Chapter 5
The Strains of
Empire
The American People, 6th ed.
I.
The Climactic Seven
Years’ War
War and the Management
of Empire
 Four times between 1689 and 1763,
England and France engaged in wars
that had far-reaching effects on their
colonial governments in America.
 Besides warmongering, the English
Parliament designated a long list of
colonial exports that had to pass through
English ports before sale.
Outbreak of Hostilities
 English encroachment into the western
territories of the French continued unabated into
the 1740s with the establishment of the first
English outpost on the Ohio River.
 Resistance by the French was swift; a line of
French forts appeared along the river to Lake
Erie.
 The European powers reinforced themselves in
preparation for a final conflict in the New World.
Tribal Strategies and Consequences of
the Seven Years’ War
 Native tribes, especially the Iroquois, understood
that their best chance for survival was to play the
European powers against each other.
 The 1763 Treaty of Paris gave Britain control of
Florida; Spain got New Orleans and French
territory west of the Mississippi; the Indians got
nothing.
 The wartime economy and English victory
strengthened the colonies and assured their
continued growth
II. The Crisis with England
Sugar, Currency, and the
Stamp Act Riots
 Sugar Act of 1764: increased the list of items
that could only be exported from the colonies via
English ports.
 Currency Act of 1764: Parliament prevented any
of the colonies from printing their own currency.
 Stamp Act of 1765: Parliament imposed duties
on a wide range of items within the colonies
such as playing cards, legal documents, or
college degrees.
 Violent protests within the colonies followed.
 Parliament repealed the Stamp Act in 1766 but
reserved power to subjugate colonies to British
law under the Declaratory Act.
Gathering Storm Clouds
 Townsend Duties of 1767 on paper, lead,
pigment and tea.
 New York assembly dissolved for defiance of
Quartering Act of 1765 mandating colonial
support for British garrisons.
 Protest against the Townsend duties gradually
took the successful form of economic boycott
of English goods.
 Growing tensions led to the Boston Massacre,
increased boycotts and the Boston Tea Party.
 In response to the boycotts and wanton
destruction of English tea in Boston’s
harbor, Parliament passed the Coercive
Acts (Intolerable Acts) closing the port of
Boston and prohibiting most town
meetings.
 This action prompts the call for a First, and
then Second, Continental Congress to
deliver colonial grievances to an
unsympathetic king.
 By 1774, most of the colonies had defied
the crown and appointed new assemblies.
III. The Ideology of
Revolutionary Government
 Gradually, the colonists constructed a
political worldview constructed from
English political thought, the constructs of
the Enlightenment, and aspects of their
own unique experiences as colonists.
 Every despised Act of Parliament
became viewed as an attack on
traditional English liberty and colonial
economic independence.
IV. The Turmoil of a
Rebellious People
 Although cities contained only five percent
of the total colonial population, they were
the birthplaces of revolutionary theory.
 Patriot women facilitated meaningful
boycotts of English goods.
 Rural rebellion from farmers under the
guise of the Regulators demanded the
attention of English troops on the colonial
frontier.