The Causes of the American Revolution

1. The French and Indian War a/k/a The Seven Years War

This war that took place in the 1750s fundamentally altered lots of things in the colonies
as well as the relationship between the colonies and Britain.

-The British expected colonists to fight in the war on the British side against the French
and the Indians.

-As a result a lot of HAVE NOT COLONISTS were ripped away from their
families and their families were the ones facing the brunt of Indian attacks out on
the frontier.

-this really inflamed the passions of the HAVE NOTS something that we
know the haves in the colonies will later turn to their advantage

-certain members of the colonial population ended up fighting in the French and
Indian war on the British side and learned a lot about battle strategy

GEORGE WASHINGTON being the best example

-he learned how to be a general during the French and Indian war

***The most important impact of the French Indian war was the debt that accumulated as
a result

-because the British government had so many debts to pay off they had no choice
after the war but to raise taxes on the colonists

-that's going to be the biggest mistake they make and ultimately causing
the American Revolution

2. The colonies were not Europe anymore

There was an enormous influx of immigrants over the course of 20 to 30 years in colonial
history from the early 1700s to the 1750s

-In that 50-year period the colonies more than doubled in size

-people are coming from all over not just from England

-new American society is not just a British society anymore

-it contains lots of different religions lots of different ethnic groups

and it really created a whole new situation in the colonies that the
British just didn't understand anymore
3. The Enlightenment, the Great Awakening as well as the Scientific Revolution

-all of these new ways of thinking changed the way people looked at the
relationship between government and religion and people who lived in society

-the Enlightenment

-JOHN LOCKE argued everyone's born with life liberty and

property

-VOLTAIRE who said everyone's born with free speech rights

-MONTESQUIEU and ROUSSEAU who talked about the best

kind of government to govern people is not a monarchy but rather either a
democracy or a government that has branches to protect different interests
for different people in society

-the Great Awakening

-desperately trying to hold people to religion but more and more people turning
towards science

-Sir Isaac Newton had revolutionized scientific thinking

-Benjamin Franklin with his electricity experiments and his writings about
scientific thought

So these three factors the imperial conflict, the new society and the different ways of
thinking laid the groundwork or created the soil that the final two factors are going to
play into

4. British Mistakes

5. Radical politicians in the colonies who took advantage of those mistakes

The outbreak of the war really was a result of all five of these factors.

-The British start putting taxes in place

-as a result people like PAUL REVERE, JAMES OTIS, SAM ADAMS, JOHN
HANCOCK, all who have something to gain by stirring up the HAVE-NOTS turn
that anger against the British.

-the problem is in creating this new idea of liberty they've started a fire that
they're really going to have a hard time controlling.
 -the radicals have started this fire in the have-nots, they've turned that
anger against the British and we saw things like the Boston Massacre the
Boston Tea Party these things where now blood is being spilled between
colonists and the English or British government

KEY MOMENTS IN THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION

Politics of the Revolution

Two Phases

1. The political beginnings of the war the first continental congress gets together.

-these are delegates from each of the colonies coming together to figure out
common strategy

-join or die

-the snake that Ben Franklin drew the cartoon of is really representative of this
unity that they're trying to come up with some common solution.

-the problem is their real goal was just to get some kind of political
influence they're not really looking at the possibility of independence at
this point nobody thought it was possible.

-in 1774 when the first continental congress meets what they're starting with is
this discussion of how can we reach out to the king to make this all go away

-they realize they've started this passion in the have nots, it's gotten a little
dangerous at this point they want to draw back from it a little bit so they craft a
letter to send to the king basically trying to blame the parliament

-this document was known as the olive branch petition

-it was sort of a peace petition asking the king to reconsider and at the
same time hedging their bets a little bit by saying we really better
organize some kind of army because we have all these little militias and
all these different colonies that have no organizational structure

-so while they're also sending the olive branch petition, they're
appointing George Washington as the first commander-in-chief
-at this point in the first continental congress there is no outright rebellion, no kind of
independence declared, just the beginnings of organization toward trying to craft some
kind of unified response to the British

-what happens though is the British blunder into a blood feud.

-In April of 1775, Battle at Lexington and Concord where the British militia
heading out to sort of capture some rebel weapons stumbles into a group of
farmers whether or not they were fully sober or not is unclear but we know that
at this particular battle we have what's known as the shots heard round the
world

-no British casualties except for a horse, while the colonial militia is
wiped out.

-Brits then march over to Concord, have another battle with the militia,
but then Brits have to march back to Boston, where they get attacked by
american colonists

-April 1775 represents a fundamental change.

-no longer can negotiate, now actual war.

-difficult at this point for the radical politicians to continue to control this fire
so they have to get back together and sort of figure out how to handle things

-before they can do that though they're faced with another problem.

-THOMAS PAYNE writes the common sense document in January 1776

that says colonists should break away from England and have war with
England

-stirs up the passions of the HAVE-NOTS even more so at the very

moment when the haves are sort of at a loss for what to do

-by the time the continental congress reconvenes in july of 1776

they're really at a point where they have to make a decision
of what to do.

-from 1775 all the way through to january of 1776 we're losing
battle after battle after battle
-losses in Bunker Hill, Lexington and Concord
-New York and eventually all the way down through New
Jersey
-losing the war that we haven't actually declared yet
When the continental congress in july of 76 decides it's time to declare independence
there really wasn't a whole lot to lose at that point.

Three Key Military Periods

1775-76

1775
-lost at Lexington and Concord

-at Bunker Hill later that same year we have another defeat where the British march
up the hill at what was Breeds Hill and attack these colonists who have created a fort
at the top of the hill but the British sent wave after wave of men to take that position
and eventually do take it although the Americans are beginning to learn to change their
battle strategy not really fighting fairly.

-they pack their weapons with glass, firing at the last minute to sort of cause
maximum damage when they see the whites of the eyes of the British troops

-that glass will cause a lot more damage when it sprays out of the guns that are
fired by those American militia but again the British win this battle

-the Americans manage to keep Boston

-ultimately the Americans are losing battle after battle throughout

the rest of the summer

1776

-the Americans now realize the British are going to move on New York.

-George Washington takes his new continental army and he heads to New York to
try to defend the city from the British that he know or knows are going to come
and attack now

-the British do and quickly drive George Washington out

-he retreats all the way down to Trenton NJ

The first phase of the war the is 1775 through 1776 which is defeat after defeat for
Washington and the continental army.

-They just can't fight the british they can't beat them.

-they don't have the training, they don't have the supplies they can't fight
continental battle style so phase one of the war is really a failure for the Americans
Phase 2:
1777

December 1776 , Christmas Day

Washington decides to fight like Indians rather than continental battle style.

-He launches a sneak attack crossing the Delaware river on Christmas night in the
middle of a blizzard to attack the British who are encamped at Trenton.

-Not thinking there would ever be any kind of battle in the middle of winter let
alone on Christmas Day.

***THIS IS A CRUCIAL TURNING POINT

George Washington changes strategy.

-he's not going to fight fair anymore. He's going to fight like a native
American, and by doing that it's going to change everything and the
Americans are going to start winning the war instead of losing.

January 3rd, 1777 BATTLE OF PRINCETON

-one of the most important battles of the war

-Washington again surprises the British troops. Attacks them. Lines up and
actually for one of the first times in the war wins a traditional battle against the
British largely because he himself rides into battle to save the day after the death
or near death anyway of general mercer who's stabbed seven times with a
bayonet.

-that victory is followed by a win in the Fall in Saratoga, New York

-led by HORATIO GATES Americans surround the British forces led by JOHN
BURGOYNE “Gentlemen Johnny”

-use militia to their advantage, don’t fight fair, surprise the Brits and Burgoyne
surrenders. Thousands of British troops surrender.

-Saratoga victory radically change the war because now France is going to
come in on the side of the Americans

-France actually believe America could win this war and they're going to
come in to help support the American cause primarily by providing ships
to blockade the British from assisting the ground troops
-At the end of 1777, Washington will go into camp at Valley Forge pennsylvania feeling
pretty good about the status of the war

-unfortunately that'll be a horrible winter for the troops.

-a lot of really bad morale problems that winter because of the number of deaths
from the cold weather and the lack of supplies

-it's a really major test for Washington to keep the troops motivated and keep
that morale high for continuing his success that he has in 1777

Final phase of the war

-the war now turns to a war of attrition and the americans have an advantage here

-all they have to do to win is just stay alive

-as long as there is one rebel army staying alive the British will continue to have
to fight so until the Americans give up it doesn't matter how many battles the
British win or lose

-what matters is that the Americans are staying true to that idea to that
cause of liberty

-it becomes an issue of how much are the British willing to sacrifice
-how much money, how many men are they willing to sacrifice to
keep this rebellion from happening?

-to keep the american colonies from breaking free?

The British realize they really have one hope left; to go and attack the south

-they feel there are a lot of loyalists because they looked at the south and saw these
plantations thinking that the south was a lot more like England

-BUT, the British commanders who were in the south didn't treat the citizens of
the south very well and that led to sort of an uprising against British control.

-January 1781, the Battle at Cowpens, where NATHANIEL GREENE and his
men really use the hatred of the Brits to their advantage

-British Commander LORD TARLETON guy from movie THE PATRIOT

who slaughters women and children

DANIEL MORGAN –performed best tactical move in whole war by

dividing his army and surrounding the Brits.
1781, Yorktown,
-French Navy blocks British from resupplying Lord Cornwallis's troops

-Washington then accepts Lord Cornwallis's surrender

-after the surrender at Yorktown the two sides begin to negotiate peace, ending
the American Revolutionary War

REMEMBER!!!!!

The radical politicians never thought they could win, they end up kind of winning by
accident.

When George Washington figures out that if he fights indian style they'll actually win the
war and they do.

But, by winning they now have a huge problem because the radicals have made promises
to the have-nots things like equality, and liberty and democracy and free speech… things
they never thought they were going to have to live up to.