Historian: Here are some little known facts about what led to the American Revolution

What do you really know about how our country started? A new book reveals that the American Revolution didn’t begin with the Boston Tea Party and Lexington Green, but with decisions the colonies made years before that allowed them to be economically independent from England.

Author Larry Schweikart joined “The Morning Blaze with Doc Thompson” to talk about his latest book, “The Politically Incorrect Guide to the American Revolution,” which was released on Monday. He shared some little-known facts about the war that started our country, including a miraculous moment when George Washington survived a double volley of bullets.

While British soldiers first fought colonial militia in 1775, one event that sparked the Revolutionary War happened more than 100 years before. The Navigation Acts, which were first passed in 1651, restricted trade to and from the colonies to Great Britain and any British-owned territories. The colonies strained under onerous British rule, which didn’t even treat them like English citizens, and began finding ways to be more independent.

The Revolutionary War was the costliest war in our history because it was a four-way war with colonists, British, Tories and Indians, Schweikart asserted. When all casualties are accounted for, including those who died in British prisons, it’s estimated that 6 percent of the people who served died in the war.

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