Britain 1760s | How Did Britain Find a New World While Losing an Old One?

Welcome to Ten Minute Decade, the channel that covers world history ten years at a time in fast, clear, documentary-style episodes. In August 1768 a farm laborer's son from Yorkshire sailed out of Plymouth on a converted coal ship with sealed orders and ninety-four men. Three years later he returned having mapped New Zealand, charted two thousand miles of Australian coastline, and transformed European understanding of the Pacific world. This episode covers the British Empire from 1760 to 1769 — the decade when Britain simultaneously loses one world and finds another. What You'll Learn in This Episode Britain in 1760 — The Peak of Power George III comes to the throne at twenty-two. Britain controls more of the world's surface than any previous empire. The celebration is about to turn complicated. The East India Company Becomes a Government Robert Clive's victory at Plassey has left the Company governing thirty million people without a mandate or a plan. Corruption becomes the operating system. Company servants return to Britain as nabobs of extraordinary wealth. For the full Clive story check out the Britain 1750s episode. The American Crisis From London The Stamp Act, the Townshend Acts, troops quartered in Boston — each measure makes perfect sense from Westminster and generates explosive resistance in the colonies. Lord North consistently mistakes a fundamental disagreement for a negotiating position. He is wrong every time. The Gap Nobody Closes In London the colonies are subordinate parts of a British system. In Boston they are self-governing communities with the right to consent to their own taxation. Both assumptions have coexisted for decades. The 1760s force the confrontation. August 1768 — James Cook Departs A forty year old farm laborer's son with the finest cartographic mind in the Royal Navy sails from Plymouth on the Endeavour with sealed orders and a young botanist named Joseph Banks who has paid his own way to see the other side of the earth. Tahiti, New Zealand and the Eastern Coast of Australia Cook observes the transit of Venus, charts both islands of New Zealand with maps accurate enough for navigators a century later, and makes landfall on the eastern coast of Australia — naming Botany Bay and claiming New South Wales for the Crown. Why Cook Matters The charts Cook produces in this decade will guide the First Fleet to Botany Bay in 1788. The Australia he maps will become one of the great destinations of British settlement. While America drifts toward separation the Pacific opens up a canvas for imperial ambition that makes the American coastline look small. Two Stories One Decade Cook sailing out of Plymouth and Lord North misreading the American crisis are two sides of the same imperial decade. One extraordinary human achievement expanding the known world. One political failure contracting the empire that paid for the ship. Chapters 00:00 — Cold Open 00:25 — Britain at the Peak of Power 01:30 — George III and the New Reign 02:00 — The East India Company Becomes a Government 03:15 — The American Crisis From London 04:30 — Lord North and the Management Problem 05:45 — The Gap Nobody Closes 06:30 — James Cook — The Farm Laborer's Son 07:30 — The Endeavour Departs 08:15 — Tahiti and the Transit of Venus 08:45 — New Zealand and Australia 09:45 — Two Stories One Decade and Conclusion ________________________________________ KEYWORDS Britain 1760s, James Cook Endeavour voyage, Captain Cook Pacific, Botany Bay Australia, Joseph Banks, East India Company Bengal, Lord North American colonies, Stamp Act Britain, Seven Years War aftermath, George III, British Empire history, Ten Minute Decade, decade summary Britain, 18th century British Empire, Cook New Zealand