Topic 1: The American Revolution
The nature of colonial America
Spanish Empire: mainly central and southern America and Caribbean
1519-21 Cotes defeats Aztecs of Mexico
1532-33 Pizarro defeats Incas of Peru
early 18C includes New Mexico, Texas, Florida, BUT constant conflict with Indians
essentially outposts of southern empire
French imperial ambitions and territories:
Begins with northern trading posts: fishing and furs
Establish forts from St Lawrence river to the Gulf of Mexico
1682 establish Louisiana, 1718 New Orleans founded
BUT not economically viable: value of trade less than cost of defending them
“We should never delude ourselves that our colonies on the [American] continent ... could ever rival
the neighbouring English colonies in wealth, nor could be very lucrative, for with the exception of the
fur trade, the extent of which is limited and the profits continually declining, these colonies can
furnish only goods similar to those of Europe at higher prices and or poorer quality.”
A French colonial governor, writing in 1748
English colonies
New England
1630s protestant emigrés from eastern England fleeing Laudian popery
Farmers, artisans, craftsmen, Godly folk so a wide franchise
Self-governing colonies, but not democratic
1629 John Winthrop (Suffolk lawyer and landowner) elected Governor of Massachusetts Bay
Company (HQ in America, not London, so only American puritans can buy shares)
Township settlements, farming communities, few slaves and then only as family servants
Middle colonies
Conquered from other European settlers: 1664 James, Duke of York sends expedition to conquer New
Netherland, seizes New Amsterdam; Dutch settlers allowed to remain
 New York also accepts French Huguenots, Jews
1674 New Jersey carved out of NY to reward James II’s pals
1664 Delaware conquered from Dutch and Swedes
1681 William Penn granted land by Charles II in settlement of debts
 Penn allows religious toleration
Southern colonies
1625 Charles I proclaims Virginia a royal colony: appoints governor and council
BUT governor creates Assembly of Burgesses to ensure consent
Nature of authority fuzzy from the start
1642-76 Sir William Berkeley governor of Virginia
Encourages royalists to settle and younger sons of English landed gentry
Southern elite adopt British social customs
50 acres of land granted to anyone who could pay for his passage across the Atlantic
Followed by indentured servants (paid for their passage by working for a master on arrival)
1670s, settlers from Barbados establish Carolina and use slaves to harvest tobacco and rice
 Slavery legalised to encourage emigration from Barbados where land supplies limited
 Dwindling supply of European labour and death of white settlers means colonies turn to
slaves
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Topic 1: The American Revolution
Failure of Charleston authorities to protect northerners from Indians leads to separation
 Northern administrative centre already established at Albemarle in 1690s
 1712: separation legalised
The Indian nations
The powerful Indian nations entrenched on the ridge of the Appalachian Mountains held the balance
among the colonial powers on the North American continent. The Six Nations of the Iroquois are best
known, but the great tribes southward along the ridge were almost as influential – the Cherokees, the
Choctaws, and the Chickasaws
The Cherokees were generally more friendly with the English, but the other two Indian nations were
dominated by the Spanish and French.
French-Indian relations better than British-Indian relations
 Fewer French settlers (70,000 compared to 1,500,000 British) so less of a threat to Indian land
 French want to trade rather than settle
Governor Glen of South Carolina recognized the role of the Indian nations in the contest among the
outposts of Spanish, French, and English dominions. He believed that a strong English alliance with
the Cherokees in this instance would insure tranquillity for Carolina.
Navigation Acts, 1651, 1660, 1673
 All trade in British manned and built ships [1]
 All exports of certain commodities to Britain, where some were re-exported [2]
 High tariffs on goods imported to colonies from anywhere other than Britain
 Colonies can’t develop industries or trade to compete with Britain
 Limits on the production of colonial currency
The impact of the first “world war”: Seven Years’ War, 1756-63
France no longer a threat to the American colonies
Britain’s debts: National Debt 1756: £60m; 1764: £133m
 Taxation disparity: average annual taxation paid: Englishman £1/5/0; American £0/0/6
 Customs duties widely ignored: American customs cost more to enforce than they raised
 British “benign neglect” (Burk) of Americans makes colonists used to self-government
May 1763 to Nov 1764 Pontiac’s Indian rebellion
 suppressed by British troops: only four colonies assist
 Britain concludes that colonists no good at fighting and blame them for provoking Pontiac
 Standing army necessary to prevent further trouble
October 1763 Proclamation Line
 No colonial expansion west of Alleghenies/Appalachians
 British want colonists to expand into Canada and Florida
 If colonists expand westwards they will be impossible to control once over the mountains
 Westward expansion will involve conflict with Indians which British will have to police
Constitutional disagreement
“Either the colonies’ representative institutions were subordinate to Britain’s and could be ignored or
overridden by Parliament at will, or they were of equal standing, in which case the colonies were
effectively sovereign entities, independent in all but name.”
Howard Temperley, Britain and America since Independence, Basingstoke, 2002, p. 10
The Stamp Act crisis, 1765
Stamp Act introduced by George Grenville: duty paid on legal documents, newspapers etc.
October 1765: Stamp Act Congress meets in New York City
Delegates from 9 colonies: Mass; RI; Conn; NY; NJ; Penn; Del; Maryland; SC
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Topic 1: The American Revolution
Stamp Act
 Proves unenforceable and repealed in 1766
 Declaratory Act asserts British sovereignty over America
William Pitt had resigned in 1761
 absent from the House when the Stamp Act was passed
 upheld Parliament’s right to legislate for the colonies
 agreed with the Americans that this right did not extend to taxation
 died 1778
1766 Pitt joins ministry of Rockingham, as Earl of Chatham in Lords
 Less influence over government policy
1767 Revenue Act, of Charles Townshend (Chancellor of Exchequer)
 Imposes import duties on tea, paper, glass, lead, paint
 Collection of taxation more efficient, therefore more resented
 Boston becomes centre of resistance; attacks on customs officials and customs warehouses
 British troops increasingly withdrawn from frontier to the coastal towns – become obvious to
Americans that they are there to police Americans rather than guard the colonies
1770 Lord North becomes British PM: “a mind a narrow as the neck of a vinegar cruet” Dr Johnson
March 1770 Boston “Massacre” provides American media with martyrs
December 1773 The Boston Tea-party
 North aims to assist East India Company by allowing it to export tea to America without
paying duty on its arrival in Britain
 Tea would be cheaper than smuggled Dutch tea which would encourage Americans to
consume it and pay the revenue tax
 A number of men, dressed and painted as Red Indians, boarded the India Company’s teaships in Boston harbour and emptied all the tea-chests into the sea
 To punish this act of violence and contempt of authority the English Government declared the
port of Boston closed, and took away the Charter of the colony
1774 Coercive Acts/Intolerable Acts in response to Boston Tea Party
1. Boston Port Act
 port closed until East India Company compensated
2. Massachusetts Government Act
 Charter abrogated
 Governor’s Council now appointed not selected by Assembly
 Governor given greater control over local government and magistrates
3. Administration of Justice Act
 British officials enforcing unpopular measures could be tried elsewhere or in London
4. Quartering Act
 Governor empowered to requisition uninhabited buildings for quartering soldiers
5. Quebec Act (not part of the group, but seen by the colonists as such)
 All territory N and W of Ohio under Canadian rule: clashes with colonists’ aims
 Toleration granted to Roman Catholics
 Ensures loyalty of Canada to Britain
5 Sept 1774 The First Continental Congress meets in Philadelphia
 55 delegates from all the colonies (except Georgia, at war with Creek Indians)
 NY, Penn, NJ want to renegotiate relations with British crown
 Mass, Virginia want end of parliamentary sovereignty over colonies
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Topic 1: The American Revolution
27 Sept 1774 unanimous agreement to stops imports from England
No exports to Britain from 10 Sept 1775
Continental Association established to enforce obedience
 Implementation patchy
 much violence against loyalists, including tarring and feathering
British government believes force will defeat a few radicals, despite warnings from colonial
authorities that colonists’ grievances widely supported
The American War of Independence (1775-1783)
April 1775 Skirmishes at Lexington and Concord
10 May 1775 Second Continental Congress at Philadelphia
 Establish a Continental Army
 Continue to petition Britain for redress of grievances
15 June 1775 Washington appointed commander of the army
 Massachusetts keen on a Virginian to bind the loyalty of the south
 Washington had military experience from the Seven Years’ War
June 1775 Battle of Bunker’s Hill, a height on the peninsula which commands Boston, the English
dislodged the colonists after some desperate fighting
October 1775 Sir William Howe replaces Gage as British commander-in-chief
Early 1776 British hire German mercenaries to fight
January 1776 Tom Paine publishes Common Sense – Addressed to the Inhabitants of America
 Blames George III for wanting to destroy American liberty
 Advocates independence under a republican government
1776 General Howe evacuated Boston
 English had never again any real hold on the Northern States
July 1776 Declaration of Independence
British strategy for 1777: cut the colonies in two
 Army from Canada to move down via Lake Champlain towards New York
 Howe to move from New York to join up with Burgoyne
17 October 1777 Burgoyne surrenders to Gates at Saratoga
1777 Battle of Brandywine Creek
 Howe defeats Washington and takes Philadelphia, but fail to follow up this success
1777-78 Washington’s bleak winter in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania
6 February 1778 French-US treaty
 America most favoured nation status
 French rejects any claim to Canada
 France agrees not to make peace until US independence recognised by Britain
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Topic 1: The American Revolution
Major naval threat to Britain’s world-wide empire
 Britain needs to defend home islands, West Indies, India, North America
 British fleet: 94 ships
 French, Spanish and Dutch combined fleet: 137 ships
Feb 1778 Lord North’s Reconciliation Bill, granting the Colonists all their demands except
independence, but rejected by Americans
12 April 1779 Spain joins France in support of the USA
 Aims to recapture Gibraltar
 Jan 1780 Royal Navy defeats Spanish off Gibraltar
Feb 1780 League of Armed Neutrality formed by Catherine II of Russia
 prevent the English from exercising the right of searching their vessels for contraband of war
 Prussia, Denmark, Sweden, Portugal, Austria, Naples
Dec 1780 Britain declares war on the Dutch
1780 Britain’s domestic difficulties
April Commons passes Dunning’s resolution against royal power
June Anti-Catholic Gordon Riots: 10-day pillage spree; 300-700 killed
Post-Saratoga: British strategy concentrates on the south: more strongly loyalist
1781 Lord Cornwallis attempting to move north from South Carolina
 BUT cut off from supplies by Washington on land and the French fleet by sea
 surrendered at Yorktown, 19 Oct 1791
March 1782 North resigns
April 1782 Rodney defeated the French who were threatening Jamaica
 Improves Britain’s negotiating position with the French
1783 The Treaty of Versailles: England, France, Spain, and the United States
 Britain formally recognized the independence of the United States
 Britain surrenders territory from Ohio River to Great Lakes
 Continental Congress to recommend to the states that loyalists whose property had been
seized be compensated
 [failure of states to pay compensation used by British to justify not leaving nine frontier posts
in US territory]
 Pondicherry, with other small possessions in India, was given back to France
 Spain recovered Florida and Minorca
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Topic 1: The American Revolution
The impact of the American Revolution
a) Influence on French Revolution
 “Governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of
the governed.” Declaration of Independence
 Financial problems of the French monarchy
b) US constitutional provisions
 Colonial governments have separation of powers: royal governor and elected assemblies
 George III’s “absolutism” blamed for revolutionary crisis: “The history of the present
King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct
object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these states.” 18 faults attributed to
George III
 Article 2 of the Bill of Rights (adopted by Congress, September 1789)
“A well-regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the
people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.”
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