yes, they definitely helped energize the Americans for military victory, but here's where I tell you that those ideas had a
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significant impact on American society and across the world as well. First, these revolutionary ideals led to calls
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to address various social inequalities. Two of which I'll tell you about now. First of all, ideas about liberty and equality of all people led to movements
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to abolish slavery. mostly concentrated in the north. You see, when black people of all stripes heard Jefferson say that
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all men are created equal, they assumed that all men, including black men, were equal, and therefore slavery had no
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place in the New Republic. And some states, when writing their new constitutions, agreed with that logic. For example, Vermont's Constitution
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abolished slavery outright, and Pennsylvania's made provision for the gradual abolition of slavery. However, to the elite planters in the south whose
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entire way of life, not to mention their wealth and status, depended on slavery, they did not in fact believe that all
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men included the black people they had enslaved. So, here you can begin to see differing regional attitudes taking
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shape around the question of slavery and whether the institution contradicted the ideals on which the new nation was
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founded. Okay. The second example here is that revolutionary ideals led to calls for greater political democracy. You see, in the early years of the
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republic, for the most part, the right to vote was restricted to white property owning men. And since those revolutionary ideas about natural rights
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and the social contract had become so embedded in the American consciousness, it seemed right to a lot of people that
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the franchise would be expanded to more and more people, particularly those without land. Now, here's where I tell you that even though these calls to
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address inequality were the natural consequence of ideas that made the revolution, it would take a long time before the inequalities were in fact
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addressed. Okay. Second, revolutionary ideas led to calls for women's equality. Now, though they're not mentioned as often as they should be, women played
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significant roles in the victory over Britain in the revolution. Therefore, women certainly believe that the equality for which the revolution was
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fought ought to include them as well. And contrary to what men like Thomas Jefferson thought, women were actually
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capable of more than just knitting socks for their husbands or making his dang sandwiches. Case in point, Abigail
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Adams, who was a woman of fierce intellect, wrote to her husband, John Adams, while at the constitutional convention. She encouraged the delegates
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to remember the ladies as they were constructing a new constitution on the principles of liberty. But as you may have guessed, the delegates did not in
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fact remember the ladies and refused to recognize their political equality in the New Republic. However, I guess they were in the mood to throw women a bone
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because Benjamin Rush defined women's role as participating in something called the Republican motherhood. Basically, the most important way a
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woman could participate in a Republican society was to thoroughly educate her sons in the notions of liberty and
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government. And while this notion certainly kept women from active political participation, it did expand their access to education, which was a
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welcome opportunity for many women. And then third, revolutionary ideas influenced other revolutions across the Atlantic world based on those same
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ideas. First was the French Revolution in which the people overthrew the monarch and established a republic. Second was the Haitian Revolution in
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which the majority enslaved black population rose up against their French overlords and established the first black republic in history. And third,
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the ideals of the American Revolution inspired various Latin American revolutions. So Creole military leaders like Simone Bolivar appealed to colonial
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subjects across racial lines with enlightenment ideals, including appeals to popular sovereignty and the right to self-ruule among the various Spanish and
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Portuguese colonies. And so through a series of long and protracted wars, one Latin American colony after another won its independence and many of them formed
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republican governments in its wake. Okay, now it's time to talk about how this brand spanking new republic is going to govern itself. And so let's
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start by talking about all the new state governments and then we're going to consider the formation of the federal government. Now, right after declaring
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independence, each state drafted a new constitution. And there are two very important commonalities that you need to know. First, state constitutions created
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governments in which most of the power was concentrated in the legislature as opposed to an executive or a governor.
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And that's not hard to understand because the legislature was the representative body of the people. And that's where the states wanted the power
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after having so long been crushed under the tyrannical centralized power thumb of Great Britain. And then second, as I
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mentioned earlier, most state constitutions limited voting rights to white male property owners. Okay. Now, let's consider the formation of the
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republic's new national or federal government. So, in 1777, the Continental Congress drafted the first Constitution
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of the United States, namely the Articles of Confederation. Now, the main thing you need to remember about the government created by the Articles is
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this. It kept the federal government exceedingly weak. So, in this first political iteration of the United States, the state governments held most
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of the power while the federal government was very weak. In fact, it wasn't as much a federal government as it was a fart in the shape of a
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government. And while this limited federal power satisfied Americans who wanted to avoid centralized power at all costs, the republic began facing
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significant problems that began to show the weaknesses of the articles to govern effectively. There are five categories of weaknesses that you're going to need
18:26
to know. First, the federal government was too weak to solve problems related to international trade. After the war, Great Britain cut off trade between the
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United States and the British West Indies. And then Spain prohibited American trade ships from accessing the Mississippi River via Louisiana. And
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then pirates off the Barbar Coast of North Africa attacked US merchant ships. And that made things real dire for the new nation. But the federal government
18:44
with its glaring lack of centralized power was helpless to remedy these economic problems. Second, the federal government struggled to address their
18:50
financial problem. For example, the Congress had no constitutional authority to collect tax revenue from the states and so the federal government was broke
18:57
as a joke. But nobody was laughing at that joke because a significant bill on which the Congress was defaulting was
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paying soldiers who had fought in the Revolutionary War. Now, put that in your pocket and we'll come back to it. The third problem showing the weaknesses of
19:07
the federal government had to do with interstate commerce. So because the nation was more like a collection of independent and powerful states, they
19:13
each competed with one another for economic gain. So states put tariffs on goods and hampered free trade in and around the new republic. And the federal
19:19
government under the articles had no authority to settle disputes over interstate commerce. Fourth, foreign relations were exposing the weaknesses
19:25
of the articles. You see, although Great Britain had lost the war, they kept forces occupying several forts along the
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Western Frontier, and the federal government had no way to stop this egregious violation of the terms of peace since they had no authority to
19:36
raise an army. And finally, the fifth development that seriously exposed the weakness of the federal government was Sha's rebellion. Now, remember how I
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said a second ago that Congress didn't have the money to pay their war veterans? Well, now that's about to be a real problem. So, up in Massachusetts, a
19:47
group of angry farmers fed up with their economic suffering attacked courouses in the area and then stormed a federal
19:52
arsenal. They were led by a man named Daniel Sheayes, and they intended to get the money that they were owed from the government. However, the Massachusetts
19:58
militia met the rebels and pretty quickly suppressed the rebellion. But this event had consequences all out of proportion to the size of the battle.
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You see, the chief effect of this event was to show the intolerable weakness of the Articles of Confederation. Because there were unpaid veterans everywhere in
20:11
the States, fears were stoked that this rebellion could be the start of many more to follow. When they considered that the federal government could do
20:17
nothing to stop it, they can either like pay their veterans or raise an army to defeat them, it became clear that a new
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constitution was needed. And I'll tell you about that in a moment. But first, I should tell you that there's at least one lasting and valuable thing that came
20:28
out of the federal government during this time. It was the passage of the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 which regulated the vast and unsettled
20:34
territory that had come to the United States as a result of the Treaty of Paris. And not only did the ordinance mandate that land be reserved for
20:39
schools, but it also banned slavery in the territory. Additionally, it laid out rules that dictated how territories in
20:45
the western region could become official states. And even after the Articles of Confederation was scrapped, this ordinance remained and created the
20:51
conditions for several new states to join the Union. Okay, so we've established that the federal government under the Articles was more like a fart
20:56
in the shape of a government. And now it's time to bring in the fans to clear that stank out. That's right, it's time for a new constitution. So in 1787, 55
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delegates met in Philadelphia at the constitutional convention. Now the stated goal was to revise the Articles of Confederation. But the meeting
21:10
quickly shifted to the creation of a new constitution altogether. The main question that guided them was this. How
21:15
do we strengthen the federal government without giving it so much power that it becomes tyrannical? And after months of
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debate and compromise, they ended up answering that question by implementing two principles. First, the Constitution created a federal government
21:26
characterized by the separation of powers. So, the federal government under the articles only had one branch of government, namely a legislature. So,
21:32
yeah, with only one branch, you better not give it too much power. But the constitution solved that problem by creating three equal branches, each of
21:39
which would hold different aspects of governing power, and each of which would have power to check and balance the other. So, the legislative branch would
21:44
be responsible for creating laws, and that duty would be carried out by Congress. The executive branch would be responsible for enforcing the laws, and
21:50
that duty would be discharged by a president. And then the judicial branch will be responsible for interpreting the constitutionality of laws and that duty
21:56
would fall to the Supreme Court. But the second principle provided further insurance against federal tyranny namely federalism. So don't forget that the
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constitution is only creating a federal government. All those powerful state governments are still around. So
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federalism is a system of government in which power is shared between the federal and state governments. So some
22:13
powers are given to the federal government alone like for example declaring war. But other powers are reserved exclusively for the states like
22:19
running elections. And then other powers like taxation are shared by the federal and state governments. So the point is with power divided across three branches
22:26
of government and then further divided between federal and state governments, it seemed like a pretty good system for avoiding the tyranny of centralized
22:32
power. Now this is how the constitution eventually turned out. But getting to that finish line required an enormous
22:37
amount of debate and compromise over several key issues. Now one of the most important debates had to do with how representation would work in the new
22:43
government. And there were two conflicting views. The Virginia plan asserted that representation ought to be reckoned by population and that favored
22:48
the interest of large states. But the New Jersey plan argued that representation should be reckoned equally with one representative per
22:54
state and that favored the interests of small states. Now ultimately what we got was the great compromise which established a biccameal legislature
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which would consist of two houses. In the House of Representatives, representation would be population-based and in the Senate representation would
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be equal. Now speaking of compromises, probably the debate that caused the most heat at the convention concerned the question of slavery. Weird, right?
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Anyway, the first question had to do with how to count enslaved people for representation in the House of Representatives. Northern delegates
23:18
thought they shouldn't be counted at all, while southern delegates wanted them counted as full members of the population. What they got instead was
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the three-fifths compromise, which said that three-fifths of the enslaved population of the state would count towards representation. Now, the second
23:29
debate around slavery had to do with the importation of enslaved people. But again, after a bunch of red-faced, sweaty debate, the compromise that made
23:36
it into the Constitution was this. Congress could not touch the slave trade for 20 years after the ratification of the Constitution. And after that, the
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international slave trade would be abolished in 1808. Okay, so there were a lot more debates and compromises that I did not mention, but that's going to do
23:48
for our purposes. You just need to realize that the constitution we got out of that convention pleased precisely no
23:53
one entirely, and that meant it represented a decent set of compromises. But the story didn't end with the writing of the Constitution. No, that
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sweet bippy still had to be ratified by nine out of 13 states in order for it to take the place of the Articles of Confederation. And wouldn't you know it,
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just like there were sweaty debates during the writing of the Constitution, so were there equally sweaty debates about whether the state should ratify.
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And those debates were carried on by two opposing factions. The Federalists, led by Alexander Hamilton, argued for the
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ratification of the Constitution. And they articulated their arguments in a series of essays known as the Federalist Paper. And essentially, their line of
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reasoning went like this. The federal government needed to be strengthened if the new republic was going to be able to survive and thrive economically and
24:30
politically. And the constitution would create such a government, but its power would be limited by the separation of powers and checks and balances. And then
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on the other side, the anti-federalist argued against ratification. They liked having powerful states and a weak central government. And they believed
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that by strengthening the federal government, that would only lead right back to the problems they had with Great Britain before the revolution.
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Additionally, because the US was so large and diverse, they argued that a central government could not possibly represent all interests equally. But
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probably their biggest gripe was that the constitution had no bill of rights as many state constitutions had. Now,
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ultimately the arguments of the Federalist won the day and by June of 1788 enough states had ratified the document and it became the law of the
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land. However, the only way the federalists were able to achieve this was to pacify anti-federalist fears and promise to include a bill of rights soon
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after ratification, which they did. Okay, now that the constitution had been ratified, it's time to take this new federal government for a spin and see
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how she purs. Now, each of the three branches of the federal government got busy creating institutions and setting precedents for future government
25:23
officials. And now that the government had a little room to flex its freshly juiced federal pectorals, let's have a
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look at some of those important developments. Now let's start with the executive branch. The first president of the United States was George Washington
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who holds the distinction of being the one and only president unanimously elected by the electoral college. Now
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the first President Washington set was the formation of executive departments. He created the department of state led by Thomas Jefferson. Then there was the
25:45
department of war led by Henry Knox. Also there was the department of the treasury led by Alexander Hamilton. And finally the department of justice was
25:51
led by Edmund Randall. Together, these four men led their respective departments and served as Washington's cabinet of adviserss. And even though
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the Constitution doesn't mandate this division of labor in the executive department, nor does it forbid such an
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arrangement. And so, executive departments in the president's cabinet have been main stays in the executive branch ever since. Okay. The second
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important precedent Washington set was to serve only two four-year terms in office. Like, the Constitution of that time did not limit the number of terms a
26:14
president can serve, but Washington seemed to know by intuition that the republic could best thrive if the executive willingly surrendered power
26:21
after 8 years. That precedent lasted until 1940 when Franklin Roosevelt was elected for a third term and then a
26:26
fourth. But you know, it was a wild time what with a great depression and World War II and all. Regardless, after that, the 22nd amendment formally restricted a
26:33
president's service to two terms. Anyway, upon stepping down from office, Washington gave a farewell address in which he urged the new nation to avoid
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two potential traps. First, he warned against the divisive effects of political parties and to avoid them at all costs. Second, he warned against
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committing to entangling foreign alliances that would unnecessarily drag the United States into wars with foreign powers. But then if we shift over to the
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legislative and judicial branches, we also got the creation of an institution that has lasted until this day. In 1789,
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Congress passed the Judiciary Act, which created a multi-level federal court system. And that was important because it seemed like when James Madison was
27:03
writing the Constitution and got to Article 3, he was like, "Dang, my hand hurts." But I'm sure they'll figure out
27:08
the courts. Uh, who's up for some pickle ball? But anyway, the Judiciary Act created a three- tiered court system.
27:14
You had 13 district courts, three courts of appeals, and then the granddaddy of all, the Supreme Court, which was populated with six justices. And again,
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the creation of that system has lasted until the present, even if there have been some minor additions and subtractions. Now, the one thing that
27:26
the framers of the Constitution emphatically did not account for in the New Republic was the formation of political parties. But like an unwanted
27:32
stench from a gym bag, political parties formed of their own accord and made the New Republic smell uh nasty. But why,
27:38
says you, did political parties form? Well, says I. During the era of the New Republic, the federal government faced a multitude of events and developments.
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And as it turned out, different factions had different opinions on how to best address them. And as those factions curled themselves around their opinions
27:52
more and more, we see the emergence of two political parties. The Federalist and the Democratic Republican. And these
27:57
parties basically correspond to the factions we saw pop up during the ratification debates. The Federalist Party led by Alexander Hamilton was the
28:03
direct descendant of the, you know, Federalist. And then the Democratic Republican Party led by Thomas Jefferson was the direct descendant of the
28:08
anti-federalist. Now in general, the federalist supported policies that strengthen the federal government while the Democratic Republicans supported
28:14
policies that strengthened state governments. Okay, now let's talk about the four issues the US faced that gave birth to these two parties. The first
28:20
issue was a debate over economic policy. And most important here is Hamilton's proposal for the creation of a national bank that would help establish US credit
28:27
and create the conditions for national economic flourishing. Now, of course, that would mean metric buttloads of economic power and control for the
28:32
federal government. And the Democratic Republicans hated this idea. And why? Well, first, the Constitution has no
28:37
provision for the federal government to create a bank. And second, Democratic Republicans saw a national bank as a power grab for the federal government
28:44
against the wealth and interest of common farmers. Now, Hamilton ended up winning this fight. And the National Bank was established over the deafening
28:50
sound of the weeping and nashing of Democratic Republican teeth. Okay. Now, the second debate that gave rise to political parties concerned the proper
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balance between liberty and public order. And by far the best example here is the federal response to the whiskey rebellion, which started in 1791. So at
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Hamilton's urging, Congress imposed a tax on whiskey in order to raise federal revenue. Now this put serious economic
29:08
strain on western farmers and Democratic Republicans viewed this tax as federalist protection of industry at the
29:13
expense of those poor farmers. Therefore, the farmers broke out in rebellion much to the delight of Thomas Jefferson who always seemed to prefer
29:18
revolution to the growth of federal power. Now it might help to compare the federal response to this rebellion to the federal response to Sha's rebellion.
29:24
Now remember back then under the articles there was no president. So when the Massachusetts governor needed backup and he called for federal assistance,
29:31
Beep beep beep hell. There was no one on the other end of the line. But now during the Whiskey Rebellion, it's the
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age of the Constitution, baby. And when Pennsylvania called for help, Washington looked at Hamilton and was like, "Bro, ho my mad dear." And responded with
29:43
force to suppress the rebellion. Now, that response did two things. First, it demonstrated that the new federal government was far more capable than the
29:50
government under the articles to keep order in the nation. But second, it enraged the Democratic Republicans who
29:55
felt that the show of force against legitimate rebellion amounted to tyranny. Okay. Now the third debate that
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gave rise to parties had to do with foreign policy. And a good example here is the eruption of the French Revolution in 1789. The Democratic Republicans
30:06
believed that the US ought to come to the aid of French revolutionaries since they had come to the aid of the American revolutionaries. I mean you know bro but
30:14
the federalists worried that by involving themselves with the revolution which had expanded by that point to include wars with Great Britain and
30:19
Prussia and Austria that US trade prospects would be harmed. Therefore Washington issued a neutrality proclamation which protected American
30:25
trade and kept the US from getting involved. And that of course got Democratic Republicans matter than a wet hen and Thomas Jefferson went ahead and
30:31
resigned from Washington's cabinet in protest. And then finally the fourth event that helped draw the lines for opposing parties was the proper
30:37
relationship between national and state governments. And the big offender here came in the form of the alien and sedition acts passed during the term of
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the second President John Adams. Now basically these two laws made it possible for the Adams administration to use federal power to silence disscent
30:49
against federalist policy. And these laws were passed in response to growing fears about foreign influence during the French Revolution and their conflict
30:56
with the British. That context and justification aside, I don't think I have to tell you why the Democratic Republicans hated this. To put it
31:01
mildly, they downright hated this development and thought federal power had gone way out of bounds of its constitutional limits. So, in response,
31:07
state legislators passed the Virginia and Kentucky resolutions which stated that the Alien and Sedition Acts were unconstitutional and therefore
31:14
uninforceable. In fact, these resolutions made it plain that any federal law that enables the government to operate beyond its constitutional
31:20
power should be considered null and void by the states. And that, my dear people, is going to come back on several occasions in future units. So get
31:27
excited. Okay. Now the final act of this period drama is going to tie up some loose ends and we're going to start with the emergence of a national identity and
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how that contrasted with regional identities. So in terms of a national identity, much of how Americans began to think of themselves was defined by the
31:39
concept of liberty. In their own imaginations, to be an American was to be free. And you can see evidence of this as states wrote their constitutions
31:45
and abolished titles of aristocracy which have been used to oppress them during the colonial age. Also, state constitutions enacted various degrees of
31:52
religious toleration. Americans they argued should be free to worship as they pleased without the forced submission to a state church. But also evidence of a
31:58
burgeoning national identity started showing up in art and literature and architecture. As for art, let me introduce you to Charles Wilson Peele
32:04
who was known for painting revolutionary war leaders like Washington and Franklin and Jefferson as Republican heroes. And
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you can see that his subjects were romanticized and the point was to convince Americans who their heroes were
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and that of course contributed to the formation of a national identity. And as for literature, a good example is Hector St. John de Krevker. Now he's considered
32:21
one of the first American novelists and one of his main contributions to the development of a national identity was his description of the American as a new
32:28
man that blended European roots with frontier opportunity. As for architecture, prominent US buildings like the capital were built in the
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federal style of architecture, which was a rejection of the Georgian style that represented British sensibilities. But
32:39
even with all that going on, regional identities remained strong and varied significantly from one another. Maybe the best example here is the way
32:45
different regions understood the notion of liberty. Now, as I mentioned before, some states in the north moved toward the emancipation of enslaved blacks,
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while southern states that relied heavily on enslaved labor allowed the institution to remain entrenched in their society. But even if enslaved
32:57
blacks were not considered in Southerners's understanding of liberty, many found their own way to take up the voice of free people. For example, Gowen
33:04
Pamphlet was formerly enslaved but gained his freedom and afterward he became a minister of America's earliest black Baptist congregation. And in that
33:10
way, he was able to demonstrate how marginalized voices could still claim their portion of the American identity
33:15
even when the rest of society was not ready to deliver on its promises. And now, ladies and gentlemen, the final
33:20
scene is upon us. Let us now consider migration and all the conflict that it caused. So remember what I said before, namely that one of the results of the
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Treaty of Paris, which ended the revolution, was that the territory of the US effectively doubled. And then further remember that such a windfall of
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land was a dream come true to the metric buttloads of Americans who were hungry to migrate west. And hey, I'm a big fan
33:39
of following your dreams. But on this occasion, that dream was filled with hostile Spanish and British garrisons and American Indian groups. And so, to
33:45
put it mildly, the flood of migrants into the Western Territory caused some conflict. You see, even though the British and Spanish maintained a
33:50
presence in the Western Territory, Americans were keen to migrate and to settle and therefore convince American Indians who lived there that the land
33:57
belonged to them and not some European power. And so, as they migrated and settled, often without legal ownership of the land, American Indians were
34:03
displaced and took up residence in smaller and smaller tracks of land. and that resulted in new American Indian alliances that formed to resist the
34:09
migration of white settlers. Now to further add to this growing conflict, Great Britain had not honored the agreement in the Treaty of Paris to
34:15
evacuate their post on the western border and instead armed American Indians and encouraged them to attack American settlements in the Ohio River
34:21
Valley. And then Spain went ahead and did the same in the south, arming Creeks and Cherokees who used those weapons to resist American westward migration. Now,
34:28
not surprisingly, this was a great annoyance both to the migrants and to the US government. So, in order to address these increasing conflicts, in
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1794, George Washington dispatched about 2,000 American soldiers into the Ohio country. There, they fought against an
34:40
alliance of American Indians at the Battle of Fallen Timbers. Now, US troops won handily, and the conflict was ended
34:45
with the signing of the Treaty of Greenville, which effectively opened the Ohio territory for US settlement without resistance. In that same year, Jay's
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treaty was signed in which Great Britain agreed to withdraw its forces from the western borderlands in the US. And then two years later, the US ratified the
34:58
Pinkney Treaty with Spain, which formally recognized the borders between the US and Spanish territory while also opening the port of New Orleans and the
35:05
Mississippi River to US merchants. And this effectively ended the Spanish opposition to US westward expansion in the south and reduced the conflict
35:11
between the two states. With all those developments in the bag, westward migration spiked and although their movement didn't go entirely unopposed,
35:17
it was certainly easier than it was before these events. But then the last consequence I want to mention about migration is the spread of slavery and
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the conflicts that such a spread caused. So, southern planters were especially desirous to migrate westward in search of new land to plant. And that's because
35:30
high demand crops like tobacco and cotton depleted the soil of its nutrients. And therefore, in order to keep pace, especially with European
35:36
demand, they began to migrate westward in large numbers. And as they moved, not surprisingly, they brought slavery with
35:41
them. And that created a whole new conflict in the new nation. Now, southerners, of course, wanted no hindrance to the westward expansion of
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slavery. And that's not hard to understand because most of their economy deeply depended on it. But in the northern states, alarm bells started
35:52
ringing as slavery expanded. Now, some were abolitionists who objected to slavery on moral grounds, and often they were religious people like the Quakers
35:58
or the Menanites. And then others had strictly economic motives for objecting to slavery. Like in their minds, free labor was a threat to paid labor, which
36:05
was the dominant labor system in the North. Now, this debate is certainly not going to be settled in this time period, but don't worry, we're going to fight an
36:11
entire stinking civil war over it. So, stay tuned. And that is unit 3. So, you
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can click here to get my Heimler review guide, which is everything you need to get an A in your class and a five on your exam in May. Or you can click here
36:21
to check out my other topic videos for unit 3. I appreciate you coming around and I'll catch you on the flipflop.