The Empire Under Strain
Chapter 4
Distance
After Glorious Revolution (1688) England
made no serious effort to tighten control
over colonies
Kings Control
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Colonies
i. New Jersey 1702
ii. North and South Carolina 1729
iii. Georgia 1754
Distance (cont.)
Mercantilist Laws
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i. Navigation Acts
ii. restricting colonial manufactures
iii. prohibiting paper currency
iv. regulating trade
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Loose Policy
– Robert Walpole, PM, believed that little
control was good
– Few officials visit America
– Colonial appointments came from bribery or
favoritism
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First American Assemblies
– 1750s claim right to levy taxes, make
appropriations, approve appointments and
pass laws
– Colonists continue to think of themselves as
loyal English subjects
– England only tie
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Improving
Communication
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Trade = roads and
seaports
colonial postal service
Still Weak
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1754 when faced with
war against French and
Indians British gov.
allows delegates from
Penn., Mary., NY, NE to
meet in Albany
Ben Franklin proposes
Albany Plan
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Ben Franklin proposes Albany Plan
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“one general gov.”
“retain it’s present constitution”
“president general”
It was REJECTED / Failure to agree.... Ben
Franklin exclaims that colonists are a bunch of
“weak noodles”
The War Before the War
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French and Iroquois
– French and English coexisted peacefully
for nearly a century
– French deep in continent
– French Jesuits
– French men married natives
Tensions arise
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Louis XIV wishes to
expand empire
“Louis”iana
Battle for N.A would
be determined by
which group could
best win the
allegiance of natives:
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English offered goods
French offered
tolerance
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Iroquois Confederacy
– five Indian nations
– Unified
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Ohio Valley
– French claimed it
– Indians lived there
– English colonists begin
to expand into it
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More Drama in Europe!
– William of Orange takes
over England
– William is one of Louis
XIV’s biggest enemies
Louis wants to expand
and William opposes
him (King William’s War
1689-1697)
– France = Catholic ;
Spain = Catholic ; Spain
+ France = Powerful
Allies
More Drama in Europe! Cont’d
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Queen Anne (William’s sister in law) ascends
the throne 1702
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Queen Anne’s War 1701-1713
border fighting with Spanish in South
border fighting with French to Northwest
France + Prussia vs. England + Austria = King
George’s War 1744-1748
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Iroquois begin trading with English, thus English
move west
French set up forts in response in the Ohio Valley
Phase One: French
Indian War (aka Seven
Year’s War)
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Fort Necessity Debacle
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Weak British Assistance
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Fort Necessity
George Washington’s
troops forced to surrender
General Edward Braddock
failed in 1755 to stop a
fleet of French
reinforcements
ambush leaves Braddock
dead and troops in
disarray
Indian Raids
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all Indian tribes (except
Iroquois) allied with
French
Phase Two: French
Indian War
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Intercontinental
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Fighting in Europe,
W.Indies, and India
Principal Struggle in
North America
William Pitt:
America Under
British Control
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impressment
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housing/quartering
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Phase Three: French Indian War
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Turning the Tide
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Pitt agrees to reimburse the colonists for all supplies
taken during the war
Returned control of military recruitment to the colonial
assemblies
French were always outnumbered
Poor Harvests 1756
Scalp bounties = brutal raids as counter attack
Peace of Paris
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French give some West Indian islands
Gave Canada and all other French territory east of the
Mississippi to Great Britain
Ceded New Orleans and all lands west of the
Mississippi to Spain
Effects
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English Perspective
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Colonists Perspective
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Greatly expanded England’s territory in New World
Enlarged Britain’s debt
Officials in England angry about colonists
Particularly bitter at colonists
colonial assemblies
illegitimacy of British presence
British perceived as arrogant
Native perspective
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Ohio Valley natives: disastrous because allied with French =
enemies with Britain
Iroquois: mistrust from British because of inaction during
war
outnumbered and unorganized
From Rash Recovery to
Rebellion
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King George III
– ascended to throne
in 1760
– age twenty-two
– suffered from bouts
of insanity
– nominates George
Grenville PM in 1763
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tried to control
colonists
believed in limiting
their freedoms
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King George III Cont’d
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Marquis of Rockingham
succeeds Grenville as PM in
July 1765
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William Pitt becomes PM
(again) 1766
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tried to appease both English
and Americans
got king to repeal Stamp Act
kicked out of office
old and mentally unstable
Charles Townshend
substitutes
CT dies in 1767
Lord North becomes PM
1767
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repeals all Townshend Acts
except tax on Tea
Post War Policies
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Proclamation of 1763 (Grenville) forbid
settlers to advance beyond a line drawn along
the Appalachian Mts.
British Incentives:
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control west. movement of colonial pop.
avoid conflict with Natives ($)
keep colonists near coastline for trade ($)
Cherokee supported it, hoped to end white
expansion west
Colonial Response:
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Whites continued to claim lands across the
boundary line
Post War Policies Cont’d
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Sugar Act of 1764 (Grenville)
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British Incentives:
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Colonial Response;
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eliminate illegal sugar trade
British courts in America to try accused smugglers,
hampered trade
business, $, lost
anger towards outside control
Currency Act of 1764 (Grenville)
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stop issuing paper money and to destroy all money
in circulation
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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:
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Colonists Response:
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profit
limit propaganda, communication
taxes prior were intended to raise commerce, this one raised
money
anger towards taxation without consent
Patrick Henry “Virginia Resolves”
Stamp Act Congress meets in NY
Son’s of Liberty terrorize stamp agents
Riots
British Response to Colonial Response (Rockingham):
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New gov’t convinces king to end the Stamp Act in 1766
English power’s demand a new law in response...
Post War Policies Cont’d
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Declaratory Act 1766 (Rockingham)
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asserted Parliament’s authority over the colonies “in all cases
whatsoever”
gave Parliament sweeping power
Mutiny Act of 1765 (Grenville)
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colonists required to assist in the provisioning and maintaining
of the army
colonial officials ordered to take up posts (no more
substitutes)
restricted colonial manufacturing
British Incentives:
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stop smugglers
keep colonial businesses from competing with English
Colonial response:
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trade limited, businesses go bankrupt
anger towards outside control
taxation without consent
British Response to Colonial Response.....
Post War Policies Cont’d
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Townshend Acts 1767
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disbanded NY assembly
levied new taxes on different products
board of customs in Boston
imposes a tax on tea
1st Colonial Response:
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Massachusetts Assembly circulates letter to all colonial gov’ts
urging them to stand against every tax
boycott
British Response (North; Townshend dead):
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repeals all Townshend Acts except tax on Tea
The Boston Massacre (the “snowball”
effect)
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Townshend Acts had taken toll:
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redcoats” everywhere
presence resented
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
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Strict enforcement of Nav. Acts + continued
British presence = rev. sentiment
In RI angry residents board the British
schooner Gaspee and set in on fire
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accused sent back to England for a trial
1773 British East India Company had a
surplus of Tea, in response British government
passed the Tea Act (1773)
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gave BEI Company the right to export into the
colonies without having to pay the tax that colonial
merchants had to pay
allowed BEI Company to gain a monopoly on tea
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The Boston Tea Party Cont’d
– Many colonists responded by not buying tea:
boycott
– Women were instrumental
– Dec 16, 1773 in Boston Harbor
– Bostonians refused to pay for the property they
had destroyed
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Coercive Acts 1774 (North)
– Closed the port of Boston
– permitted royal officers to be tried in other
colonies or in England
– Colonist propaganda referred to these acts as
the “Intolerable Acts”
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Quebec Act 1774 (North)
– object was to provide a civil government for the
French-speaking Roman Catholic inhabitants of
Canada and the Illinois country
– granted Political rights to Roman Catholics and
recognized the legality of the Roman catholic
Church
– colonists believed that this meant the Pope and
Holy Roman Empire would be allowed to take
over the New World
Cooperation and War
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The First Continental Congress
Sept. 1774, Carpenter’s Hall,
Philadelphia
Major Decisions:
– plan for a colonial union under British
Authority
– statement of grievances
– military preparation
– boycotts
First Battles: Lexington
and Concord
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For months, farmers and townspeople
had been gathering ammunitions and
training as “minutemen”... preparing to
fight on a minutes notice
Why the Revolution started:
where historians disagree
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Brinkley (Greenville upset almost
everyone) v. Zinn (“rich v. poor,” or the
elitist theory)
Brinkley
– common grievances to Grenville policies
– Time of economic depression
– Cities?
– Conserve liberties
– Enlightenment
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Zinn
– Propaganda used by wealthy to deflect
attention on England
– Locke was a racist, an elitist, and supported
child labor
– Jefferson owned slaves until the day he died.
– Language of Bible and D of I, were both used
for propaganda purposes.
– Financial move for the wealthy – Beard An
Economic Interpretation of the Constitution