The Causes of the American Revolution on This Week's Stories & Myths

Learn the causes and effects of the American Revolution. What ironic event of American history took place on July 4th, 1826 - the 50th anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence? All this and more on this week's Stories & Myths with Dr. Craig von Buseck and David von Buseck.
Watch this week's Stories & Myths on the American Revolution
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Transcript
Good evening. Good morning.
Good afternoon. We're so glad
that you could be with us once
again for Stories and Myths. I
am your host Craig von Buseck
and I am happy to be joined
this evening. uh by another co
host and now he didn't put his
last name down below. uh in uh
down below in the in the name
place but by looking at him,
you probably could that. This
is my other son, David von
Buseck and uh I am so happy
that David is able to join me
as co host tonight. Uh first of
all, hello, David. How are you
doing? Great. Doctor von
Buseck, how are you doing
today? Oh, you can just say
dad, that would be just fine as
well. Yeah, that seems better.
Well, good, good. I'm so glad
that you could join with us and
uh John C Farrell who is the
normal co host. had some family
things arise and he was not
able to be with us this week.
He said to say hello to
everyone in the audience. Um uh
but he will hopefully be back
with us next week but that
gives me the opportunity to
introduce another member of the
family uh because as you know,
Erin, your older brother was
the co host last week and uh
but I'm kind of happy that
you're here this week because
uh the subject matter is
something that you and I both
uh enjoy. um and that is uh
we're going to be talking about
the revolutionary war. We want
to say hello to Kelly Williams
Duncan who writes in that. it's
clear that he belongs to you.
Laugh out loud. Um we almost
look like twins. So, except
I've got the gray hair. This is
what I look like in 1989. See
that doesn't track because I
don't have a perm. Well, I
didn't have a perm in my perms
stopped uh in the early 80s.
So, um happily so Well actually
I think no, that's not true. I
had a wave in 88 but that was
the last one. my last wave but
at any rate, we're going to
talk tonight about the
revolutionary war, the American
Revolution but before we do,
tell us a little bit about you
what you're doing and uh and
you uh a keen interest in
history as well. That's right.
Uh right now, I am uh working
for Regent University. I work
as an admissions evaluator just
uh helping students through the
enrollment process uh which is
a really great uh it's a really
great thing to do. I feel like
I'm really helping people along
their way uh getting moved
forward uh but yeah, no, I've
had a uh an interesting history
for as long as I remember uh
now, a lot of that does come
from the musical 1776 and we're
going to talk about tonight.
Exactly. Exactly. Uh and then
also we've been to so many uh
colonial and historic sites
around the country. Uh I
honestly couldn't even count
them if I tried Yes, Uh it has
been uh something that has been
a family I guess you would say
it's one of the things that we
love to do and maybe it's
because I love to do it and you
guys got dragged along but I
think some of that passed down
to you as an interest as well.
Yeah, that's true. I've
definitely been to Colonial
Williamsburg without you so.
Oh, it's like, it's not just
you. It's just uh you planted
that seed there Well, that's
good. So, thinking back over
the years, what were some of
the highlights of the
historical places that we
visited that an impact on you.
Obviously, Colonial
Williamsburg is one Colonial
Williamsburg. Um you know, with
living in Virginia, you also do
uh uh Jamestown, New York town.
Uh definitely the Civil War
battle sites uh are up there uh
especially like Gettysburg just
kind of being up there and
seeing that and just looking
back on like the toll that that
took uh it's just interesting
um and then for a more like
side of things. Uh Colonial
Williamsburg. Uh like I said is
it's like stepping into
history. It's not something
that uh a lot of people who
aren't familiar with it get to
do and so that's uh something
that I really appreciate the
fact that they've preserved it
the way they have and uh even
like uh I believe it was the
governor's mansion that they
had that they found blueprints
and rebuilt it like it had been
destroyed. Exactly. And so it's
not only preserving the old but
it's updating and retaining it.
Uh maintaining like the uh I
guess character educators. is
that the right term that they
use uh uh yeah, the
interpreters uh who uh maintain
those like historical
techniques for like
blacksmithing all the different
things that they craft and
create down there and it's
right they actually do. They
make the things that they're
working on and then they sell
them in the bookstores. Yeah
which I think is awesome. Yeah,
it's fantastic. Yeah. Well,
excellent. Very good. Well, um
you know, you and I both have a
love for uh 1776 and I recently
was a keynote speaker at the
Blue Ridge Christian Writers
Conference and I shared a
little bit of the debate scene
between John Adams and John
Dickinson. Now, do you remember
any of that debate scene? Uh
like specific words of it or uh
not off hand. Uh that's
actually one I've been wanting
to rewatch. How about if I give
you a little snippet? Oh yeah,
go for it because uh I was II
played uh Dickinson as I recall
when I was in ninth grade and
so uh the debate scene is
they're they're debating
whether or not to break free
from Great Britain and declare
their independence. So, uh John
Dickinson opens up by saying,
well sir, You've gotten your
way at last. The matter can now
be discussed. I confess I'm
somewhat relieved. I have a
question that I've been fairly
itching to ask you, sir, why?
And you would answer why What
mister Dickinson? why
Independence Mister Adams? For
the obvious reason, John Adams
answers that Our continued
association with Great Britain
has grown intolerable and
Dickinson. It's tolerable to
whom to you then I suggest you
set your ties immediately but
please be kind enough to leave
the rest of us where we are. We
won't, we won't go into too
much more than that but I love
it. Comes down to the point
where they're almost ready to
come to blows. They do come to
blows. They're hitting each
other with canes by the end of
the scene. Right. Right. Well,
they are almost ready to start
hitting each other with canes
and uh Dickinson says uh now
are these the acts of English
men and John Adams answers? No
sir. Americans, not Englishman
Dickinson. Americans, which
leads us which will transition
from there into our first
question which is So our first
question is going to be, what
was the cause of the American
Revolution? Well, uh there had
been uh decades and decades of
fighting between the French and
the British and the Spanish who
are the three most powerful
empires Portugal was uh lesser
power but still a power at that
time. and so over the years,
they fought for control of the
lands all around the world as
their navies would go out into
the world and so, uh we know
that the Spanish actually were
the first to establish a colony
in North America and the oldest
part of that is still intact in
Florida at Saint Augustine and
then almost around the same
time, ironically, they were
also establishing a uh uh a
fort in a church in New Mexico.
and so the Spanish had the
first foothold and then the
French and the British came in
and each one uh laid claim to a
certain amount of land. Now,
that didn't mean anything other
than that. Uh they were saying
that uh well, you know, we're
going to we're going to claim
this and if if you want to try
and claim it, you're going to
have to fight us for it and uh
we want to just say real quick.
hello. um my sister Aaron's
staff says hi again to the
other Von. So, we say hello to
her. Um so, that's what
happened is that each of these
empires started to stake out
their claim. So, the French
took the interior of what is
now the United States and then
took a large swath of what is
now Canada and the British took
the Eastern Seaboard all the
way down to Florida which
obviously was Spanish and
started to move in there both
in what is now the United
States and also up into what is
now Canada and so that was uh
where everybody kind of stake
their claims. Well, in the
meantime and in the midst of
all of this uh there was where
the Native Americans that were
living on these lands and in
some cases, the European powers
would give give them money or
some sort of a trade for land.
other cases uh they would just
fight for it and they would
take it uh although I know that
English really did try uh to to
be fair in many cases. and also
the French but in the end, uh
the French uh kind of gained
the hearts of the native
Americans and so the British
and the French have been
fighting in Europe uh and that
spilled over into the new
world. uh as they were trying
to establish where the boundary
lines would be and so the
French convinced the Native
American to fight on their
behalf and basically said,
we're going to give you your
land. We're not going to mess
with it like the English have.
So, if you fight with us, you
know, everything will be hunky
dory. So, there was a major war
that we call the French and
Indian war that took place in
the eighth in the um 1750s in
the end. Uh that war actually
spread all over the world. It
was really a World War 200
years before what we had in the
twentieth century. So, in the
eighteenth century, there was
this world war between the
French and the British that
went on for decades and uh the
estimates are that more than a
million people died in those in
those battles over all those
years which is hard to fathom
that back then that many people
could be killed in that kind of
a war but that's what happened.
It ended up costing the British
so much Um it was tremendous uh
cost in lives in materials and
in money but in the end, the
British uh one and the uh
defeated the French and they
pushed the French primarily out
of Canada and took over most of
Canada and then continued with
the colonies on the East Coast
of what is now the United
States. Well, the cost of this
was so exorbitant that it had
emptied the coffers in Great
Britain and so King George who
was a little bit nuts. Um he
was an unbalanced He was highly
intelligent but he was also
highly unbalanced and so he
pushed parliament to levy uh
what we're called uh different
stamp acts upon the colonies
and these were taxes. So, they
would put a stamp on a barrel
of wheat or flour. Uh they
would put a stamp on a barrel
of uh tobacco or whatever it
might be and every time that
that went in or out of a port,
the colon had to pay taxes on
this and to them, these were
very high taxes but they were
willing to pay for it because
they understood that. well,
this gives us protection. We
have protection of the most
powerful empire in the world.
The most powerful army in the
world. It continues trade and
that's a good thing. So, at
first, they kind of put up with
it but the taxes kept getting
more and more. They kept
getting higher and higher and
then what really bothered the
colony here in in America, the
American British columnist was
that they had no representation
to determine what taxes would
be levied upon them All of
those taxes were passed by the
parliament in Great Britain and
so uh these colonists uh they
were told that they were
English citizens but they
didn't have true representative
government. Now, they did have
it on the local and the
colonial level but they didn't
have it on federal level and
that is where they started to
chafe against uh what was
happening and it got worse and
worse uh and unfortunately,
instead of negotiating and try
to trying to find some sort of
a settlement with the most
prosperous colony that England
had by far. I mean, it was so
much bigger than England and it
produces so much more raw
materials. It's almost crazy
that the British allowed what
happened to happen. uh but it I
think a lot of it had to do
with King George and his
erratic behavior and also just
pride. I think that the
parliament said, well, we're
the parliament. You're not.
we're in charge and so we're
going to, you know, pass these
laws and uh they didn't realize
the will of the people of
America because the American
colonists by this point had
been uh on the continent for
150 years more than 150 years
Uh Generations of people having
lived, their families lived
here, their parents, their
grandparents. Exactly. This is
their turf and someone else is
basically just saying, you're
going to pay this. I do kind of
wonder how things may have gone
different if they had uh had
representation. You might be
speaking with a British accent
right now that kind of went
Irish a little bit there.
You're better at the accents
than I am. No, it's uh it is
kind of interesting. Uh II do
wonder if it's like that out of
sight out of mind mentality
that uh the British uh like
actual in England uh people had
that they're like oh yeah no
like it doesn't even come into
their mind how massive America
is because they're just focused
on what they can see and what's
immediately impacting them. I
think that there's a lot of
truth to what you're saying,
David but I also think that
colonialism as a was an
arrogant obnoxious system. Oh
yeah. And you can't come up
with a catchphrase. The sun
never sets on the British
empire. when you're about the
size of New Jersey, I want to
say, what was that? Oh, you
mean the the England? do you
mean? Yeah. Yeah. I don't I
don't know exactly uh what a
comparable thing but it would
be compared to one of our
states in the United States and
it was ruling an empire that
went all the way around the
world like you said, they're
literally under Victoria. It
got to the point where the sun
never on the British empire
which is hard to even fathom
right now. So, in the end, uh
the Americans started to rebel
They started to not pay the
tax. they started to blockade
British military ships uh and
then when the British military
started to move uh in response
especially in Massachusetts and
in Boston specifically uh the
militias started to be raised
all across the Uh to protect
the different areas against the
British and so it was
inevitable that there would be
eventually a clash and so then
the British started to raid
these uh arms depot and the
places where they were keeping
their gunpowder where the uh
malicious were keeping their
gunpowder basically trying to
disarm them and that's why uh
the founding fathers put in a
such a strong second amendment
to protect right of citizens to
bear arms to protect themselves
both personally but also
against a tyrannical government
which is why I am AA strong and
never ending proponent of the
Second Amendment because no
government should be in a place
where it does not have a
healthy fear of their people.
Meaning that they respect the
fact that the people are not
just going to be bold over and
that that's where tyranny
happens when a government has
no respect for its own people
and tyranny takes place and
that's what what was happening
and so in order to battle this,
the Sons of Liberty or the
Patriots, uh there's a reason
why New England named their
football team, the Patriots
because they were naming them
after these patriotic colonials
in Boston who stood up against
the British troops uh in a very
bold way knowing that they
could lose their lives and so
uh one of the major moves was
what was called the Boston Tea
Party uh where people like
Samuel Adams, which was John
Adams. Cousin and um other
Patriots, Paul Revere and and
others. Uh they were they went
on to British ships and they
threw British tea into the uh
into the ocean into the bay and
uh as a protest against the
British. Well, that caused a
clamp down of the British and
the tempers rows and rows until
1 day they uh militia and just
regular came to a screaming
match with a regimen of British
soldiers and the soldiers felt
fearful for their lives and
unfortunately, they opened fire
and killed several of the
colonials and that was called
the Boston massacre and uh
interestingly, uh the person
who defended those troops was
none other than John Adams.
It's an interesting position to
be in someone who believes that
Your country should be
independent but it's also that
dedicated to the law and the
justice that it's like, I
believe that these people were
in the right and defending
people who politically you're
against but morally, you would
not have said he believes
totally that they're in the
right but he believed that they
had the right to a fair trial
and they had a right to have
their uh you know, their cause
brought out in front of uh uh
of a jury of their peers Uh
However, John Adams was greatly
conflicted because he was more
and more seeing that uh
continued association with
Great Britain had grown