American History w/ Richard Vaughan

It’s one of the newest countries in our earth’s existence. It has snowballed into a behemoth at breakneck speed. It’s no secret, in my homeland we are master marketers among other things. Some refer to this popular place as the home of the American Dream or the land of milk and honey, the land of the free, the home of the brave, where freedom rings from sea to shining sea. We’ll learn the ins and outs of American history with Richard Vaughan on this week’s episode of FYI.

Transcript

0:00

it's one of the newest countries in our Earth's existence it has snowballed into a behemoth at Breakneck speed it's no secret in my homeland we are Master marketers among other things some refer to this popular place as the home of the American dream or the land of milk and honey the land of the free the home of the brave where freedom rings from sea to shining sea we'll learn the ins and outs of American history with Richard Vaughn on this week's episode of f y ah welcome to for your info English you got it foreign ladies and gentlemen welcome to another exciting edition of FYI and folks this is the last episode don't worry not ever it's the last episode of season five so thank you thank you thank you to all of you for helping us get through another season we're gonna end the season the same way we started it we started it with Richard Vaughn and we're gonna end it with him here today ladies and Gentlemen please welcome my guest my friend Richard Vaughn foreign it's a lot of fun to be here with you I enjoy I enjoy it yeah I like chatting with you you were on the radio show with us a little bit before and I know from lunches we've had together it's always nice to to have a chat but today we're gonna pick your brain a little bit because it's been a long time since I've been in history class and I could pick my brain my brain is getting a trophy it's getting older and older you need to pick it before it atrophies completely well I'll tell you something I get a lot of questions and honestly I I don't know whether it's just uh I focused all my energy on English learning when I became a teacher but I've forgotten so many things so I figured here we are American history 101 I figure we could call it that and this way we teach you guys Basics the basics the ins and outs we're not going to get into too much detail but we're gonna brush over it a little bit because A lot's happened in 250 years 250 years so we're really American history goes back to 1607. okay well let's start to 1492. let's go let's go back to 1492 this way we go in order because I know myself I get lost 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue and in 1493 Columbus sailed the deep blue sea that was his second voyage of the four see I remembered something there I got that little rhyme right but yeah he crossed expecting to reach the East Indies you know the uh reach Asia but he ran into a con an unknown continent for Europeans and for Asians and that was that started the ball rolling but strangely 11 decades passed before Great Britain or England sent a person across to settle in the new world oh wow so it took I didn't realize the the the time that had passed Jamestown in 1607 was the first British or English colony in the new world okay by that time Spain was already controlling the new world from California to the Patagonia that means since 1492 up to 1607 I mean we're talking of 115 years wow before the bridges and the French didn't cross until 1534 and so which means Spain had an incredible Head Start yeah really but Spain was so busy in Central in South America because of the population Den the Indian population didn't say sure sure whereas the French in Canada in the Mississippi River Valley in the English along the Eastern Seaboard didn't encounter dense populations they encountered settlements Indian tribes but not dense population a settlement is like a poblado or something like this yes yeah but what's interesting is the to understand the American personality why we are the way we are and we're very different from European gung-ho is the word I think of I mean we share together with Europeans we share the Greco-Roman judeo-christian Heritage sure some of the religious elements everything I mean the Christianity has marked Western Civilization sure for the last 2000 years and of course the heritage of Greece and Rome but after that there are a lot of differences and one of the differences is based on geography simply you know there's we have a song which you probably remember from when you were a kid God Bless America land that I love stand beside it and guide it God bless America okay God bless America it's an interesting song simply because I think it is true God blessed America because the United States has advantages geographically right that no other country in the world has yeah the United States has two enormous oceans on either side the biggest right they protect it from I mean Germany has eight shares of border with eight countries oh wow I mean Poland France sure Denmark the Netherlands you gotta be on your toes you never know Poland is separated by Russia and Germany oh yeah and we all know they they're not strategically yeah and China is I think it's 13 countries they share borders with starting with Vietnam and up to North Korea wow you say and then the South China Sea which is disputed whereas the United States has two enormous oceans that protect it and to the north is Arctic really it's Canada our bodies do and and to the South you have a the Mexican North Mexican desert sure you know so really the United States has no neighbors doesn't have neighborly threats and natural buffer zones yeah so to speak yeah second it's located the United States is located in the perfect climate zone oh right it has a semi-tropical area in the South yeah and it has a quite cold area in the north but this the most of the United States is within a temperate zone perfect for agriculture perfect for daily life sure fertile land you don't have the tropics where you feel lethargic you say which is natural lethargy is natural in the tropics sure third it has two mountain ranges one in the west and one in the East wow the Appalachian and the Rockies and the Rockies and then in the middle is some of the most fertile land in the world the Great Plains are we talking about talk about the Prairie the Prairie gotcha you know once you go over the Appalachians and you start into Ohio Indiana Illinois you cross the Mississippi River Iowa and Nebraska you have the richest together with Ukraine it's considered the richest Farmland in the world oh wow it's black soil okay so that's nutrient Rich sure well you see for for 50 million years snow has fallen up to a meter of snow every winter and it melted into the ground sure in the spring and the Indians didn't plow it they were hunter-gatherers they were busy looking for bison sure and buffalo yeah and so then nobody touched the Earth and when Europeans reached that area and tried to plow it they had problems because the the sticky black soil stuck to the plow that's where John Deere became famous he developed a steel plow that could go through that and that's how John Deere became famous one of your first clients my very first person very first as Von systems a shout out to John Deere and so they have this agricultural land but at the same time they have natural navigable Rivers the Missouri River the Ohio the Mississippi the Arkansas River the Red River and these are navigable Rivers the Hudson is navigable way up right up to Canada you can bring Goods sure yeah and you see in Europe except for the Danube in the Rhine yeah you don't really have navigable Rivers true true here in Spain you don't have except from Seville to the coast you don't have navigable Rivers so everything was perfect right to have to have a strong country the stage was set yeah protection the right climate protection by oceans river system for transportation of of goods and very rich agricultural land and then you had people coming in from Europe usually who wanted to escape from Europe and start a new life gotcha so there was a new and the chill the first children born in the United States were not interested in Europe sure that was the Clean Slate yeah yeah you know and that was in so it's for me the America 50 or more of what the way we are as Americans is based on our geography which influenced our history sure move west you know um Pet Shop Boys say go west and we've heard that since we were a kid oh you got to go west that's where the opportunity is even in cartoons we've seen it yeah you know Bugs Bunny packing his bags and going out west yeah so there's always a second chance a third chance of four chance there was always the idea is to find out what's on the other side of the mountain right that's something that you don't find in Europe that same but in the states always what's on the and it was the Donner part or was it no not the dog uh they were the ones Lewis and Clark right Lewis and Clark finally got over that hurdle well they Lewis and Clark this was in 1804. okay uh Thomas Jefferson bought the well the the American government bought from Napoleon Bonaparte the Louisiana Purchase oh yeah what a deal and that is about four times the size of Spain wow and we paid pennies I mean it was Justice four cents per acre oh my God we've gotten some good deals we'll talk about Seward's folly later as well with Alaska yeah all right we've gotten some really good deals to expand our territory and so when suddenly the United States doubled in size in one day wow just imagine that guys Spaniards who are listening right now just imagine Spain being double the size tomorrow Napoleon needed the money to for his adventures in Europe his troops his yeah sure everything and so Thomas Jefferson who was president at the time decided to send an expedition all the way to the Pacific okay it took them a year wow and now it takes six hours they went to St Louis and then went up the Missouri River up into the Rockies Over the Rockies and then finally the Columbia River as you say easier said than done that Rocky part that was Rocky terrain never yeah never said better yeah and so uh and then they came back of course but I think the whole it took over a year in about 10 months to open up the the West well to get back and that was the opening of the West and because but it wasn't until the 18 I think 1846 1847 in which the United States gained California okay because California was its own country like Texas I know there were Texas was its own country California belonged to Mexico oh okay gotcha well originally Spain and then Mexico and the Mexican-American War from 19 1846 to 1848 and set Mexico with bad luck they lose California one year later gold is discovered in California oh that was 49 the 49ers the famous Russia and so you know it wouldn't really matter God Bless America God Bless America the expression isn't God bless Mexico right but Texas gained its independence in 1836. okay about 12 years before this um because the president of Mexico was the famous General Santana Santana sure okay Santana he made a big mistake the area of Mexico which is today Texas was very sparsely populated nobody lived there except priests and like a Border Town of sorts yeah no but I mean this is a big area bigger than Spain oh wow okay again Texas is bigger than Spain and Portugal together wow Texas is bigger than the Iberian Peninsula just to put everything into perspective there yeah and it was even bigger under Mexico what was called the Texas territory yeah yeah I remember seeing it on a map I do know what you're talking about and so so Santana wanted to wanted this area of Texas to be more productive but the Mexicans didn't want to go up there right so he offered to people in the United States but especially the western states of the early colonies which was Kentucky and Tennessee oh wow it only went that far wow that was those were the western states he offered special you know you can have 100 acres for free right as long as you cultivated sure sure and so that was the worst people those people in Kentucky and Tennessee were very independent-minded right people because they were Pioneers sure Frontiers they had gone further the furthest west and so they came down to Texas wow 100 acres free and they brought their wives their children and then they settled but then the Mexican Government was very bureaucratic and very know the Entrada yeah there were strings attached there was a lot of conflict and immediately there was a move from Independence so it was a mistake on the part of the Mexican Government to invite the wrong kind of people right right right right right and so they weren't in Rebels yeah natural Rebels they won Independence in 1836 but they joined the union the United States in 1845. so Texas was an independent republic for nine years and you can tell too because Texans are a special breed is that true they're I mean every state has a different kind it was a special breed there's been so much immigration migration from the north gotcha gotcha people from Ohio Michigan right but uh Texans I always know that they stand alone they have and it's part of that they had their own history inside of our history yeah the Lone Star State the loan absolutely everything's bigger in Texas they say is it say have you ever seen a jackrabbit yeah okay yes yes the ones with the floppy ears yeah yeah yeah yeah they're not floppy they're sticking up and they're big okay yeah I know which one yeah yeah those are from those are Texas yeah okay and you have road runners out in the west and meetings please think of that many of my students here in Spain think that roadrunners exist oh yeah yeah it's true it's true all right so now let's see let's go back a little bit here so we had the forefathers when did they come in because I know I remember in history we always talked about our forefathers the ones who saw that wait a second this is some good let we can do something here we can make our own country well it was basically because the British government made a lot of mistakes in Hell In treat dealing with uh the American colonists because by 1760 1770 1780 Boston Philadelphia New York and other cities were becoming important and there were a lot of very intelligent very capable people but they had no representation in London in the parliament however they had to pay taxes and the British government was taxing them more and more right on Tobacco on T on you know and it was a taxation without representation was that the taxation without representation you can pay us but we're not going to fix your roads yeah for example yeah in today's uh and so that led to a certain degree of animosity that finally boiled to a point in which there was there was conflict with the British garrisons okay especially in Lexington and Concord in Massachusetts I remember hearing about that yeah yeah yeah they were they rose up and that started it in 1775. okay now the Declaration of Independence is in 1776. this is something I wanted to ask you too and I don't know if it's the right moment but I'm getting confused a little bit with Declaration of Independence Bill of Rights and Constitution because I know we have three major documents the uh Declaration of Independence was a two-page document basically it was that was composed by Thomas Jefferson with corrections by Benjamin Franklin and John Adams and it was finished on January 2nd excuse me July 2nd wow wow so that was yeah it was a it was an accident that we celebrate the 4th of July it took you it took you longer to do the translation translation list one and the Declaration right yeah but uh it was it was approved in the Constitutional Congress in uh no constitutional country no the but in Philadelphia it was okay on the fourth of July and so that was the Declaration of Independence and these men put their neck on the line because they would be hanged for sedition or subversible there'd be Traders yeah against the crown George Washington and in his little army with the help of French and Spanish right uh Lafayette all these guys but the Spanish helped in Con in protecting the southern coast of the colony okay yeah so Spaniards helped in the American we owe you guys war of independence and that war ended in 1781. okay uh the final battle with defeating Cornwallis and then from 1781 to 1780 seven they had the Articles of Confederation which was a very loose Constitution with in which the states had too much Independence and power too much power it created conflicts and so they decided to try again in 1787 and that's the Constitutional Congress and that summer they drew up the Constitution so it's incredible you could say our first Constitution failed in air quotes it didn't uh yeah the Articles of Confederation failed yeah yeah I'd see that's something I think a fact a lot of people don't know or over but it was a four or five year question they realized right okay let's go back to the drawing board as we say but it was difficult to get this constitution passed that's why the Federalist Papers which you mentioned earlier John James Madison Alexander Hamilton and John Jay another founding father spent time traveling around the 13 colonies or 13 states right convincing people and it was a close vote like now people would do to vote Republican vote them you know go from door to door but they did it uh and then in 1791 three years later when George Washington was acting was active as a president they realized they needed to add certain rights the unalienable rights no that's that's that was before Alex Jefferson the Declaration of Independence is we hold these truth to be self-evident that all men are created equal and endowed with certain inalium inalienable rights that include life liberty in the pursuit of happiness there you go like I remember that life liberty and the pursuit of happiness it's interesting because he took that from John Locke all right remember yeah an English philosopher but John Locke was life liberty and property ah which to this days yeah it's not a right but it should be maybe and he changed property strangely Jefferson to Pursuit of Happiness and I think it was good we have the right to to go try to try to be happy yeah yeah to do whatever makes you happy and try and make a living doing that because he wanted to separate the United States completely white with Europe right because your own entity nobility yes aristocracy class you had the classes you had surgery before that like clergy too much yeah too much baggage maybe in Europe yes to start with their model so they had to start fresh yeah they'd start a phrase there was not a single Noble in the United States not a single right nobly no no no yeah yeah no Duke no Marquee or no whatever right right you see but in 1787 soon after that right after that they realized they needed to add certain rights that were not included in the basic Constitution like an addendum yeah an addendum we call it the Bill of Rights those were the first 10 amendments it was right away it was one year two years later right they realized we got to get this in there freedom of speech freedom of religion right to bear arms freedom of whatever right assembly well now we talk about that to this day you're First Amendment your second amendment rights sure now for an amendment to pass after the Bill of Rights then amendment number 11 12 13 up to by I think we were up to 31 or something I mean it's that's not many because really they're about 20 amendments yeah 200 counting to ten original in 220 years sure there are only 20 amendments right and one of them was repealed by another oh is that the the prohibition yeah okay yeah that's what I thought yeah you see you can't repeal which means to eliminate an amendment unless you pass another amendment okay sure sure and so there was an amendment passed in 1919 prohibiting the consumption sale distribution and in production of alcohol the mafia celebrated that one wow Kennedy all of them yeah and then in 1933 they had two but to to to pass a new amendment to nullify the previous one the dry laws it was called yeah yeah I didn't know that I didn't know how that worked yeah because we were talking about before we started how the governments are very very different and you can't even consider here what is progress you know it's a very different yeah it's totally scale or it's a presidential system and you're most almost all are Parliamentary systems okay gotcha where you have a prime minister I mean here Pedro Sanchez is not the president of Spain he's a president what they call presidential sure but really what he is is he a Premier Minister Espana okay he's the Prime Minister but in the United States there's a very clear total separation between the executive and the legislative branch right I remember isn't right because he's member of the parliament as well sure because they're the the reason I remember if I remember correctly checks and balances yeah so not one entity one arm of the government could get too powerful well they've introduced that concept over the past 200 years in Europe of checks and balances but it's not as effective as it has historically been in the United States also maybe because we started since the beginning for them it's like changing their whole modus operandi and I mean even in in the very first government of George Washington they made the decision to create a new capital on you know Washington DC yeah because it was Pennsylvania New York was the capital for some it was New York or Philadelphia and they decided to create a new city far from New York Philadelphia and Boston because they wanted the political Center of activity to be physically away from the industrial industry and financial and Commercial because there could be collusion sure sure now with electronic you know communication private jet and you're in in Maryland in five minutes yeah but at that time you needed three days if you wanted to Lobby Washington to affect the government in any way or yeah or influence them and so they created these the Constitution it has worked wonderfully over 250 years for 230 years the Constitution but then there was a problem that finally required a civil war to solve 70 years later after that this was yeah because it's good I'm I'm like I like that you're saying the date because it's you know I'm getting this timeline George Washington became president in 1787. until 1796. okay now already there was a problem because the states in the north were didn't didn't allow for slavery in the states in the South did and this was a a boil that was going to continue growing gotcha with time but the biggest problem between the South and the north was that the north was industrializing they were more and more faculty that's agriculture more where's the Southwest totally almost totally agrarian and the South exported Mo at least maybe half of all of its produce to Europe oh okay and to Great Britain as well whereas the north was competing against Great Britain because the Great Britain was the country that started the Industrial Revolution and they were ahead they had a head start I know they were with jets with a lot of Technology yeah and the north of the United States wanted protection from British goods because Britain had a an advantage sure so they want to be protected from this they had infrastructure in order to grow and to mature and so Washington DC the the central government put up high tariffs okay High tariffs to protect their industry but these high tariffs affected The Agrarian South as well and so Europe said well if you're gonna if we can't sell our manufactured goods to America we're not going to buy the agricultural sure sure and so the South rightfully complained to Washington you can't take our business away and so this this lasted for 30 or 40 years right on the floor of the House of Representatives when you talk about the American Civil War slavery is a critical question but I don't think it's the number one I would say it's number two it's a derivative of yeah and some people even said that Abraham Lincoln was anti-slavery strategically like okay maybe if you asked him as a person he's like well if well it was more of a strategic decision for him yeah well and finally when it was clear that there was no solution then his decision was to protect the union yeah to keep keeping everybody together came together together and that became the priority and that's uh enter the Civil War we got General E Lee and Robert E Lee and Robert E Lee and Ulysses Grant on the other side and Ulysses S Grant well let's do this because we're going to take a quick pause right now and we're gonna come back with the bonus episode and since it's the last episode of season five and since we've got a special guest Richard Vaughn I've decided to make the bonus episode available for everybody so stay tuned and we'll check you guys out in the bonus episode of f y i hey guys oh and how can I forget I'd like to send a shout out to all my patrons all the students who make this possible and the students who are making progress with me every single week a big shout out to all of you especially my super duper students Lena Javier Paco Roberto Jose Maria Mila Alex and don't forget about my Interstellar students the ones who get a monthly private class with me Carmen Isa Paco David and Edgar a big shout out to all of you keep up the great work and a quick reminder to those of you who haven't joined us yet what are you waiting for if you want bonus content PDF documents with all the vocabulary and classes with me then join us over on patreon.com Alberto Alonso okay now we can say goodbye don't forget to join us in the free bonus episode this week thanks again fyiers you rock foreign