Name: Who Won the American Revolution?: Crash Course US History #7
Uploaded: 2013-04-17T09:17:15.000Z
Duration: 12 min 41 s
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Hi, I’m John Green, this is Crash Course U.S. history.

those where things DO change and those where things don’t change.

Like, not to get all Crash Course Mathematics on you or anything,

but a Revolution is a 360 degree turn, which leaves you back where you started.

That’s what happened with the French Revolution,

basically they just exchanged a Bourbon for a Bonaparte. [make your own joke]

What? I don’t have to say it all French-y.

And shut up French people about how if it weren’t for

your support in the American Revolution, this would be the History of

Southern Canada. [does have a certain ring to it]

like the Industrial Revolution, actually change things.

Well, little of column A, little of Column B.

Yeah, we went from a bunch of rich white guys running the show

all the way to a bunch of rich white guys running the show.

But the 1700s were a pretty good century for rich white guys everywhere:

I mean, they were running the show in Holland and Portugal and Spain,

but only the United States became the country that invented baseball,

the Model T, and competitive eating. [and surely the Snuggie, right?]

but even if the US didn’t live up to its rhetoric,

And in the end whether you care more about ideas or policy

defines whether you think the American Revolution really was Revolutionary.

Alright, let’s start with the War for Independence.

you’ll know that we’re not big on gratuitous war details.

But we’re obligated to tell you something about it.

The main strategy of the British in the Revolutionary war was

to capture all the cities and force the colonists to surrender.

And the first part of that strategy pretty much worked.

They captured Boston and New York and Charleston,

but all the colonists had to do was NOT QUIT.

I mean, they had home-field advantage, knowledge of the terrain,

easier supply lines, and Mr. Creepy Eyes down here.

the Americans, or Continentals, held onto the countryside.

The most famous battle of the war was probably the battle of Trenton,

“I’m gonna cross the Delaware on Christmas morning.”

Everybody knows he had a funny voice. It’s famous.

That’s a made up fact! [oh. shocker there.]

“What do I know about Washington? Well, I know he had a funny voice.”

Washington surprised a bunch of Hessians, which was a pretty impressive victory

especially since he had just come off of a string of defeats.

But he wasn’t able to turn it into an all out rout,

and ended up having to spend a miserable winter at Valley Forge.

But remember, generals always get to eat.

But the most important battle, at least in the North, was not Trenton but Saratoga.

This was a major defeat for the British, and while it’s often put forth

as an example of the superiority of the Continental fighting man,

the British mostly lost because of terrible generalling.

The French would eventually bankrupt themselves helping us,

which would lead to their own Revolution. [not a great poster for humanitarianism]

As thanks, we named our most important food after them.

In the South the country-city trend continued with the British taking

Charleston but then continuing to lose smaller scale battles and

The key battle of the war in the south –

because it was the one where the British surrendered –

Lord Cornwallis made the brilliant tactical decision

surrounded on three sides by water filled with French ships,

So what did this all mean for actual people?

Well, Americans like to think that we all pitched in together

and got rid of British tyranny, and lived happily ever after.

Also that the Continental army was the bravest, most loyal,

and most effective fighting force in human history thanks to

Morale among continental soldiers was often pretty low.

Rations were poor and soldiers went unpaid.

As Joseph Plumb Martin, a soldier from Connecticut, wrote, they felt they were

“starving in detail for an ungrateful people who

And many other colonists didn’t fight for independence;

Others were pacifists, like the Quakers, who often had their property confiscated

when they refused to fight, and in colonial America, of course,

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Who Won the American Revolution?: Crash Course US History #7

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opportunity

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