Download AMERICA IN THE BRITISH EMPIRE

AMERICA IN THE BRITISH
EMPIRE
• The British Colonial System
– British
colonies
were
founded
independently by people with differing
backgrounds and motivations
– each British colony had its own form of
government, and British government did
not regard colonies as a unit
– English political and legal institutions took
hold throughout colonies
– Crown left colonists to make own laws
pertaining to local matters
– King’s Privy Council responsible for
formulating colonial policy
– Parliamentary legislation applied to the
colonies
– occasionally, British authorities attempted
to create a more cohesive and efficient
colonial system
– late 17th century, British policy was to
transform proprietary and corporate
colonies into royal colonies
– Board of Trade took over management of
colonial affairs in 1696
– failure to establish a centralized colonial
government contributed to the
development of independent governments
and eventually to the United States’ federal
system
• Mercantilism
– mercantilism described to a set of policies
designed to make a country self-sufficient
while selling more goods abroad than it
imported
– if colonies lacked gold and silver, they
could provide raw materials and markets
• The Navigation Acts
– commerce was essential to mercantilism
– in the 1650s, Parliament responded to
Dutch preeminence in shipping with
Navigation Acts
– reserved the entire trade of colonies to
English ships and required that captain and
3/4 of crew be English
– acts also limited export of certain
enumerated items
– acts were designed to stimulate British
industry and trade and to restrict and
shape, but not to destroy, infant colonial
• The Effects of Mercantilism
– Mercantilist policy benefited both England
and the colonies
– England’s interests prevailed when
conflicts arose
– the inefficiency of English administration
lessened the impact of mercantilist
regulations
– when regulations became burdensome, the
colonists simply ignored them; and
England was inclined to look the other way
• The Great Awakening
– people in colonies began to recognize
common interests and a common
character
– by about 1750, the word “American” had
entered the language
– one common experience was the Great
Awakening, a wave of religious enthusiasm
– two ministers, Theodore Frelinghuysen (a
Calvinist) and William Tennent (a
Presbyterian), arrived in the 1720s
– they sought to instill evangelical zeal they
witnessed among Pietists and Methodists
in Europe
– colonial tours of George Whitefield, a
powerful orator, sparked much religious
enthusiasm
– Whitefield did not deny the doctrine of
predestination
– preached of a God receptive to good
intentions
– many denominations split between the “Old
Lights” or “Old Sides,” who supported more
traditional approaches, and the “New
Lights” or “New Sides,” who embraced
revivalism
– the better educated and more affluent
• The Rise and Fall of Jonathan Edwards
– Jonathan Edwards was the most famous
native-born revivalist of the Great
Awakening
– took over his grandfather’s church in
Northampton, Massachusetts, in 1727
– Edwards’s grandfather, Solomon Stoddard,
practiced a policy of “open enrollment”
– Edwards set out to ignite a spiritual revival
– sermons warned in graphic language of the
Hell awaiting unconverted
– Edwards’s approach upset some of his
parishioners, and in 1749 they voted
unanimously to dismiss him
– a reaction against religious enthusiasm set
in by the early 1750s
– although it caused divisions, the Great
Awakening also fostered religious
toleration
– the Awakening was also the first truly
national event in American history
• The Enlightenment in America
– the Enlightenment had an enormous
impact on America
– the
founders
of
colonies
were
contemporaries of scientists such as
Galileo, Descartes, and Newton
– they who provided a new understanding of
the natural world
– earth, heavens, humans, and animals all
seemed part of a great machine, which
God had set in motion
– through observation and reason, humans
might come to understand the laws of
nature
– faith in these ideas produced the Age of
Reason
– ideas of European thinkers reached
America with startling speed
– the writings of John Locke and other
political theorists found a receptive
audience
– ideas that in Europe were discussed only
• Colonial Scientific Achievements
– colonials such as John Bartram,
Cadwallader Colden, and Benjamin
Franklin contributed to the accumulation of
scientific knowledge
– the theoretical contributions of American
thinkers and scientists were modest, but
involvement in the intellectual affairs of
Europe provided yet another common
experience for colonials
• Other People’s Wars
– European nations competed fiercely for
markets and raw materials
– war became a constant in the 17th and
18th centuries
– European powers vied for allies among the
Native American tribes and raided
settlements of opposing powers
– colonies paid heavily for these European
conflicts
– in addition to battle casualties, frontier
settlers were killed in raids; and taxes went
up to pay for the wars
– these conflicts served to increase bad
feelings between settlers in French and
English colonies
– more important Europe’s colonial wars
inevitably generated some friction between
England and its North American colonies
• The Great War for the Empire
– England and France possessed competing
colonial empires in North America
– in 1750s, the two powers came into direct
conflict
– the result was another colonial war; but this
one spread from the colonies to Europe
– English effort was badly mismanaged
– not until William Pitt took over the British
war effort did England’s fortunes improve
– Pitt recognized the potential value of North
America and poured British forces and
money into the war
– he also promoted talented young officers
such as James Wolfe
– British took Montreal in 1760, and France
abandoned Canada to the British
– British also captured French and Spanish
possessions in the Pacific, in the West
Indies, and in India
– Spain got back Philippines and Cuba, in
exchange for which it ceded Florida to
Great Britain
– the victory in North America was won by
British troops and British gold
– the British colonies contributed relatively
little money, and the performance of
colonial troops was uneven
– the defeat of the French seemed to tie the
colonies still more closely to England
• The Peace of Paris
– under terms of Treaty of Paris, signed in
1763, France gave up virtually all claims to
North America
– given extent of British victories in battle,
terms of treaty were moderate
– England returned captured French
possessions in Caribbean, Africa, and India
• Putting the Empire Right
– Britain now controlled a larger empire,
which would be much more expensive to
maintain
– Pitt’s expenditures for the war had doubled
Britain’s national debt
– British people were taxed to the limit
– American colonies now required a more
extensive system of administration
– issues such as western expansion and
relations with the Indians needed to be
resolved
– many in England resented the growing
wealth of the colonists
• Tightening Imperial Controls
– British attempts to deal with problems
resulting from victory in great war for
empire led to American Revolution
– after great war, British decided to exert
greater control over American colonies
– Britain allowed the colonies a great degree
of freedom, thus colonists resented new
restrictions on freedom
– English colonies increased their pressure
on the Indians
– British stationed 15 regiments along the
frontier
– as much to protect the Indians from the
settlers as the settlers from the Indians
– a new British policy prohibited settlement
across the Appalachian divide
– this created further resentment among
colonists, who planed development of Ohio
Valley
• The Sugar Act
– Americans were outraged by British
attempts to raise money in America to help
defray cost of administering the colonies
– Sugar Act placed tariffs on sugar, coffee,
wines, and other imported goods
– violators were tried before British naval
officers in vice-admiralty courts
– Colonists considered the duties to be
taxation without representation
– the law came at bad time because
economic boom created by war ended with
war
• American Colonists Demand Rights
– British dismissed protests over Sugar Act
– under concept of “virtual representation,”
every member of Parliament stood for
interests of entire empire
• The Stamp Act: The Pot Set to Boiling
– Stamp Act placed stiff excise taxes on all
kinds of printed matter
– Sugar Act had related to Parliament’s
uncontested power to control colonial trade
– Stamp Act was a direct tax
– Virginia's House of Burgesses took lead in
opposing new tax
– irregular organizations, known as the Sons
of Liberty, staged direct-action protests
against act
– sometimes protests took form of mob
• Rioters or Rebels?
– rioting took on a social and a political
character
– if colonial elite did not disapprove of rioting,
looting associated with protests did alarm
them
– mass of people were property owners and
had some say in political decisions; they
had no desire to overthrow established
order
– Stamp Act hurt business of lawyers,
merchants, and newspaper editors people
– greatest concern was Britain’s rejection of
the principle of no taxation without
representation
– as British subjects, colonists claimed “the
rights of Englishmen”
– passage of Quartering Act further
convinced Americans that actions of
Parliament threatened to deprive them of
those rights
• Taxation or Tyranny?
– English people were recognized as the
freest people in the world which was
attributed their freedom to balanced
government
– actually, balance between the Crown, the
House of Lords, and the House of
Commons never really existed
– to Americans, actions of Parliament
threatened to disrupt balance
– British leaders believed that the time had
come to assert royal authority
– colonies were no longer entirely dependent
on England
– British leaders were not ready to deal with
Americans as equals
– Americans refused to use the stamps and
boycotted British goods. The Stamp Act
was repealed in March 1766
• The Declaratory Act
– Parliament passed the Declaratory Act
– asserted that Parliament could enact any
law it wished with respect to the colonies
– Declaratory Act revealed the extent to
which British and American views of the
system had drifted apart
• The Townshend Duties
– Townshend Acts (1767) placed levies on
glass, lead, paints, paper, and tea imported
colonists responded with new boycott of
British goods
– leaders of resistance ranged from
moderates, John Dickinson, to
revolutionaries, Samuel Adams
– British responded by dissolving
Massachusetts legislature, and by
transferring two regiments from frontier to
• The Boston Massacre
– March 5, 1770, rioters began throwing
snowballs at British soldiers
– crowd grew hostile, the panicky troops
responded by firing on it
– five Bostonians lay dead or dying
– John Adams volunteered his legal services
to the soldiers
– British also relented; Townshend duties
except tax on tea were repealed in April
1770; a tenuous truce lasted for two years
• The Pot Spills Over
– trouble erupted again when British patrol
boat ran aground in Narragansett Bay in
1772
• The Tea Act Crisis
– in 1773, Parliament agreed to remit British
tax on tea; Townshend tax was retained
– Americans regarded measure as a
diabolical attempt to trick them into paying
the tax on tea
– public indignation was so great that
authorities in New York and Philadelphia
ordered ships carrying tea to return to
England
– December 16, 1773, colonists disguised as
Indians dumped tea in harbor; England
received news of the Boston Tea Party with
• From Resistance to Revolution
– Parliament responded to Boston Tea Party
by passing Coercive Acts in spring of 1774
– acts weakened colonial legislatures and
judiciary and closed Boston harbor until
citizens paid for tea
– also known as the Intolerable Acts
– First Continental Congress met at
Philadelphia September 1774
– John Adams rejected any right of
Parliament to legislate for colonies
– Congress passed a declaration
condemning Britain’s actions since 1763, a
resolution that the people take arms to
defend their rights