How is the American Revolution taught in the UK?

[Oldandeasilyconfused]

Strange as it might seem to an American, their history is not taught here,and July 4 passes unnoticed,as do other American holidays,such as Thanksgiving and Martin Luther King Jnr's birthday. One possible reason reason is that those things are irrelevant to us. Another might be that right now, the US is more unpopular in Australia than at any time since the height of the Vietnam war,when it was broadly loathed.(we just laughed at it when Dubya was prez, much as we do at their loopy gun culture)


I can't think of a reason the English would want to be reminded of the unnecessary and embarrassing way they lost America as a colony.

[Speak Silence]

I've recently finished GCSE History and it was split in half. One of the halves being the American West. Like how the west (and some of the east) was settled and the problems people faced.

We learnt about how the white settlers obliterated the Native Americans way of life because of the idea of 'Manifest destiny' (Religion again, eurgh)
and also about the Mormons. After finding out about the gold plates and magic underwear I can't take them seriously any more.
Plus stuff about life on the plains. It was actually quite interesting... minus the Mormons.

We touched VERY briefly on the American civil war, but I think was only because out teacher really liked history. As far as I was told (keep in mind this is only like, 5 mins worth of info) the colonists didn't like the taxes and rebelled. There was something about tea being thrown in a river and that upset some people back home. Then we lost and America became independent.

Other than that, we have better things to do than reminisce about those times. Like how to get rid of the chavs...

[Autumnlicious]

That's not the civil war.

That's the revolution.

[Rev. Rye]

We touched VERY briefly on the American civil war, but I think was only because out teacher really liked history. As far as I was told (keep in mind this is only like, 5 mins worth of info) the colonists didn't like the taxes and rebelled. There was something about tea being thrown in a river and that upset some people back home. Then we lost and America became independent.

All right: I'll try and clear this shit up.
*In 1765, The Stamp Act was passed, creating huge taxes for the colonists. They got pissed off because they didn't have a say in this.
*In 1767, The Townshend Acts created even higher taxes on essential goods for the Colonies, once again without their consent. The colonies got even more pissed, and this reached a head in 1770.
*In 1770, some British soldiers killed colonists in Boston and support for Britain took a nosedive. As a result, most of the worst parts of the Townshend Acts were repealed.
*In 1773, the British passed the Tea Act, which reaffirmed taxes on imports of tea.
*On December 16, 1773, some colonists dressed like Indians and tossed a shipment of tea into the Boston harbor to protest the Tea Act. This is Called the Boston Tea Party.
*After this, The Coercive Acts were passed, bringing repression of the colonies in America beyond the impossible, making American revolt all but inevitable.

There are almost certainly missing pieces, but this is all from memory aided by Wikipedia.
As Moros said, this is the American Revolution. The Civil War would occur less than a century later.

[The Grand Nudger]

Importantly, colonists were already fairly hostile to the crown, and had been for some time. Even after the taxes were imposed the imported goods were cheaper than the goods of the local boys-you know, the guys who organized the rebellion to begin with- were selling.

[Speak Silence]

So in reality I knew even less than I thought.

I suppose that answers the OPs question then

[Ace Otana]

Amewican revolutionz? Never heard of it.

Seriously, only knew about it in the last 5 or 6 years. Didn't know about it before then.

[Autumnlicious]

Don't feel bad.

I only learned about The Troubles after getting interested in Ireland (The Quiet Man prompted me to learn more -- good movie too).

I recently learned about The Anarchy because I rediscovered the excellent TV series Cadfael with Derek Jacobi.

I've learned more and loved more about history (English history included) on my own prompting than any amount of braindead "education" in school prompted me (except for that one teacher, Mr. Daetz, who showed us holocaust footage, etc, for his WW2 unit. That class was unbelievably depressing, but definitely shaped my views on justice).

[Thor]

Amewican revolutionz? Never heard of it.

Seriously, only knew about it in the last 5 or 6 years. Didn't know about it before then.

Might be the same reason that the only significant thing we're taught about the War of 1812 is that, although the Brits sacked Washington, we kicked their ass at New Orleans. It's never mentioned that the Americans had their asses handed to them (by much smaller forces) when they tried to invade and annex Canada.

[jonb]

Very little history is taught in Britain

But

What is taught in the USA? A story about how a bunch of well to do racist English objected after the seven years war to having to pay the same Taxes as the subjects of French descent after beating them in that war, and wanted to impose in law rules which discriminated on grounds of ethnicity. Which is why all the early revolutionaries described themselves as True British.
They so mucked up their revolution alienating virtually everyone including those of Scots dissent who had been exported to America from the highland clearances; the Irish, French and Dutch and free people of African origins that all these groups fought on the British side.
These racist English then had to go cap in hand to the French king to win the war for them. This group also pretend to be about representing ordinary people, using people like Tomas Pain and then after the revolution excluding him. They also set up a sham democracy which pretended to be about one man one vote, but put checks in the system which if the upper classes did not like the result they could change it. Is that what what is taught in American schools?