HIST 1301 Topic Six:The American Revolution
A. The end of the French and Indian War (Seven Year’s War) created a fiscal crisis
in Britain. Compounding the crisis was the fact that an inexperienced king was on
the throne.
1. George III (1760-1820) was 22 years old when he becomes king
a. was the grandson of George II
b. insecure, not well-educated, socially isolated as a boy
c. frequent changes in his government meant no consistent policy
d. appoints as his first Prime Minister the Earl of Bute
2. Parliament does not respond well to the American Crisis
a. determined to maintain Parliamentary sovereignty
b. felt that the colonists had been pampered, now had to pay
3. American Government in 1763
a. Americans had been ruling themselves for nearly 150 yrs
b. royal governors shared power with the colonial assemblies
c. representative government was very important
d. differentiated between various kinds of taxes, direct vs. indirect
e. also argued different types of representation, actual vs. virtual
f. power viewed as dangerous, must keep power close to the people
(local as opposed to national)
g. also tied power to morality (Puritanism and the Great Awakening)
h. high literacy rate, and almost universal sufferage, helped the Americans
B. The Road to Revolution
1. Proclamation of 1763
a. no settlements or land grants beyond the Appalachian Mts.
b. Britain benefits from land sale
c. local population contained for easier taxation
2. Sugar Act 1764
a. George Grenville has replaced the Earl of Bute
b. taxed molasses imported from the Caribbean
c. also established Vice-Admiralty courts to try smugglers
d. devastating effect on the New England economy which was already
suffering
3. Stamp Act 1765
a. sole purpose was to raise money for Britain
b. must have a stamp for all printed documents
c. affected all of the colonies, not just New England
d. two responses, political and popular
e. popular response included the Sons of Liberty, boycotts
f. political response, Virginia Resolves and
g. Stamp Act Congress October 1765
h. Rockingham replaces Grenville as PM, act is repealed
4. Quartering Act 1765
a. assemblies must provide revenue to support soldiers
5. Declaratory Act 1766
a. Parliament is supreme, has power of taxation over colonies
6. Townsend Acts 1767
a. Rockingham was replaced by William Pitt
b. Pitt was in ill-health so real power held by Charles Townsend
c. “champagne” speech to Parliament
d. Townsend Acts taxed importation of paper, paint, glass, tea, lead
e. creates Board of Customs Commisioners
* customs officers would be English
* given power to confiscate “smuggled” cargo
* would then sell illegally back to importers
7. Huge protest to Townsend Acts
a. Non-Importation Agreements
b. boycotss
c. Daughters of Liberty
8. Boston Massacre March 1770
a. over 10,000 British soldiers stationed in the colonies
b. Quartering Act demanded that colonies support them
c. supposedly to protect frontier, but stationed on the coast
d. also there to protect new English customs officers
e. in Boston, compete with laborers for jobs
f. massacre occurs when panicked soldiers fire into a mob
g. both sides shocked into peace
9. Townsend Act is repealed
a. except for the tax on tea
10. For next three years, relatively calm
a. trade resumes
b. no real protests
c. English customs officers do remain in the colonies
d. very important, Committees of Correspondence formed
11. Boston Tea Party
a. Parliament passes the Tea Act
b. Americans are outraged, sneaky way to pay the tax on tea
c. East India tea ships not allowed to unload
d. In Boston, tea was dumped overboard
e. huge economic loss (also environmental impact)
f. this was the straw that broke the camel’s back
C. The Shot Heard Round the World (from Concord Hymn, Ralph Emerson)
By the rude bridge that arched the flood,
Their flag to April's breeze unfurled,
Here once the embattled farmers stood,
And fired the shot heard round the world
1. British response to the Tea Party was the Coercive Acts
a. Americans called them the Intolerable Acts
2. Parliament also passed the Quebec Act
a. attempt to hinder westward expansion of Americans
3. After Colonial Assemblies ordered to disband, Committees of
Correspondence take over
4. Will meet in Philadelphia, September 1774
5. First Continental Congress
a. 55 delegates from the 13 colonies
b. response to the Coercive Acts
c. allowed the colonial leaders to meet
6. George III’s response was to declare a state of rebellion
7. Concord and Lexington
a. American farmers meet Gen. Gage’s British regulars
b. first battle of the Revolution
c. will have minor skirmishes for the next year and a half
8. Second Continental Congress
a. meets at Philadelphia, May 1775
b. declares itself the new government for the colonies
c. remember, this is not yet a war for independence
d. sends Olive Branch Petition to the king (July 1775)
e. issues Declaration of Causes and Necessities of Taking Up Arms
against Great Britain (July 1775)
9. Common Sense, Thomas Paine
a. public appeal for independence
b. Thomas Jefferson chosen to write a document that would formally sever
ties to Great Britain
c. Declaration of Independence issued and signed on July 4
D. The War
1. General Howe replaced General Gage is the spring of 1775
2. War really begins after the Declaration of Independence is signed
3. remember the war is also a civil war, many Americans support Britain
4. Washington’s early strategy was to avoid a pitched battle
5. another advantage for the Americans, Howe was an idiot
6. British easily capture New York, but remain encamped there
Howe could have ended the Revolution here
7. Howe captures Philadelphia October 1777, huge loss, but offset by
8. Battle of Saratoga, October 1777, British army under Burgoyne defeated
a. turning point of the war
b. no reinforcement from Canada
c. prevented the northern states being cut off from the south
d. Horatio Gates and Benedict Arnold were the commanders
e. French declare war on Britain
f. meant that Britain had to fight in several theatres now
9. Focus of the war switches to the south
10. Savannah taken by the British December 1778
11. Charleston taken by the British May 1780
12. The war stalls for the British and Howe is replaced by Cornwallis
13. cannot pacify the south, Cornwallis moves his army to Yorktown
14. trapped there by the Continental Army and the French Navy
15. war is over
E. Aftermath
1. How did a bunch of farmers defeat the strongest military power in the
world?
2. results for the native Americans
3. what happened to the Loyalists?
4. was the American Revolution a conservative or a liberal revolution?