British Colonial America
Vocabulary
(See textbook: glossary and pages 104-108)
Part I
Part II
Charter colony
Northwest Territory (Ohio
Valley)
Proprietary colony
Royal colony
mercantilism
salutary neglect
Navigation Act 1660
Triangle Trade
smuggling
Ben Franklin
Albany Plan of Union
militia
George Washington
Fort Necessity
French and Indian War
Seven Years War (105)
New England Colonies
Massachusetts
The Thirteen Colonies
New Hampshire
Connecticut
Rhode Island
Middle Colonies
New York
New Jersey
Pennsylvania
Delaware
Southern
Maryland
Virginia
North Carolina
South Carolina
Georgia
The 13 Colonies were Independent of one another.
Each was established in different
years:
Virginia:
1607
Massachusetts
1620
New Hampshire
1623
Maryland
1632
Connecticut
1635
Rhode Island
1636
North Carolina
1663
South Carolina
1663
separated in 1712 New
York
1664
New
Jersey
1664
Pennsylvania
1681
Delaware
1704
Georgia
1732
Each was settled for different
reasons.
4 New England Colonies
Massachusetts
Connecticut
New Hampshire Rhode Island
• All trade, subsistence farm, and fish
• All settled for religious freedom BUT…
MA, NH, and CT want religious freedom for
Puritans only
• Rhode Island had religious freedom for
ALL
• CT and RI ruled themselves and were
called Charter Colonies
• MA and NH had their Charter
governments taken over by the king so
became Royal Colonies
• MA had first public school system in the
world
4 Middle Colonies
Pennsylvania New York
New Jersey Delaware
All…diversified
-farmed
-traded
-tolerant of Protestant
religions
New York: only middle colony to have large plantations (along the Hudson
River) and a large slave population (10%); very loyal to the king; royal
government
New Jersey: Quaker refuge; royal government
Delaware: big tobacco growers; royal government
Pennsylvania: Quaker colony; only colony to remain a Proprietary colony
(owned by a friend of the king and run by people of colony)
5 Southern Colonies
Virginia
North Carolina South Carolina
Georgia Maryland
• All have Plantation economies… grow
cash crops; all slave dependent
•VA, MD, NC, SC grow cash crops:
tobacco and grain
•NC, SC, GA grow cash crops: rice and
indigo and grain
• All are Royal Colonies by 1700;
governors appointed by king; Maryland
reverted to proprietary in 1715
VA had 1st elected government called the
House of Burgesses; largest & first colony
MD: settled by Catholics to
escape persecution GA:last colony; a
debtors colony; last of 13 colonies to
legalize slavery
SC had more slaves
(60%) than white people (40%)
The Colonies are there for the
benefit of the Mother Country,
Great Britain.
They owe Britain loyalty, respect,
and all the goods they can
transport back to Great Britain.
Relationship with Great Britain
$ Mercantilism: Great Britain orders its colonies to import all
their raw materials to England only!
$ All lumber, all iron ore, all copper must go to England so it can
turn the raw materials into products and sell them back to the
colonies.
$This makes Great Britain wealthy and the colonies dependent
on Great Britain for all manufactured goods!
The New England colonies aren’t happy about this order!!!!
Thirteen
British
Colonies in
America
Coloni
es i
Colonizing
Country
Mercantilism: Trade only with
Britain to make Britain rich! YEAH RIGHT!
Great Britain
Summary: British Mercantilism & Empire
• Economic world view: there exists a finite amount of
wealth
– Thus what one nation gained, another nation inevitably lost.
• Importance of Colonies
– Colonies supply the mother country with raw materials to be
consumed at home or abroad
– Provide a market for the mother country’s manufactured goods.
• Navigational Acts: 1651-1673:
Aimed at centering American trade around England
– Only English or colonial ships could trade in their colonies
– Certain American products could ONLY be sold in England or
other English colonies – such as wool, sugar, tobacco, indigo,
dyes, etc
– All foreign goods destined for sale in colonies first had to pass
through England & pay import duties
The Navigation Act of 1660
England wrote laws to regulate trade in its colonies: “no goods shall be
imported or exported out of any lands…of his Majesty … in any ship
…except belonging to the people of England, under the penalty of the …loss
of all the goods
…after …April 1661, no sugars, tobacco, cotton-wool, indigoes, ginger,
woods…grown, produced, or manufactured on any English plantations in
America shall be transported to any land…other than other English…”
In other words, all colonial raw materials and homemade goods must be sent
on English ships to England and no other country.
All trade goes through England!
But Britain neglected the
colonies and the laws were
not enforced.
Great Britain was too busy at home to bother enforcing Mercantilism.
Great Britain decided not to interfere in American affairs until 1760. This
was called Salutary Neglect, when Britain lets the colonies do as they
please in trade despite its laws.
America got used to being ignored!
Colonists did as they pleased.
The British government rarely enforced the trade rules.
So, the colonists loved Britain.
Hurray Britain! Go Brits!
BUT…
at the end of the French and Indian War in 1763, Great Britain
began to assert its control over the American colonies, levying taxes
and pronouncing new trade regulations to benefit the mother country.
Naturally, colonists strongly objected.
BOO-O-OO-OO!
Boston took advantage of Britain’s salutary neglect
& traded freely with other countries.
________
________
________
____
By 1750 The British colonies traded with Europe and
Africa as a result of salutary neglect.
Triangle Trade: In the beginning, Great Britain traded rum and
manufactured goods with Africa for for slaves, gold and spices. British ships
then sailed across the Atlantic to the West Indies and Americas to trade slaves
for sugar, tobacco, rum, rice & raw materials. The ships returned to Europe to
sell these goods.
But…under salutary
neglect the
triangle
changed a bit
in direction…
The real Triangle trade & the Thirteen
Colonies
Triangle trade & the Colonies
The green arrow shows what the colonists were supposed to do with
their products under mercantilism…trade directly with England.
The blue arrow indicates New England’s triangle trade with Africa, a
result of salutary neglect on the part of the British.
Colonial
Slave Trade
Boston was the
capital of slave trade
until the early 1700s
when Rhode Island
took over and
became the slave
trade center in the
American colonies.
This map shows the Triangle Trade route of the American ship Sanderson.
It carried 8220 gallons of rum from Newport to the Gold Coast of Africa in
1752. From Africa it sailed to Barbados in the West Indies with 56 slaves,
gold dust and pepper. From Barbados it carried molasses and sugar for
making rum and British pounds (paper money).
Colonial Independence Caused Concern:
Triangle Trade was an economic issue . Westward Expansion
by British colonists was a political problem.
England's American empire needed to expand. The colonies pressed westward to
Ohio and Kentucky as colonists sought new agricultural lands and trade
opportunities. Settlers crossed landmasses into French and Indian territory, where
they were not welcome.
Colonists want to move into the Northwest Territory
(Ohio Valley) claimed by the French and Indians.
Land
claimed
by French
The French did not settle the Ohio Valley in the Northwest Territory.
They built trading posts & forts, and paid natives for the use of the land.
They got along with the natives for these reasons.
In addition, French trappers worked with natives. They traded furs, guns,
horses, etc. Both profited from this trade relationship and
lived in
peace.
British colonists from western PA and VA
move “west” into French & Indian territory in
1750s.
1749- British build forts in Ohio
Valley on French land.
1752- French attack the British
forts to drive them out.
1754- Colonel George
Washington, age 22, led his
Virginia militia… civilian military
force, into western PA in May,
captured French scouts, killing
French officers. The he built Fort
Necessity for his men.
1754-The French and Indians
retaliate in July, take the fort, kill
VA militiamen!
Meanwhile in Albany, NY…
Washington’s map of the Ohio River
1753-1754 with notes on French
intentions
On the brink of war, some
colonists urged unity.
Ben Franklin, went to Albany,
NY in June 1754 to meet with
delegates from seven northern
colonies.
They met to discuss ways to
strengthen colonial ties with
the Iroquois League of 5
Indian nations.
They hoped to become allies
to protect themselves from the
French & hostile Indians in the
west.
Franklin’s Albany Plan of Union
In 1754 Benjamin Franklin proposed the Albany Plan of Union to unite the
British North American colonies. He wanted a legislative body with the
power to control trade and organize defenses. His plan called for
legislators to be under the authority of the king of England.
Franklin’s political
cartoon from his
newspaper
The Pennsylvania Gazette
9 May 1754
“Union of the colonies is absolutely
necessary for their preservation.”
Benjamin Franklin,
Reason for the
Albany Plan of Union, July, 1754
The beginning of the Plan…That the said general government be administered by a
President-General, to be appointed and supported by the crown; and a Grand Council, to
be chosen by the representatives of the people of the several Colonies met in their
respective assemblies.
2. That within -- months after the passing such act, the House of Representatives that
happen to be sitting within that time, or that shall be especially for that purpose
convened, may and shall choose members for the Grand Council, in the following
proportion, that is to say,
Massachusetts Bay 7
New Hampshire
2
Connecticut
5
Rhode Island
2
New York
4
New Jersey
3
Pennsylvania
6
Maryland
4
Virginia
7
North Carolina
4
South Carolina
4
48
3. -- who shall meet for the first time at the city of Philadelphia, being called by the
President-General as soon as conveniently may be after his appointment….etc.
The Albany Plan was rejected by
both the colonists and the British
government in England.
The King worried that the Plan
would create a powerful colonial
government, difficult to control.
The colonists did not see the value
of unity & worried about losing
individual power.
No Albany Plan!
No Colonial Unity!
This Means War!!!
July, 1754- French surrounded Fort Necessity. Colonel
Washington surrendered.
The surrender of Fort Necessity starts the French and Indian
War.
The
French
& Indian
War
The British & their American colonists waged war against the French & Indians
along the Great Lakes, in the Ohio Valley and in New France (Canada) from
1754 to 1763 and called it the French and Indian War.
Another war between Britain and France raged in Europe called the Seven
Years’ War from 1756 to 1763.
These wars were all about LAND, ECONOMICS and POWER. Whoever owns
the land, boosts the economy and has domination over over all.
Causes: in Textbook:
American migration (page 89-90)
British and French rivalry (see pages 104-5)
British v French colonization practices (105)
Overall Causes of the War:
• Britain and France fought for land supremacy in the New World for
decades.
• Britain built forts in French-claimed Territory known as the Northwest
Territory in present day western Pennsylvania and in Ohio.
• English and French settlers colonized the Ohio River Valley, causing
conflict.
• English settlers, from Virginia and Pennsylvania, and French settlers, from
the Great Lakes and southeastern Canada, each thought they owned the
rights to the disputed land in these Northwest Territories in the Ohio Valley.
• Washington attacked and killed French officials outside Fort Duquesne in
May, 1754. This was the impetus.