Chapter 6
What were the most
important weaknesses of
the British Empire in North
America at the outset of the
Seven Years’ War?

1. Lack of cooperation between the
Colonies in their struggles with the
French.
 Failure of the Albany Conference 1754
 Conference was called to mount a unified
response to the conflict with France.
 Iroquois delegation walked out because the
colonists wouldn’t agree to stop taking land.
 Colonies rejected Ben Franklin’s Plan of
Union.
Why did the colonies reject the
Plan of Union?



It would have
created “one
general government”
for the colonies.
President-General
Grand Council



The colonies were
all separate and
different entities.
None wanted to
surrender
sovereignty to a
central government.
The British
government was a
little afraid of this
plan as well.
Widespread Warfare

Northern Atlantic Coast – Louisburg
(“Gibraltar of the New World”)
 Captured by Brits in 1745
 Reclaimed by France in 1748

Border region of new France and New
York
 Canadians & New Yorkers fight for Indian
trade.

Trans-Appalachian region along the
Ohio River
See map p. 6-1 for
comparison (p. 168)
Strait of Gibraltar
Primary focus of the war:

Trans-Appalachian region along the
Ohio River
 British back country settlers wanted the
land.
 French were threatened by British
encroachment on its territory.
 Became a refuge for Indians pushed off their
land in the east.
 Indians tended to ally with the French, even
though they weren’t thrilled with them either.
Skirmished in the Monongahela River.
 Result: British General Braddock
defeated.
 Full-scale war breaks out between
Britain and France in 1756.
 British were losing because the colonial
troops refused to be bossed around by
British commanders.

Where “Cajuns” Come From
French farmers in Acadia who had lived
under British rule for 40 years refused to
take up arms against France to fight for
the British.
 The British punished the Acadians by
forcing them out (18,000 people) and
selling their land.
 The Acadians were dispersed and many
of them ended up in Louisiana where
they were became known as “Cajuns.”

Conquest of Canada
Prime Minister William Pitt gets the
support of the colonists by promising the
king will pay for the war.
 Colonists cooperate and help attack
Canada.
 British gain Iroquois cooperation by
promising to pay for or give back land
that had been taken from them.

These alliances changed the course of
the war. The British unleashed total
warfare on Quebec
 British win historic battle - Plains of
Abraham. Wolfe and Montcalm die.
 Treaty of Paris 1763.

Treaty of Paris 1763 - Results
France gives up claims to all
possessions on North American
mainland.
 Britain got all France’s land EAST of the
Mississippi River (except New Orleans)
 Spain got New Orleans and France’s
land WEST of the Mississippi River.
 Spain gave Britain Florida and Britain
gave Spain colonies it had taken in the
Pacific and Caribbean.

What did the Indians of the Ohio
River area think of the Treaty of
Paris?

“The French had no right to give away
[our] country.”
Effects on the Indians
The British banned gift-giving to Indians
as a means of gaining favor.
 They stopped supplying the Indians with
ammo for hunting.
 Many Indians starved for lack of food.
 Neolin – wanted Indians to break
dependence on Europeans and return to
their old ways.

Pontiac’s Rebellion
Chief Pontiac led the resistance inspired by
Neolin.
 May 1763, the Indian confederacy
simultaneously attacked all the British forts
in the West, killing 2000 settlers.
 British General Amherst ordered
distributing blankets infected with smallpox
among the Indians. (Germ warfare)
 Pontiac’s Rebellion ended in a stalemate.

Royal Proclamation of 1763
Colonists were not allowed to settled
west of the crest of the Appalachian
Mountains without the approval of the
king.
 Colonists attacked the Indians.
 British tried to punish them.
 600 frontiersmen marched to
Philadelphia to protest.

Key result of Seven Years’ War: the
French gave up its claims in North
America. The size of the British territory
more than doubled.
 The British proved unwilling and unable
to control westward migration of settlers.
 The Indians hardened against the
British.


The Americans “entirely disregard, and
despise the settlement agreed upon by
their superiors and us.” They “are
come in vast numbers to the Ohio, and
give our people to understand that they
would settle wherever they pleased. If
this is the case, we must look upon
every engagement you made with us
as void and of no effect.” p. 173
What factors led to the
growth of American
nationalism in the
1760s?
Seven Years’ War – promoted a spirit of
nationalism and a wider notion of
community among the colonies.
 Colonial Newspapers expressed a
“continental perspective.”
 Sugar and Stamp Acts put American
colonists in opposition to the British.





Virginia Stamp Act Resolution
Loyall Nine
Sons of Liberty
Stamp Act Congress

The Seven Years’ War showed contrasts
between the colonists and their mother
country:
 Lewd, violent British soldiers
 Swift and terrible punishment by officers
 Fear of Britain enslaving colists
 VOLUNTEER colonial troops
 Colonial commanders less harsh with
punishment
Colonial Publications
John Peter Zenger’s libel case
 Editors offered a “continental
perspective” on issuees
 Colonists first began using the term
“American” to denote their common
identity.
 Revealed certain political assumptions
held by the American Colonists.

American Political Assumptions

Republicanism
 Just government – Biblical value
 Limited, self-government
 Broad distribution of powers
Dependence leads to subservience
 Property ownership is a virtue
 Representative assemblies
 History of struggle with royal authorities

British Political Assumptions
A strong state is necessary and
desireable.
 A hereditary elite forces the order of
society.

Stamp Act of 1765




Purpose of the tax - to help pay for troops
stationed in North America after the British
victory in the Seven Years' War.
A direct tax imposed by the British Parliament
specifically on the colonies of British America.
Required that many printed materials in the
colonies be produced on stamped paper
produced in London, carrying an embossed
revenue stamp.[1][2] (legal documents,
magazines, newspapers, etc.)
To be paid in valid British currency, not in
colonial paper money.[3]
From Wikipedia. Yes. Wikipedia.
“No taxation without representation.”
 Virtual representation – Members of
Parliament represent “everyone” not just
their districts.
 Actual representation – Actually chose
and send your own representatives to
Parliament

Colonial Opposition





Patrick Henry
Virginia Stamp Act
Resolutions
Loyall Nine –
workers’ club led by
Samuel Adams
destructive protest
Sons of Liberty –
moderate forms of
protest
Stamp Act Congress
Patrick Henry
Stamp Act Congress

Delegations from 9
colonies met and
agreed to stop all
importations from
Britain until they
appealed the Stamp
Act.
Repeal
British merchants also opposed it
because their businesses were being
hurt by the nonimportation movement.
 The Stamp Act was repealed in March
1766. 
 Passed the Declaration Act which said
that Parliament had “absolute
supremacy” over the colonies. 

How did political and
economics problems
in Britain contribute
to unrest in the
colonies?
Debt from the Seven Years’ War
 Unemployment
 Inflation (High Prices)
 Tax Protests
 Changing Leadership – Charles
Townshend replaced the popular William
Pitt as Prime Minister.

Townshend Revenue Acts
To pay the debt – new taxes.
 Import duties to colonies

 Lead
 Glass
 Paint
 Paper
 Tea
Colonial Response - Objection
John Dickinson – Parliament had no
power to tax goods to raise revenues in
America.
 Royal revenues would pay salaries of
royal officials; colonies would not be
able to have some authority over the
king’s officials.
 Townshend Revenue Act – strictly
enforced.
 Fears among colonists.

Colonial Response - Action
Non-importation: Boycott
 Massachusetts letter denouncing the
acts.
 Mob attacks on custom’s officials in
Boston.

Boston Massacre 1770
Crowds taunt British soldiers, threw
snowballs & rocks.
 Soldiers fired into the crowd, killing 7.
 Paul Revere’s propaganda
 Importance: Recognition of how the
relationship between Britain and its
American colonies had deteriorated.

From Paul Revere’s
publication
Most of the Townshend Acts had been
repealed the same day as the
Massacre.
 EXCEPT for the tax on tea.

What steps did Britain
take to punish
Massachusetts for the
colonists’ acts of
resistance?
The Tea Act – cheap tea with a small tax
 Intolerable Acts

 No load/unload in Boston Harbor
 Nullified Massachusetts charter
 British governor in control of local gov’t.
 Protected British officials in court
 Made colonists quarter troops

Quebec Act
 Catholic official religion of Quebec
 Feudal land laws
Response to the Tea Act
Colonies began to unify in resistance
against Britain.
 Committees of Correspondence

 share information
 shape public opinion; and
 build cooperation among the colonies.
Boston Pamphlet
 Boston Tea Party, December 16, 1773

Lexington & Concord



British decide to
take military action
Try to capture
colonial munitions
Fighting breaks out
British soldiers fire upon Massachusetts militia at Lexington, the first of four handcolored engravings included in Amos Doolittle’s View of the Battle of Lexington
and Concord (1775). It is the only contemporary pictorial record of the events of
April 19, 1775, from an American point of view. Doolittle, a Connecticut
silversmith, traveled to the site of the conflict in the weeks afterward, and his
engravings are based on first-hand observation. Important buildings, individuals,
or groups of people are keyed to a legend that explains what is happening.
Doolittle intended his prints to be informative in the same sense as a photograph
in a modern newspaper.
Colonists Unify

First Continental Congress September
1774
 Adamses, Patrick Henry, George
Washington, Christopher Gadsden, John
Dickinson, Joseph Galloway, John Jay, etc.
 Their Committees of Observation took over
the duties of local government.
 Organized militia companies
 People began to refer to the colonies as the
American “states.”
Who made up the
Second Continental
Congress and why was it
formed?
Second Continental Congress



Delegates sent from
12 colonies.
Some from the First
Continental
Congress
New – Thomas
Jefferson
Second Continental Congress
The Second Continental Congress
aimed to organize the defense of the
colonies.
 The Congress designated the militia
forces besieging Boston as the
Continental Army and made George
Washington commander-in-chief.
 The Olive Branch Petition was written to
prevent further hostilities.

Reaction from outsiders?
The French Canadians did not support
the rebellion.
 Several British Caribbean islands did
support the Continental Congress, but
the British navy stopped any
involvement.
 Spain adopted a neutral position
officially, but secretly sought to help the
Americans.

War for Independence
 Fighting
in New England.
 Unsuccessful attempt to take Canada
-spring of 1776.
 British forced out of Boston.
 British efforts in the South failed.
 King George III rejected the “Olive
Branch Petition” and issued a
proclamation declaring that the
colonists were in open rebellion.
The Connecticut artist John Trumbull painted The Battle of Bunker Hill in
1785, the first of a series that earned him the informal title of “the Painter of
the Revolution.” Trumbull was careful to research the details of his paintings,
but composed them in the grand style of historical romance. In the early
nineteenth century, he repainted this work and three other Revolutionary
scenes for the rotunda of the Capitol in Washington, DC.
No Turning Back
Spain and France opened trade with the
colonies.
 In Common Sense, Thomas Paine helped
cut Americans’ emotional ties to Britain and
the King.
 The “two ancient tyrannies” of aristocracy
and monarchy were not appropriate for
America.

Declaration of Independence
 The
text of the Declaration of
Independence was approved without
dissent on July 4, 1776.
 The writers blamed King George III
for the events leading up to the
decision for Independence.
 They could be condemned as traitors
and sentenced to death but they
chose to sign.
Draft Committee: Jefferson, J. Adams,
Franklin, Roger Sherman, Robert
Livingston.
 Revision struck a long passage
condemning slavery.

The Manner in Which the
American Colonies Declared
Themselves INDEPENDENT
of the King of ENGLAND, a
1783 English print.
Understanding that the coming
struggle would require the
steady support of ordinary
people, in the Declaration of
Independence, the upper-class
men of the Continental
Congress asserted the right of
popular revolution and the
great principle of human
equality.
Equality & Revolution

The idea of equality inspired the poor as
well as the wealthy, women as well as
men, blacks as well as whites.