6. US History - The Revolutionary War (1775-1783) — Transcript

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1. 0:00America declares war to Great Britain.
2. 0:02So uh two years after
3. 0:06uh the Boston Tea Party, so that was in
4. 0:0973. Now we're in 1775.
5. 0:13Um the Revolutionary War starts where
6. 0:15the 13 colonies that uh will become
7. 0:18America later on and Great Britain fight
8. 0:20for American independence. Um we don't
9. 0:23really know that much about this war.
10. 0:25Well, we do, but not, for example, what
11. 0:27we don't know is how many uh soldiers
12. 0:29died. Um, what we do know is that the
13. 0:33American troops were led by this man uh
14. 0:37which is General George Washington, who
15. 0:39would also later become the first
16. 0:41president of the country, George
17. 0:42Washington.
18. 0:44Um, this is the flag of uh the 13
19. 0:47colonies. You recognize this here as the
20. 0:50British flag or the Union Jack. Um,
21. 0:54wait. Let me get rid of George
22. 0:56Washington for a second. Um,
23. 1:00this part of the flag
24. 1:04is still there today. Uh, it has 13
25. 1:08stripes
26. 1:10which represent the 13, like you can see
27. 1:12here, the 13 original colonies. Um, when
28. 1:16they got rid of the British, they
29. 1:18changed this flag into this flag. Um the
30. 1:21part that you see here has 50 stars and
31. 1:23that represents the current day 50
32. 1:26states of the United States. Um
33. 1:30even though we don't know how many
34. 1:31soldiers died from um like gunfire or or
35. 1:36war in general, what we do know is that
36. 1:39um a lot more people died and this is
37. 1:43usually the case um during wars in this
38. 1:46time period from disease than ever could
39. 1:49have been killed by gun violence. In
40. 1:51this case, the disease we're talking
41. 1:52about um is called smallpox.
42. 1:58Uh, as you can see, you are not the
43. 2:01first person in history to be
44. 2:03quarantined. I'm sorry that's not funny,
45. 2:05but
46. 2:07I felt like pointing it out because it's
47. 2:09it's so so so relevant at this point for
48. 2:11you. Um, either way, the disease is
49. 2:13called small pox. Um, what are small pox
50. 2:17in Dutch? It's called poco. Um students
51. 2:20have asked me uh when when I was
52. 2:22teaching the series of classes in uh
53. 2:24like at school um whether this was the
54. 2:27same as chickenpox maselin. No it is
55. 2:29absolutely not. Small pox is much worse.
56. 2:31Uh small pox means that you your entire
57. 2:35skin becomes one like blister filled
58. 2:37with pus blood etc. Um and
59. 2:42it causes multiple organ failure. So it
60. 2:44will kill you in about 10 to 12 days. Um
61. 2:49why am I mentioning small pox here uh
62. 2:52when discussing the revolutionary war?
63. 2:54Because smallox kind of decided the
64. 2:56Revolutionary War according to military
65. 2:59historians. Uh General Washington's
66. 3:02decision to um vaccinate his troops for
67. 3:06smallox made much more difference than
68. 3:08any military strategic decision uh or
69. 3:11type of weapon could ever have. So
70. 3:14Washington decided to vaccinate his
71. 3:16troops. the British did not. So
72. 3:18Washington at some point just kind of
73. 3:20had to wait for the British to die for
74. 3:22the disease that they were now immune
75. 3:24against. Um I was kind of interested in
76. 3:30small pox in general um because I felt
77. 3:33like okay so does this still exist? Uh
78. 3:36so I did some research. Um, apparently
79. 3:38this disease has been eradicated um
80. 3:41since the 1980s
81. 3:43uh because worldwide people were
82. 3:45vaccinated up until the late 1970s. So
83. 3:48chances are that your parents were
84. 3:51vaccinated for small pox, your
85. 3:52grandparents were vaccinated for small
86. 3:53pox, but um your generation or mine for
87. 3:57that matter was not. though we have no
88. 4:00immunity for small pox which kind of
89. 4:02seems like a problem um because there
90. 4:05are still little vials um in Dutch poof
91. 4:08bashes so little vials of small pox
92. 4:10around and apparently they are owned by
93. 4:12two countries um
94. 4:16not like I don't know Norway and Denmark
95. 4:18like you would be comfortable with no
96. 4:21they are owned by the US and Russia
97. 4:23which seems like a very very very bad
98. 4:26idea um the US's vials, they have about
99. 4:29450,
100. 4:31um are safely stored in a um level 4 CDC
101. 4:36lab somewhere in Maryland or something.
102. 4:38Um the Russian ones are somewhere in
103. 4:41Siberia. That's kind of all we know. The
104. 4:43World Health Organization has asked both
105. 4:45countries three times to destroy
106. 4:47whatever uh supply of small pox they
107. 4:49have left for very obvious reasons. Uh
108. 4:52however, they have refused three times
109. 4:54now. Um, which again does not make me
110. 4:57feel safe, per se. Um, I also looked up
111. 5:00who were the last people to die from
112. 5:02small pox. Uh, apparently that was in
113. 5:06uh, 1978. A medical photographer went to
114. 5:09a lab facility in England back when
115. 5:12England still had small pox vials. Um,
116. 5:15accidentally dropped one of those vials,
117. 5:17caught the virus, and died. Um, after
118. 5:19that, the head of the lab felt
119. 5:21responsible and killed himself. Um,
120. 5:25and after that there's also a really
121. 5:27weird anecdote from 2004 when two people
122. 5:31found um in like a basement or an attic
123. 5:33somewhere a book on medicine during the
124. 5:37Revolutionary War. Uh, in said book was
125. 5:40an envelope. In said envelope was um
126. 5:44were scabs. So like kches, the thing
127. 5:46that that appears on on a on an open
128. 5:49wound from smallox victims. They opened
129. 5:52the envelope, caught the virus, and
130. 5:54managed somehow to survive. So, I guess
131. 5:57the lesson we could all learn from this
132. 5:58is that you um do not open envelopes in
133. 6:02weird books that are very old about um
134. 6:06contagious diseases in the Revolutionary
135. 6:09War. So, yeah.