Conflicts in the Colonies
Conflict in the Colonies
1. Native Americans
-land
-religion
2. English Power
-Mercantilism: England used colonies to provide
products they could not produce
-Development of naval power
-Desired a favorable balance of trade (when
exports exceed imports
Conflict Continued
3. Navigation Acts of 1660 and 1663
-Passed to protect English mercantilism
-Colonists were forced to use English ships and
trade directly with England
4. Parliament forces James II out of power
-Demonstrates that Parliament has final say
5. Monarchy changes colonies
-Enforce and tighten navigation acts
-Parliament kept the right to veto any colonial
laws
Uniting for Peace
– Albany Congress (1754)
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Ben Franklin
Colonial leaders and Iroquois leaders
Aid against the French
Both reject the idea– no treaty
Added Tension
• Relations with Native Americans worsen
• Royal Proclamation of 1763: colonists could not cross the
Appalachian Mountains
• England acquired a large debt from the war
Problems after the War
-Indians in the Ohio Valley
revolt against British forts
-conflicts were becoming
costly for Britain
-Proclamation of 1763
stated that colonists could
not cross the Appalachian
Mtns
-Colonists ignored the law
and continued to provoke
Indians
Tensions Build
-British heavily in debt
because of war
-standing British Army in the
colonies
-Trading restrictions
established to levy duties
(taxes) on certain products
-smugglers avoid paying
taxes
Tensions Build
-writs of assistance
-Sugar Act
affected merchants and
traders
-protests began against
taxation without
representation
James Otis
Stamp Act
-Parliament passes Stamp
Act
-placed a direct tax on the
colonists
-required stamp on all legal
documents, newspapers,
license, and cards
-affected many colonists
rich and poor
-Quartering Act, 1765
Townshend Acts
-new tax placed on imports
such as tea, glass, paper,
paint
-colonists again reacted
with protests
-British reacted by sending
more troops
Parliamentary Acts
• Sugar Act (1764)
• Quartering Act (1765)
• Stamp Act (1765)
– Stamp Act Congress
– Repealed by Parliament (1766)
• Declaratory Act (1766)
• Townshend Acts (1767)
Colonial Reactions
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“No taxation without representation.”
“Virtual Representation”-felt unrepresented in Parliament
Sons of Liberty organize boycotts
Committees of Correspondence
– Organized colonial resistance against the crown
• Merchants create non-importation associations not buy
British goods
Boston Massacre
-March 1770
-protests by colonists
-British troops fire on crowd
-5 colonists killed
Crispus Attucks
-Most soldiers found not
guilty
John Adams served as
attorney for the soldiers
http://www.earlyamerica.com/review/winter96/enlargement.html
The Revolutionary Cause
• Boston center of colonial protest and
rebellion (strained heavily by acts)
• British Army sent to enforce laws
• Boston Massacre (1770) Townshend
Acts repealed
Boston Tea Party (1773)
Coercive Acts/Intolerable Acts
-harsh acts imposed to punish Boston
-closed Boston Harbor
-military governor over Boston
First Continental Congress
– September 1774
– Colonial representatives
– Complete boycott of British goods, raise local militias, repeal all
Parliamentary laws
Divided Loyalty
• Loyalists/Tories-opposed independence; loyal to Britain
• Patriots/Whigs-supported the war with Britain; American
colonists