Wednesday, 4 November
SEVEN YEARS WAR
Anglicanization: making people "british"; people of distinct groups in different
colonies grew more similar overtime, became a more united british empire by
1730s and 40s
The First Great Awakening: religious revival
 a response to many religious anxieties (like salem witch trials and king
Philip's war)
 anxiety over moving away from puritanism and towards profit in global
trade
 Jonathon Edwards; fear people became too logical about religion,
should feel grace
o made argument between active vs passive religion
 Response to waning puritanism; was the market revolution making
protestants soft?
 goes back to Winthrop's fear of social disorder of individualism and
individual interpretations of the Bible
o "Old Lights" vs "new lights"- those who feared social
disorder vs those who challenged the social order
 George Whitefield - preached in dramatic and fiery style
o moved from place to place gathering huge crowds
o many celebrated him bc he brought religious fervor, creating
mass exorcism
o others were terrified of him bc he was creating hysteria, too
much feeling in his preaching, feared women were more
susceptible to passions and therefore his preaching (women
are spongy creatures)
 Debate over head vs heart: to what point are feelings more prominent
over logic
 The Awakening was atlantic in scope and therefore pulled the colonies
together along with the mother country
 Awakening like a product of information revolution and market
revolution
Identity - imagined communities; what connected and brought people together?
 shared sense of identity colonies developed with england

nations are imagined communities; people are willing to die for an
abstract community of people they've never met
Teleology: eventually colonies will become the US, but must imagine the events of
history independently, like we don't know the outcome
 important as we read Ben Franklin's autobiography
 He read a lot, worked in newspapers and wrote in them
 Franklin was runaway from his older brother; went to philadelphia and
started a newspaper; contributed to anglicization
 autobiography broken into three sections: first part written before the
american revolution, written to his son (who later stayed a loyalist);
second part written during american revolution
 franklin was a really proud member of the british empire early on, was
gentry figure, very wealthy; became famous for science
 was sent to France to convince them to aide in war; changed his identity
and dressed like a quaker, living in the wilderness, make himself look
more like a philosophical intellectual who rejects luxury (wrote his
second part of his autobiography at this point, re-remembering himself
and crafting his image)
Seven Years War - culmination of "Creole" Imperialist ambitions
 aka french and indian war, the late french war, the war of conquest
 we forget how important the seven years war was bc of teleology
 global war - involved india, africa, europe, north and south america, and
parts of asia; considered first "world war"
 fought primarily by three factions
o the iroquois nations -- made of five nations; britain; france
French Canada: massive catholic empire based in trade
 versus english protestant colonies based in settlement
 middle of 18th century british population was 20 times larger than
french
The Walking Purchase (1737) - iroquois sold massive amount of land when it
didn't belong to them
Imperialist expansionist ambitions of colonists
 included George Washington, a young land speculator at the time, an
obssessive planter -- fantasized moving west
Benjamin Franklin proposed a plan for the union of all colonies under one
government, for purposes of defense
 england rejected it for being too democratic
 if the union was formed, colonies may have been strong enough to
defend themselves; thus no need for english troops; thus no basis for the
english taxation
Britain decides to escalate the Seven Years War
 1755, britain sent unprecedented number of troops to fight the war
 General Edward Braddock sent to avenge Washington's failure
o kind of an idiot; didn't know how to fight in wilderness,
didn't take indians seriously as warriors
 Washington takes command and redeems himself by saving half his
troops by retreating
o became master of retreat, which becomes important in the
American revolution
 initial setbacks in the war were costly; Prime Minister William Pitt put
a lot of money in the war in America; france wasn't able to do the same,
france was more concerned with european affairs
 Death of General Wolfe -- became a matyr on the Plains of Abraham
War changed everything for the British empire
 now had more territory than ever before
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spent a ton of money on the war -- 10 times more than french spent to
defend it
huge numbers of people moving westward; devastating for Indians
such a big war, George III thought he could not control all this territory
-- and made the Proclamation of 1763 where colonists could not expand
westward past the Appalachians
o proclamation made people like George Washington furious