Lesson video

Hello, and welcome back to history at the Oak National Academy.

My name is Mr. Arscott, and hopefully, you recognise me because this our fourth lesson into our inquiry on whether the Enlightenment fueled American Revolution.

Meaning did the Enlightenment cause there to be a revolution in America? Now, for today's lesson, you're going to need a piece of paper and you need a pen.

And when you've got those things ready, you're set to go for the lesson.

Now shortly, I'm going to show you today's title, which is about why did war break out between Britain and its 13 colonies? So once that reappears, I want you to pause video, copy that down, and then we're ready to start the lesson.

For the last three lessons, I've been teasing you.

I've talked about revolutions, but so far we've learned nothing about a government being overthrown.

Well, today we're going to get our first taste of revolution.

Over the next three lessons, we're going to try and answer this question, did the Enlightenment, cause a revolution in America? We can see here, in this image, on the left summarising the Enlightenment's interest in new ideas, in gaining new knowledge.

And then you can see on the right, a flag that might look a bit familiar, but also a bit different.

This is a photo of one of the earliest flags of the new country that was created by an 18th century revolution, the United States of America.

How many stars can you see on this version of flag? Pause the video to count them, and then have a think about why? So you'll have noticed, hopefully, there are 13 stars in this flag, symbolising, the 13 colonies, which went on to establish the United States of America or the USA.

Now have a look at this picture here, something very strange is happening.

Pause the video for one minute and jot down a few notes of what you can see.

Now, this strange event, arguably, changed the world.

What we can see is men throwing boxes, boxes off ships.

The people in the docks are cheering and celebrating, why? Well, these ships were carrying tea leaves that could be sold in Boston.

However, beforehand, the British government or British parliament had raised a new tax on the importation of tea to the 13 colonies.

The people of Boston with furious, they had to pay a new tax.

They felt it was unfair that the British parliament was telling colonists what to do and what taxes to pay, but that the colonists could not choose who was elected to the British parliament.

To them, it just seemed very unjust.

Now this strange event has an even stranger name, it's called The Boston Tea Party.

And the event was a rebellion, where tea was destroyed as a protest against British taxes on the 13 colonies.

Now it's actually estimated, that enough tea to make 18 million cups of tea was destroyed on that day.

So, why had The Boston Tea Party happened? By the mid 18th century, Britain had established a fairly large global empire.

You can see the parts of the map, shaded black, and they show the British empire in 1763.

This included some parts of South Asia.

Trying to highlight here.

Some trading ports and posts in West Africa, over here, and also, some islands and areas in the Caribbean where there were more slave plantations.

Now, above that, we can see the 13 colonies, then above that we can see Canada.

So how did Britain manage to get this empire? Well, some parts of it, like the 13 colonies were established by colonists, migrating somewhere new and setting up new communities.

However other colonies, were taken over through war.

A good example of this was Canada.

This was taken over by Britain after a war with France.

Now lots of people in the British parliament liked having a large empire, but fighting wars was expensive.

And some people started wondering, how are they going to pay for defending this new, large global empire? Here we can see a painting of the British parliament in the mid 18th century.

We can all see a painting with the King at the time, George the Third, that was their monarch.

From the mid 18th century, he went on all the way to 1801.

Now, as the 13 colonies were part of the British empire, in Britain, people believed that the British Monarch and British parliament had sovereignty over the 13 colonies.

This meant they believed that they had ultimate control over the American colonies.

However, in the 13 colonies, other people had different ideas.

In general, most colonists felt some loyalty to the British Monarch, but they did not want the British Monarch, George the Third, to tell them how to live their lives.

Instead, each colony had its own local assemblies, these were like mini parliaments, and these mini parliaments would decide on the laws and the taxes in each colony.

You can see two paintings of different colonial assemblies on the right.

Now you might have noticed that all the people in the paintings are men.

Unfortunately in the mid 18th century, in both the 13 colonies and in Britain, only wealthy men could be elected.

Let's pause now to consider a question, do you think ordinary people in American colonies would mind about who had sovereignty over the 13 colonies? Now, on the slide there are four options, and I want you to read them and the reasons carefully and then choose the option you most agree with.

Now, there isn't the wrong answer here.

So just have a read them and think about it.

Pause the video for one minute to read and then make your choice.

So, let's find out if the colonists did mind.

Some colonists really did.

In the late 18th century, the British parliament tried to raise tax money for the 13 colonies.

They tried to find different ways to raise money, but they were all very unpopular with the colonists.

It wasn't just, the colonist did not want to pay more money in taxes, it was also that paying money to a government that the colonists did not choose, seemed unfair.

The British parliament passed different laws to raise the money.

Firstly, the Stamp Act, then the Townsend Act and then the Tea Act.

Each of these, led the process, protests, like the one you can see in the picture on the right.

Have a careful look at it, what can you see? If you look carefully, you might be able to see what looks like someone being hanged.

No, this is not a real person, but it's a model of George the Third.

And it showed quite how unpopular these taxes were, that people were willing to protest showing the hang of the British Monarch.

Now the biggest protest was the one we saw earlier, The Boston Tea Party.

After The Boston Tea Party, the British parliament was furious.

The Prime Minister was a man called Lord North, and he believed that the colonists in America need to be shown that Britain was in charge.

So new laws were passed by the British parliament called The Intolerable Acts.

Now these laws aimed to punish the colony of Massachusetts, where The Boston Tea Party had taken place.

Firstly, the Massachusetts assembly was told it could no longer govern the colony.

Secondly, the port of Boston will be closed.

And thirdly, a large number of British soldiers will be based in Massachusetts.

What do you think the people in the 13 colonies would have felt about this? Well, turns out they were furious, and they said Britain was acting like a tyrant or a despot.

So, like a ruler who rules their kingdom badly.

Now, this image at the time reflects this anger against Britain.

Prime Minister Lord North is shown forcing tea down the throat of a woman, who is meant to represent America.

There are some other government ministers who are forcing her and holding her down.

And you might also notice there's another woman, representing Britain and she's looking away in shame, as if she's frustrated by what her Prime Minister is doing.

Now after The Intolerable Acts were passed, more and more colonists became angry at Britain.

They chanted a new slogan, "No taxation without representation." Now, what they meant was that the unelected British parliament, or at least unelected by Americans, could not force colonists to pay taxes.

It looked like war was likely.

Now the British army was already based in Boston after The Intolerable Acts.

And they went to try to prevent a big war, which they'd lose, as they decided that they're going to confiscate weapons from the colonists.

So take away their guns.

The colonist, however, formed themselves into these unofficial armies called militias.

And the idea was they were going to resist the British.

Now on one particular day, the British army were on a route, in order to try to confiscate some guns held by a militia.

But as they're marching towards the town of Concord and Lexington or the villages of Concord and Lexington, fighting broke out between the British army, who were known as the Redcoats and a colonist militia.

And now, soon as the shots were fired, the revolution had begun.

Now, let's go back to this question from earlier.

Do you think the colonists would mind who had sovereignty over the 13 colonies? It turned out, they did.

The colonists did not want to pay more tax, but they also did not want the British parliament to tell them what to do.

Right, we're now going to have a go at trying to answer some comprehension questions.

Now, like in the last three lessons, when I get to the purple screen, when I'm going to tell you to pause, I'm going to ask you to get to the next page, read through the information and then answer five comprehension questions at the bottom.

Remember, there's some difficult words in there.

There'll be a bold.

And if you're stuck, you can get all the way at the end and you'll find them in the glossary.

Now the best answers will be ones which have, which are written in complete sentences.

Once you've had a go at them, come back this paid unpause the video, and then we'll go through the answers.

So these are the five questions I want you to have a go at answering.

You might already have a bit of an idea, but remember I want you to read the information first.

So firstly, what was The Boston Tea Party? Secondly, what attitude did most colonists have towards the British Monarch? Three, why did the British parliament want to tax the 13 colonies? Four, where were the first battles of the war between Britain and the 13 colonies.

And a very difficult question, question five, why were the colonists so determined to insist on no taxation without representation? So, in that answer, you've got to have to explain what that slogan means.

Okay, so please pause the video now, go to the next page, read the information and then come back.

Unpause the video once you've had to go at answering those questions.

Welcome back.

So question one, what was The Boston Tea Party? An acceptable answer, which is correct, The Boston Tea Party was an event where tea was destroyed.

Now, a good answer, which explains that in a bit more detail, The Boston Tea Party was an event when people in the Massachusetts port of Boston destroyed tea.

They did this as a protest against taxes, put on tea in the 13 colonies.

Now remember, you didn't get exactly those answers, you still might have the correct answer.

Look for common language, and you might still be able to give yourself credit.

Okay, question two.

What attitude you did most colonists have towards the British Monarch in the mid 18th century? An acceptable answer, they saw themselves as loyal to the King.

A good answer, in the mid 18th century, most American colonists would have felt like they were subjects of the British crown, British King or Queen.

So they are likely to have felt loyalty to the monarch.

Question three, why did the British parliament want to tax the 13 colonies? An acceptable answer, to help pay for defending the colonies.

A good answer, the British parliament wanted to tax the 13 colonies because it was costing Britain money to defend its American lands.

So, some people in the British parliament thought it would be fair to collect money from the colonists.

Question four, where were the first battles of the war in Britain and the 13 colonies? An acceptable answer, Lexington and Concord.

A good answer, in a full sentence.

The first battles of the war between Britain and the colonists was fought in two small towns outside Boston, the towns were called Lexington and Concord.

Now you might have put villages rather than towns and that's absolutely fine, these were very small settlements.

And the challenge question, question five.

Why were the Collins so determined to insist on no taxation without representation? So an acceptable answer, the colonists did not want to pay taxes.

A good answer, which explains that in a bit more detail, one reason why they call us insisted on no taxation without representation, was because they did not want to pay extra taxes.

Another key reason, however, is that the colonists felt it was unfair to be attacked by a parliament they did not elect.

As a colonist could not vote for representatives in the British parliament, they believed that parliament should not, and I've actually just lost this bit of writing because it's underneath a banner that appears on my screen.

They should not choose laws of 13 colonies.

Apologies for that bit there.

Right, now, if you had to go to those questions, absolutely brilliant.

Hopefully by going through the answers, you can add a bit of extra information to your answers.

Now, if you're running near out, running out of time, I suggest you stop the video now, move on to the final quiz of the lesson and then carry on with your next lesson of the day.

Well done for your work.

If ever you've got extra time, it's worth having a go at the extension activity.

Now remember the extension activities are these opportunities for you to redevelop your historical thinking through having extended writing.

So our question today is, The Boston Tea Party played a bigger role than Enlightenment ideas in the outbreak of war.

How far do you agree with this statement? Now this is a really challenging kind of historical question, it's a really good one.

You've got a sentence there, and you've got to decide whether you agree or disagree with it.

Now, it's worth thinking really hard about it before you go into answering it.

You want to think about reasons why The Boston Tea Party did play a big role in starting the war between Britain and the 13 colonies.

You also want to think about reasons why the Enlightenment might've caused it, maybe ideas around sovereignty.

But then really, really good answers would have looked at whether those two ideas can be combined.

So what was actually the relationship between Enlightenment ideas and The Boston Tea Party? So there's sentence starters to help structure your thinking.

As always, if you try to using the key word, it's likely you're going to write a much better answer.

So, have a go at writing that now.

When we get the purple screen, pause the video and then afterwards, I'll give you a bit of feedback on the kind of things you might've written.

Pause the video now, please.

Welcome back.

So, the kind of things you might have put in this answer, so The Boston Tea Party played a bigger role than enlightenment ideas, how far do you agree? Well, really you might have agreed.

In The Boston Tea Party, people did not want to pay extra taxes.

And that's a really important motivation for why the revolution started.

Also, it was The Boston Tea Party that caused the Britain, the British government to react in the way that it was so extreme.

So The Boston Tea Party caused the British parliament to pass The Intolerable Acts.

And it was The Intolerable Acts which then led to the outbreak of fighting at Lexington and Concord.

But, you might want to disagree as well.

Enlightened ideas like liberty and natural rights, probably played a big role in these protesting the British in the first place.

They felt that Britain was undermining the natural liberty of Americans by doing things like closing the port or saying the Massachusetts assembly could no longer rule Massachusetts.

And in the background there was disagreement over sovereignty.

One of the key reasons why the Americans said no taxation without representation, is because they did not feel that the British parliament and Britain monarch were sovereign or have sovereignty over the American colonies.

So, if you've put any of those ideas in, that's absolutely brilliant.

It is a very difficult question.

If you had to go, it's definitely moved your historical thinking on.

Right, well done for today's lesson, that was really challenging.

But, hopefully we've got a bit of excitement, 'cause we've now got to offer first revolution.

Now, what we're going to look in the next two, next two lessons is, how this revolution pans out.

What are the consequences of it? And how does it affect, both this new country that's created, the United States of America and Britain, and then the rest of the world.

Right, look forward to seeing next week.

Well done for today's lessons, and look forward to our lesson then.