438 The American Revolution & the Fate of the World
About this episode
This episode explores the American Revolution as a global conflict with far-reaching consequences beyond the United States.
What if the American Revolution didn't just create the United States, but also created Australia? Most of us learned about the Revolution as a story of thirteen North American colonies pushing back against a distant king. But this episode reveals something far wilder: a genuinely global war whose consequences rippled across every inhabited continent — reshaping empires, forcing migrations, and planting the seeds of more than a hundred declarations of independence that would follow over the next two and a half centuries. Joseph Adelman joins historian Richard Bell to explore the American Revolution as a world war. They discuss: Why the Declaration of Independence was really a Declaration of Interdependence How Hyder Ali, the Muslim ruler of Mysore in southern India, became George Washington's ally by the logic of wartime coalitions How Spain's campaign to recapture Florida tied down thousands of British troops How Britain's convict crisis, caused by losing access to Maryland and Virginia, led to the founding of Australia at Botany Bay. Rick's Website | Book |Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/438 EPISODE OUTLINE00:00:00 Introduction00:06:28 Differences in Perception of…
Topics covered
- American Revolution
- global war
- declarations of independence
- wartime coalitions
- empire reshaping
- migration
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