Causes and Effects of the Revolutionary War

The shot heard round the world

Causes and Effects of the Revolutionary War was the first installment of the 12th grade War Series trilogy. It was the first to feature 4K quality and is considered a favorite amongst the dudes. The video uses a different format than previous war videos with the focus, as the title describes, being on the various causes and effects that led to and resulted in the conflict. The is divided into separate events starting just after the French and Indian War to show the gradual increase in hostilities between the Colonies and Britain. The effects section of the video also shows a glimpse of The French Revolution, The War of 1812, and The Civil War with the latter being made into a film itself.

## Causes

### The Proclamation of 1763

The video begins setting the stage for dissent in the colonies with the close of the French and Indian war representing this through two redcoats chasing down a French soldier and two Native Americans. The first Native is shot and the French man shoves the other to the ground so that he can escape. This scene serves as a physical representation of the end of the war showing the French being literally chased out of the continent and the Natives defeated. The next section then shows the passing of the Proclamation of 1763 shortly after the War. One of the causes for the war was the wish of the colonists to settle land west of the Ohio River valley which the proclamation now denied in order to appease the Natives as the narrator explains.

The section begins with a colonist attempting to cross into the river valley in order to get to land he had begun to build a homestead on. Two redcoats patrolling the area stop him and ask just what he is doing in these lands. The colonist attempts to explain to the soldiers that his home is in the valley to which the British officer informs him that land is now Indian territory and his home is the opposite direction. In an attempt to protest further the other soldier forcibly pushes him away with the two soldiers remarking about their disdain for the colonials. In the extended edition the camera then focuses on a Native performing a tribal dance in the background with his tomahawk.

The colonist pushed away is unsure what to do but he then suddenly comes up with a clever idea. He places a feather in his hat to display to serve as a Native American disguise in order to pass by the guards. Upon his return the soldiers question him once more to which he say fabricates the name Chief Whitepipe of the Cherocaucasians. The lower ranking redcoat is quite sure that the mans identity is a ruse telling asking if the officer can tell that this is simply the same man as before. The officer appears to almost be insulted that the soldier what suggest such a thing calling him a "daft turd" and stating that no self respecting British colonist would wear a feather. He then allows the man passage into the area wishing him well.

### Taxes and the Sons of Liberty

In order to pay off war time debts incurred during the French and Indian War, the British government decided to tax the American colonists at rates equivalent to those in England since the war started in their continent. To display this in the film an English government official is sitting at a desk pondering all sorts of taxes he could place on the colonists in order to generate revenue. The colonists were outraged with this since they were not treated to the same rights as mainland English citizens and did not even have a say in their taxes. In retaliation to this a group know as the Sons of Liberty formed in Boston to tar feather British traders as well as tax collectors. This can be seen when a mob of 3 Sons of Liberty go to the home of a tax collector tricking him to come outside by stating there was a carriage accident. As he opens the door he is grabbed, thrown to the ground, and beaten by the mob before being dragged to a public square. The men then Tar and Feather\* the official terribly torturing him by tickling him in the nose with a feather while taxes are still being made back in England.

### The Boston Massacre

The Boston Massacre begins when a crowd of angry colonists began harassing British regulars guarding the old town house. The colonists were throwing objects and yelling obscenities at the redcoats causing concern for the soldiers present. One soldier calls for assistance prompting the redcoat officer to come out asking "What the bloody hell is going on here?" when he is then hit by what appears to be a plastic water bottle. This confuses both him and the audience since such a thing did not exist. When hit he is keenly aware of the potential danger of the situation telling his men to hold their fire. Among all the noise from the crowd one soldier mistook this order for "fire" and he shoots towards the crowd. He is then joined by the other British soldier to the officers disapproval. The first man shot was a free black man who worked at the Boston harbor by the name of Crispus Attucks. Upon his death he exclaims, "Me Crispus, has been slain!". The crowd is stunned into silence when another colonists resumes insulting the redcoats annoying the officer prompting him to then shoot the man. The remaining colonists disperse after this with one threatening to "tell". Despite further accentuating the situation the officer seems to not acknowledge this placing the blame on the other soldiers.

### Boston Tea Party

After the Boston Massacre the British were smeared all across colonial press further worsening relations. Britain had also enacted more taxes with the most angering being the Tea Act, something the colonists held dear. In retaliation to this the colonists planned to damage British profits by throwing large amounts of tea into the harbor. In an attempt to hide their identities, the colonists are seen placing feathers in their hats as instructed by "Chief Whitepipe", who appeared earlier in the video. A British guard is shown falling asleep at his post while the colonists raid East India Company ships throwing large amounts of tea into the harbor. After the deed is performed two British soldiers are seen in awe of the destruction caused. While it is quite evident the act was performed by the Son's of Liberty in disguise as said by the lower ranking redcoat, the officer considers the idea ridiculous since all British people would never dare harm tea believing that Mohawk Indians performed the attack. The two then go to search for evidence as to find out specific individuals responsible with the officer soon found out he was wrong and quite possibly, daft.

### Lexington and Concord

By 1775 the colonists had begun militarizing into militias know as *The Minutemen,* individuals who would be ready to fight at a minutes notice as described. Two prominent Sons of Liberty who helped organize this were Samuel Adams and John Hancock who had begun hiding in Concord, a town near Boston, to perform their operations to evade British interference. The minutemen had also begun storing their weapons cache in Concord in case the situation further developed. Upon the British discovering these offenses they decided to act with the orders given to John Pitcairn to lead a British army force of regulars to head to Concord in order to arrest Adams and Hancock as well as seize any Minutemen munitions. The minutemen were however prepared for this as once they heard of the British army preparing to move, they sent several riders in order to inform minutemen leaders to evade the area and prompting others to be prepared to fight.

One such man was the famed Paul Revere who opens up the section riding on his horse yelling "The regulars are coming the regulars are coming!". His horse can easily be mistaken for a man in a cat mask followed by another man banging two cups together to replicate the sound of hooves. Upon reaching Lexington the "horse" removes his mask yelling at the minutemen how the regulars are coming prompting them all to take up some weapons and be prepared to fight the British. Before reaching Concord the British would have to pass through the small town of Lexington which had a heavy minuteman presence. The Lexington minutemen answered the call to arms and formed a line blocking the road halting the British advance. Upon arriving a British lieutenant stands with his men and tells them to halt as he prepares to negotiate with the colonists to disperse. When saying hold your fire once again the British mishear this command and begin firing on the colonists in what is known as "the shot heard round the world". Several colonists are shot dead and others flea to go join their larger force of comrades at Concord.

In the next scene the British reach Concord and when searching for the Minutemen's weapons the officer looks in the tree house cache. He is then heard screaming "BUGGER" as he angrily comes out disappointed that the arms have been taken elsewhere. On the march back to Boston the Minutemen begin their attack taking out British troops from the woods as they march on the road. The British unable to deal with this style of guerrilla warfare take heavy casualties. As shown in the film a small unit of soldiers come under fire and attempt to fight in similar tactics. The officer is displeased with this behavior insisting they form a firing line. As the line is formed with each order he gives one of his men are killed. After firing he examines that his unit has been wiped out, yet he gives the order to march and continues forward. In the extended addition more scenes of combat are shown with an exchange of casualties as the British take heavier losses and the colonists loot their ammunition. Another British squad is shown coming under fire with the officer deciding to pursue the colonists into the woods with the aim to make arrests. The colonists quickly flea and the redcoats attempt to stop this by firing upon them, only grazing a single minuteman. The British took heavy casualties and with the minutemen regrouping and planning to fight another day. After this encounter there was no question about it, a revolution had now begun.

## Effects

### Victory

The effects section begins after American victory in the revolution displaying this by tossing two British soldiers down some steps back across the ocean to Britain. The narrator states how now a new government was formed which uniquely did not have a king, only congress.

### French Revolution

After the success of the American Revolution many French soldiers that helped fight the war returned to France with these new ideas of liberty, equality, and a government run by and for the people. This sentiment combined with a weak monarch lead to the French people starting a revolution of their own in an attempt to first make a constitutional monarchy, and then a full republic. The video picks up with King Louis XVI's execution after he was caught attempting to flea the country. He is then brought back to Paris in order to be executed by the revolutionary's favorite method, guillotine. A crowd of excited French revolutionaries are shown cheering the execution as the king is brought out. The king asks in French "Long live the king please?" to which the revolutionaries give an answer by chopping off his head exclaiming "Vive La France" rigorously celebrating the King's death and the creation of the First French Republic.

### Articles of Confederation

In the next section the focus is back on the Americans as they attempt to create their first constitution, The Articles of Confederation. To representatives say how the document should have no government tyranny and the states should have all the power which was accomplished by forming a very weak federal government with no head, only congress and a high level of independence for the states.

### Constitution and Bill of Rights

It was quite clear that the articles were ineffective as the narrator says that the states had more power than the national government creating disunity in the nation. The national government could not properly function as they had no power to tax, and the states were too independent as they printed their own money which they would not accept in other states, and each state created individual trade agreements with other nations. In order to combat this a stronger national government was created with 3 heads establishing a system of dual sovereignty between federal government and the states in a document know simply as the constitution. While some met this with praise, others feared the potential power this would give the government so as the scene shows a representative demands a guarantee of basic human rights that the government may never infringe on. This develops into the first 10 amendments of the Constitution know as the Bill of Rights to the delegates in the videos delight. The man writing the document says how he hopes that this one may last which it indeed does with the United States Constitution still existing today as the oldest national constitution still in use.

### War of 1812

The War of 1812 is viewed as the second American Revolution as the United States is once again at war with Britain. This was Britain's last attempt to re-seize the colonies and the Americans last attempt to conquer Canada, both failed. The scene displaying this shows two soldiers who are the physical representation of Britain and the United States. The two are fighting with Britain attempting to kill the U.S. with a sword while he defends himself with a musket when America says "Still mad about that tea old man?". Britain enraged says "You ruined everything!" when suddenly a second America in reference to the large nations territory of Louisiana comes and shoots Britain then stating to the audience that the war ended in a draw.

### Civil War

Years later there were some who believed the federal government had too much power and the nation should return to a time of stronger state governments. This belief guided the Southern states government when they seceded from the Union over the issues of slavery to create the Confederate States of America. In the scene a Confederate solider is explaining to the audience how the Confederacy stands to make a union back to the way it was. He is then alarmed as a *Yankee* charges at him, tackling him, and then kills him with a knife. This is to demonstrate the war since the Confederates did indeed not win. The battles of this conflict are later explained more in depth in the video Famous Battles of the Civil War.

### Manifest Destiny

In a scene cut from the original version but is present in the extended addition to Americans explain on the map how an independent United States dramatically expanded changing the maps of the world. The first major expansion as they point out is the Louisiana purchase bought from Napoleon in 1803 for a "good deal". It is not mentioned but Florida is also purchased from the Spanish as the next piece of land pointed out from the men are the Mexican cession states purchased after the Mexican War in 1848. Also at this time as mentioned the Oregon territory's boundaries were negotiated with Canada and slightly more land was purchased from Mexico later in the Gadsden purchase. The territory of Alaska as pointed out was purchased after the Civil War from Russia, Hawaii was seized later, and other territories such as Puerto Rico were taken from Spain after the Spanish American War.

It is here the effects of the American Revolution end there are obviously countless more. Some may even argue, we are still experiencing the effects of the Revolution today.

## Trivia

- The video was filmed on two days in which Jack would load up the boys in his 2007 Honda Odyssey after school to bring them over for shooting.

- It is important to note that actual tar and feathering\* is the process of placing hot tar on a man and then throwing feathers at him that will stick to the tar. The feathers will then be removed taking the victims skin along with it causing much of those tarred to die of infection.

- There exists three versions of the film with the first uploaded being in 4K on Michael's channel simply titled, "Eric's project 4K", a second version in 1080p exists on Jack's channel which was shown to the class and is the most viewed. The final edition was released a year late on Michael's channel with additional scenes that Eric did not use for whatever reason.

- If you examine carefully, Paul Revere's horse is actually Jack wearing a cat mask with Benjamin on his back and Jesse following with two cups to make the hooves noise. The reasoning for this is the guys lacked a horse mask so that was the next best thing.

- The scene where Paul Revere arrives at the minutemen tavern had to be redone endlessly for continuous mistakes in all sorts of ways. In the final take Jack was so fed up he yelled in the Scottish accent that the regulars were coming, a good way to signify out of all the takes this one was the correct.

- The Boston Tea Party scene of throwing boxes into Eric's pool was thought of by Jack when the project was first being planned. The pool being very green was unexpected but and the only boxes available were cardboard Amazon containers.

- Out of the muskets used in the video one is an actual functioning Brown Bess flintlock musket owned by Jack's dad, and two of the prop muskets were also made by his dad in what is now regarded as the greatest prop guns produced since he used actual wood to make them more solid. These muskets were used again in the Civil War with bayonet additions.

- In the Constitutional Convention scene the Confederate flag can be seen placed there to foreshadow the upcoming conflict in the future.

The French and Indian WarProclamation of 1763No you daft turdFetching the Tax CollectorMaking the TaxesTar and Feathering\*The Boston MassacrePaul Revere's "midnight ride"British arrival at LexingtonThe shot heard around the worldThey've taken the arms elsewhereMinutemen attackLine upLooting the redcoatsBoston Tea PartyTaking out the trashFrench RevolutionThe Constitutional ConventionWar of 1812Civil WarManifest Destiny