How the Hell Did We Get Here?

In this episode, John covers the period from the Declaration of Independence to the completion of the Treaty of Alliance with France. John explains the many challenges that the United States had to face as it fought for its independence against Great Britain and how it was that the new nation was able to overcome these challenges. John also discusses some of the most important military engagements...

In this episode, John explains what led to the Declaration of Independence in July of 1776. John starts by going through the colonial reaction to the Intolerable/Coercive Acts, including the Suffolk Resolves and the meeting of the First Continental Congress. He then details the actions taken by the Continental Congress as it attempted to bring the colonies together for collective action and tried...

In this episode, John discusses the events that led to the Tea Act and how the colonists reacted to this new British policy. John explains the connection between the Tea Act and the Boston Tea Party and how the British government freaked out at the colonists' protest. Most importantly, John breaks down the British reaction to the Boston Tea Party, the Intolerable Acts, and explains how these measu...

In this episode, John discusses the first measures taken by the British government in the aftermath of the French and Indian War and how they created a rift between Britain and the colonies. John goes over the Proclamation of 1763 first and explains what it was and why it upset those in the colonies. He then talks about the Sugar Act and the Currency Act and how those were perceived as over-steppi...

In this episode, John explains the numerous ways in which the French and Indian War (or Seven Years War) contributed to a growing divide between Great Britain and the 13 colonies of British North America. John talks about how the experience of the war, which ended the period of Salutary Neglect, brought the British and the colonists into much greater contact with one another and how that did a lot...

In this episode, John explains the factors that began to drive a wedge between the 13 British North American Colonies that would eventually become the United States and Great Britain. John details the economic, political and geographic elements of the relationship between Britain and the colonies that made it increasingly difficult for the two to coexist as they had up through the mid-18th century...

In this episode, John explains the various ways in which the colonists in the 13 British North American colonies were connected to Britain during the period of Salutary Neglect. John goes over the factors that made remaining a part of the British empire attractive to the colonists in order to help the listeners understand why revolution seemed unlikely for most of the 1700s. There were economic, p...

In this episode, host John Miller breaks down the origins and ramifications of Bacon's Rebellion in colonial Virginia in the late 17th century. John explains how Bacon's Rebellion impacted slavery in the colonies from the late 1600s into the mid 1700s and how the expansion of slavery impacted the colonies. Additionally, John talks about Salutary Neglect, what brought it about and how it affected t...

In this episode, John discusses the importance of the English Civil War, Mercantilism and the Dominion of New England to the continuing story of what will be the United States. John explains what caused the English Civil War, who was on which side, who won and why it mattered for the British North American colonies. John also defines mercantilism and gives a rundown of how it worked in the British...

In this episode, John explains how the English colonized Ireland in the 1500s and 1600s and how the English transferred there experiences in Ireland to North America. John will cover the English decisions and processes for how they tried to assert their authority over Ireland, how the Irish resisted and what all this meant for the relationship between England and Ireland. John will also explain th...

In this episode, John gives a breakdown of the origins and character of each of the original thirteen colonies that will compose the United States. John will cover who it was that created the colonies, the motivations of those who did so and how they evolved over the first few decades of their respective existences. The colonies will be grouped into regions and John will explain what makes each re...

In this episode, John goes through the various groups of people who colonized North America and explains how and why they did it. Specifically, John will discuss the Spanish presence in what is now the Southwestern United States, the French colonization of Canada and the Mississippi River Valley and the first two English colonies in what would be the United States at Jamestown and Plymouth. The ep...

In this episode of How the Hell Did We Get Here?, John explains both the "discovery" of the New World and the way it was colonized by various European peoples in the 16th century. Beginning with how Europeans started to explore more of the Atlantic world in the 1400s and concluding with some brief consideration of English and French involvement in the New world toward the end of the 1500s, John wi...

In this episode, John examines the regions of the world that will intertwine with one another to create what will be the United States, well before those regions were even aware of one another. What was North America like before Europeans arrived? How did North and West African civilization function before Europeans began to trade with those areas regularly? And what was going on in Western Europe...

In this episode, host John Miller introduces himself to the audience and explains his motivation for starting the podcast, How the Hell Did We Get Here? John gives a little background about himself, why he is so interested in history, what he hopes to accomplish with the show and why he thinks history is so important. John also delves briefly into some examples of how historical thinking works, ho...