Podbit · Empire: World History
A good grade in American school requires you to say the Revolution was about taxes and representation. Ken Burns says you have to add land, because at the heart of it is the fifth global war over the prize of North America — and that prize means Native American land.
Where this was said
At 7:25 · chapter starts 6:44
Anita puts the question directly: independence from empire, or the beginning of one? Burns refuses the either/or framing. [1] — Ken Burns "The Continental Congress didn't call itself the Eastern Seaboard Congress by accident. Washington openly used the word 'empire,' warning ri…" 06:44 The Founders chose the name 'Continental Congress' and 'Continental Army' deliberately — they knew California was out there and they wanted everything between the Atlantic and the Pacific. Washington's anguish during the post-revolutionary collapse of the states is revealing: his phrase 'drowning our rising empire in blood' shows the imperial vision was never hidden. The real cause of the Revolution, Burns insists, must go beyond the textbook answer of taxes and representation — land is the missing variable. The Revolution is the fifth global war over the prize of North America, and that prize is Native American land. And at the same time, a quarter of the population is enslaved while half the population — women — is not enfranchised by the new republic's radical ideas.
The Continental Congress didn't call itself the Eastern Seaboard Congress by accident. Washington openly used the word 'empire,' warning rivals they were 'drowning our rising empire in blood.' From the very beginning, the Founders knew they wanted everything from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
A quarter of the population was enslaved at the time the Founders declared that all men are created equal, exposing the founding hypocrisy.
At least a fifth, possibly a quarter, and in some places a majority of Americans during the Revolution were Loyalists, making it fundamentally a civil war.
Factories that replaced coal engines with electric ones in the early 1900s got only 6% efficiency gains. Those that redesigned their entire factory around electricity got a 3x productivity improvement. Swapping AI tools into your existing structure will give you 6%. Rebuilding around AI will give you 10x.
Lebanese terrorists backed by Iran were holding American hostages throughout the Reagan presidency. Reagan had loudly campaigned against negotiating with terrorists — putting him in an impossible position that his team quietly decided to ignore.
During the Iran-Iraq War, the US openly supplied Iraq with weapons, training, and intelligence. At the same time, Oliver North was secretly funneling missiles to Iran. The US was playing both sides of a shooting war.
Oliver North traveled to Iran under the alias 'William P. Goode' with a fake passport. CIA Director William Casey allegedly gave him cyanide pills so he could kill himself rather than be tortured if captured. He returned safely and the deal moved forward.
The Pentagon sold missiles to the CIA for $3,700 each. The CIA sold them to Richard Secord at cost. Secord sold them to Iranian middleman Ghorbanifar for $10,000 each. Ghorbanifar charged Iran even more. The profit — including $3 million in interest in one Swiss account — was diverted directly to fund the Nicaraguan Contras.
America secretly transferred 2,000 missiles and missile parts to Iran in 8 shipments over more than a year. Only 3 of 7 hostages were released. Three more were taken. The net result was zero freed hostages and a full-blown constitutional scandal.
On October 5, 1986, a CIA Contra supply plane flew a weapons drop at 2,500 feet in broad daylight. A Sandinista soldier shot it down. The only survivor, Eugene Hasenfuss, had borrowed a parachute from his skydiving brother. He was captured, paraded in front of cameras, and told the Sandinistas everything he knew.
The CIA supply operation used a front company called Southern Air Transport, widely known to be a CIA cover. Crew members of the downed plane carried their Southern Air Transport employee IDs in their wallets. One also had a business card directly linking him to Oliver North's office in Washington.
When the scandal broke, Oliver North and his secretary Fawn Hall conducted what became known as a 'shredding party,' destroying a day's worth of documents. The full truth of Iran-Contra may never be known because of what was fed through that shredder.
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