Chapter 5 – The
Problem of
Empire 17631776
Topic/Objective: British imperial attempts to reassert
Name:
control over its colonies, and the colonial reaction,
produced a new American republic, along with struggles Class/Period:
over the new nation’s social, political, and economic
Date:
identity
Essential Questions: 1. Evaluate the pressures that began to unite the American colonies against perceived and real
constraints on their economic activities and political rights, sparking a colonial independence movement.
2. Analyze how competing conceptions of national identity were expressed in the development of political institutions and
cultural values. 3. Analyze how Republican thought shaped the politics, culture, and society of the colonial era. 4.
Analyze the grassroots efforts that mobilized the working class to assert their rights as individuals and Englishmen.
Vocabulary:
Introduction: Why did the Great War for Empire (7 Years’ War/French & Indian War) lead to
British reform and tightened administration?
John Dickinson
An Empire Transformed: Two concepts of “American” identity
Cost of Empire: Changes to tax system due to war debt
Proclamation of 1763
Political changes in Britain
Revenue Act of 1762
Why did Britain station 7500 troops in the American interior? (4 reasons)
From the colonial perspective the new regulations and taxes were unfair, with whom do you
agree, the British or the colonists? Why?
George Grenville & The Reform Impulse: Why did Grenville pass the Currency Act of 1764
Molasses Act of 1764
The Sugar Act: Act is replaced and reason
Colonial response:
The End of Salutary Neglect: Constitutional issues of the Sugar Act
British view v. Colonial view
Virtual Representation
An Open Challenge: The Stamp Act: Purpose and definition of Stamp Act
Benjamin Franklin’s proposal
British opinion
Colonial opinion
Constitutional questions
In your opinion: Is compromise possible at this point? Explain.
The Stamp Act Congress: demands and requests
Economic action:
Predict the effects of this economic action
Sons of Liberty
Crowd Actions: Behavior of the colonists
Motives of the Crowd: 3 motives of colonial resistance
Outcome of the Stamp Act
James Otis
The Ideological Roots of Resistance: 3 intellectual traditions to justify resistance:
John Locke
Montesquieu
Letters from a Farmer in
Pennsylvania
Thomas Jefferson
Phillis Wheatley
Another Kind of Freedom: Irony discussed by B Franklin and J Otis
Declaratory Act of 1766
Parliament and Patriots Square Off Again: Real reason for the repeal of the Stamp Act
“power of the purse”
(Google this please)
Charles Townshend Steps In – Fiscal and political goals
External tax
Internal tax
Daughters of Liberty
A Second Boycott and the Daughters of Liberty: Women’s role
Resulting social conflict
Lord North
The Problem of the West 4 groups interested in westward expansion
View of Hillsborough
Boston Massacre: Significance of….
Whig belief
Sovereignty Debated: How have Franklin’s views changed since his 1765 proposal?
Committees of
correspondence
A Compromise Repudiated: Gaspee’ Incident (Google please)
The East India Company & The Tea Act: Purpose of the act
Amount of tax
Colonial reaction:
*Guess who owned the East India Tea Company???? The answer will help you understand
why the colonists saw this as a conspiracy and trickery!
The Tea Party & the Coercive Acts: Was John Adams correct in saying, “that I cannot but
consider it as an Epoch in History.”?
Intolerable Acts
The four Coercive Acts
1.
2.
3.
4.
Role of the committee of correspondence
Quebec Act
The Continental Congress Responds: three agendas
Graphic representation of J. Galloway’s Plan (see pp. 172-173 for plan)
*From what you have read thus far, could this plan have worked? Might it have stopped the
Revolution?
2 demands of Continental Congress
Pitt’s plan
Lord North’s orders
*Is this the point of “no return?”
The Continental Association: Changing attitudes of America’s farmers
Southern Planters Fear Dependency Fear of Southern planters
Reasons for supporting the yeoman farmers
Loyalists and Neutrals: Reasons for lack of support of Patriot movement
Consequences of remaining a loyalist
Dunmore’s War
Lord Dunmore’s War: Fight between Pennsylvania & Virginia for Ohio River Valley
Results of settlement (see map 5.5 on page 175)
Minutemen
Armed Resistance in Massachusetts: Continental Congress v General Gage
Paul Revere
Battles of Lexington & Concord
Breed’s & Bunker Hill
The Second Continental Congress Organizes for War: Leader of the continental army
Congress v. King George: Leader of moderates
Leaders of Patriots
Declaration of the Causes & Necessities of Taking Up Arms
Proclamation for Suppressing Rebellion
Role of American merchants
Prohibitory Act
Fighting in the South: Governor Dunmore’s plan
White Southerners response
Occupying Kentucky: settlement of Kentucky
Thomas Paine’s Common Sense: Dickinson and the Olive Branch Petition v. John Adams
Popular sovereignty
Common Sense arguments
Independence Declared: Arguments of Thomas Jefferson
Summary: Was the American Revolution a true Revolution or a natural evolution of the American Identity?
What elements from the causes and events of the Revolution contribute to the American Identity?