forum Any history buffs?

Started May 12, 2020 by @SupernaturalSyGuyIsTIred group

tune

Ok, I'm back at this rate it will take ten years to finish up this list but hopefully not.
The French and Indian War (Seven Years War): 1756-1763: This is a Map to look at just for reference https://i.pinimg.com/originals/b3/eb/a6/b3eba6e6359c92fddeea43b5c90707cf.jpg

Terminology/ just some other stuff: So the main over view if you were to watch like a 2 minute animation of this war it would be. French have valley, British colonizer want valley, British colonizer fail in getting valley, British government decide help and fail until dude called Pitt or something uses Big brain and starts winning. Also on the side French are like hmm maybe attack mainland Britain from sea which is big dumb because British have big ship very power. French lose most land in America, lots of land go to Spain, the end. Random I know why the heck would they give it to Spain, all will be explained in a moment. So in the beginning when say British I just mean the colonies I'll tell you when the actual British government comes in so after that happens, When ever I say British just assume I'm talking about a combination of both colonizer peeps and British forces unless otherwise specified. Same goes for the term French but with the Natives. Also did you know there were some, not many, but some Native tribes that sided with the British, was it a big dumb move, yes, but you know some lies are very convincing. Also I will be including the names of tribes and organizations of Native American's that I have gotten from some sources that I believe to be credible but remember to take that with a grain of salt as we don't have a good history of recording anything about the Native Americans and I out of habit am distrustful of any information recorded about them by white people in the 18th century.

Before the war: So in a moment you are going to read the set up to the war but really the set up to the war is like three other wars, King William's war, Queen Anne's war, and King George's war. Basically it;s just the English and the French winning and losing territory to each other until it looks like it does before the 7 years war. that's pretty much all you need to know. Also like before I got into this I forgot to mention like anything really beofre 1753, but before that there were some pretty bloody conflicts, like this one time when the french killed every English speaking person in the upper Ohio valley in 1752. So when I say things were tense, they were tense.

Set up: So it's the 1700's ish, France has claimed a good chunk of North America see map above for reference, and they are getting some good money out of it, this is when France became that super wealthy Icon of wealth and fashion Louis XIV built Versailles into the Icon it is today, so very wealthy. They were buddies with the Native American's, see Britain was doing the Britain thing and being an absolute monster to the native people, so France said, Look if You trap animals and trade firs and share your land with us, we will keep those pesky English from hurting and invading you and we wont kill you so win win right. The other relevant bit of information is The British and the French really wanted this place called the Ohio valley and neither one of them could agree who had it. Ok now we're getting into the actual war so, les go.

Beginnings, but not actually war: It began with skirmishes, The Native Americans were already pretty upset at the British, Now Quick note, Native American's were nothing to scoff at, with or with out guns they were a force to be feared, They could do some serious damage when they wanted to. That's a really big misconception I've seen people have about the Natives, they were not helpless, but they were at a disadvantage, if the colonizers hadn't brought sicknesses with them They would have had a much harder time fighting the Natives. Back to the War, British really want this Ohio river Valley and the french are like, no that's ours so, The french built a lot of forts and the British did to because they all really wanted this chunk of land. The French built forts all along lake Erie, you know the lake that has really bad toxic algal blooms these days, that's the one, well before The Government was ignoring the damage done by polluted run off, the French government was building forts all the way down to the fork in the Ohio river, where present day Pittsburgh is one of those forts is Fort Le Boeuf. Now there's an issue with this because Virginia already claimed that land and was like French boi's what ya'll be doing. that brings us to the next segment where we talk about The Pride of Mount Vernon, George Washington! Sorry I couldn't resist the reference, if you know you know.

Washington get's promoted: So it's late 1753, This Virginian governor dude, Robert Dinwiddie, told Major Washington to take a small force of men to Fort Le Boeuf, and just ask the french to scoot out of there. Washington and his boi's get there and the French treat them really nicely, they're like respectfully No, this isn't English land, it's French land. Washington high tails it out of there, and get's back to Governor dude in 1754, I know seems like a long time later, it's not it was just a bad timing with the whole year change. Dinwiddie talks to the rest of the government peeps and they all decide that the French denying the English claims to the land is a hostile act and could easily escalate. So he sends out Captain William Trent to build Forts along the Ohio river and make friends with the Natives there turning them against the French. Meanwhile he Makes Washington a Lieutenant Colonel and orders another exposition to get the French to give up their forts.

Native American Alliances: So we have one big group here that I believe are called The Mingoes who are a part of a larger group called the Iroquois Confederation. For those of you who are unaware, A confederation is like a group of city states, countries, or in this case Tribes, that have a very loose alliance, saying, if you're in trouble we might come help if we feel like being nice but we don't have to, also we can trade I guess if you want, these work meh on a small scale and fail entirely on a large scale. The Iroquois Confederation was allied with Great Britain technically, But the Native Americans in the Upper Ohio valley were not to keen on helping out the British when they came asking them to fight against the french with them. So while a few tribes respected the alliance with Great Britain a quite a few of them chose to aid the French because they knew that Britain had a history and would probably come take their land. Now the French were by no means saints they had plenty of reasons to hate the French but of the two French was a safer bet in their minds. So the ones that chose to side with the french leaked information about the British to the French and decided to aid them in battle. It's through them that the French learned about this Fort that William Trent was building. Oh the Iroquois have a leader, his name is Tanaghrisson, he's kinda important.

Some Battles, Some forts: So the French hear about this fort that William is building and they say, pfft, no, so on April 17, 1754 the French come in and just destroy this thing, they chase off and murder the dudes working on the fort, rip apart the one they were working on and build the much shinier much more French, Fort Duquesne. Remember that Fort, it's important. Back to our Boi Washington, he's with Tanaghrisson, and they come upon these french soldiers and of course, these are men so they decide to fight first ask questions later. and after defeating these french people they find out that they were actually there to do exactly what Washington was sent to do earlier, tell the English that they needed to back off of French territory. So the leader of these French guy's dies, it's disputed on how he dies, and Washington is pretty freaked out because he attacked a peaceful group of french so he builds a fort really quickly because he suspects the French are going to come after him, Kinda funny, they named it Fort Necessity because, it was, you know necessary, I just can't with these names sometimes. The French build a fort that basically means Oak, and oak tree's are seen as really strong, and Washington freaks out and calls is Necessity, ah, how these guy's keep winning I genuinely don't know. any way. Washington's suspicions are correct the french do come after him and Washington eventually surrenders on July 3rd. The battle is called Battle of Fort Necessity or Battle of the Great Meadows, either one works. This one battle is the jumping off point for the entire war. If I am not mistaken this is the battle referenced In Hamilton, the Musical, when Washington tells Hamilton that he lead his men into massacre. It was a defining moment for our Favorite Virginian General.

Here come the big guns! War is declared: Governor Dinwiddie hears that Washington has been defeated and calls for aid, And who should respond but the British Prime Minister Thomas Pelham-Holles, He say's you are right, I love fighting the French, let's send General Edward Braddock with some men to squish the french, nice and quiet get this over with. The King said go for it, and the plan was approved. However Other Political leaders In Britain understood the opportunity they had here, if they could fight a full out war with the French they had an opportunity to gain a lot of the land from them and kick them out of the America's. So They made the plans given Edward Braddock public , they gave him more men too , made a whole special of it. But by making the plans public they prepped the French. So the French, as in official french government not the french in America, heard that Britain was sending over troupes so they sent over troupes. to America to battle the British that were being sent to America. The year is 1755, and so It Begins Lads, and so It begins.

Britain ain't doing so hot: Now let's talk about Bigot Boy the British sent over, General Edward Braddock got over to America and completely disregarded potential Native American allies and the colonies did not want to work with him they just ignored him, I like to think he was this pompous jerk. So he isn't super successful at anything, He attempts to take Fort Duquesne, get's wounded and dies on July 13, 1755. The British are losing forts every year pretty much in 1756 its Fort Oswego, in 1757 Fort William Henry is lost as well, there was a big attempt to take a French fort called Louisbourg in 1758, later that year they lost another battle against the french. English folk who lived in the Area were leaving their homes and moving back east to get away from the conflict because the French were dominating in this war and it just wasn't safe to be English. The only real success made by the British was Fort Beauséjour, it was a very strategical place for sure but the people who lived surrounding the area refused to respect the British as they were decedents Of the French who used to live on the east coast, they do have a Name, I am blanking, it starts with an A, Acadians. They were also giving supplies to the remaining French forces in the area, so they had to go. There's a poem about it called Evangeline but it's really long so I only read the first bit.

William Pitt A true MVP: The British aren't doing well, so The Man of the hour, or war in this case, William Pitt comes into control of the British war effort, At this point the war has spread pretty much all over the world, it is every where. basically the actual first world war but we wont get into that. Pitt takes a look at this mess and decides that they should really focus on winning in North America. Now this is just Relsey using logic here but what I think Pitt's logic was, The French economy is heavily reliant on their territory in North America, take North America you take away a huge portion of Income for France, War is really expensive so it wont take long for France to crumble if they get them out of North America, That is not facts, I do not know if that's what Pitt was thinking but it's what I think would have been good logic. So Pitt goes to the government and secures some cash, we are talking a lot of money here, then he finds some brilliant military minds, and then he talks to the Colonies and tells them, If you fight for us, we will pay you. Who knew that all it took to get the Colonies to fight was money. So Pitt's plan starts to pay off in North America in July, 1758 when the British take Louisburg, Now I don't know if you've ever watched a Football game where a team has been loosing all season and then wins their first game in ages, but I have and the effect is amazing to watch. The same thing happened here, the British win this battle and they are fueled by new strength, now that they have the colonies teaching them how to fight in this terrain they are a force to be feared. They took Fort Frontenac right after this. In September they took Fort Duquesne, tore it down and built fort Pitt in it's place. They marched on and took Quebec in September of 1759. Britain isn't just winning in North America, they are fighting Navy Battles all over and just crushing the French who are really not doing to hot right now, they're economy is trashed they're going into so much debt and poverty. England is just destroying them taking victories all over Canada.

Negotiations and The Treaty of Paris: So the French could see that they were losing and they tried to negotiate with the British but Minister William Pitt, oh did I forget to mention that Pitt became Minister, yeah he really did that, I think it's the same guy. Any way, Pitt doesn't just want Canada, the dude is asking for all sorts of concessions and France just ain't down for that. So Spanish King Charles III was like, Yo, cousin King Louis XV, I see you be having some troubles, so here's what we gon do. We are gong to sign this Family Compact on August 15, 1761, and If Britain hasn't ended the war by 1762 we'll join you. This was Honestly a Pro gamer move done by the Spanish, though it was not intended to be, I will explain in a moment. So in some High school Drama style miscommunication, The French got this treaty and were like, let's continue the war, let's do do it if Spain is helping us we got this, let's just go kick some British booty. But the Spanish's intent was to just intimidate Britain into ending the war, they never intended to actually fight, they just thought, hey Britain can't possibly want to fight both of is so they'll settle for just Canada. So In the most hilarious turn of event's this alliance did nothing for the French. So on January 4, 1762 Britain had to declare war on Spain too, so they went on to gain the French Caribbean Islands, Cuba, and the Philippines . So in 1763 Face and Spain decided to negotiate a peace treaty because now they were both losing stuff to the absolute Power that is Britain. So in 1763 The Treaty of Paris was signed and Britain got Canada, Louisiana, and Florida, France lost almost everything they had in North America, And Spain got a whole bunch of land. Now why you may ask did Spain get this land. Both france and Britain were so confident in their military powers that they thought, meh we can give it to Spain we'll just fight them later if we want it, it'll be easy.

This concludes the French and Indian war, or the Seven years war as it pertains to North America. I was researching for the whole war and it just got to convoluted and i tried but could not make it make any sense so you get the just America version because that the only part of the war that the western world cares about. I apologize for any typos, please fact check me because that's what responsible people do and you never know maybe I was wrong in something, I hope not but maybe. Next up is the American Revolution so, be ready for that.

I forgot to include the impacts of this war so.
Impacts of the French Indian War: So first you have the visual impact obviously, the map is changed a lot. France lost a lot of Power and not only Power but stability. The Life styles of the Upper class in France was opulent and already exceeding their income but losing the funds and resources that came from Colonies in North America was a huge blow to the economy. The poverty that ensues and the Noble classes ignorance of it is one of the things that lead to the French revolution which ruined France for years. I wish one of the topic's you wanted was the French Revolution because it is intriguing, I don't think enough time is spent on it in world History, at least not on the right aspects of it, off topic, sorry. It also increased Frances hate for the British, which influenced their choices in the Revolutionary war.
The war also impacted the Britain, Britain became known as this unbeatable super power because of this war, their Navy was top notch, their military well trained and feared. Nationalism is at a high point, Winning a war does things to the mind of a country, mainly make them stupidly proud I mean have you seen America, ahem, off topic again.
The Colonies Gained their military leaders from this war, George Washington being the most notable, the people were getting paid a lot of money to fight for Britain so a lot of them did, they got their training from this war.

Ok now I'm done, on to the Revolution.

And back at it again, I am avoiding my Econ homework because it's boring
American Revolution: 1775-1783
I'm splitting this into two parts because it's really long there were around 30 battles in the Revolutionary war, that is a lot to cover. We're going to go from the beginning of unrest to the Battle of Bunker hill in this part and continue in Part two.

Background: The story you've heard over and over again is that Britain was taxing the colonies and they got ticked and started fighting back french came and helped , probably something about the shot heard round the world something about crossing the Delaware and the Battle of Yorktown. Well the start of the war was a bit more complicated than a tax on tea. Britain didn't really pay much attention to their colonies before the 7 years war, the colonies were already taxed, they were colonies their purpose was to be ports essentially, the colonies gained resources and they would ship them back to England. Britain had this kind of a relationship with Ireland for years and years, but we're not talking about Irish history because apparently I'm the only one who finds it interesting. Any way Britain didn't do a good job of checking on in their teenager so The Colonies had way more resources and supplies then they were letting on. Britain came over to help with the French and Indian war and found out that this teen was keeping some secrets like having a bunch of resources they weren't sharing, They weren't thrilled. After the War Britain was low on funds as War is the most expensive thing a country can do, then why did it fix the great depression you may ask, we'll get there in a couple hundred years. So they said, Look we helped you win this war with out of us you would have been crushed by the French so just be good colonies and pay some taxes, America wasn't to happy about that. Not only this but the British struck a deal with the remaining native Americans, the deal set up the The Proclamation Line Along the Appalachian Mountains. This was a boundary that kept the colonies from expanding westward into that juicy new land that Britain just won from the French. America isn't happy when you tell it that they can't do something, they really are the teenager of countries.Now their recent Land gains were final in the eyes of the European world but not so much in the eye;s of the Native Americans so Britain decided to keep an army in the colonies, again, teenager, America doesn't really like Authority figures breathing down their neck. So let's go into a bit more detail shall we.

Taxes : After the war Britain tried to tax a few different things and the Colonies were not having it, to them it didn't make sense, Britain wasn't sharing the land that they had both fought to gain and now they wanted to be payed for coming and saving their necks, how dare. The main three we like to talk about is The Stamp act (1765) The Townshend acts (1767) and The Tea Act (1773.
The Stamp act was a basic direct tax on all Paper goods, Something along the lines of you needed an official stamp to sell your paper goods and the stamp was taxed and that's why it's called the stamp act, I think, the details are a bit fuzzy. The People rioted like crazy the whole No taxation without representation thing was born and people clung to it. Britain lifted the Tax in 1766 but at the same time passed another law saying they had the right to tax America and pass any laws over the colonies it wanted to.
The Townshend acts were four of five different acts, it's disputed whether The Vice Admiralty Court Act counts. The failure of the Stamp act made Britain realize that the colonies were a little further out of control than they at first realized. the first act passed was The New York Restraining Act, which basically said that New York couldn't pass any more legislation or laws until they respected the Quartering act of 1765, The quartering act forced Colonists to house and provide for British soldiers, it's why we have the third Amendment. Technically this act never really passed New York gave in before it was necessary. Next we have The Revenue Act 1767 which put a tax on glass, paper, lead, and Tea which people were not super happy about, instead of directly collecting this tax they worked through local officials to try to gain their loyalty, obviously it didn't work out well. The Indemnity Act (1767) and the The Commissioners of Customs Act (1767) Go together and were designed to stop smuggling and increase the profits of the British East India Company. The commissioners of Customs act increased security on the docs and increased regulations making it harder to smuggle in the Dutch tea that was previously much cheaper than the East India's tee. The Indemnity Act reduced the cost of the East India tea company, I;m nit super clear on this one because it overlaps with the tea act. Remember this it's important in a moment. Next and last we have The Vice Admiralty Court Act 1768 made it easier to punish smugglers, also remember this, America was made up of a lot of smugglers their market was made up of smuggled goods because they had to trade directly with Britain or smuggle it in. Britain slowly got rid of these because of heavy protest the Boston Masseur was actually over these laws which I will cover in a moment.
On to the most famous the Tea Act (1773), The tea act made it so the the East Indea company had less taxes to pay and mad that the only legal provider of tea to the colonies. This made it that it's tea was now cheaper than the smugglers tea and that made the smugglers upset, and the people were pretty ticked about everything. that's the rundown of the first bit of laws that made the colonies upset, and caused quite a few skirmishes , lets get into those.

Skirmishes and whispers of war: The Townshend Acts really ticked people off and their were riots over them fequently but the one you'll care about and that got the most attention was the Boston Massacre in 1770, A mod of American people was getting a little violent so British Guards opened Fire on them, Please note the colonists attacked first, the British guards were acting in self defense. Those who wanted to separate from Britain romanticized and dramatized the event , using it as an event to rally behind.
When the Tea Act came into play people were ticked, Remember like 80% of the Tea market at that point was made up of smuggled goods, Making the East India tea companies tea cheaper than 80% of the existing market is a big deal and a good way to make every one of that 80% really mad. So we have a group their called The Son's of Liberty, dramatic right, and they decide to do something about it so at night the go and dump a huge ship full of tea into the ocean, it might have been three ships my notes don't say but three sounds right. 342 chests of tea, that's years worth of tea my dudes, literal years, decades even. We call this the Boston Tea Party (1773), Also the Son's of Liberty dressed up like Native Americans, they fooled no one, and I don't believe they meant to, it was more to protect the individuals Identities. The Boston tea Party was sending a message to the British government, The colonies weren't going to back down.
In response to the Boston tea Party a series of laws were passed called the Coercive Acts, or Intolerable Acts, they were designed to punish Massachusetts and send a message to everyone else. This Closed the Boston Harbor aka. the income to the majority of the city and state, and places Massachusetts under Direct rule, basically they replaces the government officials with nice loyal British people. It sent a message just not the one Britain wanted. This was the breaking point the colonists said, heck no, and formed the Continental Congress from leaders in the 13 colonies. Guess what that means, it's 1774, one year to go lads, then we have a full revolution on our hands.
So now we are seeing a bit of a split in the people because some people say, look The Motherland may be treating us badly but like they're still the Motherland, so we just want to be treated right but like we still love Mom. And every one else is full of that teenager angst, No Mother can't be forgiven, we must be estranged from her forever, We don't need her, like ew who needs parents anyway. But less be real, most people were on the Eww Britian side and those who were't were either killed by mobs or converted. A good example of the two sides would be the two documents that inspired the song Farmer refuted from Hamilton. "Free thoughts on the continental congress" and "The Farmer refuted" I have read both and they are scathing. Loyalists were actually arrested for being loyal to the British at the start of the war.

"The shot heard round the world" : So the Continental congress forms and begins planning their move, they begin storing weapons and supplies, British find out about this and their like heck no. General Thomas Gage is in charge of the British troops in Boston at this time. He was ordered to capture two dudes that are a big deal to the Americans Sam Adams and John Hancock. These two were like Power Bro's, starting the Sons of Liberty working really hard to get these darn British out of America so on and so forth. If you're for the revolution you love them, if you're against it you hate their guts, but you know them no matter what side you're on. So Gage get's info that these guys are around Lexington, and around the same time he finds out the the Colonists are stockpiling Weapons gun powder and other ammunition in Concord. The towns are only about 5 miles apart so Gage thinks you know what We'll just send 1,000 troops to go get these guys and deal with that storehouse at the same time. He sends them out from the city in the middle of the night so he can surprise the Rebels and avoid any real fighting. However the Colonists figured Gage might try something like that so they sent out Two riders not just one, William Dawes and Paul Revere, Poor William never get's any credit. One to Lexington and the other to concord, to warn that their are British troupes on the way.
The Colonists get the news and begin moving as much of the weaponry out of the area. They know their Minutemen (That's what the Colonists were called before an official army was formed, the Colonists are Minute men right now) Can't beat 1,000 men if it came to a direct fight surrounding the warehouse. SO they just start getting it out of there. Mean while The British make it to Lexington early in the morning and are met with several dozen Minutemen. Someone shoots and so it begins. 8 Minutemen are killed and a handful more are injured. So the British figure out that this is a no go so they march on to Concord and destroy what the Colonist hadn't managed to get out which wasn't much. And then they march back to Boston but the entire way back there are Minute men shooting them from every where, behind trees and fences and houses. In the end the British ended up losing triple the amount of men in this battle and the War had begun.

Consequences of Lexington and Concord: So while no one actually knows who fired first the Patriots (Americans) Got their version of the story out first and so they get people to support them by the dozens. The Continental congress meets again to think about what their going to do, they meet and decide that everyone is going to help out Massachusetts with their British infestation, but at this point they still don't agree on what the goal of the fighting is, some of them want independence while others just wanted to talk things out and rearrange their agreement with Britain but remain under their rule. There is one thing they agree about one thing at this point, they need an Organized continental army, and there's only one man who can give them the command, who can rise up, Sorry Hamilton lyrics, It's George Washington. Washington accepts command of the Continental Army on June 16 1775, and he's feeling pretty optimistic, his men are a bunch of untrained idiots who's only skill is pulling a trigger but you know they can learn. He loses this attitude very quickly however when he actually takes control but that's not until after…

Battle Of Bunker hill set up: So let's check in on the army, we left them alone for a few months, and oh, would you look at that, By June 15,000 or more Colonist gathers around the Boston area enthusiastic, untrained but with a lot of spirit. Their goal was to stop the 5,000 troupes that Gage had in the city from going out and creating any more Lexington and Concord situations, maybe even drive them out of Boston entirely. So Boston has two main week points where any Artillery could just destroy the city. The Colonists really don't want the British to gain these two points because they have the resources to destroy the city from those points. The One we care about are two hills right next to each other, Bunker hill and Breeds hill. Now the Colonists hear that Gage is planing to go occupy this hill so they decide to act. It is time for me to introduce you to Col. William Prescott, He was in charge of the 1,000 man force sent to get this area before the British could. This man just for some reason decided to build on Breed's hill, aka the hill that is shorter and harder to defend. He was supposed to build on Bunker hill but no the poor baby. So they build a dirt fort June 16, and are discovered June 17 on the morning. They manage to add to their fortifications while under Cannon fire. But things changed when Gage sent 2,300 Men out to chase them out lead by Maj. Gen. William Howe with Brig. Gen. Robert Pigot second in command, again this is 1,000 men against 2,300 yikes.

Bunker Hill main event: The British split into two groups one lead by Howe the other by Pigot. Pigot and his men attack from the South east, or directly where the Colonists are set up, Howy marches North to get around the walls built by the Colonists and slip behind their defenses. I'm linking you to a map to better understand what the plan was. https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-jWYDzhIUFx8/YBCxaGTbYDI/AAAAAAAAL84/_0dgjtpee8syDAH1AQbFT3WpLyfw22qdQCK8BGAsYHg/s0/img389.jp . Howe was stopped in his plan to head north pretty quickly by the Colonists who after hearing the British had landed waited behind a fence that they stuffed with grass and such to hide and than fired when the British got very very close, note that this is going to become a trend in Colonist fighting style. Pigot was also stopped by heavy fire at first but managed to break through the defenses on the second or third attempt. The Surviving Colonists behind the defenses fled as they were low on ammunition and most of them didn't have bayonets. Their retreat was covered by the group of men behind the fence who covered them until they two fled the battle field. Percentile wise the British and Colonists lost around the same about of men but remember there were only 1,000 colonists. the British lost 1,054 Men including nearly 80 officers, the Colonists lost 450 men. Now this was technically a British victory but it ended up being a hallow one as they failed to occupy that other week point, called Dorchester Heights, which Washington takes possession of later but that's not until later.