Tim and Moby video
History
The Tim and Moby video
Stop doing that. Go away. Now, here? All right. Dear Tim and Moby. What was the American Revolution like? From admiralty. The American Revolution was a long and bitter war. The American colonists were outmatched. They had an inexperienced volunteer militia, and they were up against the British, the most powerful military in the world. The first shot of the revolution was fired at Lexington, Massachusetts, on April 19th, 1775. 700 British troops fought against 75 colonial militiamen. The colonists knew the British were coming to Lexington because silversmith Paul Revere and his fellow patriots William dawes and Samuel Prescott warned them in their famous midnight ride.
The British killed 8 colonists, then marched to Concord, Massachusetts. Several units of colonial minutemen were waiting for them. Minutemen were militia fighters who pledged to be ready at a minute's notice. They lived up to their name. Colonist leaders met in the second Continental Congress. They decided to form a Continental Army, led by George Washington. Believe it or not, most colonists still hope for peace with England at this point. But Thomas paine's famous 1776 pamphlet, common sense, convinced many that the only course was independence. In 1776, the Continental Congress wrote the Declaration of Independence. After it was adopted by all 13 colonies, the war with England was final. It was a long fight. General Washington managed to drive the British out of Boston early on. But a tracking recruits to the American cause was tough. The colonial army was poorly equipped and many thought it had no chance against the British.
On Christmas Day, in 1776, Washington led his army across the Delaware river and took British forces by surprise. After this victory, many recruits joined the Continental Army. The battle of Saratoga in New York was a turning point in the war. After the Americans won there, European nations lent support to the colonial cause. Benedict Arnold was an American general who helped win these battles. That's right, he eventually switched sides and became a traitor for England. Anyway, in Europe, Benjamin Franklin won Francis support. And France eventually convinced Spain to help out, too. This was a big help. The British now had to fight many different enemies on both land and sea. But the American army was still short on supplies. In the winter of 1777, a quarter of Washington's troops died at valley forge, Pennsylvania, from cold starvation and disease.
On the ocean, the American officer John Paul Jones won a major naval battle off the coast of England. It was an embarrassing defeat for the British, whose supremacy on the seas was world renowned. And on land, American forces started scoring one victory after another. Earlier on, they had realized that they couldn't defeat the British in traditional warfare, so they became successful with guerrilla warfare. Beep. No, no, gorilla warfare. Instead of meeting the British on a battlefield, they staged small hit and run raids and ambushes. This frustrated a British Army already tired from 5 years of fighting. In 1781, at the battle of Yorktown, Virginia, American and French forces fought against the British in the war's final battle. They defeated the British general, lord cornwallis. Beep. Yeah, without the French military's help, the war might have gone on a lot longer. Beep. Anyway, the Revolutionary War is a huge subject. We could spend ten movies going over all the details and battles. Beep. Hey, where'd you go? Oh, so that's why you wanted me to do this movie now. You know, you could have just waited your turn. Revolution.