The Empire Under Strain
Chapter 4
Distance
•
•
After Glorious Revolution (1688) England
made no serious effort to tighten control
over colonies
Kings Control
Distance (cont.)
•
Mercantilist Laws
–
i. Navigation Acts
•
Loose Policy
– Robert Walpole, PM, believed that little
control was good
•
First American Assemblies
•
Improving
Communication
– Trade = roads and
seaports
•
Still Weak
– Ben Franklin
proposes Albany
Plan
•
Ben Franklin proposes Albany Plan
– “one general gov.”
The War Before the War
•
French and Iroquois
– French and English coexisted peacefully for
nearly a century
•
Tensions arise
–
Louis XIV wishes to
expand empire
• Iroquois Confederacy
– five Indian nations
• Ohio Valley
– French claimed it
Fake Smile
•
More Drama in Europe!
– William of Orange takes
over England
– France = Catholic ;
Spain = Catholic ;
•
More Drama in Europe! Cont’d
–
Queen Anne (William’s sister in law) ascends
the throne 1702
–
France + Prussia vs. England + Austria = King
George’s War 1744-1748
•
Phase One: French
Indian War (aka
Seven Year’s War)
–
Fort Necessity
Debacle
–
Weak British
Assistance
–
Indian Raids
•
Phase Two: French
Indian War
–
Intercontinental
•
–
Fighting in Europe,
W.Indies, and India
William Pitt:
America Under
British Control
•
Phase Three: French Indian War
– Pitt agrees to reimburse the colonists for all
supplies taken during the war
•
Turning the Tide
– French were always outnumbered
•
Peace of Paris
– French give some West Indian islands
•
Effects
–
English Perspective
•
–
Greatly expanded England’s territory in New World
Colonists Perspective
•
–
colonial assemblies
Native perspective
•
Ohio Valley natives: disastrous because allied with
French = enemies with Britain
From Rash Recovery to
Rebellion
• King George III
– ascended to
throne in 1760
•
King George III Cont’d
– Marquis of
Rockingham succeeds
Grenville as PM in July
1765
– William Pitt becomes
PM (again) 1766
– Lord North becomes
PM 1767
•
Post War Policies
–
Proclimation of 1763 (Grenville) forbid
settlers to advance beyond a line drawn
along the Appalacian Mts.
British Incentives:
–
•
–
–
control west. movement of colonial pop.
Cherokee supported it, hoped to end white
expansion west
Colonial Response:
•
Post War Policies Cont’d
–
Sugar Act of 1764 (Grenville)
•
British Incentives:
•
Colonial Response;
–
–
hampered trade
Currency Act of 1764 (Grenville)
•
stop issuing paper money
•
Post War Policies Cont’d
–
–
Stamp Act of 1765 (Grenville)
imposed a tax on most printed documents in the
colonies: newspapers, almanacs, pamphlets, deeds,
wills, licenses
British Incentives:
–
•
–
Profit
Colonists Response:
•
–
taxes prior were intended to raise commerce, this one raised
money
British Response to Colonial Response
(Rockingham):
•
New gov’t convinces king to end the Stamp Act in 1766
•
Post War Policies Cont’d
–
Declaratory Act 1766 (Rockingham)
•
–
asserted Parliament’s authority over the colonies “in
all cases whatsoever”
Mutiny Act of 1765 (Grenville)
•
colonists required to assist in the provisioning and
maintaining of the army
•
British Incentives:
–
•
stop smugglers
Colonial response:
–
trade limited, businesses go bankrupt
•
Post War Policies Cont’d
–
–
Townshend Acts 1767
•
disbanded NY assembly
•
1st Colonial Response:
British Response (North; Townshend dead):
–
repeals
•
The Boston Massacre (the “snowball”
effect)
–
Townshend Acts had taken toll:
–
March 5, 1770 snowball fight turns into Boston
Massacre killing 5
Angry colonial propaganda by colonial writers
fuel a fire (Samuel Adams)
–
•
The Boston Tea Party
–
–
–
Strict enforcement of Nav. Acts + continued
British presence = rev. sentiment
In RI angry residents board the British
schooner Gaspee and set in on fire
1773 British East India Company had a
surplus of Tea, in response British
government passed the Tea Act (1773)
•
The Boston Tea Party Cont’d
– Many colonists responded by not buying tea:
boycott
– Women
– Bostonians
– Coercive Acts 1774 (North)
– Closed the port of Boston
– Colonist propaganda referred to these acts as
the “Intolerable Acts”
•
Quebec Act 1774 (North)
– object was to provide a civil government for the
French-speaking Roman Catholic inhabitants of
Canada and the Illinois country
Cooperation and War
•
•
•
The First Continental Congress
Sept. 1774, Carpenter’s Hall,
Philadelphia
Major Decisions:
First Battles: Lexington and
Concord
• For months, farmers and townspeople had
been gathering ammunitions and training
as “minutmen”... preparing to fight on a
minutes notice
Why the Revolution started: where
historians disagree
• Brinkley (Greenville upset almost
everyone) v. Zinn (“rich v. poor,” or the
elitist theory)
• Brinkley
– common grievances to Grenville policies
• Zinn
– Propaganda used by welathy to deflect
attention on England
– Locke was a racist, an elitist, and supported
child labor