The Super Summary of World History - Alan Dale Daniel [301]
[86] Self-made meaning they had earned their money themselves and did not inherit it. Many in England enjoyed wealth by inheritance, and they also enjoyed power and position by inheritance. In the New World, they didn’t like people showing up acting as if they deserved something because of their birth. The New World expected people to earn their money and position, and not inherit it from an ancient ancestor. Many men in Parliament were there because of an inheritance of one kind or another.
[87] This name, the Intolerable Acts, came from the American propagandist. The Adams cousins were especially good at this kind of thing.
[88] December 16, 1773. A group of men dressed like Indians boarded an English ship loaded with tea and threw the cargo overboard. This was a protest against English taxes on tea. Americans then began drinking coffee as a replacement for tea (tax avoidance) and never stopped. When you drink coffee, you are drinking to tax avoidance and revolution.
[89] p. 720, The New Penguin History of the World, Roberts, J., 2007, Penguin books.
[90] The “shot heard round the world.” Note that the British troops, who wore bright red coats, were called the Red Coats the world over.
[91] A musket is a long gun with no grooves in the barrel to spin the projectile. A rifle has grooves in the barrel to spin the projectile (a ball of lead in this case), and it makes the projectile more accurate over a longer distance. A musket had a hard time hitting something the size of a man at one hundred yards; a rifle could do that easily, and in experienced hands could hit such a target at two hundred yards or more.
[92] It was actually Breeds Hill, but who cares at this point.
[93] 1776, David McCullough, 2006, Simon and Schuster
[94] In fact, the world was still in the so-called Little Ice Age.
[95] p. 148 et seq Great Rivals in History, When Politics Gets Personal, Cummins, J, 2008, Metro Books. The chapter is entitled “Benedict Arnold and Horatio Gates, A Clash for Control.” And the title says it all.
[96] It would seem that after two hundred plus years calling someone a “Benedict Arnold” wouldn’t be such a mighty insult, but it is. Arnold now has the recognition he craved, but recognition of the wrong kind.
[97] The Articles of Confederation were adopted by the Continental Congress in 1777, and were used throughout the Revolutionary War. They were used after the war (1782) until the adoption of the Constitution in 1789.
[98] And later said in the Tenth Amendment that any power not specifically named in the document was given to the states, or the people.
[99] Two hundred plus years now, just a blink in time from a historical perspective.
[100] Two states had unicameral legislatures, meaning they had only one house, and that house was elected by population.
[101] Note this is nearly 100 years before the American Revolution, showing the idea of fundamental rights was already an established part of the English thought process. Also, this document establishes individual rights against the government. The Greek ideal of the individual being above the state lived on.
[102] An attempt to build monasteries in nearly inaccessible places and live apart from the world
[103] Bibles of the day were written in Latin which only the priests could read. The Catholic Church wanted biblical interpretation in the hands of the church alone, because they feared a fragmentation of Christianity if everyone could read and interpret the scriptures. They were right. Note the bibles were printed. The printing press had a major impact on the Protestant Reformation.
[104] The pope was under the power of the first wife’s nephew, Emperor Charles V. Charles had sacked Rome and held the pope as a virtual prisoner. The first wife was Catherine of Aragon, next was Ann Boleyn, then Jane Seymour, Ann of Cleves, Katherine Howard, and, finally, Catherine Parr.