E. Napp
 For many years, the colonies were treated with salutary
neglect.

 Besides providing opportunities for trade and offering
protection, England let the colonies govern themselves
and develop their own economic networks and ideologies.
 Salutary neglect was a policy of not strictly enforcing
parliamentary laws in the colonies.

 However, in 1754, the French and Indian War began. It
was part of a larger conflict between Britain and France.

 From 1756 to 1763, France and Great Britain fought what
is known as the Seven Years’ War. While the war broke
out in Europe, it quickly spread to North America, where
the French and their Native American allies fought the
British and even to India, where both enlisted the help of
Indian allies.
E. Napp
 During the French and Indian War, British officials
convened a meeting called the Albany Congress.

 At the Congress, important colonial tradesmen, led by a
Pennsylvania newspaperman named Benjamin Franklin,
devised the Albany Plan of the Union.
 The Albany Plan of the Union called for a confederation of
colonies able to defend themselves from European and
Native American attackers.

 However, the Albany Plan of Union was not accepted
because the colonies felt it was too restrictive while the
British felt it allowed too much power in colonial hands.
 The war proved to be a disaster for the French, who lost in
all three places, losing their Canadian territories in North
America and their trading region in India.

 Britain’s empire in America seemed secure after its victory
over France in 1763, but the cost of war had been high.

 Dealing with this debt started a chain of events that led to
deteriorating relations between the mother country and
the colonists in North America.
 A gulf grew between England and its colonies.
 English citizens were paying higher taxes but the colonists
did not want to pay for England’s wars.

 King George III also signed the Proclamation Line of 1763.
 In 1763, Native Americans in the Ohio Valley refused to
hand over conquered lands to the British.

 During Pontiac’s Rebellion, Ottowan Chief Pontiac
attacked many colonial settlements.
 This rebellion was subdued but to make peace the King
signed the Proclamation Line of 1763.
 The Proclamation Line of 1763 pledged that American
colonists would not settle west of the Appalachian
Mountains.
 Many colonists ignored it.

 Burdened by its war debt, England abandoned its policy
of salutary neglect.

 The Sugar Act of 1764
- Taxed sweeteners; particularly the molasses the
colonists used when defying British rules to make and trade
in rum

 The Quartering Act
- Required colonists to give room and board to British
soldiers

But these acts were not strictly enforced!
 However, when the Stamp Act went into effect, the
colonists were enraged.

 The Stamp Act taxed directly all paper used in the
colonies.

 Patrick Henry said, “No taxation without representation!”
 The colonists boycotted British goods and because the
boycotts hurt England, the Stamp Act was cancelled but it
was replaced by the Declaratory Act, which maintained
the crown’s right to impose future taxes on the colonies.


 The Townshend Acts, passed in 1767, placed duties
on imports and also reestablished Writs of
Assistance, which allowed customs officials to search
homes, businesses, and warehouses for smuggled
goods without a warrant from a judge.
 The Townshend Acts were also repealed.

 Though Boston remained generally calm, in 1770,
one angry crowd threw rocks at the custom house,
provoking guards to fire on protestors, killing some
and injuring others (the Boston Massacre).


 Because colonists were so wary of taxes, even the Tea
Act which forced colonists to buy East India
Company tea at bargain prices prompted some
colonists dressed as Native Americans, to board a
ship in Boston Harbor and dump its cargo of tea
overboard.

 In order to punish the colonists for the Boston Tea
Party, Parliament passed the Coercive Acts.

 The Coercive Acts closed Boston Harbor until the tea
was paid for and expanded the Quartering Act.

 The colonists named the Coercive Acts the
Intolerable Acts.

 Enlightenment ideals also influenced the colonists.

 And Revolution soon began!