Of the People
Chapter 6:
Conflict on the Edge of the Empire
1713–1774
Common Threads
>> What role did the colonies play in imperial
conflict? That is, how did they shape that conflict
and how were they shaped by it?
>> How were Native Americans drawn into
imperial conflict? To what extent were they able
to shape it for their own purposes?
>> What did it mean for the American colonies to
be peripheral—literally—to the British Empire?
>> How did the colonists adapt the available
political theories to their purposes? What in the
American experience made those theories
attractive to the colonists?
Conflict on the Edge of Empire
1713–1774
• Overview
– The Victory of the British Empire
– Enforcing the Empire
– Rejecting the Empire
– A Revolution in the Empire
Conflict on the Edge
of the Empire
1713–1774
• The Victory of the British Empire
– New War, Old Pattern
– The Local Impact of Global War
– The French Empire Crumbles from Within
– The Virginians Ignite a War
– From Local to Imperial War
– Problems with British-Colonial Cooperation
– The British Gain the Advantage
Conflict on the Edge
of the Empire
1713–1774
• Enforcing the Empire
– Pontiac’s Rebellion and Its Aftermath
– Paying for the Empire: Sugar and Stamps
Conflict on the Edge
of the Empire
1713-1774
• Rejecting the Empire
– An Argument About Rights and Obligations
– The Imperial Crisis in Local Context
– Contesting the Townshend Duties
Conflict on the Edge
of the Empire
1713-1774
• A Revolution in the Empire
– “Massacre” in Boston
– The Empire Comes Apart
– The First Continental Congress
Conflict on the Edge
of the Empire
1713-1774
• Conclusion
AMERICAN PORTRAIT
Susannah Willard Johnson Experiences the Empire
• “What to others might look like an imperial
struggle, Susannah Johnson experienced as a
terrifying assault at dawn that took her from her
home and eventually her family.”
– What were the opportunities and risks afforded by
Johnson’s family in the northern frontier of New
England?
– How was this incident (in a land populated by the
consumer revolution) a function of the imperial
struggle between France and England?
The Victory of the British Empire
“From 1689 to 1763, Britain and France were at war more than half
of the time. These wars gave shape to the eighteenth century and
created the international context for the American Revolution in
several ways.”
– New War, Old Pattern
• Pattern: what continuously draws these empires into conflict?
– War of Jenkins’s Ear (1739–1744)
– King George’s War (1744–1748)
– The Local Effect of Global War
• How did imperial wars impact colonists—especially New Englanders?
– The French Empire Crumbles from Within
• What factors made the Ohio Valley the focus of imperial conflict in North
America?
– Who were the actors on this global stage?
– The Virginians Ignite a War
• How did Virginians ignite a war?
– In what way had they “bitten off more than they could chew.”
The Victory of the British Empire
– From Local to Imperial War
• What were the advantages of the French army as revealed in
Braddock's campaign, 1775?
– Problems with British-Colonial Cooperation
• What conflicts emerged between British imperial officials and
colonists in their joint effort to defeat the French?
– The British Gain the Advantage
• William Pitt leads the British to victory
• “To a great extent, colonial and imperial objectives
coincided. Both Britain and the colonies would benefit
from securing the empire’s borders and from expanding
British markets. Yet the imperial wars also exposed the
growing divergence between the political economy of the
colonies and that of the mother country.”
Enforcing the Empire
“Even before the French and Indian War began, some members of
the British government believed that tighter control had to be
exercised over the American colonies. What British officials
stationed in the colonies saw during the war only reinforced that
view.”
– Pontiac’s Rebellion and Its Aftermath
– Paying for the Empire: Sugar and Stamps
– America and the World: Paying for War
• “The American Revolution grew out of Britain’s attempts to draw its
American colonies more closely into the imperial system….In
resisting that policy, the American colonists developed a new and
different idea of the purpose of government, one that propelled them
to revolution.”
Rejecting the Empire
“All they wanted, they claimed, were the rights of
Englishmen.”
– An Argument About Rights and Obligations
• How did British officials view its colonies?
– Accordingly, how did they view the rights of colonists?
– The Imperial Crisis in Local Context
• What methods did colonists employ for voicing protest?
– What language did they employ?
– Contesting the Townshend Duties
• How did the new notions of Republicanism shape colonial
resistance?
A Revolution in the Empire
• “The resistance to the Townshend Duties established a
pattern that would be repeated again and again in the
years before the Revolution…. Economics and politics
became inseparable, as two visions of the empire came
into conflict.”
– “Massacre” in Boston
• What is significant about this “massacre” in “Boston”?
– The Empire Comes Apart
• Explain why “the move that led directly to revolution was more
accidental than calculated.”
– The First Continental Congress
• How did the emergence of this governing body alter the rebellion?
• “Britain saw the colonies as a small but integral part of a
large empire held together by an increasingly centralized
and powerful government.”
Conflict on the Edge
of the Empire
1713-1774
• Revisiting the Common Threads
>> What role did the colonies play in imperial conflict? That
is, how did they shape that conflict and how were they
shaped by it?
>> How were Native Americans drawn into imperial
conflict? To what extent were they able to shape it for
their own purposes?
>> What did it mean for the American colonies to be
peripheral— literally— to the British Empire?
>> How did the colonists adapt the available political
theories to their purposes? What in the American
experience made those theories attractive to the
colonists?