TAP Chapters 5 - 6: Imperialism and Mercantilism in Colonial
America
Essential Questions:
How does the revolutionary thinking of the 1700s reflect Enlightenment sentiment?
How would rationalism affect religion, political thought and structure, and education
in the colonies?
What effect did salutary neglect have on the development of American identity?
How did the French and Indian War reveal this rapidly developing identity?
How might the Proclamation of 1763 have shaped colonial attitudes toward the
British government?
The Enlightenment Comes to America
At the end of the 17th century, the Age of Enlightenment emerged in Europe,
championing the cause of rationalism. Scientists and philosophers including Isaac
Newton, John Locke, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau encouraged a new focus on intellect
and science and announced that humans could arrive at truth through reason. By
the early 1700s, the colonists began to embrace the ideals of rationalism.
How would rationalism affect religion, political thought and structure, and education
in the colonies? How does this new focus on reason shape the history of the Revolution?
As we study the history of the Revolution, where can we see evidence of rationalist
sentiment in the colonies?
Politics and Economics in Colonial America
Throughout the 17th and 18th century, England embraced mercantilism, the
economic philosophy thriving throughout Europe that advocated national economic
self-sufficiency by developing a favorable balance of trade and taking advantage of
colonies to develop raw materials and closed markets for the “mother country.” In
facilitation of this policy, England passed the Navigation Acts (1650-1673) to
restrict colonial trade with foreign nations and to require colonial exports to pass
through Great Britain before meeting other markets and the Molasses Act (1733) to
specifically curb trade between the English colonies and the French West Indies.
This led to specific trading patterns across the Atlantic, including the triangle trade,
which facilitated the slave trade. However, throughout the 1700s, England
practiced salutary neglect, a period in which Great Britain avoided strict
enforcement of these laws in the colonies.
What effect did salutary neglect have on the development of American identity?
Similarly, in the political arena of the colonial era, the colonies enjoyed relatively
little direct oversight from Parliament up until the French and Indian War. Most
colonies featured a bicameral legislature. Colonists enjoyed growing libraries and
read colonial newspapers. In the Zenger Trial, a famous case in 1735 centering
around the legality of libel, Alexander Hamilton succeeded in defending John Zenger
by leading the jury to assert that “truth” was a defense in libel trials, evidence that
colonists were steadily embracing ideals of liberty and the freedom of the press.
Colonists were growing comfortable with the notion of political protest, as
evidenced by the Paxton Boys and the Regulator Movement.
Imperial Wars and America
As Spain, England and France each struggled to establish territorial dominance in
North America, a series of imperial wars (conflicts focused around establishing
empire) occurred, including King Williams War, Queen Anne’s War, the War of
Jenkin’s Ear, and King George’s War. The French and Indian War (1754-1763),
fought between Britain and France with Native Americans fighting on both sides,
would have the greatest impact on the future of the American Colonies.
By the mid 1700s, France had established land holdings and several growing
colonies in present-day Canada and the Northern Midwest, where they focused on
developing diplomacy with the natives to facilitate the burgeoning trade in beaver
pelts. Conflicts broke out along the border between British and French land
holdings as each struggled for land holdings, and one of the most prominent British
leaders was George Washington. The conflict soon spread across the Atlantic and
became known as the Seven Years’ War. The English colonists were reluctant to
mobilize, but the British government finally convinced them to participate by
promising that they would not have to finance the conflict. As Great Britain fought
against France abroad, Benjamin Franklin tried to unite the colonists to sign the
Albany Plan of Union at the Albany Congress in an effort to raise colonial taxes to
employ a colonial army. Although his efforts were unsuccessful, they led to one of
the most famous images in American history: the first political cartoon, “Join or Die.”
The Treaty of Paris formally ended the war in 1763, with France ceding Canada
and the Ohio River Valley to Britain, but the conflict had left the British government
with a crushing load of debt. William Pitt, who had promised the colonists they
would not have to bear the financial burden of the war, now looked to the colonists
to help shoulder the debt. Why is this important? The war also sowed seeds of
friction between British soldiers and colonial militiamen and caused increased
military confidence among the English colonists.
Following the Treaty of Paris, an Ottawa chief named Pontiac who was unhappy
with British land policies in the Ohio River Valley following the War led an attack on
English forts and settlements before falling to the British. Following these attacks,
which came to be known as Pontiac’s Rebellion, the British sought to curb violence
between Natives, colonists and soldiers by passing the Proclamation of 1763,
which created a boundary between colonists and Natives along the Appalachian
Mountains.
How might the Proclamation of 1763 have shaped colonial attitudes toward the
British government?
Notable Demographics of Pre-Revolutionary America
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Most Americans were farmers.
Social and economic mobility was possible, even among the steady numbers
of indentured servants.
A growing elite class emerged (many of whom made fortunes in military
supplies) and became extremely socially visible.
Despite the social mobility, the slave class continued to grow as a result of
the triangle trade.
Colonies were either royal or proprietary by the mid 1700s.
Education was becoming increasingly secular (ex. UPenn founded with
secular, rather than religious, goals).
Jean de St. Crevecoeur noted a “strange mixture of blood” in America by the
mid-1700s that was unlike anything found in Europe.
The two predominant churches in colonial America up to the Great
Awakening were the Congregational Church, which grew out of the Puritan
churches of New England, and the Anglican Church, common throughout the
Chesapeake and South. After the Great Awakening, a number of new
denominations emerged.