Download The Causes of the American Revolution

The American Revolution
Debts, Taxation, and
Misunderstanding lead to war
and independence
American Heroes: 1763
Victory and the treaty of Paris
meant?
• Peace? An end to French intrusion in the
colonies.
• Prosperity in commerce with England/
• Protestant unity
Impact of Pontiac’s Rebellion
• The incredible assault by the Odawa
illustrated that the British had to keep an
army in North America.
War Debts
• Britain accumulated
130,000,000 in war
debts.
• An annual budget of
250,000 to maintain a
military presence in
colonies.
The Sugar Act
• Lowered the tax
(duty) on sugar by ½.
• Colonial tax burden?
1:26
• Set up special courts
for smugglers.
• Response? Led by
Samuel Adams—non
importation.
The Stamp Act
• Nature of discontent?
• The Law?
Virtual Representation
• “the right of
exemption from all
taxes without their
consent…would
deprive them of every
privilege
distinguishing
freemen from slaves.
The Protest
• Stamp Act Congres
• Harassment: Andrew
Oliver and Thomas
Hutchinson
• Key components of
protest: restating of
civil rights and nonimportation.
The Virginia Resolves
• The resolves claimed
that Virginia was an
independent realm of
the British Crown,
subject to taxation
only by its colonial
assembly and not by
Parliament.
“The Repeal”
The Declaratory Act
• The Declaratory Act
asserted Britain's
exclusive right to
legislate for and tax
its colonies
External v. Internal Taxes
• Colonists tended not to mind “external
taxes” such as the Molasses Act.
• These were meant to regulate trade.
• Internal or “direct” taxes were much more
contemptible to the colonists. They were
designed not to regulate trade, but to raise
revenue.
Townshend Acts: 1768
• Revenue Act: a duty placed on items such
as tea, lead, paper, and barrels.
• Townshend’s view on taxes
• Taxation and the salary of governors…a
key component.
• NY Suspending Act
Response to the Townshend Acts
• Daughters of Liberty
• Samuel Adams Circular Letter
• Non-Importation (40% dip in already
strained British commerce)
• Townshend Acts Repealed.
John Dickinson
• Letters from a farmer in
Pennsylvania
• “an imposition on the
subject for the sole
purpose of levying
money.”
• Opposed to
independence:
• “torn from the body to
which we are
united…where shall we
find another Britain to
support us”
3/5/1770: Joy and Sorrow
• The Townshend Acts
Repealed
• Boston Massacre
• Ended a period of
calm
Eyewitness Account
• "A number of persons, to the amount of thirty or
forty, mostly boys and youngsters, who assembled ...
near the sentry at the Custom-house door, damned
him, and bid him fire and be damned; and some snow
ball were throwed ... I saw a party of soldiers come
from the main guard, and draw themselves up ... the
people still continued in the street, crying, 'Fire, fire,
and be damned,' and hove some more snow balls,
whereupon I heard a musket go off, and in the space
of two or three seconds, I heard the word 'fire' given
... and instantly the soldiers fired one after another."
Tea Act of 1773
• Changes in the tea
policy.
• Dutch smuggling
• Cheaper yet better
tea!
• Oh…wait. Merchants
role, the new
“Consignee”
• Goal to sell 17,000,000 lbs of tea in the colonies at a
discount.
• Taxes within England were refunded at the expense of
the colonies.
• NO COLONIAL SALESMAN—all done by representatives
of the British East India Company.
Boston Tea Party:
Response: The Coercive Acts
• Boston Port Act: prohibited the loading or
unloading of ships in the port of Boston after
June 1 and until the town had paid for the tea.
• Massachusetts Government Act: abolished the
charter of 1691 and restored it to English control.
• Administration of Justice Act: treasonous
criminals tried in England not the colonies.
• Quartering Act: permitted British troops to be
quartered with towns throughout the entire
colonies.
Goal?
• Divide the colonies
and punish
Massachusetts…crush
any remnants of revolt.
• Result: Colonies
bound together.
First Continental Congress
• Coordinating event
that saw 12/13 (Ga.)
colonies meet in
Philadelphia. Their
powers were limited,
but it was unified.
• Boycott
• Continental
Association
• Committees of
Correspondence
Goal of the 1st CC?
• “We ask for only for peace, liberty, and
security. We wish no diminution of royal
prerogatives, we demand no new rights.”
• Purpose: coordinate the colonists opposition to
the Coercive Acts.
• Any response such as non-importation would be
conducted everywhere.
• Sought reconciliation minus taxation.
Suffolk Resolves
• Delivered to the 1st
CC by Paul Revere.
• Encouraged people to
not pay taxes,
disobey the coercive
acts, elect militia
officials and train for
war.
Final Steps Towards War
• Neither the King nor Parliament willing to
back down.
• When the colonists submitted their petition
to address Parliament on grievances they
voted no 218-68
• Referring to them as “unruly children” and
“rude rabble”
King George III
• “The New England
Governments are in
rebellion, blows must
decide whether they
are to be subject to
this country or
independent”. King
George III
The Battles
• Lexington and
Concord-response to
the British occupation
of Boston (since 1768)
– Gage’s goal was to
remove ammunitions
from local patriots.
His wife foiled the
plan by alerting the
Patriots.
Revere’s Ride
• Colonists had been on
high alert of a possible
British plot, alarm and
messenger systems were
established were
designed to alert leaders
like Adams, and Hancock
of any changes. The most
famous was Revere’s
Ride.
The Casualties…
• Initially the British urged minutemen to
disperse. Then a shot was fired, eight
Patriots died in the ensuing battle. The
British proceeded on to Concord to find
the munitions. Finding nothing, they
moved back to Boston…guerilla fighting
having broken out along the entire route,
killing 273 British.
Capture of Fort Ticonderoga (1775)
Slavery and the Rebellion
• 1775 Lord Dunmore
of Virginia offered
amnesty to all slaves
if they assisted the
British in putting
down the local
rebellion.
Bunker Hill
• Bunker Hill: costly British Victory.
Colonist gain confidence.
• “it was a dear bought victory another
would have ruined us.”
• Chose not to pursue the Americans
Dual Roles of the 2nd CC
• Pursue Peace: Olive
Branch Petition
• Pursue War:
Declaration of
Independence, Cont.
Army
• This contradiction
made this first
government of this
country most
difficult.
Perspectives
• Most of the delegates who attended the Second
Continental Congress were not yet prepared for
a total break with England. Most eager for
independence were the Massachusetts men,
whose colony had been stripped of civil
government by the Coercive Acts. Delegates
from the middle and southern colonies were
more inclined toward reconciliation, fearing that
fighting for independence would disrupt trade,
create civil unrest, and leave the colonies
vulnerable to enemies like France and Spain.
Despite hopes to contain the conflict, all agreed
that a military buildup was necessary to counter
the invading British army.
Thomas Paine
• The most clear case for Independence
came from Paine. Many Americans
“wavered”.
• Document sold 150,000 copies in a matter
of weeks.
Declaration of Independence
• By early July spurred
on by Paine’s appeal
for common sense,
calls were being made
for Independence. By
July only New York a
loyalist hotbed
remained outside the
other colonies.
Tale of the Tape: Americans
• The American forces had the advantage of
being highly motivated to fight and
theoretically could mobilize considerable
manpower. Cause, patriotism…
• However, Americans traditionally had
relied on militia, which were good for
limited engagements but not for long wars
requiring military campaigns far from
home
Role of Women?
• Over the course of the war, some 231,000
men spent time in military service,
amounting to roughly one-quarter of the
white male population over age sixteen.
Close to 20,000 women served in the
Continental army as cooks,
washerwomen, and nurses.
Key Battles
• British retreated from Boston in 1776
taking the fight to the Middle States.
• Defeat in New York: Washington suffers
defeat by the Howe brothers as he is
outnumbered and late arriving.
Victories come slowly
• On December 26th,
Washington's Army
crossed the Delaware
and surprised the British
at Trenton. The main
attack was made by
2,400 troops under
Washington on the
Hessian Garrison.
• Washington's troops
achieved total surprise
and defeated the British
forces. The American
victory was the first of the
war, and helped to
restore American morale.
Victory at Princeton
•
Gen. Howe responded to the fall
of Trenton by sending 5,550
troops south from New York
through Princeton toward
Trenton.. Cornwalis found Gen.
Washington's troops along the
ridge of the Assunpink Creek,
and decided to wait until the next
day to attack. Overnight,
Washington moved his troops
out of Trenton and into Princeton
to the north. A desperate fight
ensued in Princeton, in which the
Americans almost lost.
• Washington's timely arrival on
horseback, however, served to
rally the Americans, and the
Colonial army defeated
Mawhood's troops, forcing them
to retreat to Trenton
Defeat in Philadelphia
• Washington suffers
staggering losses
(15,000 down to
6,000 through death
and dessertion).
• Huge loss for the
colonists.
• The Continental
Congress forced to
flee (first of several
flees).
Victory at Saratoga
Turning Point
• The surrender at Saratoga dramatically
changed Britain's war strategy. From that
time on, the British generally kept their
troops along the coast, close to the big
guns and supply bases of the British fleet
• France enters war against Britain after this
huge victory.
Valley Forge
• During the winter after
Saratoga (1777-78), spirits
ran high, but finances and
supplies ran perilously low.
Washington's army at
Valley Forge witnessed
some of the worst privations
of the entire war due to
corrupt suppliers and
greedy farmers, who
preferred to sell grain to the
British—who could pay in
hard currency—rather than
to their own army.
Foreigners lend a hand
• Friedrich von Steuben
• Marquis de Lafayette
A Revolution of equality?
• Women served in the army
• Blacks served to the tune of 5,000 in the
north.
• Commoners, merchants, and wealthy
participated.
• The American dream of equality had been
born.
Real American Strategy?
• Keep the British in long enough to
promote unrest and discontent with the
economics at home…they’ll eventually
leave.
• Sound familiar?
The British Strategy
• Britain's objective was not so straightforward: to
restore loyalist regimes to power in the colonies
while not destroying the enemy completely.
• Counting on substantial pockets of loyalist
support in the Carolinas and the middle
colonies, the British assumed this goal would
not be too difficult to achieve. They initially
focused their military campaigns on New York,
Pennsylvania, and New Jersey.
• Strategically, the overall British plan was to
divide and conquer—to separate the rebellious
colonies from those believed to be still loyal.
The War at Home: Patriots and
Loyalists
• Between 20 and 30 percent of the American
population remained loyal to the British monarchy in
1776. Their motivations varied. Some were royal
officeholders; others were merchants whose
businesses were linked to the imperial system; still
others were cultural, ethnic (most notably Native
Americans and African slaves), and religious groups
that had no reason to believe they would fare better
under an independent American government than
they had under the British. Loyalist strongholds thus
could be found everywhere, although the largest
pockets were in the middle colonies and in the South.
The Plight of Loyalists
• Who Is a Traitor?
In June 1775, the First Continental Congress
passed a resolution declaring loyalists to be
traitors.
• Over the course of the war, hounded by patriots
in their communities and harassed by legislative
and judicial actions, many loyalists found their
position intolerable. Thousands of loyalists
eventually fled the country, seeking sanctuary in
England or Canada.
Paying for the war?
• One of the nation's biggest problems was finding
ways to finance the war.
• The Continental Congress printed money, but its
value fell rapidly.
• One way to pay for the war was through borrowing
hard money from wealthy men, who were given
certificates of debt in return.
• Congress also resorted to paying soldiers with
promises of land.
• As the war progressed, prices rose to exorbitant levels,
and a brisk black market in prohibited imports
emerged.
• In vain, the congress tried to stem the inflationary
spiral by instituting price controls.
War in the Indian Country
• In 1779, a year after bloody
raids were carried out by
American militiamen on one
side and loyalists and their
Indian allies on the other,
George Washington sent 4,500
soldiers to destroy all of the
Iroquoian villages in central
New York. The soldiers
destroyed forty Iroquois
villages and slaughtered some
of those unable to flee. By
1779, most Indians had
concluded that they could not
remain neutral.
• In some places, pervasive anti-Indian campaigns
emerged. In western North Carolina and
Kentucky (today's Tennessee and Illinois),
patriot militias destroyed Cherokee villages, and
Indians friendly to Britain tried to drive out new
white settlements. Patriot raids on the frontier
drove Indians from their homes and shocked
British onlookers. By 1780, most Indians in the
West had chosen the British side.
Southern Strategy
• The British shifted their efforts to the
south for a number of reasons. Loyalist
sentiment was considered to be strongest
in the southern colonies, and planters'
nervousness about the war's impact on
trade and their slave populations meant
that they might be more amenable to
coming over to the British side. Also
important was the colonies' economic
value to the empire.
• During the first few years of the
campaign, the southern strategy
seemed to be working, as first
Georgia in 1778 and then South
Carolina in 1780 fell to the British.
• The new British strategy
succeeded in 1780, partly as a
result of information about
American troop movements and
supplies secretly furnished to
General Henry Clinton by
Benedict Arnold.
• Arnold had been one of the war's
early heroes, but now, feeling
betrayed by his own government,
he conspired with British agents to
turn over the patriot stronghold at
West Point on the Hudson River.
Traitor
• The scheme was
exposed and foiled.
News of his behavior
galvanized the
American public,
giving Americans a
scapegoat on which to
heap their own
concerns.
Guerilla fighting
• In the southern backcountry, the conflict
assumed a new dimension of fighting:
guerrilla warfare. In hit-and-run attacks,
partisan bands from both sides attacked
opponents and anybody claiming to be
neutral. The war in the backcountry
proved that there was not enough loyalist
support in the South to allow the British to
hold reconquered territory as the army
moved north.
Yorktown
• In 1781, the British general Cornwallis moved into North
Carolina, hoping to prevent the colony from providing
patriot guerrillas in South Carolina with arms and men.
Although he was not successful, he decided to move into
Virginia, capturing Williamsburg and Charlottesville
and ultimately making his way to Yorktown. The
fortunes of war turned in the rebels' favor with the
arrival of the French navy. While French ships sealed off
any retreat by sea, Washington surrounded Cornwallis
on land. After a short siege, Cornwallis surrendered on
October 19, 1781.
Winners and Losers
• Although the surrender at Yorktown marked the
official end of the war, it would be two more
years before a peace treaty was signed. It took
time for both sides to acknowledge that the end
finally had arrived, and neither wanted to
withdraw from the field until the other side had
as well.
• The American diplomats Benjamin Franklin,
John Adams, and John Jay, who negotiated the
peace treaty, secured favorable terms: official
recognition of American independence and of
the United States and transfer of all territory east
of the Mississippi River, between Canada and
Florida, to the new nation. The Treaty of Paris
did not recognize Indians as players in the war
and turned over land to the United States as
though it were uninhabited. Many tribes saw the
outcome of the war as a disaster.
• With the treaty finally signed, the
British began their evacuation of New
York—in New York City, more than
27,000 soldiers and 30,000 loyalists
sailed on hundreds of ships for
England in late fall 1783.
Why England Lost?
• Many factors contributed to the British defeat. It
was hard for the British to supply their army,
especially since they did not want to ravage the
countryside. At the same time, the British failed
to back the loyalists and use their energies
effectively. The French alliance and military
support throughout were crucial to the
American victory. Finally, after abdicating civil
power in the colonies in 1775 and 1776, the
British were never able to regain it.