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Hello, guys! As I told you, this year we have to make a review of the whole contemporary

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history. This is why I have been thinking about recording these videos. This would be

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the only way to study everything and continue working in class. Remember that you have to

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summarize the main information in your notebooks and continue with your tiki-toki timelines.

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Well, in this first video we will talk about the independence of America. So, take your

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notebooks, take a pen and let's start. In the 18th century, the European countries controlled

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most of the Americas, but there were still areas that weren't colonized. South America

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was controlled by Spain and Portugal, while North America was controlled by Britain and

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Spain. The British Empire had established 13 colonies in the eastern coast of North

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America. The inhabitants of these colonies were British, German and French, as well as

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African slaves and Native Americans. Apart from the fact that the governor of each colony

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was elected by the king, those colonies were mainly self-governed and were completely disconnected

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from the British policy. For example, they hadn't representation in the British Parliament,

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so they couldn't participate in the British decisions. However, they paid less taxes than

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people in Britain, and when the Empire needed to raise taxes to pay different wars that

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they had in Europe, the conflicts began. Some of those new taxes were the Stamp Act

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of 1765, which required the colonies to pay a tax on legal documents, and the Tea Act

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of 1773, which gave the British East India Company a monopoly on the sale of tea in the

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colonies and taxed the colonies on other imports, such as paper or glass. By that time,

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the slogan, no taxation without representation, became very popular. The increase of taxes

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provoked different riots, and Britain sent more soldiers to control them. And in 1770,

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people were killed during a riot. This event was called the Boston Massacre. But this is just the

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beginning. In 1773 took place the most significant protest, the Boston Tea Party, when a group of

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colonists dressed up as Native Americans went to the Boston Harbor and threw 342 chests of Indian

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tea into the sea. The British government then decided to punish everyone in Massachusetts,

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and took away power from locals, and closed the port of Boston until the tea was paid. Far away

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from being solved, the problem became bigger and bigger, and the war broke up in the year 1775,

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and lasted until the year 1783. The colonists, who opposed the British government, called

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patriots, formed an army under the command of George Washington. On July the 4th of the year

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1776, the colonists declared their independence from the British Empire. The British Navy then

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invaded and captured New York. The America's militias, with the guerrilla tactics, were unable

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to defeat the British army, and the rest of European countries seized the opportunity for

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revenge. France, Spain, and Holland joined the war against Britain. In 1781, the Spanish army

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defeated the British in Pensacola, Florida, and the French and patriots won in Jordan. Britain

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had inevitably lost the war, and in 1783, the Treaty of Paris established the peace. The first

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republic based on Enlightenment ideas, the United States of America, was born. In the year 1787,

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the first constitution that was written, the American Constitution, established the new state

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as a federal republic, with national sovereignty and separation of powers. And that's all. This

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is a brief summary of the first part of the unit. The next video will be about the French Revolution.

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See you in class. Bye!