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Social Studies 5: Why Colonize? 29 Views


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Description:

Um, there's like tons of treasure to be had. Duh. Colonies are full of the stuff. Not that it's okay to take it all and enslave the people but...yeah you know what never mind. Don't colonize places that already have people living there. We'll tell you what happens when people do that in this video.

Language:
English Language

Transcript

00:04

[Dino and Coop singing]

00:13

America... [Fireworks]

00:14

The Land of the Free...

00:15

The Home of the Brave...

00:17

Full of dreams, big, white houses, and lots and lots of very different people. [The White House]

00:22

But how can a country be full of so many people from so many different backgrounds? [Mix of people looking happy]

00:26

Was it all just an accident?

00:28

Of course not, it totally wasn’t an accident; obviously, it was all carefully planned and––yeah, [Party marked on a calendar]

00:33

it was basically just an accident.

00:35

See, the Europeans – these fancy guys over here – were looking to up their fancy game [Guy dressed in fancy clothes on a ship]

00:39

even more by scoring fancy products like fancy silk and fancy spices.

00:43

In case you couldn't tell, they were fancy.

00:45

And where does a person go when they're looking for lots of silk and spices?

00:49

Cost Plus World Market, of course. [Guys walking to the World Market]

00:51

Unfortunately for them, those weren't exactly a thing back then. [The store disappears]

00:54

Know what else didn't exist?

00:56

Youtube, Netflix… even TV.

00:58

What did they do with all their time? [The TV disappears]

00:59

Powder their wigs?

01:00

Read??

01:01

Anyway, what they did have at the time were [Guy reading 'Establishing an Empire For Dummies']

01:04

boats, and so these fancy-shmancy dudes set sail to the land of silks and spices – otherwise

01:09

known as Asia.

01:10

But remember, they didn't have a lot of things back then… no Google Maps for these guys. [Someone using Google Maps on a ship]

01:13

Heck, not even Siri was there to point them in the right direction, or to drop some sick beats.

01:18

Seriously, ask Siri to beatbox.

01:20

It's pretty cool.

01:21

So believe it or not, they had no idea that between Europe and Asia was a massively humongous island. [America appears on the map]

01:26

Y'know, just something we know today as “The Americas.”

01:29

Not a big deal, or anything…

01:31

And you might be thinking, “these fancy Europeans sure are gonna be disappointed when

01:34

they find out that they can't get a pumpkin spice latte.” [Starbucks sign disappears]

01:37

But actually, they were pleasantly surprised.

01:39

The Portuguese and Spanish found out that the Native Civilizations on that big island [Natives with bars of gold]

01:42

had lots of treasure.

01:44

Which is cool and all, but none of it was pumpkin spice flavored.

01:47

And instead of asking for some of it fair and square, they conquered the land, stole

01:51

their wealth, and forced everyone in what we now know as Central and South America into [A hard hat is put on a South American man]

01:55

being their gold-mining slaves.

01:57

So the Spanish and Portuguese conquered most of the Southern parts of the Americas, which [Spain and Portugal flags put up on South America]

02:01

is why most people down there speak Spanish and Portuguese today.

02:04

But you might have noticed – not everybody in the U.S. speaks Español.

02:08

Taco Bell menus don't count. [Guy speaking Spanish at Taco Bell]

02:10

That’s because America and Canada were settled by the Dutch, the French, and the English,

02:14

aka the three best friends that anybody could ever have. [The three countires flags on North America]

02:16

Well, except for the fact that the Dutch were kind of forced out of that friendship pretty [Dutch ship leaves]

02:20

quickly...

02:21

…and then England basically took over, leaving only parts of eastern Canada and a few places

02:25

like Louisiana for the French – which is why you’ll hear a few stray “oui”s and

02:30

“ooh la la”s coming from Quebec and the American South. [Guy ordering lots of baguettes at a resteraunt]

02:32

And also why they eat all those baguettes.

02:34

After the land was divided, colonies were formed, and eventually even more people started

02:39

moving here, leading to the diverse population we know today.

02:42

And all because a bunch of guys went on a quest for tasty spices and silk underwear [Lots of ships going towards America]

02:46

without a GPS.

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