Hello and welcome to a history of the United States.

Episode 91.

Anglicization strikes back.

First things first.

Don't worry.

We will still have the Empire Strikes Back as an episode when covering the American Revolution.

I just had to continue the theme of giving New York episodes Star Wars-related titles.

Anyway, now that we've gotten that out of the way, where were we?

In our last episode, we looked at how the glorious revolution affected New York, as the colony.

Well, specifically New York City and Eastern Long Island broke out in revolt under Jacob Leisler and how back in England the

new royals of William and Mary had more pressing issues so were forced to acquiesce to the situation.

So let's get into what Leisler's government did. The first thing he needed to do was call an election,

and he did it in a rather strange way. He sent out this message on February 20, 1690.

Elect and make choice of two proper and fit persons to repair forthwith to this city, empowering them as your

representatives to consult, debate, and conclude all such matters and things as shall be thought

necessary for the supply of this government in this present conjuncture, of which you want not to fail, as you will answer the same at your peril."

End quote.

Yep, that's real. He actually said that.

Perhaps, unsurprisingly, this request resulted in absolutely no response whatsoever from anyone.

Liesler then made a second, less threatening request in April, which resulted in an actual assembly.

The assembly had two main goals. It needed to fund itself, remember

the financial crisis that caused this mess in the first place, and it wanted to lessen the

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