[Loosening Ties]
- 1763: England began to enforce a series of colonial policies
(A Decentralized Empire)
· George I (1714-1727) & George II (1727-1760): prime minister and cabinet (merchants and landholders) held real power -> feared tight grasping of colonies would ruin their profits -> loose, decentralized, inefficient administration of the colonies
· colonial assembly: authority to levy taxes, approve appointments, etc.
o sovereign regions
(The Colonies Divided)
· 1754: conflicts between French + Indian allies
· Franklin: set up a “general government” to manage relations with Indians
[The Struggle for the Continent]
· 1750s – 1760s: struggle between France and England
· Seven Year’s War – Britain won, confirming its commercial supremacy and control
(New France and the Iroquois Nation)
· France controlled Western America
o Quebec
o boundary: Montreal (south) <-> Detroit (west)
· French – “tolerance”; adjusted themselves to Indians
· Iroquois Confederacy: five Indian nations, defensive alliance
(Anglo-French Conflicts)
· after Glorious Revolution in England, Anglo-French relationship is worsen
· King William’s War (1689-1697) in northern New England
· Queen Anne’s War (1701-1713)
· Treaty of Utrecht (1713) closed all Anglo-French conflicts
· Anglo-Spanish conflicts
· (1749) French built fortresses in Ohio Valley
· (1754) Washington sent to challenged French -> Washington built Fort Necessity -> Washington’s unsuccessful attack -> French attacked Fort Necessity, trapping Washington and army inside -> after 1/3 died, Washington surrendered
o beginning of French and Indian war
(The Great War for the Empire)
· French and Indian war lasted almost 9 yrs
· (1754 – 1756) : local North American conflicts, with all tribes except Iroquois attacking English settlers
· (1756 – 1758) Seven Year’s War; broader scale of warfare into Europe
o William Pitt (English secretary of state) forcibly enlisting colonists -> known as impressment
o Officials seized supplies from local farmers and tradesmen, took houses for shelters of soldiers
o 1758 : British vs. Colonists
· (1758 - ) England’s favor
o Pitt offered to reimburse colonists
o French – outnumbered by English, poor harvests
o (1758) Jeffrey Amherst and James Wolfe – capture fortress at Louisbourg
o Fort Duquesne fell without a fight
o (1759) fall of Quebec
o (1760) French formally surrendered to Amherst in Montreal
o (1763) Peace of Paris
§ ceded Britain West Indian islands, most colonies in India and Canada, All French territory in North America (east of Mississippi) to Spain
· results:
o England’s expansion of land
o Britain’s debt
o British resentment of the Americans -> decide to increase authority over the colonies
o to-coming disasters of Native Americans
[The New Imperialism]
- seek to increase England’s administrative capacities in America
(Burdens of Empire)
· large war debt -> British is unwilling to pay more tax -> believed Americans should be taxed instead
· 1760 – George III
· George Grenville: named to be Prime Minister by king in 1763
o wanted colonists to obey the laws and pay taxes for Empire
(The British and the Tribes)
· Proclamation of 1763 – forbade settlers to advance beyond Appalachian mountains, fearing another war with Indians
o Indians supported it
o ineffective, as whites kept on moving
· 1768 – new agreement to set the boundary further west
(Battles over Trade and Taxes)
· Munity Act of 1765 – colonists are required to help maintaining the army
· Colonial manufacturing was restricted -> to avoid competition with Britain
· Sugar Act of 1764 – duty on sugar rose while duty on molasses was lowered
· Currency Act of 1764 – forbade issuing paper money
· Stamp Act of 1765 – tax on printed documents
- helped colonists to overcome internal conflicts
- helped colonists to recognize the problem of London gov. in the colony
- colonists’ grievances to England
[Stirring of Revolt]
- relationship became worse between England and the Colonies
(The Stamp Act Crisis)
- affected everyone (not just a specific group)
· (Patrick Henry) “Virginia Resolves” : the rights to be taxed is only by their representatives
· (James Otis) after Stamp Act of 1765, petition to get rid of the tax; should be taxed by their own provincial assemblies
· mob rising against the Stamp Act (and British Aristocrats)
· boycotts: many Englishmen stopped buying Eng. products after the Sugar Act of 1764
· 1766: new PM, Marquis of Rockingham
o repealed Stamp Act on 1766 March
o Declaratory Act: confirmed Parliamentary authority over the colonies
(The Townshend Program)
· king dismissed Rockingham -> William Pitt (Lord Chatham) -> in reality ruled by chancellor Charles Townshend
· American grievance to Mutiny Act of 1765 (requires colonists to shelter and supply British troops)
· Massachusetts and New York refused to vote for mandated supplies to the troops
o 1767: Townshend disbanded New York assembly until all colonists obey
o imposed new taxes (Townshend Duties) on goods imported to colonies from Eng.
§ colonies rejected it
· Townshend established new commissions -> ended lucrative smuggling of American merchants
o headquarter in Boston
o 1768: Boston (later with Philadelphia and New York, then later with Southern merchants and planters) boycotted against Eng.
· 1767: Townshend died
o 1770: new PM Lord North repealed all Townshend laws (except tea tax)
(The Boston Massacre)
· British gov. sent troops to regulate Boston -> poorly paid soldiers looked for jobs -> competition grew -> clashes
· March 5, 1770
o dockworkers threw rocks and snowballs to customs house
o Captain Thomas Preston ordered his men to line up front of the house
o some scuffling
o several British soldiers fired into the crowd, killing five
o colonial pamphlets caused sensual agitation on colonists
o Samuel Adams (1772) : Committee of Correspondence, accusing Eng.
(The Philosophy of Revolt)
· 1760s – challenging England authority, publicizing colonial grievances
o various reasons against British
· new concept: government should help protect corrupted humans from evil, as a safeguard
· England: power divided among three classes (monarchy, aristocracy, common people); government is a single, undivided unit (King and Parliament)
o Constitution is not fixed – changeable
· America: representation by every region; division of sovereignty
o did not accept flexible constitution
o No taxation without representation: right of people to be taxed only with their own consent
(Sites of Resistance)
· tavern culture (crucial growth of Revolutionary sentiment): alcohol, public place to discuss, companionship, political conversation
o esp. Massachusetts
· colonists seized British revenue ship on Delaware river
· 1772: Rhode Island residents sank British schooner
(The Tea Excitement)
· 1773: Britain’s East Indian Company had too many tea -> given rights to sell tea without taxation -> monopoly in colonial tea trade -> angered colonial merchants
o Lord North thought the colonists would be happy -> rather, it revived America about the issue of taxation without representation -> colonists boycotted tea (involved large segments of population)
· The Daughters of Liberty: “rather than Freedom, we’ll part with our Tea.”
· 1773: colonial leaders planned to prevent East India Company to land its cargoes
o Boston Tea Party: 1774, Dec. 16th – fifty men dressed up as Mohawk Indians, dumped tea into the ocean
· Britain’s reaction – Coercive Acts (“Intolerable Acts” in America):
o closing the port of Boston
o reducing the power of Massachusetts self-government
o permitting royal officials to be tried in colonies
o providing for the quartering the troops by the colonists
o Quebec Act – extended the boundaries of Quebec
§ legalized & granted political rights to Roman Catholics
§ colonists feared that it’s a plot to make colonists subject to the rule of Pope
· -> backfired at colonists; tension increased, anti-British sentiments
o Colonial legislature passed series of resolves supporting Massachusetts
o 1774: women in North Carolina declared their duty to do “everything as far as lies in our power” to support the “publick good”
[Cooperation and War]
- 1765: colonial leaders, organizations against Britain
(New Sources of Authority)
· 1774: at Williamburg, declared Intolerable Acts menacing liberties, called for Continental Congress
· 1774: First Continental Congress (except Georgia) in Philadelphia
o rejected colonial union under British authority
o demanded Britain to remove all oppressive laws that passed since 1763
o organized defensive military against British troops in Boston
o agreed boycott against Britain -> formation of “Continental Association”
o to meet again next spring
· 1775: “Conciliatory Propositions” – colonies would tax themselves at Parliament’s demand
o too little, too late
(Lexington and Concord)
· preparing for war “Minutemen” in Lexington
· Boston: General Thomas Gage hesitated -> later heard about minutemen -> 1775: sent 1,000 men to Lexington to seize illegal supplies without bloodshed
· Boston sensed it before -> William Dawes and Paul Revere organized minutemen -> gun fight, some minutemen died and wounded; many British died
· War for Independence began
- 1763: England began to enforce a series of colonial policies
(A Decentralized Empire)
· George I (1714-1727) & George II (1727-1760): prime minister and cabinet (merchants and landholders) held real power -> feared tight grasping of colonies would ruin their profits -> loose, decentralized, inefficient administration of the colonies
· colonial assembly: authority to levy taxes, approve appointments, etc.
o sovereign regions
(The Colonies Divided)
· 1754: conflicts between French + Indian allies
· Franklin: set up a “general government” to manage relations with Indians
[The Struggle for the Continent]
· 1750s – 1760s: struggle between France and England
· Seven Year’s War – Britain won, confirming its commercial supremacy and control
(New France and the Iroquois Nation)
· France controlled Western America
o Quebec
o boundary: Montreal (south) <-> Detroit (west)
· French – “tolerance”; adjusted themselves to Indians
· Iroquois Confederacy: five Indian nations, defensive alliance
(Anglo-French Conflicts)
· after Glorious Revolution in England, Anglo-French relationship is worsen
· King William’s War (1689-1697) in northern New England
· Queen Anne’s War (1701-1713)
· Treaty of Utrecht (1713) closed all Anglo-French conflicts
· Anglo-Spanish conflicts
· (1749) French built fortresses in Ohio Valley
· (1754) Washington sent to challenged French -> Washington built Fort Necessity -> Washington’s unsuccessful attack -> French attacked Fort Necessity, trapping Washington and army inside -> after 1/3 died, Washington surrendered
o beginning of French and Indian war
(The Great War for the Empire)
· French and Indian war lasted almost 9 yrs
· (1754 – 1756) : local North American conflicts, with all tribes except Iroquois attacking English settlers
· (1756 – 1758) Seven Year’s War; broader scale of warfare into Europe
o William Pitt (English secretary of state) forcibly enlisting colonists -> known as impressment
o Officials seized supplies from local farmers and tradesmen, took houses for shelters of soldiers
o 1758 : British vs. Colonists
· (1758 - ) England’s favor
o Pitt offered to reimburse colonists
o French – outnumbered by English, poor harvests
o (1758) Jeffrey Amherst and James Wolfe – capture fortress at Louisbourg
o Fort Duquesne fell without a fight
o (1759) fall of Quebec
o (1760) French formally surrendered to Amherst in Montreal
o (1763) Peace of Paris
§ ceded Britain West Indian islands, most colonies in India and Canada, All French territory in North America (east of Mississippi) to Spain
· results:
o England’s expansion of land
o Britain’s debt
o British resentment of the Americans -> decide to increase authority over the colonies
o to-coming disasters of Native Americans
[The New Imperialism]
- seek to increase England’s administrative capacities in America
(Burdens of Empire)
· large war debt -> British is unwilling to pay more tax -> believed Americans should be taxed instead
· 1760 – George III
· George Grenville: named to be Prime Minister by king in 1763
o wanted colonists to obey the laws and pay taxes for Empire
(The British and the Tribes)
· Proclamation of 1763 – forbade settlers to advance beyond Appalachian mountains, fearing another war with Indians
o Indians supported it
o ineffective, as whites kept on moving
· 1768 – new agreement to set the boundary further west
(Battles over Trade and Taxes)
· Munity Act of 1765 – colonists are required to help maintaining the army
· Colonial manufacturing was restricted -> to avoid competition with Britain
· Sugar Act of 1764 – duty on sugar rose while duty on molasses was lowered
· Currency Act of 1764 – forbade issuing paper money
· Stamp Act of 1765 – tax on printed documents
- helped colonists to overcome internal conflicts
- helped colonists to recognize the problem of London gov. in the colony
- colonists’ grievances to England
[Stirring of Revolt]
- relationship became worse between England and the Colonies
(The Stamp Act Crisis)
- affected everyone (not just a specific group)
· (Patrick Henry) “Virginia Resolves” : the rights to be taxed is only by their representatives
· (James Otis) after Stamp Act of 1765, petition to get rid of the tax; should be taxed by their own provincial assemblies
· mob rising against the Stamp Act (and British Aristocrats)
· boycotts: many Englishmen stopped buying Eng. products after the Sugar Act of 1764
· 1766: new PM, Marquis of Rockingham
o repealed Stamp Act on 1766 March
o Declaratory Act: confirmed Parliamentary authority over the colonies
(The Townshend Program)
· king dismissed Rockingham -> William Pitt (Lord Chatham) -> in reality ruled by chancellor Charles Townshend
· American grievance to Mutiny Act of 1765 (requires colonists to shelter and supply British troops)
· Massachusetts and New York refused to vote for mandated supplies to the troops
o 1767: Townshend disbanded New York assembly until all colonists obey
o imposed new taxes (Townshend Duties) on goods imported to colonies from Eng.
§ colonies rejected it
· Townshend established new commissions -> ended lucrative smuggling of American merchants
o headquarter in Boston
o 1768: Boston (later with Philadelphia and New York, then later with Southern merchants and planters) boycotted against Eng.
· 1767: Townshend died
o 1770: new PM Lord North repealed all Townshend laws (except tea tax)
(The Boston Massacre)
· British gov. sent troops to regulate Boston -> poorly paid soldiers looked for jobs -> competition grew -> clashes
· March 5, 1770
o dockworkers threw rocks and snowballs to customs house
o Captain Thomas Preston ordered his men to line up front of the house
o some scuffling
o several British soldiers fired into the crowd, killing five
o colonial pamphlets caused sensual agitation on colonists
o Samuel Adams (1772) : Committee of Correspondence, accusing Eng.
(The Philosophy of Revolt)
· 1760s – challenging England authority, publicizing colonial grievances
o various reasons against British
· new concept: government should help protect corrupted humans from evil, as a safeguard
· England: power divided among three classes (monarchy, aristocracy, common people); government is a single, undivided unit (King and Parliament)
o Constitution is not fixed – changeable
· America: representation by every region; division of sovereignty
o did not accept flexible constitution
o No taxation without representation: right of people to be taxed only with their own consent
(Sites of Resistance)
· tavern culture (crucial growth of Revolutionary sentiment): alcohol, public place to discuss, companionship, political conversation
o esp. Massachusetts
· colonists seized British revenue ship on Delaware river
· 1772: Rhode Island residents sank British schooner
(The Tea Excitement)
· 1773: Britain’s East Indian Company had too many tea -> given rights to sell tea without taxation -> monopoly in colonial tea trade -> angered colonial merchants
o Lord North thought the colonists would be happy -> rather, it revived America about the issue of taxation without representation -> colonists boycotted tea (involved large segments of population)
· The Daughters of Liberty: “rather than Freedom, we’ll part with our Tea.”
· 1773: colonial leaders planned to prevent East India Company to land its cargoes
o Boston Tea Party: 1774, Dec. 16th – fifty men dressed up as Mohawk Indians, dumped tea into the ocean
· Britain’s reaction – Coercive Acts (“Intolerable Acts” in America):
o closing the port of Boston
o reducing the power of Massachusetts self-government
o permitting royal officials to be tried in colonies
o providing for the quartering the troops by the colonists
o Quebec Act – extended the boundaries of Quebec
§ legalized & granted political rights to Roman Catholics
§ colonists feared that it’s a plot to make colonists subject to the rule of Pope
· -> backfired at colonists; tension increased, anti-British sentiments
o Colonial legislature passed series of resolves supporting Massachusetts
o 1774: women in North Carolina declared their duty to do “everything as far as lies in our power” to support the “publick good”
[Cooperation and War]
- 1765: colonial leaders, organizations against Britain
(New Sources of Authority)
· 1774: at Williamburg, declared Intolerable Acts menacing liberties, called for Continental Congress
· 1774: First Continental Congress (except Georgia) in Philadelphia
o rejected colonial union under British authority
o demanded Britain to remove all oppressive laws that passed since 1763
o organized defensive military against British troops in Boston
o agreed boycott against Britain -> formation of “Continental Association”
o to meet again next spring
· 1775: “Conciliatory Propositions” – colonies would tax themselves at Parliament’s demand
o too little, too late
(Lexington and Concord)
· preparing for war “Minutemen” in Lexington
· Boston: General Thomas Gage hesitated -> later heard about minutemen -> 1775: sent 1,000 men to Lexington to seize illegal supplies without bloodshed
· Boston sensed it before -> William Dawes and Paul Revere organized minutemen -> gun fight, some minutemen died and wounded; many British died
· War for Independence began
