Download The Empire in Transition

The Empire in Transition 107­123 Consequences of the Seven Years' War ● Colonists confirmed the illegitimacy of the English interference in the local affairs ○ 1756­1757 ■ quarrel over British requisition and impressment policies ○ 1758 ■ Return of authority to the colonial assemblies ● The war made the American colonists work together ● The colonial troops saw themselves as the "people's army:" however, the British were not. ○ The soldiers were close together and resented the British who were arrogant and committed unfit uses of powerful ● French and Indian war ○ the British won against the French ○ the tribes that allied with the French suffered great consequences ○ Iroquois Confederacy ■ allied with the British ○ The peace treaty between the Iroquois and the British ended ■ The Iroquois wanted the Ohio valley, but the English refused. ■ The Iroquois were outnumbered so they could not go against the British The New Imperialism ● 1763 ­ the British imperial government became indebt and responsible for the new lands they gained in the New World. Burdens of Empire ● the Colonists were resistant to British control ○ they were unwilling to pay the taxes Commercial Vesus Territorial Imperialists ● Before 1763, the British were against purchase of lands. ● By mid­eighteenth century, a lot of English and American leaders started to suggest acquisition of territory ○ It could support the population ○ It can produce taxes ● England acquired more land in Canada from its victory over France ● 1763 ­ the British Empire became twice as great as it had been before ○ While some were in favor of the expansion, some were against it ■ many Europeans moving into new lands quickly would stir up trouble with the Indians ○ Some colonists disagreed on who should control the new western lands. Britain’s Staggering War Debt ● Landlords and merchants in England objected to the extremely high taxes. ● the need for British troops after 1763 on the Indian Border and defending American settlements added more cost ● England could not rely on the colonial governments ● George III seized the throne in 1760 ○ he wanted to be an active and responsible monarch ■ he removed the stable coalition of Whigs, who had governed the empire, from power. ■ he then created a coalition of his own through bribes and gained an uneasy control of Parliament. ○ he was immature and suffered from a rare disease that contributed in him making bad political decisions. ● Grenville ­ became prime minister in 1763 ○ he believed the colonists should obey the country laws and should defend the empire. The British and the Tribes ● When the French left, settlers and traders from English colonies move into the upper Ohio valley. ○ The Indians object to their intrusion ■ The Ottawa chieftain Pontiac fight back ● Proclamation of 1763 ­ forbids settlers to move beyond the line drawn along the Appalachian Mountains ○ It allowed London to control the west­ward movements ■ slower population migration would lessen conflicts with the tribes and cost less ○ the tribes supported the agreement ■ relation with the British improved ● However, the white settlers kept moving towards the Ohio valley and claiming lands, and the British were not able to stop them. The Colonial Response ● Regular British troops became permanently established in America ● Mutiny Act of 1765 ○ the colonists required to assist the troops ○ British ships searched American waters for smugglers ○ The custom service was reorganized ○ Royal officials were ordered to take colonial posts in person instead of sending substitutes ○ Colonial manufacturing was restricted ● Sugar Act of 1764 ○ designed to eliminate illegal trades between the continental colonies and the French and Spanish West Indies ○ strengthened enforcement of the duty on sugar ● Currency Act of 1764 ○ required the colonial assemblies to stop issuing paper money ● Stamp Act of 1965 ○ imposed a tax on most printed documents in the colonies: newspapers, almanacs, pamphlets, deeds, wills, and licenses. ● The new imperial program was to apply the old principles of mercantilism to the colonies ○ British officials began collecting ten times more money than before 1763 ○ But the new policies created more problems ○ the colonists resented the new imperial regulations ■ the Americans were against each other as they were against authorities in London. Paxton Boys ● 1763 ○ a group of people from western Pennsylvania known as Paxton Boys demanded Philadelphia for money to help them defend themselves against Indians. Regulator Movement ● 1771 ○ small scale civil war as a result of the regulator movement in North Carolina. ■ Regulators ­ farmers who opposed high taxes ■ resisted tax collections by force ■ Governor William Tryon raised an army of militiamen to suppress the revolt who defeated the 2,000 Regulators in the Battle of Alamance. ● Northern merchants, settlers, southern planters, professionals, small farmers resented the British governments and feared the consequences of the new regulations. Postwar Depression ● British funds to the American colonies stopped after the peace in 1763. ● Authorities in London started taking money out of the colonies ○ The American economy was not destroyed; however, it created anxieties throughout the colonies. ○ The population of the people who were unemployed or semi­employed increased ○ Boston suffered the worst economic problems Political Consequences of the Grenville Program ● The colonists believed that the key to self­government were provincial assemblies, and the key to power of the provincial assemblies was their long­established right to give or withhold appropriations for the colonial governments Stirrings of Revolt ● the colonists’ heightened sense of their own importance and a renewed commitment to protect their political system gave the British a strong need to tighten control of the empire and use the colonies as source of revenues. The Stamp Act Act Crisis Effects of the Stamp Act ● It evoked opposition from some of the most powerful members of the population. ● It was a direct attempt by england to incomes in the colonies without the consent of the colonial assemblies. ● House of Burgesses in Virginia ○ they hoped to challenge the power of the tidewater planters who allied with the royal governor and dominated Virginia politics. ● Virginia Resolves ○ Patrick Henry, famed for his defiance of British authority, gave a speech declaring that Americans must possess the same rights as the English concerning taxes. ● Massachusetts ○ James Otis persuaded his fellow members of the colonial assembly to call for action against the new tax ○ October 1765 ■ the Stamp Act Congress met in New York with representatives from nine colonies and decided to petition the king and the two houses of Parliament. Sons of Liberty ● 1765 ­ serious riots broke out up and down the coast, the largest being in Boston. ● Men belonging to the newly organized Sons of Liberty terrorized stamp agents and burned the stamps. ● The Stamp Act subsided once England backed down. ○ The British changed their attitude not because of the uprisings, but because of the economy pressure. ■ New englands had stopped buying English goods to protest the Sugar Act of 1764. ■ Unemployment, poverty, and discontent arose from english seaports which made the English revoke the Stamp Act Parliament Retreats ● Marquis of Rockingham ­ successor of Grenville in July 1765 ○ He tried to appease both the English merchants and American colonists. ● March 18, 1766 ­ Parliament revoked the Stamp Act ○ On the same day, Parliament passed the Declaratory Act ■ It asserted parliament’s authority over the colonies “in all cases whatsoever.” The Townshend Program ● English landlords protested that the government had sacrificed the landed gentlemen to the interests of traders and colonists. ○ The king dismissed the rockingham ministry ■ He called William Pitt to form a government ● The actual leadership was under the chancellor of the exchequer, Charles Townshend Mutiny Act ● Mutiny Act of 1765 ○ It required colonists to provide quarters and supplies for the British troops in America. ■ The British agreed with the act while the colonists disagreed ● The Americans resented that these contributions was mandatory. ○ The Massachusetts Assembly and The New York Assembly refused to vote the mandated supplies to the troops Internal and External Taxes ● Parliament in 1767 ○ It disbanded New York Assembly until the colonists agree to obey the Mutiny Act ○ Newer taxes on goods imported to the colonies from England ● Massachusetts Assembly circulated a letter to the colonial governments urging them to stand up against the Parliament ○ The colonists first opposed but later supported the idea Colonial Boycotts ● 1768 ○ the merchants of Philadelphia and New York joined the Boston merchants in a non importation agreement, and later southern merchants and planters also agree ■ Colonists boycotted British goods subject to the Townshend Duties ● 1767 ○ Charles TOwnshend dies and Lord North took over The Boston Massacre Competition for Scarce Employment ● The presence of troops inside the city of Boston kept the people from feeling independent and it was a constant reminder of the British oppression. ● The Night of March 5, 1770 ○ a crowd of dockworkers began attacking the soldiers at the customs house with rocks and snowballs. ■ Several British soldiers fired which killed five people Samuel Adams ● The incident transformed into the “Boston Massacre”­ a graphic symbol of British oppression and brutality. ○ The event became the subject of many inaccurate accounts ● A jury in Massachusetts found the British soldiers guilty of manslaughter ○ However, colonist newspapers and pamphlets convinced many Americans that the soldiers were guilty of official murder ○ Anniversaries were held each year for the massacre, and one of the leading figures was Samuel Adams. ■ He became a persistent voice expressing outrage at British oppression. ● His messages began to attract supporters. ■ He created a committee of correspondence, and he became the leader. Other colonies followed soon after. The Philosophy of Revolt ● Ideas for revolution emerged from religious (particularly Puritan) sources or from political experiences of the colonies. ○ Even people in Great Britain like the Scots stood in opposition to their government. England’s Balanced Constitution ● The king and his ministers were becoming so powerful in England that they could not be restrained by others. ● Basic Principle ○ Americans believed that the right of people to be taxed was only with their consent ● Americans saw the mistakes of the English and made changes in their government ○ all laws and the powers of government were written on paper ○ Each communities had their representatives who were elected by the people of that community, and they were directly responsible for them. Visual versus Actual Representation ● By arguing that the parliament could legislate for the English Empire but the provincial assemblies could legislate for their individual colonies, Americans were arguing for a division of sovereignty ○ The British disagreed with the Americans The Tea Excitement Revolutionary Discourse ● Colonists documented their resentments through leaflets, pamphlets and books ● People gathered to express their growth hatred against the British policies. ● People started to seize ships and set them on fires. ○ The colonists were angered when the accused attackers were sent to England for trial and not in America. ● 1773 ○ Britain’s East India Company was on the verge of bankruptcy, and it was not able to sell its large stocks of tea in England. ■ To save itself, the government passed the Tea Act of 1773 which gave the company rights to export the teas to the colonies without paying regulation taxes. ● This could bankrupt colonial merchants The Tea Act ● Large amounts of colonists boycotted the tea. ○ It helped link the colonists together ○ Women became leaders of the boycotts ■ Daughters of Liberty ­ an informal women organization aimed to spread colonial resentments Boston Tea party ● Leaders in various colonies made plans to prevent the East India Company from landing its cargoes in colonial ports ● December 16, 1773 ○ three companies of fifty men each disguised as Mohawks, to protect them from official interferences, went on the ships, broke open the tea chests and heaved them into the harbor. ■ After hearing the Boston “tea party,” others followed ○ The Bostonians refused to pay for the property destroyed ○ four acts of 1774 ■ As a punishment only on Massachusetts, Parliament closed the port of Boston, drastically reduced colonial self­government, permitted royal officers to be tried in other colonies or in England, and provided for the quartering of troops in the colonists’ barns and empty houses. Coercive Acts ● Quebec Act ○ Its object was to provide a civil government for the French­speaking Roman Catholic inhabitants of Canada and the Illinois country. ○ It extended the boundaries of Quebec to include the French communities between the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. ○ It granted political rights to the Roman catholics. Consequences ● The Coercive Acts sparked new resistance in the colonies. ○ Colonial legislatures passed resolves to support massachusetts ■ Women’s group continued their boycotts of British goods Cooperation and War New Sources of Authority ● In the colonies, local institutions responded to the resistance movement by simply seizing authority on their own. ● Committee of prominent citizens began meeting to perform additional political functions. First Continental congress ● The committees of correspondence was the most effective. ● 1774 ○ Virginia declared that the Intolerable Acts (Coercive Acts) threatened the liberties of every colony, and issued a call for a Continental Congress. ● September 1774 ○ the First Continental Congress convened ■ rejected a plan for a colonial union under the British authority ■ endorsed a statement of grievances ­ demand to revoke the oppressive legislation passed since 1763 ■ passed resolutions that allowed preparation for possible attack from the British troops in Boston ■ agreed to nonimportation, nonexportation and nonconsumption as means of stopping trade with Britain ■ agred to meet again next spring The Conciliatory Propositions ● British authorities urged for withdrawal of troops in America, repeal of the Coercive Acts, but their efforts did not work. Lexington and Concord ● The farmers and townspeople of massachusetts had been been preparing for a fight. General Thomas Gage ● April 18, 1775 ○ General Thomas Gage, commanding the British troops, sent about 1,000 soldiers out from Boston on the road to Lexington and Concord. ■ he intended to surprise the colonials and seize the illegal supplies without bloodshed. ■ However, the patriots in Boston were waiting for them. ■ As the British were returning, they were harassed by the farmers, and they lost more men than the Americans did. Crash Course Notes Crash Course #6 ● The Seven Years war ended with the Treaty of paris in 1763. ○ It limited the colonists’ ability to take land from the Indians. ○ In order to pay for the war debt, the British decided to raise taxes on the colonists ■ The colonists became angry because they did not have any say about the new taxes. ● The taxes were not the problem for the colonists; it was the lack of Parliamentary representation. ● Sugar Act of 1764 ○ It reduced tax ○ But the act also gave the British the authority to try colonial smugglers which takes the power away from colonial courts ● Stamp Act of 1765 ○ all printed materials had to carry a stamp, and it was not free ● Stamp Act Congress ○ Organized by protesters who decided to boycott British goods ■ received help from the Committees of Correspondence ● helped people become aware of British oppression ○ Direct street actions that are sometimes violent were organized by groups called “Sons of Liberty.” ■ The British Parliament revoked the Stamp act, but it also passed the Declaratory Act ● 1767 ­ Townshend Acts ○ aimed at stopping smuggling ○ “Daughters of Liberty” ■ an organized female group encouraging boycotts. ● Boston massacre ○ five colonists killed including Crispus Attucks ○ nine British put on trial ■ seven freed while two were accused of manslaughter ● 1773 Tea Act ○ freed the tea coming from the British East India Company of tax ■ It lowered the price of tea ○ December 16, 1773 ■ the colonists dressed up as Indians and dumped the teas into Boston Harbor ●
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■ The Americans believed that the non­tax teas set an example that the British had the power and could tax whatever they wanted Intolerable Acts ○ Quartering Act ■ It forced colonists to let British soldiers into their house when they are asked to ○ Quebec Act ■ extended the southern boundaries of Quebec and granted religion freedom to the Roman Catholics In response, Massachusetts called for colonists to disobey the Intolerable Acts, Stop paying taxes, and prepare for war. December 1774, a group of representatives from twelve colonies got together in Philadelphia. ○ to support the boycott and encourage domestic manufacturing Continental Congress ○ It justified its actions as liberties of free and natural born subjects within England ○ It also talks about the fixed laws of nature ■ all humans have equal rights The war between the colonists and Britain began in April 19, 1775 ○ Lexington and Concord ○ the colonists lost the battle of Bunker Hill ○ the British suffered a lot of casualties that they had to leave Boston ○ But the British later controlled New York ○ not everyone in the colonies supported independence; elites in New York and Pennsylvania were very nervous about the revolution July 1775 ○ the Continental Congress sent the Olive Branch Petition to King George III saying that Americans were loyal British who wanted to reconcile with England. Thomas Paine’s ​
Common Sense ○ January 1776 ■ he argued that America was special and exceptional the Second Continental Congress declared independence Crash Course #7 ● The main strategy of the British in the war was to capture all the cities and force the colonists to surrender. ○ They captured Boston, New York, and Charleston ● The colonists had advantages because they had home field advantage, knowledge of the terrain, and easier supply lines. ● When the British took the cities, the colonists held onto the countrysides. ● Battle of Trenton ○ Washington surprised the Hessians after coming off from a string of defeats ■ had to endure the hard winter at Valley Forge ● Battle of Saratoga ○ a major defeat for the British ● The British continued to lose small scale battles and were harassed by guerilla style tactics ● Yorktown in 1781 ○ Lord cornwallis made a tactical decision to station his troops on a peninsula surrounded on three sides by water filled by French ships, and the British lost the war ● During the war, rations were poor and the soldiers went unpaid. ● Many other colonists also fought with the British ● Some others were pacifist who believed that war was unjustifiable ○ they had their property confiscated when they refused to fight ● For slaves, loyalty to the British meant freedom ● In 1775, British governor Lord Dunmore issued a proclamation that granted freedom for slaves if they deserted their master and fought for the British ○ many slaves saw the revolution as an escape ● the British Empire abolished slavery in all of its territory by 1843 without a civil war. ● Native americans wanted to stay out of the revolution. ○ The colonists also wanted them to remain neutral. ○ But many of the Iroquois fought for the British. ○ The Oneidas joined the Patriots fighting against the Iroquois. ■ sometimes there were divisions within tribes ● Women, the Indians, and slaves did not get the rights after the revolution. ○ They were not allowed to vote or own a property. ○ The war did not end slavery. ● When the colonies became states, they all created constitutions which opened voting to more people. ● Thomas Jefferson wanted the church and the state to separate. ● After the war, the North and the South started to split; the North relied on paid labor while the South relied on slavery. ● 1793 ○ Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin ■ It made it possible to turn a profit growing inferior American cotton ■ It restarted the slavery that was declining at the time ● Some early Americans proposed a vision of liberty that was about equality of property ● James Otis wrote that unless the slaves were free, there was no equality and liberty. ● The main protesters were African Americans, and they were heard in some parts of the northern states ● 1777­1804 ○ all states north of Maryland got rid of slavery, but most of them did at a very slow pace. ○ Even in 1830, there were still about 3500 slaves in the North. ○ There were fewer than 10,000 freed slaves in 1776. But by 1810, there were nearly 200,000 free African Americans.