Signals and i will return to the podium. And i learned i had an incredible video and interesting video which we were panning the globe and you will not see those tonight. This tavern dates to 1719 and they didnt have powerpoint in 1719 so we will see stills which i hope keep your attention. We are going to talk about 1776 and this was a trying year for the revolutionaries in the 13 call olon colonys. The success was shortlived at the time. An invasion in canada ended disastrous because of the small pox that crossed the continent. They were chased south through new jersey and just missed destroying it for good and ending the revolutionary cause. Washington had 7,000 troops against 32,000 british troops. On christmas, we turned back into new jersey and crossed the delawa Delaware River and they converged on trinton, new jersey the next morning. After a brief incident, the army captured the entire regimine. You know the story already. You learned it in school. I bet most of you have read the wonderful account of 1776 which is a pageturner. You have probably seen this iconic painting done by loyd in the 1850s. This is a story we know and it has been told many times. I want to explore the other parts of the continent in 1776. Most of us are familiar with the revolution war on the eastern sea board but not else where. I grew in San Francisco. 2500 miles from boston. San francisco didnt exist when the battle was met at lexington in april 1775. In june 1776, a week before the declaration of independence the Mission District was built where all of the apple workers live now. As a child i was ignorant of the early history of the Pacific Coast. I attended a summer music camp on the Russian River north of the city. I puzzled over the name. Was this had Rushing Water as in fast moving or the evil empire we were fighting in the 1970s and 1980s . It brought up images of big eyebrows and some you might remember. The russians had nothing to do with california as far as i was concerned. It seemed implausible for a second reason and that is although it sounded like adults said russian as in russia and not rushing it made sense the drop the final g in rushing. This was a jobs camp and i modeled byself after miles davis i was a trumpet player. Lps work and steam and relaxing and cooking and here you see the classic album cover for workin. The Russian River passes by fort ross the southern most russian outpost in north america that was established in 1812. When i was eight and the b bicentinial rolled around and i was going to get a chance to eat of piece of the birthday character. Reading through the record i found a different account of festivals. My memory didnt project on the size of the cake. It was three tiered and you will not believe it until you see it. Three tiered, six sided and 30 feet high and that is not including the phoenix you might be able to make out at the very top. This phoenix is an extra five feet symbolizing San Francisco rising from the ashes of the 1906 earthquake. It weighed 20 tons. So you can see why this would make a deep impression on the mind of an 8yearold boy. This never crossed the continent and its 18 panels didnt illustrate the revolution. It was made to celebrate San Franciscos own birthday and remembered events from the citys history beginning with drakes discovery of the way and the arrival of the spanish and russians. So San Franciscos history was at odds with the narrative of the country so i turned into an a tribute to the east coast in philadelphia and boston. It suggests i didnt pay enough attention in school at the same. But it is symptomatic of another problem. We are not familiar with the history beyond the 13 colony that formed the United States. It is high time to head west. Forming events were occurring all across the continent not just the eastern seaboard. We are going to start here and this was one of the animation videos i was describing. We are above the sin river in paris. 30,000 feet high here. Diplomats from france, britain and spain signed the 1763 treaty of paris ending the seven years war. I think if i click once more yeah, this is the location where they signed this treaty. Among the numerous stipulations was one that divided north america down the Mississippi River. Western half to france and eastern half to britain and france took their claim to the western half of the continent to spain. So the continent was de divided and britain having the eastern half and Spain Holding title the the entire western half. You can see the line here, i believe. So this little flag is paris. Maybe you can make out this faint red line. That is the mississippi. And this the border. What i like about this illustration is you get a sense of how remote paris is from the mississippi and far more remote in the 18th century than today. It suggests the diplomats were working with ignorance and knew nothing about the terrain or the people that lived there. George iii confused the Mississippi River with the gangis. And he was right, there were indians on the banks of both rivers. This new International Border dividing the country had all kinds of problems. The british thought making a clear line down the middle of this enormous river that the border would in the words of one minister for stall all disputes. So we are not going to be able to see this. I have a massive paragraph. You have seen closeups of the Mississippi River and how serpentine it is today. It was more like this in the 18th century. This is after the army core of engineers tried to straighten. It was a complete mess. And mark twain observed the river plays havoc with boundary lines and jurisdiction. It is terrible way to divide the continent in half. The claims of european monarchs to vast north american domains were absurd. Britain said there were no more rights to the continent than he had to the empire of china. To the residents there are real consequences that unfolded in the 1770s. The fortunes of native people along the Mississippi River rose and fell as a result of Land Transfers negotiated by people in far away paris. West of the revolution, and this is a book that is officially being published on monday but it is available now in the back of the room. In this book, i describe how this line flooded the canadian prairies with traders greedy for beaver furs. Britain had title to this vast part of the continent they were not able to work in until now. It was flooded with traders in search of beaver. Beaver were what were called eco systems engineers. And that is because the rodents create, destroy and modify habitat. One ecololist made the point that the changes on the earth brought by beaver surpassed those brought by humans. Entire valley floors have been raised by their activity. If you overhunt and exterminate as happened in the 1770s entire forces are transformed in ways that are revolutionary. I describe this transformation in the book. I explore in the book how the border enriched the osage indians who built an empire south of the Missouri River based largely on trade across the mississippi. This was truly an empire as Thomas Jefferson observed in 180 had 1804. He said they are the great nation along the missouri. Along with the sioux we must stand well because without them we are weak. I described how the line pushed the creak and musogee indians were pushed out. The creaks who lived in presentday georgia and alabama sailed to havana and had a forward looking proposal asking the captain general to bring about trade and they would n navigate the coast and havana and pay back the captain general and supply cubas slavery population with beef and salted fish and they had that in pl plenty. I have a chair key friend who laughs saying they were not sea people so how would they operate . But it never happened. They were prevailing with the large largest slave paopulation in th world. Lets talk about the discovery of the black hills. The people that discovered that use this word in this winter count. They kept records of history with their winter calendars. It is a series of marks marking the time. This is kept by American Horse and he wrote this down in the 1880s at the request of an American Army officer. At later days, he went back and started with the most recent years, marking the years and when he got back to year the beginning of the history at least, 17751776. This is when washington captured boston, tom pane wrote his book, and when standing hill discovered the black hills. Britain you recall was in possession of a new swath of the continent on paper at least. Present day pittsburgh to fort detroit they began to keep local indians like subordants. They carried victory wherever they advanced their standards and driven the army of the french and native before them. So they were convinced britain ought to have their way the indians. Indians concluded they were being treated like dogs. They used this word over and over again. They joined in 1763 to fix this. The commander of british forces, stationed a few blocks in the battery, struggled to understand events in ohio county. This man was never further west than new york and he is trying to figure out what is going on in ohio country. He had this disdain and contempt for americans whether they were native or moved here from britain, he detested them. When one army officer suggested using dogs to hunt down the v m verman and he met native people he advised the blankets invested with smallpox might be a better avenue. Well the war dragged on for several years and disrupted trade networks across ohio country well in the 1770s and left many native people kept from european manufactures like textiles, firearms, kettles and the like. So one solution was to redouble efforts to reconnect with atlantic trade and some did this. There was a dakota leader. Of the three sio sioux tribes t were the eastern most and they went to montreal and met for a state dinner and this was to reconnect with atlantic trade networks. There was a second solution and this was pursued by the western most of the three sioux divisions. So they turned away from atlantic trade and began to move west. They were living in western minnesota. We associate them with the black hills but they migrated there in the 18th century. Over the course they began moving westward into the grass land, east of the Missouri River, crossed the Missouri River and west of the Missouri River encountered huge bison herds that extended for hundreds of miles. There were many push and pull factors involved in the great migration but one very important factor certainly was the unreliability of the atlantic trade first with the seven year war and the treaty in 1763 that disru disrupted the trade in the 1770s. In 17751776 they reached or discovered the black hills. This is a map of rain fall in the great plains and the darker areas here receive more rain fall and the lighter areas receive less. You can see this obvious pattern. As you move west there is less rain. Rain is directly correlated with short grass production which is in turn correlated with bison. The more rain, the more short grass and more bison. Too far east you will get the tall grass and the bison dont like those. So if you look for bison in the 18th century look at this oasis and white ranchers recognized this in the 18th century. They said there is more gold on the roots on up. Forget about the gold we are mining in the black hills this forage is valuable and it was valuable to them. It is no wonder they called the black hills their meat pack. There were lots of bison here. Later the black hills became sake sacred. The first place on the worlds surface and the point which they emerged. In 1876, the United States took control of the black hills. In the early 20th century, the tribe sued and they were eventually successful in 1980 they were awarded by the Supreme Court 102 million for the theft of the black hills. But this sits untouched to this day in an interest bearing account and it is worth well over a billion dollars but standing bulls defendants will not touch it. This is a legacy of 1776 which is still with us today. Well here is this massive photograph i had described to you earlier and you can see how se serpintine and this is where the Arkansas River enters the mississippi and where you can see how serpantine it is. It isnt a clear borded and not a good way to divide the continent in half. We will zoom out from the Mississippi River now. We are going to move further west back. We could use map because we are hovering over the Pacific Ocean now. We left north america. You can see the alaskan islands in the northeastern part of the globe and on the western side you see syberia and then you see a lake there you can find on google earth. Today it is on the border of russia and mongolia and there is little there. There is crumbling monuments but they have probably been torn down now. Very little there. It is remote. It is dusty. But in the 18th century this was an important place. By the terms of a 1727 treaty, trade between the russian and chinese empires had to pass through this tiny little town. And china had an appetite for furs met first with high valuable sable and they made their way to the eastern coast and crossed over the baring straight and discovered the illusion islands. They found sea otters there as well. These beautiful animals you see here. They referred to these animals as soft gold because their pelts were so valuable and in demand by the royalty in the Chinese Court. They have the densest furs over any animal. Two times that of a seal fur and 18 times that of your pet dog. By cohearsing the people, they slaughtered the beautiful animals by the tens of thousands and shipped them across the Pacific Ocean to the eastern edge of siberia and went up the river to the lake and eventually took them to warehouses, sold them to traders and brought them to Chinese Court and they would eventually line the chinese royalty. You can see this one trade network. Here are the elusions and here are the husks and the yen see river and lake mccall. But amazingly this trade wasnt sufficient to meet chinese demands. So there was a separate, now world, american trade network starting 3,000 miles east that covered beaver furs across the atlantic. Starting here in the prairies and the forest of canada. They would hunt these animals, sell them to british traders who brought them to montreal or new york and packed in ships and brought to london. At its peek 30,000 of the furs were repacked and exported to Saint Petersburg and put on sleds and carried across siberia and in the warehouse with the sea otter. And this amazes me every time i describe it. It is an asstounding example of the trait. It led them up the peninsula to alaska and i think that is the largest of the islands they reached in the 1770s. The russian presence set off alarm bills in the european capital. They had a very murky understanding of what the pacific looked like in the 18th century. So lets see. There we are. This is a map originally dating to 1758 but this was printed in the 1784. This was about the best intelligence europeans had to work with in the 1780s. It is possible the Russian Court i mean certainly they knew better than this. But these geographic secrets were guarded and held close. In spain and england this is what they had to work it. This was the map he had with him to figure out where he was going. It is comically bad. Cook, who is reserved if you read through this journals, this is one moment in thousands and thousands of pages are lost, he said this map, whoever made it is useless. Look at this thing. They didnt know what alaska looked like, they knew were there lots of islands but where were they no one knew. They knew the russians were in alaska but did it threaten them . And rumors started flooding into the spanish court. A number were pinned by the irish extraction man but born and raised in barcelona and was spains ambassador to russia, stationed in st. Petersburg and he had a wonderful imagination and he would send back reports saying catherine the great was standing with an admiral and pointed to alaska saying we are going to conquer north america. We are going to cross into alaska and conquer north america. We sent other reports that the russian fleed would round the cape of good hope in africa, across the pacific and take spanish possessions that way. And he said there was a possibility he would work down the west coast of north america and reach one of the many great rivers that starts in the southwest like new mexico or northern mexico and discharges its waters into the Pacific Ocean. You know this great river . No, because they dont exist. But the spanish didnt know that. Unfortunately for spanish officials, their anxiety was lined up with their ignorance. Someone wrote in saying he had spotted strangers in baha, california. This gives you a sense of the fear and anxiety. As i decribe in west of the revolution an uncommon history of 1776 the Pacific Coast was transformed in the 1770s. It was important they made it part of their land. In 1769, the spanish built a mission and fort on the san diego river. They burned down the mission, bludgeoned to death a missionary and killed every spanish people. But the war was a lost cost. The spanish spent the next year arresting and torturing suspects. Another remarkable figure was a young man and he was the first person baptized in Mission San Diego and was given the name diego. He was accused of using his influence on the other side. He was tortured but never confessed his role. The franciscan missionary wrote in the letter diego was a faithful and special favor of mine but turned trader in the revolution. Diego was too sick to walk and died in september and was buried in the church cemetery. He was 25 years old at the time. This is step one in this transformation of the pacific. A few year later, spanish explorers stumbled across a great river that fed into the San Francisco bay. And they concluded it probably had its head waters in new mexico. They were badly mistaken. But it was enough to prompt the spanish colonization of the San Francisco bay. So they had tents and a portable alter not far from the center of San Francisco. The impact on the residents was t tremendous. They needed to borrow words to describe this. Drunken, fever, work, rifle, and soldiers. This is an illustration of San Francisco from 1816. You can see the Golden Gate Bridge would be right here. This gives a sense of how the world was transformed. You see a number of native people being marched off to work in the fields under the eye of a mounted spanish soldier. The impact on local residents was tremendous. And it set off a demographic issue that wiped out the closest villages first and destroying those further away. Spain had to supply its new post. Monteray, San Francisco, san diego and eventually los angeles. One option was to sail up the coast but it put them against winds and currant and they lost his battle sometimes. People on the ship would spend weeks heading up and unable to enter the bay against the prevailing winds and they will give up and slip all the way back to baha, company. So the solution was to blaze a trail from santafe and traverse rugged highlands of the Colorado Plateau and cross the basin and scale the Sierra Nevadas and finally reach their destination on the Pacific Coast. The problem was not a single one of these features appeared on their map and no european had v ever set foot in this area. These are the precursors to lewis and clark. They didnt reach their intendnd destination but undertook this 1500 mile journey leaving in july of 1776 and arrived in s santefe about six months later at the end of 1776. One of the people on the expidation was a this man who made this stunning map that is bursting with information and illustrations. So it is a work of art but it contains serious errors that caused problems for generation. There were two large rivers that led from utah one drained the Great Salt Lake and led all the way to the Pacific Coast. These were the rivers colonist were looking for generation. Going up and entering the red river and Arkansas River and head west and could get into the head waters of these regions and get to the Pacific Coast and facilitate the eastwest trade. Eventually we build the panama canal for this but in the 18th century they were desperately looking for a passage way. Here were the rivers on the map. They were copied by americans in the days and appear up to the 18 40s. When the first wagon train set out in 1841 they were told to bring tools to make canoes. Lets go to the sea otter trade that set off this great Chain Reaction that transformed the west coast. Hunting sea otters demanded skill and tools and russian residents didnt either. So the help of the people was indispensable. Most of this is called a kayak. They had skills and technology that allowed them to hunt down sea otters in the treacherous waters. This is one of many examples i could give you. But it has a bow that is split, allows it to move much faster through waters than it otherwise would. They developed this innovation and were the first do to it. You find the same thing on container ships today. That bulbous area that sticks out at sea level. This is an innovation from them. Russian traders seized hostages and destroyed their towns when necessary. I follow the story of a russian trader ivan who was known for his brutality and there was a story he lined them up in a row and shot the first one to see how many bodies the bullet would pass through. They returned a month after the American Revolution started and they had only partially conquered the group and the innovation from the outsiders made it almost impossible for them to remain there. Captain crook arrived and observed that russian traders deannounced the americans as savage and sad fellows for defending themselves and preserving their native freed. And he could not resist a jibe. By this you will see efforts for liberty are not confined totally to the east side of the continent. Okay. Let me just spend a couple seconds reflecting briefly on america west of the revolution. To the Mississippi River as well as britains well explored atlantic colony members. They faced challenges that were sometimes diffused but they were powerful and unmangable at times. They depended on trading partners halfway around the world and often times they had no knowledge of each other on the other side of the chain. You can think of the royalty in the Chinese Courts and the people getting the sea otters. They struggled with change. Vanish flood supply in california and dwindling beavers and everywhere foreign microbes. These challenges resinate in the 21st century. The Founding Fathers declared independence in 1776 but we recognize today we are not independent but are unavoidable and also interdependent as were our north american forebearers. They dependent on health, food security, and climate change. Those forces and a multitude of others shape our lives. Let me stop and take your questions. Why did the west coast end up the spanish . Right. The question was in this treaty of 1763, why did the spanish end up with the area west of the Mississippi River . Well, it was frances by the terms of this treaty and france made a separate treaty immediately before signing the treaty of paris. The separate treaty with spain was to take their possessions and they thought this land wasnt profitability and not observable that costly and drained the french treasury. That was their experience with louisiana over the previous several decades. So they wanted to cut their losses. And then the was also, i think, a sense they needed a carrot in order to prompt spain to go along with the treaty in the first place. They were not giving up land that wasnt worth much at all from their perspective. As a followup, did they have any idea how expensive the continent was . That the mississippi really divided equally and there was a lot of territory . Yeah, that is a great question. And some of you probably read this book on longitude and the difficultyy that europeans and everyone had measuring it until the late 18th century. They didnt have a sense of how much land was out there. How extensive or what kind of features would be found. Was it fertile . Rivers . Great lakes . Giant mounts . The spanish had no idea the sier sier Sierra Nevada was there. Napoleon had plans to develop the world but that didnt go well. But looking back i am sure they regretted it. Could you go more into the how the developments affected the American Revolution . The American Revolution is really separate and that is what is interesting to me. The american colonies occupied about 4 of the continent and 8 of the lower 48 states. I say Populated Areas because some of the colonies had expansive claims like where the virginia line runs to the pac Pacific Coast and they dont know where that is they just draw the line until it bumps into the ocean. The American Revolution is affecting a tiny fraction of the present day United States. And that is what is fascinating. Sure, we have events we know so well occurring on the east coast. But these colonist pressed against the atlantic sea board and the fascinating things going on separate from the American Revolution. Are those whale bone piercings in the gentlemen . That is a good question. I would say whale bone or perhaps other sea mammal perhaps otter or i cannot say for sure. They had beautiful handcrafted vice visors. They had water proof they used to keep the water off them when they made their way thew the waters and had visors that protected them while hunting from the suns glare. They are painted beautifully to represent sometimes birds of prey or orcas. It is meant to represent some kind of sea creature. Curious about the interrelation with the spanish getting the land west of the mississippi. The treaty of 63, the french and the spanish and the spanish gave it back to the french and french sold it into the United States and you know, in 1803. And that relation of that and also with the spanish in the southeast United States, the missions and that failed attempt in trying to figure out where the boundary is and how they will take the expansion. It seems like there is a connection there in that area. And i know the southwest and mixing of peoples. The southeast Spanish Missions and the creating of the 13th colony of georgia. It wasnt all west of the mississippi. Right. This is an great point. I mention the creak and muskogee people in present day alabama and georgia and i say present day georgia. If you look at georgia it is just along the Savannah River and along the coast. It is a minuscule fraction of presentday georgia. The rest of georgia is creak country and owned by native people. And then you have the spanish presence in the southeast. You are right about that. And that raises interesting dynamics. But in 1763 the spanish lose their footholes for 20 years in the southeast and that changes the economic equation for native peoples. Because now they only have one trading partner. In the past they had the french, spanish and british and that is a good place to be if you are in the business of selling deer skins. But most 1763 you just have the british and they recognize what a threat this is to their independence being solely dependented on one european power. The creaks go to havana where the spanish are and say we need to reestablish these connections. So you are absolutely right. One thing i would like to point out when we think about the history of the south and the first thing that americans think of is the civil war and slavery. But most of the Indian Country, up to about 40 years, even 40 years before the outbreak of the civil war it is Indian Country. Motgomery, alabama is Indian Country in 1820. So our history when we think of our American History in the south and this is true everywhere, but when we think about it in the south, it doesnt have much of depth to it. So you are absolutely right about this. Did the spanish and russians have a connection . Did they come into contact with each other . They did come into contact with each other eventually. And there are accounts of the members coming all the way down to San Francisco in the, i think the recount is 1804. So here are the spanish watching these al hoots slide by in search of sea otters. It is extraordinary. And they show up further south and go to baha, california. There is a critical moment where George Washington rides to inoculate his troops and it probably gave the cause of the war. Because when you inoculate, you are not using a dead virus. And that someone who is suffering from the mild form of the illness which you get when you are inoculated, if you come down with a mild form, you are contagious. And if you spread it to someone, they dont catch the mild form but they catch the deadly form. So he had to make a decision to inoculate his troops and unfortunately that eventually gave them immunity. So that as a whole other story that is interesting. And the thing that i recommend highly. Thank you so much. Thank you. Every weekend, booktv brings you 48 hours of nonfiction authors and books on cspan2. Keep watching for more television for serious readers. [inaudible] welcome to casper, wyoming, on booktv. With a population of 55,000, it is the secondlargest are the. It got its start as an oil om