The Trans-Atlanticist

"(He has) cut off our trade with all parts of the world. (He has) imposed taxes on us without our consent."--Grievances #16 and #17

In this episode, we explore the importance of climate, the environment, and natural disasters in the British Caribbean during the revolutionary period. Topics include the following:

-similarities and differences between the 13 rebellious colonies and the other British Caribbean colonies

-the general approach of studying history through an environmental lens

-the impact of droughts, hurricanes, and earthquakes on early American and British Caribbean history

-the impact of the environment on disease and disease recovery, as seen in the case of George Washington's trip to Barbados, where he contracted small pox

-Alexander Hamilton's famous hurricane experience in August 1772 on the island of St. Croix, which you can access here:

-the 8 hurricanes that struck the British Caribbean and the Continent during the Revolutionary War

-important differences between the wet season and the dry season in the Caribbean and how seasons impacted commercial and military planning

-reactions to the Stamp Act (1765) in the British Caribbean

-the impact of the Continental Association of 1774, which the 13 rebellious created to boycott goods from the British Empire, and the Prohibitory Act of 1775, which was Parliament's counter-blockade

-an assessment of the reasons why the British Caribbean islands chose not to join the American Revolution

The cover image is an engraving by Pieter van der Aa depicting English Quakers with their enslaved population harvesting tobacco on Barbados in the late 1600s before the island turned to sugar production.

"He has waged cruel war against human nature itself, violating its most sacred rights of life and liberty in the persons of a distant people who never offended him, captivating & carrying them into slavery in another hemisphere or to incur miserable death in their transportation thither. This piratical warfare…is the warfare of the Christian King of Great Britain. Determined to keep open a market where Men should be bought & sold, he has prostituted his negative for suppressing every legislative attempt to prohibit or restrain this execrable commerce. And..he is now exciting those very people to rise in arms among us, and to purchase that liberty of which he has deprived them, by murdering the people on whom he has obtruded them…"--the famous deleted passage about the slave trade from the Declaration of Independence

This episode explores plantation economies and slave labor on plantations throughout British North America and the British Caribbean. Topics include the following:

-efforts to curb the slave trade in Virginia in 1769 and 1772

-the difference between colonists' opposition to the slave trade and their acceptance of the institution of slavery

-the origins of the integrated planation model in the Caribbean, specifically Barbados, in the 16th century

-the expansion of the plantation model throughout the Caribbean and the 13 Colonies

-an overview of the tobacco trade which stretched from the Chesapeake to Scotland and to continental Europe

-the debt crisis facing Virginia tobacco planters in the middle of the 18th century

-Jefferson's and Madison's competing visions of the economic future of America

-the constant fear of slave rebellions and differing attitudes about British troops in the sugar islands versus the 13 Colonies

-Dunmore's proclamation (1775), which offered freedom to enslaved people who joined British lines during the Revolutionary War

-debates in the new US about the role slavery should take in the economic future of the country

-the emergence of the cotton industry and the role of the Haitian revolution in providing economic rationale for the continuation of slavery in the US after the Revolutionary War

Prof. Musselwhite's most recent book can be found here:

Urban Dreams, Rural Commonwealth

The cover image, courtesy of the Colonial Williamsburg foundation, is likely from 1750.

In this episode, we explore the links between the Greek War of Independence (1821-1829) and the American War for Independence.

Topics include the following:

-Thomas Jefferson's life-long interest in Ancient Greek philosophy and political thought

-the broad influence of Ancient Greek thinkers on all of the American Founders

-an overview of Greek history, including the Orlov Revolt from 1770-1771

-the state of "Greece" in 1776

-Ottoman control over Greek/Christian communities and the slow realization in the 18th century that as the might of the Ottoman Empire declined there were opportunities to seek independence, particularly with the help of other European Christian powers

-the limited but significant contribution of Greeks in the American Revolution, such as Michel Dragon (Dracos)

-the reintroduction of Classical political ideas as well as the introduction of Enlightenment political theory into Greek territories, particularly by Greeks abroad

-the Greek Enlightenment

-factors leading to the outbreak of the Greek War for Independence in 1821

-conflicts among factions within the Greek patriot movement

-the unfolding challenges of the war, including the deployment of the Egyptian Army to crush the rebellion as well as the eventual acknowledgment of Christian European powers that they should assist the Greek patriots

-the official position of the new United States on Greek Independence, which was non-alignment and non-involvement with European entanglements

-the sympathetic view of the American people, who as private citizens provided money, aid, refuge, and military assistance to the Greek patriots

-the complicated and shifting boundaries and form of the new Greek state and the development of the modern Greek state over the course of the 19th century

Prof. Doumanis' books can be found here:

Myth and Memory in the Mediterranean

A History of Greece

In today's episode we analyze the important political developments in Europe over the past couple of months.

Parliamentary Elections in Sweden

Referendum on Neutrality in Switzerland

State Elections in Sachsen-Anhalt

State Elections in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern

State Elections in Berlin

Chancellor Merz: Should He Stay or Should He Go?

"'All men are created equal. They are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.' This immortal statement was made in the Declaration of Independence of the United States of America in 1776. In a broader sense, this means: All the peoples on the earth are equal from birth, all the peoples have a right to live, to be happy and free." Ho Chi Minh, 2 September 1945

Today we explore the influence of the American Declaration of Independence on Vietnamese Independence, as seen in Ho's explicit references to the American Declaration in his own Declaration.

Topics include the following:

-a brief history of Vietnamese and Confucian history, politics, and culture

-the slow introduction of Western ideas into Vietnam, first via Catholic missionaries in the 1640s

-French imperialism in Vietnam during the 19th and 20th centuries

-contradictions between French political ideals of liberty, equality and fraternity and their imperial subjugation of the Vietnamese people

-the simultaneous emergence of both communist and non-communist independence movements in Vietnam

-the early life of Ho Chi Minh, his travels, and his presence at the founding of the French Communist Party in 1919

-Ho's training in Moscow as a Comintern agent and the founding of the Vietnamese Communist Party in Hong Kong in 1930, with Ho as its leader

-an exploration of the different competing visions of a post-imperial and independent Vietnam

-World War II and the Japanese occupation of Vietnam

-Ho's long absence from Vietnam--from 1911 to 1941--and his return during the Japanese occupation and his founding of the Viet Minh movement for independence

-the entry of the OSS into Vietnam with the goal of allying with anti-Japanese forces, including the Viet Minh

-OSS accounts of Ho's interest in the language and ideas expressed in the US Declaration of Independence

-the events leading to Ho Chi Minh's Vietnamese Declaration of Independence Speech on 2 September 1945

Prof. Zinoman's books can be found here:

The Colonial Bastille, A History of Imprisonment in Vietnam, 1862-1940

Vietnamese Colonial Republican, The Political Vision of Vu Trong Phung

Ho Chi Minh's Declaration of Vietnamese Independence

The cover image features a 1945 photo of Ho Chi Minh with members of the OSS, the precursor to the CIA.

"Wir halten diese Wahrheiten für ausgemacht, daß alle Menschen gleich erschaffen worden, daß sie von ihrem Schöpfer mit gewissen unveräusserlichen Rechten begabt worden, worunter sind Leben, Freiheit und das Streben nach Glückseligkeit."

-from one of the first German translations of the Declaration of Independence, Philadelphia, July 1776

In this episode, we explore the role of Germanic immigrants in the American Revolution. Topics include:

-the first reports and publications of the Declaration in German by Philadelphia printers, such as Heinrich Miller

-German literacy and German-language print-culture in the Colonies

-push factors influencing emigration our of Germanic territories, including economic, agricultural, political, and religious problems

-the different ways in which the interests of German immigrants and those of British-American colonists overlapped

-the different positions German immigrants took regarding the War for Independence

-the role of German pacifism and German religious sects in the conflict

Hopeful Journeys: German Immigration, Settlement, and Political Culture in Colonial America, 1717-1775

"A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people."

In this episode, we explore the Boston Tea Party, the global tea industry, British-American perceptions of tyrannical governments in Asia, and the Declaration of Independence.

Topics include the following:

-the connotations of the word "tyranny" in the Colonies

-the presumption in the Britain and the Colonies that "freedom" only meant being Protestant and living in a constitutional monarchy

-the East India Company, the tea trade, the cotton trade, and the Mughal Empire

-Colonial American consumer culture and the origins of ethical consumption movements

-the 7 Years' War, the Battle of Plassey (1757), and the conquest of Bengal by the East India Company

-the East India Company's role in the famine in Bengal in the late 1760s, which led to the deaths of millions of people there

-the Tea Act of 1773, which was an effort by the British government to generate revenue after the decline in income from the East India Company due to the famine

-the Boston Tea Party and the British reaction in the form of the Intolerable Acts

-reasons for Americans' long-standing distrust of giant, unaccountable corporations like the East India Company

Selling Empire: India in the Making of Britain and America, 1600-1830

The cover image depicts The Destruction of Tea at Boston Harbor, an 1846 lithograph by Nathaniel Currier.

"I would be prepared to accept the status of independence for Cyprus on the condition that this status shall not be changed, either by union with Greece, by partition, or by any other way, unless the United Nations approves such a change." Archbishop Makarios, September 1958

In this episode, we explore connections between the American struggle for independence from Britain in 1776 and the Cypriot struggle for independence from Britain nearly 200 years later.

Here is a list of key terms, organizations, and people:

ENOSIS: the union of Cyprus with Greece

Archbishop Makarios: Leader of the enosis movement and first president of Cyprus

Topics include:

-a brief history of modern Cyprus from 1776, during Ottoman rule (1570-1878), through British rule (1878-1960)

-the changing governance models in Cyprus and the evolving legal status of Cypriots while under British rule

-the re-introduction by the British of democratic practices, constitutional rule, and a liberal legal system into Cyprus

-the impact of the Great Depression on Cyprus

-the impact of WWII, the Greek Civil War, and the Cold War on Cyprus

Prof. Varnava's books can be found here:

Assassination in Colonial Cyprus in 1934 and the Origins of EOKA

British Cyprus and the Long Great War, 1914-1925: Empire, Loyalties and Democratic Deficit

Serving the Empire in the Great War: The Cypriot Mule Corps, Imperial Loyalty and Silenced Memory

British Imperialism in Cyprus, 1878-1915: The Inconsequential Possession

The cover image depicts the British military hoisting the Union Jack in Nicosia, Cyprus, on 12 July 1878.

"At this very time, they are permitting their chief magistrate to send over not only soldiers of our common blood, but SCOTCH and foreign Mercenaries to invade and deluge us in blood." -From Jefferson's first draft of the Declaration of Independence

In this episode, we survey the history and importance of Scotland and Scottish people in Revolutionary America.

Topics include:

-anti-Scottish sentiment in the Colonies, particularly among Southern planters, like Jefferson, who were indebted to Scottish tobacco traders

-the origins of the "Pursuit of Happiness" in the Scottish Enlightenment

-explanations of Scots and the Scotch-Irish

-push and pull factors driving Scots and the Scotch-Irish to the Colonies

-the Jacobite Uprising in 1745 in Scotland and its consequences for Scotland and the 13 Colonies

-the revolutionary continuity among the various British upheavals of the 1600s and 1700s along with the American Revolution

-the Scottish tobacco trade

-the reception of the Declaration in Scotland

-wider implications of the Declaration on Scottish politics

-The connection or lack of connection between the Scottish Declaration of Arbroath in 1320 and the US Declaration

Prof. Francis Cogliano's books can be found here:

Revolutionary America, 1763.1815: A Political History

The American Revolution at 250

The cover image features one of the Scottish Founders, John Witherspoon. Witherspoon was born in East Lothian, Scotland, in 1723. In 1768, he emigrated to New Jersey to become the President of the College of New Jersey (now Princeton). A staunch republican and Presbyterian, he believed that resisting tyranny was the duty of Christians. He signed the Declaration of Independence on behalf of the citizens of New Jersey in 1776.

“The Mexican Nation, which for three hundred years has not had its own will, nor the free use of its voice, rises today from the oppression in which it has lived… [The Mexican Nation] solemnly declares, through its Supreme Junta of the Empire, that it is a Sovereign Nation and independent from old Spain, with which, in the future, it will not maintain another union but that of a close friendship, in the terms prescribed by international treaties…”

-Declaration of Independence of the Mexican Empire (1821)

In today's episode, we explore the actual and perceived influence of the American Revolution on Spanish American revolutions.

Topics include:

-the debate over the influence of the American Revolution on subsequent Latin American independence movements

-the history of New Spain (aka Mexico)

-an exploration of the Age of Revolutions in Latin America, beginning with Venezuela in July 1811

-critiques of the claim that the US Declaration of Independence acted as a model for Latin American declarations of independence

-the very different cultural, political, economic, and religious contexts that influenced American and Latin American

-differences in British and Spanish forms of imperial governance, which led to different outcomes for the self-rule of the new United States and the new Latin American nations

-the fact the representative institutions, local assemblies, and democratic cultures did not exist in the Spanish Empire--and were therefore difficult to create after the Latin American independence movements

-a unique aspect of the Mexican insurgency as opposed to the American revolt, namely that the Mexican leaders were conservative Catholic priests, Miguel Hidalgo and Jose Maria Morelos

-the impact of the new liberal Spanish Constitution, the Constitution of Cadiz of 1812, on Spanish America

-the story of Agustin de Iturbide, or Agustin 1, the first emperor of Mexico

-a reconsideration the claim that the American Revolution was influential in Spanish America

The cover image depicts the Congress of Chilpancingo, which issued Mexico's first semi-official Declaration of Independence in 1813.