The United States of America is 250 years old – but how did it become a country in the first place?
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It’s a story which begins with Spain sending Christopher Columbus to find a new route to Asia in 1492, and ends with a war between Britain and its own colonies in North America, who declare independence in 1776. This is America’s origin story.
00:00 How did the United States become a country?
00:31 How Columbus initiated a wave of European colonisation
01:12 Why Britain colonised North America
01:41 How the English settled in Jamestown, Britain’s first American colony, in 1607
02:16 The impact of colonisation on Native Americans
02:45 The role of the African slave trade in the American colonies
03:33 How British colonies expanded in America
04:23 The impact of Britain’s war against France
05:12 How tensions grew between Britain and the colonies
05:53 The origin of the American Revolution: The role of Boston’s protests and the Tea Party
06:30 George Washington and the start of the war against Britain
07:12 The first call for Independence: Thomas Paine’s pamphlet “Common Sense”
07:52 What happened on 4 July: the Declaration of Independence
08:13 Why the Declaration of Independence didn’t end the war with Britain
09:02 How George Washington led the American army to victory against Britain
09:58 How the Americans wrote the first Constitution and elected George Washington as President.
10:21 How the events of the revolution still shape the United States of America
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