I disagree with the Louisiana purchase not being important. I’m from the east so I’m not biased but that’s the “breadbasket” of America and where all the food that ran the engine of America was made. Low population but produces all our food.

Russia: *sells barren wasteland to the US* US: *finds resources in barren wasteland*

So it's partially a former British colony

20:02 I think the EU is a much harder task to unite than the US, because unlike the US, Europe has a very long history, and as a result has lots of culture, traditions, and national pride. These three things make each member of the EU unique and more unlike the rest. However the US, was unified from the start by its hate for the British empire. Those original 13 states had a goal in mind to take over land across North America, and were United by that goal. The newer territories came in chunks of similar cultural backgrounds like the Louisiana purchase and Mexican Cession. So in reality the US started out as 4 or 5 separate countries as opposed to the 28 distinct European countries

Don't forget about the Gadsden purchase, where we bought a small piece of land to build a railroad.

You're sounding more and more sad when you say "2nd channel don't care" :D I think you've started to care too much ^^

USA may not be a former British colony to this day, but is still part of the Anglosphere, having strong cultural and historical ties with the UK

13:13 Fun fact: There have been numerous attempts at making a state called Jefferson

How the US works: We are not the same as the EU simply because we are under one federal government. The EU is not a federal government. Each state in the US has control over certain things, such as education, but the state of, say, Illinois, has to answer to the federal government. Hopefully that makes sense for those of you reading the comments.

An American's view of the difference between the US and the EU: The US began as an alliance for mutual defense. The EU began to discourage war between its members. Having an exterior threat creates feelings of unity, so in many ways the US exists because of England: not only were they the guys we overthrew to become independent, but they fought a war with us a few decades later just in case we started thinking they weren't a threat anymore. We were a bunch of tiny little countries that had angered the most powerful nation on earth, so of course we had to band together as the alternative was to be re-conquered one-by-one. The EU has never really had that kind of external threat. I mean, there's Russia but .... I don't think people in France think being invaded by Russia is a real possibility. Even if Russia took Poland, they probably wouldn't come for France. So why send French troops to defend Poland? More importantly, in the US economic ties grew organically from our alliance. We decided we shouldn't charge tariffs on stuff imported from other members, and we should all have the same tariffs on foreign imports, because that saved us the effort of guarding internal borders. We tied together in lots of economic ways because that made our military stronger. In the EU, they forge economic alliances because invading countries you have economic ties to is generally a bad idea. Germany is less likely to try to seize eastern France if it needs electricity generated in western France (and vice-versa). But it seems forced. It's like grabbing a dog an wagging its tail to make the dog happy. (Which does actually work.) The end result is that the US ... started as friends and so looked into other areas where cooperation benefited both sides, which made them better friends. The EU seems like a group of people that never really liked each other trying to act like friends in the hope it will make them become friends.

The states that were part of the Louisiana Purchase are still low density but practically feed the world.

Never known this channel had existed, although it's quite cool to see that Toycat's interested in geography and the world as much as Minecraft and other games.

10:13 aged well 😬 💀

The EU is more of a confederation than a federation. This didn't go so well for the US early on.

19:20 the difference between the EU and the US is that the US is very similar culturally. If you were to go from California to Maryland, they all speak the same language, have the same customs, et cetera et cetera. So, people here are more inclined to identify as American. If you were to go from Estonia to France, they speak different languages, have different customs, et cetera et cetera. However, people are more likely to identify as French or Estonian rather than European, but that may change in the coming years

"I think I just offended a load of Americans living between the coasts." Me, living in Oklahoma: "Nah, that's fair."

Washington originally wanted to name itself Columbia after our Columbia River, but America was like "Nah, the capital is the District of Columbia. People will get confused. Use Washington instead." So we went with Washington. And then the District of Columbia began to be associated completely with the county of Washington (DC used to be two counties, Washington and Alexandria) so now people call it Washington, D.C. We can't win

I thought Toycat was trying to maintain his Britishness....

Also Re: US & EU-- It took the Civil War to really transform us from "These" United States to "The" United States. Given that WWI & WWII couldn't create a European equivalent, I don't think it'll ever happen there.

Ironically Mozambique was never a British colony yet they're in the common wealth

19:00 To be fair, The US has a common language, economy, etc and no real preceding history of countries beforehand

I live on the coast, however the Louisiana territory still has a relatively large population compared to your European countries and it makes all the food that was generously used to support the British during ww2 and allows our country to continuously make large surplus of food every year. If it was a separate country it's gdp wouldn't disappoint, because its really cheap to do business and has Louisiana port to export all of its goods world wide.

I will say from an American POV about your controversial view at the end, I live in Maryland and I’m a billion times more prideful of my state than the federal country 🤔. Like if I’m asked where I live, I say my state before the US. However, in terms of being different from the EU, I still see other states as like “fellow Americans”. I kinda enjoy the way the federal government works, because people in Nebraska, which is agriculture based, or people in Montana, which has a lot of hunting, have different needs for laws compared to Maryland which is a fairly urban society. So, the fact that each state can create different laws but still have a federal government to control military, education, and other general areas is really nice. I don’t know enough about the EU to accurately compare the two, but it honestly works pretty well here because other than Texas & California, I’m pretty sure no state as the desire to be an independent country like how the EU contains the different independent countries. Loved the video btw 😉 I’m a history Major so it’s always refreshing to see you dive into historical things as well as the normal geography.

About German-Americans: Alternate History hub made an interesting point that if the US hadn't entered WWI, the US would be a lot more German. When we decided to fight the Kaiser it became unfashionable to celebrate German heritage in the US, and lots of people with names like Schmidt changed them to names like Smith. But the German influence in our culture is pervasive. My family comes from central New York state, and my immigrant ancestors over the last two centuries came mostly from England and Ireland with a bit of France. They settled in a community that was mostly Welsh. But our Christmas Traditions are not those found in the British Isles, they are German.

Britishn’t

13:07 well that is accurate because the city is called Washington, and the federal district that its in, and also the only city in, is called the District of Columbia, shortened/abbreviated to DC, so saying Washington, DC is like saying Chicago, IL or Dallas, TX, except if Chicago comprised all of Illinois or if Dallas comprised all of Texas. That's also why you have to write it as "Washington, DC" with a comma, even though most people spell it "Washington DC" anyways

I think that the Eu is harder to unify because it has like 33 and a half different cultures to unify, where America, while although has 50 states, only has about 7-12 semi-separate cultures. The way we succeeded was unfortunately forcing a generic culture on the natives. We still are slightly split, but that's a newer concept.

Farm boy from Illinois here. Love the content. Keep being awesome

"They won their independence in a not so friendly way." My brain: Chaos and Bloodshed (in Samuel Seabury's voice)

Hello from New York... Here are some more countries to add to the list. Namely, New York was first colonized by the Dutch, not the English. It was originally called New Netherlands & New York City was originally called New Amsterdam. In fact, there are still lots of Dutch place names all over the state. Also, Delaware was originally colonized by Sweden. 👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼

In my opinion, the difference between the US and the EU is that the US was designed to be a bottom up society (although as you said the Federal govt. has been overstepping their bounds recently), the EU seems to be functioning as a top-down structure and the people at the bottom are getting no representation. That's what is driving all these nationalist movements throughout Europe. Also, I'm from South Dakota, we're definitely pretty insignificant ;). And, your Iowa accent was atrocious o.O Edit: For clarification, what I mean by top-down vs. bottom-up is: The US was designed to give as many rights and responsibilities to the individual as possible. Whatever they can't handle (policing, roads, land rights) is the responsibility of city/county governments. Whatever they can't handle (highways, state parks, state licensing) is the responsibility of the state government. The few things that can't be handled by states (military, foreign relations, border security) that's the responsibility of the federal government. The EU seems to dictate regulations and policies to their member nations that really should be issues for the nations to handle on their own rather than have a centralized government make those decisions.

I disagree. I'm American and am patriotic. Europe is not a country it is made up of unelected officials who decide it's rules unjustly. Also it is way more culturally different in European than the u.s. due to common language and americanization. the culture in Hawaii is similar to even Alaska or Maine you can tell when a place is American but for Europe there's not a unified sense of europeness. Greece is going to feel way different than Ireland or Finland. the things that make America different make Europe even more different due to architecture and language

Overall I really like the video. I think the EU will be harder to unify than the US. All 28 of them are separate countries with separate histories, languages, and cultures. Most of the US states were coaxed into being after the federal government already existed. Also most of them were filled by Americans moving west. Really, the EU is unifying countries while the US was only that for the original thirteen colonies. After that it wasn’t unifying new members, but rather incorporating new territories settled by Americans.

Yeah… the Russia thing certainly was a big problem later

The therteen colonies, started as colonies from three countries, two English colonies, one Dutch and one swedish. The British subjected the other two colonies after the Dutch took the Swedish colony and the British took over the Dutch colony.

The uniting factor of the US isn't any similarities between the citizens (other than arguably speaking English), it's the common values we all share. Ask a French person and a Hungarian person and a Spanish person and a Polish person what they value when it comes to governance and laws and you'll get drastically different answers, ask Americans from anywhere in the country what they value, and while the details may vary just as drastically, we all agree on the same fundamentals, generally speaking the values outlined in our constitution

The way he says "Mexican-American war, everyone's favourite war" made my day.

You didn't tell about the Dutch colony's.

Interesting as always. Regarding the russians, they actually where a bit further south in america than most people realise. Their southernmost settlement is today know as Fort Ross, and is about 110km north-west of San Francisco.

The map shows the Third British Empire. The 13 Colonies were the Second British Empire and not contemporaneous with almost any of it. At the time of US independence, Australia and New Zealand had barely been discovered, Canada was little explored, the UK had almost no holdings in Africa and little of India was yet British.

I've always wondered why, in the maps where they include the 13 colonies/treaty of Paris land as part of the British empire, why don't they include the Oregon territory? (Well they include the Canadian part but not the American part)

10:13 that aged well

The USA was Britain's Second Empire. The First Empire was in France during the Middle Ages. The Third Empire was largely constructed after the loss of 13 American colonies. 19th/20th Century maps are of the Third Empire. The USA would therefore not be shown on them any more than medieval English possessions in France were.

Just a little FYI, the area formally known as Louisiana territory has a very strong economy. Very low unemployment and plenty of industry. Nebraska, for example, has had below 4% for the last 20 years.

Ok they fought against each other and being friends. Same thing as Japan 🇯🇵, Germany 🇩🇪 and Italy 🇮🇹

To be honest I would really disagree it would be easier to bring together Europe compared to the american states. At the time of colonisation america had so little people living there there was like no resistance, the people that mostly colonised it all spoke English already and the ones that didn't just naturally went along for economic reason. Europe has a much deeper and divided history to it's countries. We do not speak a similar language and have very very different customs and cultures per country. America has had very lucky moments in history, that is why it's what it is today. The EU on the other hand is trying to merge a bunch of countries forcefuly without the coutnries people wanting it. I do not want to be a superstate. We can not live together as one country. We do not need to. All things the EU provides for us can also be done without the EU.

I live in The State of New Hampshire in the Region of New England and we definitely are a former British colony. The 13 Colonies along the East Coast are definitely former British Colonies. We were just the first Colonies to violently leave Great Britain.

i really like these videos!

As a Kansan, I’m offended. Just kidding we make fun our state everyday

10:11 lol yup

10:15 Toycat literally predicted the future

this video is really helpful, I was confused because I saw a video that showed a map of british colonies and US wasn't there and I didn't considerate the fact that not the entire US was a british colony because the video also showed portugal colonies and Brazil had its entire territory showned as portugal colony even tho most part of Brazil was acctually from Spain

10:14 yep you definitely called it

12:35 Bruh he only knows Washington but not Idaho, Oregon, or Montana

Oh man, read up on Oregon Territory. It was stolen from Canada/The Hudsons Bay Co by Americans moving in.

Thumbs up for that Borat accent! One thing to note is that most Texans identify as American second and Texans first. This comes from the fact that Texans are very proud that Texas was its own country for a time. Great video!

10:20 foreshadowing 🇺🇦

You also forgot to mention the significant African influence in the US. I feel like it was worth mentioning. It was the most substantial slave destination in the British empire, and African Americans make up their own ethnic group in the US to this day, which is unique from the newer African immigrant populations in places like Western Europe, Australia, and Canada. More like Brazil in that way.

Have a friend at school who’s from Britain and we started talking about the revolution and I started talking about the reasons and all the laws that parliament pasted after the seven yard war and he just said, “I don’t know what parliament is passing now, let alone what was going on 300 years ago” so non-US people should look into what we are taught because it’s interesting.

Hawaii DID have a relationship to the British. The British 'discovered' them and called them the 'Sandwich Islands."

Very well presented. Brave guy to tell the truth about the origin of Texas. A lot of Americans don't believe it.

The netherlands just had to keep the part of the us, and not selling it to uk😂

I’m from Iowa, and that accent at the end was almost spot on to half the people who live here

The U.S. still very much is and has behaved as both a shield and spike on behalf of England’s Great Britain. Also, more English culture has survived and thrived inside the U.S. than even within Great Britain.

not 3-4 years later and crimea/ukraine prediction came true

This guy ignores the fact that early American settlement in Texas was welcomed by Mexico, and that the Texans actually remained loyal until the incoming Mexican government/dictatorship of Santa Anna violated the agreements made in 1824. In fact, the flag over the Alamo was the green-white-red Mexican tri-color with the number 1824 in the middle, signifying that its defenders were primarily fighting for their rights as citizens of Mexico!

He predicted the war. Wow. Never thought Russia was so predictable.

4:37 The Louisiana Purchase was absolutely not towards the losing part of the War. The French were just starting to feel victory after the Second Coalition was dissolved in 1801. The Third Coalition would only form in 1804, a year after the sale. Technically, the war of the Third Coalition started in May 1803, but it was France vs. GB, which Napoleon wasn't overly worried about, and was two weeks after the signing of the Louisiana Purchase on April 30th, 1803 For extra context, Napoleon defeated every coalition until the Seventh Coalition, so he was well in his prime

19:00 The US is a melting pot of different people that agreed to come together to create one whole new culture. Europe is a content that has several different nationalities that have been fighting each other for centuries! Has several different languiges that can't understand each other, with there even being different dialects of the languages that are unintelligible to each other. And with a deep history that has ALREADY established the different nations of Europe! ------------------------- Basically, the US is a melting pot and Europe is my bedroom after I haven't cleaned it for five months, a complete and utter mess! But to be honest that's exactly the way we Europeans want it ;)

I don’t agree about America, most of the states were never independent countries like in the EU, they are merely subdivisions

Oregon territory (which was in both modern day US and Canada) was actually jointly controlled by the US and UK, so eventually they decided to split it along a (mostly) straight line, North of which became UK/Canada, and South of which became US

The Hawaiian Islands were never a British colony, although there was a strong connection in the early and middle 19th century. Hawaii was trying to balance its existence between countries which at the time were aggressively seizing new colonies, so looked to Britain for assistance and recognition, but without being taken over.

The US doesn’t own Guantanamo Bay. They rent it

10:10 LMAO

You were wrong about why people went to Texas. The Mexican government basically had a "Wild West" going on in their northern territories, specifically Texas so they wanted more people to populate that area. They were having a hard time incentivizing their people to move there so they asked the US government to send their own people. The asked for "preferably Catholics" and NO slaves. The only people who really took up on that were Tennesseans who were both Protestants and Slave Owners.

100k soon, u deserve it

No I’m still convinced that America is a British Colony I mean WE SPEAK ENGLISH BECAUSE OF THEM

I love the EU. My wife and I take a trip to the EU every other year, and the fact that they are the way they are makes it much more simple when traveling from country to country. In fact, it's annoying when we make it to a country during the trip that doesn't use the Euro, so that we have to deal with the Pound, or the Crown. As to the pride in our country thing, as others have mentioned, pride in one's state tends to be bigger than you think it is. When in the EU, I ALWAYS say I'm from California, not the US. One's state is part of one's identity, and a bit of shorthand for others. "He's from Florida? No wonder he's so fucked up," etc.

One nice part of the us is that for a long time it had a unifying threat, wether it just be the difficulty of settling the land, wars with the natives, the British etc Also remember when the us annex’s Canada the plot of fallout begins

Well I haven’t met anyone who said the USA was a former British colony. The original 13 colonies were British colonies, and the territories just west of them were British... not the United States.

Because... TEXAS

I don’t agree with that last point. There aren’t that many people who care about brexit or the Eu status in the us.

Toycat predicting the future at 10 minutes 12 seconds

Can you talk about how Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and a few other areas were all part of Nova Scotia and how during the American revolution it was actually the 14th colony that tried to secede with the other 13 but it was the only one that didn't

he knew about ukraine.... about 10 min in

15:26 ahh yes I love my NORDIC Canadians and Russians 😂 18:32 we are forced to use English for federal documents, but many people also don’t even speak fluent English 😂 18:34 each state is legally not allowed to make there own currency, they used to, but it got banned. So states cannot make Separate currencies.

You mentioned when talking about the Louisiana purchase that it was all just farmland well keeping that in perspective for the time period agriculture and farmland was the most valuable reusable resource in the world at the time. I know you mentioned that that piece of land only had one ocean port but that port is the Mississippi River port which was the life blood for a Hugh portion of the country back then.

So, a couple additions and corrections... Vermont was not one of the original 13 colonies, either, and actually fought in the revolution as an independent country. The Louisiana purchase was also sold for cheap, because the land didn’t actually belong to France, but to Spain, which was under French control at the time. George Washington did not get 100% of the popular vote, because the popular vote of president wasn’t even a thing. State legislators chose electors, and 100% or electors voted for him. (Btw, our presidential elections have changed a lot from the way they were intended in the constitution. I am actually a big fan of how it was intended, and I guarantee that if it still was that way, our most recent presidents would have been much better choices.)

me: Stop Bashing the midwest!! also me: haha yeah we're pretty useless

Learn your history, the dutch made new amsterdam! now new york. we had a colony too

washington state was originally named colombia, after the colombia river. That's why there is british colombia north of it. but when it applied for statehood, as you said everyone knew Washington DC as district of colombia. So the government turned it down because people would get confused. So they came up with Washington. But then DC went by washington.

I disagree that we aren't as tight with Britain as other former colonies simply bc we expanded so much. Its 100% bc we were opposed to the monarchy and went through a violent revolution. Then we had a 2nd war just for good measure.

From what I have heard "nationalists" in the US don't really like the federal government either (in their case the "establishment" in Washington) which represents the United States as a whole. They might be proud of their country in the sense of their flag, national anthem and for what they think the USA stands for, but they only use the symbols for their political message. However, I might be wrong. As for your neutrality about the Brexit: I think this is a major problem of the British people. It was always Germany and France who had to steer the ship "European Union" in the past decades. There was almost no participation of the British in the political process of the Union. If you really think there are good and bad things about the European Union you should start to fix the bad things and not just leave the Union because you think you are better off then. Who solves problems by running away? So for me you can either be Pro-European or Anti-European. But I know you don't want to offend any of your viewers with your opinion.

Hawaii was once claimed by the British, look up "The Sandwich Islands".

Have you ever heard of Roanoke island? It was the first British colony in America. After three years they returned, and all of the colonists mysteriously disappeared.

America is a country built as an offshoot and successor of the British Empire, a “British empire done right”, however it later absorbed several diasporas of German, French and later Jewish, Russian, Italian and Irish, immigrants, eventually melding into an Anglicized majority/plurality, while also hosting minority subcultures in which African (descendants of slaves), Native (descended from the indigenous population), Asian (from early 1900s west coast immigration), or Latino (from both Latinos living in territories conquered by America in the 19th and early 20th centuries, and from late 20th and early 21st Central American migrants) influence is fused with traditional Anglicized American culture.

Me: what the, I guess we’re spainish

AMERRRICAAAA

A nice nuanced video I feel =)

video: "lousiana purchase was biggest addition to us land area by size" alaska: "am i a joke to you?"