MAPS OF HISTORY · ON THIS DAY · April 19 · 1775
ON THIS DAY · 19 APRIL 1775
Lexington & Concord
19 Apr 1775 — “The shot heard round the world.” Militia and regulars trade fire on the Boston road; the argument becomes a war.
THE MOMENT IN CONTEXT
It begins at the ✕ by Boston: on 19 April 1775, redcoats marching to seize militia gunpowder trade fire at Lexington and Concord and lose 273 men on the retreat. For six years the war seesaws — Washington’s genius is less winning battles than keeping an army in being while Congress keeps a cause in being. The British arrows on your map show the plan that should have worked: Howe takes New York, then Philadelphia; Burgoyne drives down from Canada to cut New England off. But Burgoyne’s column dies in the woods at Saratoga in October 1777 — and that defeat, more than any victory, decides the war, because it convinces France the rebels are a sound investment.
From Chapter 2 — The American Revolution of The Age of Revolutions, 1775–1848 (SEP 1783).
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TEACH THIS IN 5 MINUTES
- Why it happened — Distance as a weapon. Britain had to project force 3,000 miles by sail — three months for an order and its answer. The rebels didn’t need to win; they needed to not lose…
- The turn — Saratoga, 17 October 1777. A plan drawn in London — three columns converging on Albany — dissolved in American woods: Howe went to Philadelphia instead, and Burgoyne, cut off,…
- What it changed — A constitution that exports. The state constitutions, then the federal one of 1787 — written, ratified, amendable — turn Enlightenment theory into working precedent. Every…
Then ask the room: Britain had the world’s best navy, deepest purse and most professional army. Make the case that it could never have won. The argued answer is on the chapter page →
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