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Lesson Learned · Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities

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  Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Manke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
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  Speaker 1: iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild.
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  Speaker 2: Our world is full of the unexplainable, and if history
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  Speaker 2: is an open book, all of these amazing tales right
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  Speaker 2: there on display, just waiting for us to explore. Welcome
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  Speaker 2: to the Cabinet of Curiosities.
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  Speaker 1: It probably goes without saying that the British conquest of
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  Speaker 1: India was the result of decades of ruthless subterfuge. First
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  Speaker 1: arriving on the subcontinent under the guise of simple traders,
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  Speaker 1: the British bargained and betrayed their way into being the
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  Speaker 1: only European power operating in India. They then worked to
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  Speaker 1: undermine the Indian government itself. In eighteen oh two, a
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  Speaker 1: loose confederation of India princes went to war with one another,
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  Speaker 1: and Britain used this as an opportunity to justify their takeover.
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  Speaker 1: They offered protection to the losing prince, claiming that he
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  Speaker 1: was the rightful ruler of India, and then they launched
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  Speaker 1: an assault on central India that would cement their control.
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  Speaker 1: One of the defining battles of this campaign was the
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  Speaker 1: Battle of Aussay, where British forces were led by Major
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  Speaker 1: General Sir Arthur Wellesley. Although he was Irish not English
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  Speaker 1: by birth, he embodied the ruthless efficiency of British forces,
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  Speaker 1: though he would soon find that his victories came at
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  Speaker 1: the cost of his soul. Major Wellesley awoke at the
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  Speaker 1: crack of dawn and ordered his troops on the march.
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  Speaker 1: They raced across the hills of India, hoping to catch
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  Speaker 1: the retreating Indian army. The Major wanted to prove himself
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  Speaker 1: by defeating them in battle. His older brother was the
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  Speaker 1: British Governor of India, and so he had a personal
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  Speaker 1: stake in this as well as professional. He wanted to
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  Speaker 1: bring honor to his family name, not stopping to think
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  Speaker 1: what he was doing to the kun It just didn't
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  Speaker 1: occur to him that he was bringing British oppression to
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  Speaker 1: these people in the same way that his own Irish
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  Speaker 1: ancestors had been colonized hundreds of years earlier. The rapidly
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  Speaker 1: advancing army stopped suddenly when they came across a river
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  Speaker 1: blocking their path on the other side. Major Wellesley was
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  Speaker 1: shocked to see that the Indian Army had set up
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  Speaker 1: a defensive position with cannons lining a ridge on the
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  Speaker 1: other side of the river. Wellesley could tell the Indian
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  Speaker 1: general wanted to trap his army in the river with
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  Speaker 1: cannon fire, and he wasn't about to let that happen.
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  Speaker 1: He looked at a map and saw that there were
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  Speaker 1: two villages very close to one another further east down
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  Speaker 1: the river. The map didn't indicate whether the river was
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  Speaker 1: crossable there, but Wellesley felt that there had to be
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  Speaker 1: a crossing at that spot. Two villages wouldn't just crop
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  Speaker 1: up next to each other on opposite sides of a
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  Speaker 1: river with no way to travel back and forth. So
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  Speaker 1: he ordered his army east, and soon they arrived at
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  Speaker 1: these villages, where sure enough there was a crossing of
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  Speaker 1: the river. Wellesley smiled at his cleverness, then forced his
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  Speaker 1: men on. They turned toward the Indian army and prepared
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  Speaker 1: to surprise them, but their enemies were more clever than that.
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  Speaker 1: The Indian general anticipated this tactic and swiveled the Indian
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  Speaker 1: cannons up perfect ninety degrees. They opened fire on the
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  Speaker 1: British army, tearing them to pieces. Major Wellesley saw no
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  Speaker 1: way forward but ahead. He ordered his men to march
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  Speaker 1: toward the cannons. They suffered heavy losses, but were soon
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  Speaker 1: within rifle range. Their regiments opened fire on the cannons,
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  Speaker 1: killing their operators, and then they ran at the Indian
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  Speaker 1: infantry with their bayonets. But once again they had underestimated
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  Speaker 1: their enemy. Many members of the Indian cannon regiment had
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  Speaker 1: seen the rifle attack coming and were only playing dead.
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  Speaker 1: Once the rifle infantry passed over them, they got back
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  Speaker 1: up and started firing into the British infantry from behind.
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  Speaker 1: The Major swore at this deception, ordering his cavalry to
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  Speaker 1: swarm the Indian cannons. This time, he made sure they
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  Speaker 1: stayed dead. Soon Major Wellesley's army forced their enemy into
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  Speaker 1: a retreat. They killed thousands of enemy soldiers, but at
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  Speaker 1: the cost of hundreds of dead and wounded of their own.
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  Speaker 1: Not that any of this affected Wellesley much. Over the
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  Speaker 1: next several years, he and his brother ruled India with
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  Speaker 1: an iron fist, strictly enforcing segregation between the Indian people
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  Speaker 1: and their own men, allowing very little intermingling to them.
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  Speaker 1: The Indians were a resource for Britain to exploit, and
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  Speaker 1: this attitude served Wellesley well throughout his career. At first
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  Speaker 1: he had very little sympathy for his enemy or the
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  Speaker 1: men under his command. He won stunning victories in Spain
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  Speaker 1: and then in France, where he famously defeated Napoleon at
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  Speaker 1: the Battle of Waterloo in eighteen fifteen. Soon he was
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  Speaker 1: better known throughout the Empire by his noble title, the
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  Speaker 1: Duke of Wellington. He even became Prime Minister two different times,
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  Speaker 1: where he was violently pro slavery and against social programs
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  Speaker 1: to help the poor. He was a big proponent of
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  Speaker 1: child labor, but the many battles would eventually take their toll.
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  Speaker 1: Later in his career, the Duke was seen weeping openly
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  Speaker 1: at the sight of casualties on the battlefield. When he
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  Speaker 1: was asked what he would have done differently in his career,
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  Speaker 1: he answered, I should have given more praise, as if
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  Speaker 1: to say he should have better appreciated the sacrifice of
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  Speaker 1: his troops. There was a curious way to admit that
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  Speaker 1: he had failed to learn the value of human life. Fortunately,
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  Speaker 1: most of us don't have to fight three separate wars
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  Speaker 1: across two different continents just to learn an obvious lesson
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  Speaker 1: like that ourselves. Ask any police detective and They'll tell
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  Speaker 1: you that anonymous tip lines can be crucial to solving
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  Speaker 1: an investigation. When people see wrongdoing they want to report it.
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  Speaker 1: They just have to find an in case conspicuous way
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  Speaker 1: of sharing what they know, which could be why in
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  Speaker 1: seventeen seventy two, an anonymous informant reached out to future
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  Speaker 1: Founding father Benjamin Franklin. He had vital information that could
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  Speaker 1: decide the course of a revolution, so in the dead
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  Speaker 1: of night he delivered a smoking gun that would lead
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  Speaker 1: to the shot heard round the world. In December of
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  Speaker 1: seventeen seventy two, Benjamin Franklin walked back to his house
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  Speaker 1: in London, England, to find a mysterious package on his doorstep. Franklin,
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  Speaker 1: you see, had been living in London for fifteen years
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  Speaker 1: as an agent for the House of Representatives of Massachusetts,
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  Speaker 1: so he was used to finding correspondence on his doorstep,
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  Speaker 1: but usually his letters bore a return address. He unwrapped
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  Speaker 1: the package and his eyes went wide. Inside were thirteen
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  Speaker 1: letters written by Thomas Hutchinsondy, new Royal Governor of Massachusetts,
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  Speaker 1: and his lieutenant Governor, Andrew Oliver. The letters were written
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  Speaker 1: about five years before, between seventeen sixty eight and seventeen
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  Speaker 1: sixty nine, a time period that Franklin knew had been
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  Speaker 1: one of social unrest in Boston, where Governor Hutchinson was stationed.
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  Speaker 1: In the letters, Hutchinson vents his frustration over the growing
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  Speaker 1: political tension in the colonies. The colonists were upset over
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  Speaker 1: taxes imposed by the British government on common goods like sugar, paper, glass,
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  Speaker 1: even playing cards, and yet the colonists themselves had no
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  Speaker 1: representation in Parliament. They called the taxes tyranny. The colonists
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  Speaker 1: grew so frustrated that in seventeen sixty five a group
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  Speaker 1: of angry over taxed rebels sacked the Governor's mansion, costing
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  Speaker 1: half a million dollars in damages in today's money.
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  Speaker 2: After that, protests.
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  Speaker 1: Became commonplace in Boston anti British sentiment grew. Hutchinson became
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  Speaker 1: worried that Boston was on the brink of an all
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  Speaker 1: out revolt. In these letters, he encouraged Parliament to send
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  Speaker 1: more troops to Boston and to give them the freedom
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  Speaker 1: to enact harsher punishments on colonial protesters. He also suggested
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  Speaker 1: that the Massachusetts government be restructure to give the governor
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  Speaker 1: more power. Franklin was shocked. He realized that these letters
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  Speaker 1: were the reason why a few years before, Parliament actually
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  Speaker 1: did send more troops to Boston, but instead of maintaining peace,
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  Speaker 1: the soldiers only exacerbated the tension between the patriots and
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  Speaker 1: those loyal to the crown. The tension reached a boiling
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  Speaker 1: point in seventeen seventy when a crowd of angry protesters
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  Speaker 1: gathered in front of the Old State House to harass
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  Speaker 1: the Red Coats that were stationed there. A few of
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  Speaker 1: them threw rocks, and to retaliate, nine British soldiers fired
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  Speaker 1: into the crowd, killing five colonists. After that, protests erupted
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  Speaker 1: in major cities like Boston and New York. Hutchinson had
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  Speaker 1: worried that the colonies were on the verge of a revolution,
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  Speaker 1: and now it seemed that his call for military intervention
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  Speaker 1: would be the cause of it. Franklin wanted to avoid
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  Speaker 1: that at all costs. He was actually neutral to the
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  Speaker 1: idea of independence. He believed that a compromise between the
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  Speaker 1: colonies and Parliament was possible, especially to a void a
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  Speaker 1: bloody revolution, and so he hatched a plan. He would
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  Speaker 1: show these letters to a few members of the Massachusetts
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  Speaker 1: Assembly and they would realize that Hutchinson was largely to
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  Speaker 1: blame for the escalating tensions in Boston. They could remove
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  Speaker 1: the governor and his lieutenant from office and find a
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  Speaker 1: path toward reconciliation with Parliament. And so Franklin sent the
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  Speaker 1: letters back to North America to Thomas Cushing, the speaker
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  Speaker 1: of the Assembly in Boston. He made it clear that
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  Speaker 1: Cushing was not to make the letters public for any reason.
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  Speaker 1: But months later Franklin learned that instead of keeping those
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  Speaker 1: letters private, the Massachusetts Assembly leaked them to the press,
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  Speaker 1: and the public took to the streets. Effigies of Hutchinson
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  Speaker 1: and Oliver were burned on the Boston Common. The letters
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  Speaker 1: were reprinted in newspapers up and down the coast, and
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  Speaker 1: when Parliament found out about it, all hell broke loose.
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  Speaker 1: They launched an all out investigation looking for the trader
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  Speaker 1: who sent the letters to Massachusetts, and eventually they pinned
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  Speaker 1: the blame on three innocent men. And that's when Franklin
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  Speaker 1: knew that he had to come forward and admit what
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  Speaker 1: he had done. As a result, he was hauled into
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  Speaker 1: the Privy consul chamber, where thirty five ministers of Parliament
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  Speaker 1: spent the better part of an hour dressing him down
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  Speaker 1: and berating him with insults. He tried to plead his case,
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  Speaker 1: but they wouldn't hear him. They called him a thief
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  Speaker 1: before dismissing him from his post. As Franklin turned to
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  Speaker 1: leave the chamber, he realized that Parliament would never compromise
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  Speaker 1: with the colonies, that revolution would be the only way forward.
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  Speaker 1: As he reached the chamber door, it said that he
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  Speaker 1: turned to the Solicitor General and he whispered, I will
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  Speaker 1: make your master a little king for this, and then
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  Speaker 1: he left and sailed home to Philadelphia. He soon rejoined
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  Speaker 1: the Continental Congress and helped Thomas Jefferson draft the Declaration
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  Speaker 1: of Independence. He never figured out who sent him the
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  Speaker 1: Hutchinson letters, though, but that unmarked package added fuel to
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  Speaker 1: a growing fire and a sparked a revolution the change
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  Speaker 1: the course of history. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided
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  Speaker 1: tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on
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  Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the show by visiting
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  Speaker 1: Curiosities podcast dot com. This show was created by me
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  Speaker 1: Aaron Mankey in partnership with how Stuff Works, I make
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  Speaker 1: another award winning show called Lore, which is a podcast,
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  Speaker 1: book series, and television show and you can learn all
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  Speaker 1: about it over at the Worldoflore dot com.
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  Speaker 2: And until next time, stay curious.