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Two hundred and fifty years ago — in 1776 — 13 American colonies declared independence from one of the most powerful empires in the world.

This ignited an eight-year war that claimed thousands of lives and ended in Britain’s defeat.

As the anniversary approaches, historian Lucy Worsley focuses on this period in history for the two-part series, “Lucy Worsley Investigates: The American Revolution,” which premieres at 8 p.m. Tuesday, April 7, on New Mexico PBS. The second part will air at 8 p.m. Tuesday, April 14. Both episodes will be available to stream on the PBS app.

“Digging into the past is a true joy for me. So often history gets written by the winners: lots of people know the U.S. side of the American Revolution but much fewer the British one,” Worsley says. “Interrogating amazing sources and meeting people who can shine a light on this hidden history, I can’t wait to share the forgotten and surprising story of how losing America affected Britain and beyond.”

Worsley spent months researching and found herself having some “a-ha” moments along the way.

“Firstly, I was amazed when I discovered that this terrorist called John the Painter (Aitken) had successfully planted a bomb in the Royal Navy dockyard in Portsmouth because he was doing that to disrupt the British Navy that was sending troops and food over to the American war. I had no idea that that kind of violence was happening on British soil,” she says.

“Secondly, something that really made me sit up and take notice was this fantastic espionage work that was done at the time by a spy called Edward Bancroft. He was right at the heart of Benjamin Franklin’s negotiations with the French, because I know you all appreciate in America that you won your war of independence with the help of the French, which was negotiated for you by Benjamin Franklin.

“But I was unaware that the British knew exactly what was going on in the salons of Paris when he was negotiating this because they had a spy on the ground who was sending these really detailed reports back to George II, saying, ‘Look, the Americans and the French are going to make a deal. The French are secretly sending supplies to the Americans. What are you going to do about that?’”

The series is broken into two parts. According to PBS, Part 1 sees Worsley head to New York’s City Hall Park, where George Washington’s troops heard the Declaration of Independence read aloud — a rallying cry that inspired rebels to destroy a statue of King George III and melt it into musket balls. The second part uncovers how the war reverberated in Britain itself. At Portsmouth Royal Dockyard, Worsley investigates Aitken’s shocking arson plot to cripple the Royal Navy. She traces Franklin’s secret mission to Paris to secure French support, while British spy Edward Bancroft fed intelligence back to London.

Worsley says she had fun getting to revisit history and hopes the series will inspire children to become historians.

“I hope that people will feel the intellectual satisfaction of following the argument, putting the pieces of the puzzle together to try to understand what happened. There’s much more to the American Revolutionary War than the battles. I mean, I don’t even cover the battles. I’m explaining the reasons for the battles in this show. I think that’s really intellectually satisfying,” she says.

“I hope it’ll tickle people’s brains, but I also hope that people will come with me on a journey through a story so things ramp up. There are twists, there are turns, there’s the breakup itself, and then there’s the war.

“That’s what I really, really hope — that some kids will become historians, that people will get intellectual satisfaction and people will find it emotionally engaging too.”