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