so the question was is parliament a colonial aggressor or are the colonists the aggressors here and again i said it's it depends on the point of view so parliament is seen as the aggressor to the colonists because they view that as or by being taxed directly they view parliament as being the aggressor also the fact that they are getting all of these taxes and rules and regulations and laws but they don't actually have any representation they don't have a voice in parliament that was the idea of the rally and cry of no taxation without representation you want us to pay taxes but we don't have a voice in this we don't have a voice in this government on december 23rd 1775 parliament decided to ban trade with the colonies and they also authorized the seizure of colonial uh vessels so this would be something that colonists view as um parliament being the aggressor it really um what this ends up doing when they do this because before um i we have to look at do all people want independence some people want independence but other people are more moderate and they simply want uh reconciliation uh like the position given by john dickerson in letters from a farmer in pennsylvania however once parliament in 1775 banned trade with the colonies and they authorized the seizure of colonial uh vessels what it ends up doing is that it erodes the position of anti-independence moderates of people who don't necessarily want independence they want reconciliation but by cutting the colonies off completely it really erodes that position and it ends up bolstering uh the position of those who are for independents on april 6 1776 congress authorized um opening colonial ports to all foreign nations except for great britain so what do we do in response well britain doesn't want to trade with us so we will trade with everyone else except for great britain and so also in april also this is what happens um congress will send silas dean to france um look that up this should be something that's really interesting and i will also offer a little bit of extra credit if you can tell me who is silas dean and why would congress send cylistine to france why do you think congress would send anyone to france right i want to answer it but i also don't want to give you the answer at least yet so maybe i'll sneak it somewhere else in the lecture okay all right so uh continuing here so when did war actually uh break out so we have in april um we have congress deciding that they are going to open trade to everyone except for great britain well the second continental congress ends up meeting in may because remember they said if our demands if we're not able to come to any sort of agreement we will meet in may of 1775. so again we are back in may 1775. before they can even meet the battle our outbreak of war you could say has already begun we've already had the battles of lexington and concord or the battle i would say rather the fighting breaks out before the congress can meet the wonders of the english language so before the congress can even meet war is already broken out with the battles of lexington and concord so british soldiers let's give a little explanation of this british soldiers wanting are wanting to march from boston to concord because in concord there is a cache of weapons being stockpiled um so in concord there is a cache of weapons being stockpiled and they want to get those weapons and so you have these riders who will hop on their horses and say look we have the british who are coming to concord uh they want to seize the weapons and so militia men end up taking up arms and they try to uh resist the british so in trying to resist the british the british will end up retreating so it's kind of it's the outbreak of war but it also i would say gives colonists maybe a boost of confidence because they're able to battle against um this big empire so much so that um the british will end up retreating so the death toll at the end of the battles of lexington and concord 49 americans are dead and 73 british are dead after this after the battles i would say the battles of lexington and concord really set the stage for the second continental congress now it's different now the the how would i put this how do i put this my learners the stakes are that much higher because now there's been bloodshed once there's been bloodshed you can't go back it makes the stakes that much higher so by the time the second continental congress meets up may 10 1775 it's already on the table for the congress to raise an army so that's one of the first things that will happen as a result of the second continental congress they will authorize the raising of a continental army because remember with the battles of lexington and concord i was very specific i really want to make sure i didn't say the army went out to defend them against the british because there was no army it's individual militiamen it's people who have guns who are like i'm going to defend this i'm going to take my personal gun and go out and risk my life for this there is no army it's just militiamen and so by the time we get to the continental congress because there has been bloodshed it's pretty apparent that the breach with britain at this point is inevitable there's no going back however there is still pride in the british empire there still are people who don't agree with independence and don't agree necessarily with war um a lot of southern colonists will support separation uh for uh their own reasons um but before we talk about that i want to talk a little bit about thomas paine and common sense also um that's a question it's a part of our question so i'm so excited to answer these questions from our grab bag this week but going back so thomas payne is an englishman he immigrates to uh the colonies in 1774 and he really pretty quickly um becomes um he pretty quickly kind of aligns himself with the cause of independence and the cause of the colonists and being separated from great britain so he writes this pamphlet i'll call it called common sense and in common sense he is one calling for um a democratic system that is based on elections rather than um he really challenges a hereditary monarchy this idea that the king can just have a son and then this person will be king and then that person will be king because thomas paine really says in this that just because one person is a great king doesn't mean that his offspring just by virtue um or by accident birth it doesn't mean that the offspring are going to be good kings it doesn't mean you're going to get lots of good leaders through this in fact you don't get good you know leaders from this um thomas paine and common sense it's also um significant because he really introduces a new style of political writing he writes it in a way that is easier for laymen and women to understand so while you may not have had um it's just it makes it easier he's not writing in latin he is not writing in such legalese that it's difficult for people to understand also this kind of goes against this tradition of deference that um only those who are highly educated should be able to participate in politics by making something that is easy for people to understand it opens this realm of politics and government to um more classes of society i'll say uh that's uh pretty important now going back to southern colonists who are supporting separation southern colonists will support separation because in november 1775 after congress has um authorized raising an army um by this time we know we're going to war and so in november 1775 the earl of dunmore signs this proclamation that says that if you are an enslaved person if you fight for the british you'll get your freedom and so southern colonists are going to be incredibly upset with that because they see britain as interfering in their economic futures right so that will be a bit of an issue so congress has raised the continental army george washington has been chosen to be the commander of the continental um army he has some experience so he is chosen um now we're at the part of the chapter where we will talk about the declaration of independence because a lot of this conflict remember begins around 1765-ish is when we finally we have this conflict and by the time we get to 1776 it takes a while before we declare independence we've not um really we've started fighting but we've not made a lot of like inroads and fighting with the declaration of independence it is written by thomas jefferson it is edited edited by john adams and benjamin franklin um who will then remove portions of the declaration of independence where king george or yeah king george iii is being blamed for the trans-atlantic slave trade so the declaration of independence states that government derives its power from the consent of the governed meaning that we the people we are the ones who give the government power we elect these people if we don't give them power they don't have power right so government derives or gets its power from the consent of the governed from the consent of the people so january or july 4th 1776 congress finally um they adopt the final text of the declaration of independence jefferson puts an anti-slavery clause in the declaration of independence and in that anti-slavery clause um that's where uh james iii or george i'm sorry king george iii is being blamed for the transgenic slave trade and so that is taken out we do have a question about that so i will explain it more in our question segment um so in the declaration of independence we have a list of govern um it's essentially a list of grievances that are these grievances are being directed at parliament and it's also in the declaration of independence that we get this definition of inalienable inalienable rights rights that cannot be taken away and one of these rights is really liberty in the preamble of the declaration of independence that says we hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal and that um and that they are endowed by their creator uh with certain inalienable in the declaration it says unalienable rights so if you have a squiggly line don't worry about it and alienable rights that among these are life liberty in the pursuit of happiness it defines what these rights are the declaration of independence says that there are certain rights that cannot be stripped away from you and these rights are life liberty in the pursuit of happiness um a issue though that i have with a lot of students is that we're we have this language in the declaration of independence and then we have this very stark reality that not everyone is entitled to liberty not everyone is entitled to the pursuit of happiness so are these truths you know are these self-evident truths um again that reads we hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal that they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights and among these are life liberty and the pursuit of happiness and so um it is a bit of a challenge i do have to admit but we will have uh we will uh address these in the question segment so once that we are now that we're in war we have officially declared independence let's look at how these empires stack up so we have the world's best army like literally the world's best army it's fighting against local militias um it's actually quite terrifying when you look at these numbers like what would encourage you to go after the world's largest empire they are britain by this time by the 18th century they're known for having the world's best army in the world's best navy um between 1775 in 1783 and these are the years that fighting actually takes place about 200 000 men will fight in the american army and in local militias so what are some advantages so we look at the world's best army um and so it can be kind of difficult to say that the colonists had any advantages but they do have some advantages so for one remember that big war that we mentioned at the very beginning of the chapter the french and indian war so remember france and britain are colonial rivals and remember the how's that go the enemy of my enemy is my friend so that's one thing that we have going for us we have france we end up getting an alliance with friends because remember france and britain are rivals and since you know they're the enemy of our enemies so we're friends and so they decide to help the colonists um by providing indirect military support um also another advantage is that remember britain just got out of war and so to engage in another war is not just risky but it's very very expensive um another colonial advantage is that by the time we get to fighting by the time we get to the second continental congress there is more of a sense of nationalism there is more of a sense of a collective identity even though again not everyone supports the cause for independence and so that also makes fighting and communicating very very difficult because not everyone is on your side so you don't really know who to trust um furthermore the british will misjudge colonial support they will assume that more of these colonial americans will support the british and so they really misjudge um colonial support so remember in november 1775 we have done more's proclamation that says uh where he says look if you are um an enslaved person if you fight for the british will give you freedom and so prior to that uh proclamation washington didn't want to accept blacks uh in his army it wasn't really until he sees the effect of this proclamation that he becomes more willing um to accept black recruits so about 5 000 blacks will enlist in state militias and the continental army and navy and as a matter of fact uh rhode island will form its own all-black regiment where they will promise freedom to any slaves who enlist now if you weren't if you were a black man and you fought in the army unless you were in rhode island and you were a part of this all-black regiment um you served in integrated units this is huge because this won't happen again this will not happen again until i want to say vietnam i could be wrong but i want to say that blacks and whites will not serve again in integrated units for at least for about 150 to 200 years okay so the revolutionary war so washington washington has some some defeats his tactic however is that if he can avoid direct confrontations with the british he'll be able to keep his army at least intact so that is uh one of his main strategies is that he yes he has defeats but his goal is to keep his army intact um the turning point really is the battle of saratoga um americans are able to block the british the british end up surrendering that battle on october 17 1777. um after uh the battle of saratoga we get a lot of french support so after the battle of saratoga in 1778 we get the treaty of amity and commerce and this is important you guys again the treaty of amity and commerce and this is incredibly important because it creates a military alliance between france and the united states and so it's really these it's really these imperial rivalries that help to secure an american victory because of this vitriolic nature of or this this relationship i would say that's that's pretty filled with vitriol between great britain and france we are able to win because we're able to secure help from france really so it's these imperial rivalries it's this rivalry between great britain and france that helps to secure an american victory during the um american revolution again the british are continuing to encourage slaves to escape um and join the british army because again it's it's freedom right the british will be able to capture savannah georgia and charleston south carolina in 1780 and a lot of this is probably because of help from enslaved people now in october of 1781 you get this big turning point when general cornwallis has to surrender his army and what this does is that remember britain has the largest army britain is also dealing with a lot of debt and so if you can't keep the morale up for your war you're probably not going to win the war you have people in britain who are complaining because they're having to finance essentially this foreign war so the war eventually ends in october um not sorry not october i'm sorry september 1783 with the treaty of paris so negotiations actually begin in 1782 um but they don't come to an actual treaty agreement until the following year in 1783 so the treaty of paris is put together by benjamin franklin john adams and john jay and with the treaty of paris um americans gain control of the region between canada and florida east of the mississippi river okay so again to my trusted map here the mississippi river is right up and through here so the continental union united states essentially out it about doubles in size because you get all of this uh land area that is not covered by this hand here you end up getting uh control of all of this area right here between again canada and uh florida so all of this right we are winding down oh that is the end see it's so fun that i didn't even realize that it ended so next we're gonna have some questions so stay tuned to these questions and i'll see you guys back in a bit