Download CHAPTER 4 Experience of Empire: Eighteenth

CHAPTER 4 Experience of Empire: Eighteenth-Century America
SUMMARY
Colonial Americans in the eighteenth century were aware of living on the edge of a
great and growing empire. Even as American society became more diverse,
England exerted a more dominant political, economic and cultural force. As the
colonists became more British, they became American for the first time.
I. GROWTH AND DIVERSITY
Between 1700 and 1750, the population of the colonies increased from 250,000 to
over 2 million, much of it through natural increase, but also through the
immigration of non-English Europeans.
A. Scots-Irish Flee English Oppression
The Scots, many of whom came from Northern Ireland, concentrated on the
Pennsylvania frontier and filled the Shenandoah Valley. They were often
regarded as a disruptive element because they refused to pay rent or taxes.
B. Germans Searching for a Better Life
Many Germans left their homeland because of the wars that racked
Germany, and settled mainly in Pennsylvania. Because there were so
many of them and because Germans attempted to preserve their
own customs, they aroused the prejudice of their English neighbors.
C. Convict Settlers
After 1715, the English government began transporting convicts to the
colonies. The colonists generally resented the policy and ended it during the
American Revolution, but not before about 50,000 felons had arrived.
C. Native Americans Stake Out a Middle Ground
The immigration of non-English people added to the diversity of American
society, but so did Native Americans who had survived conquest and
disease. Many Indians moved into the trans-Appalachian region, a "middle
ground" where no colonial power was yet established. In this middle
ground, remnants of different Indian peoples regrouped and formed new
nations that successfully interacted with each other and with Europeans. In
time, however, the lure of European goods encouraged Indians to deal
individually with traders, thus weakening collective resistance to European
aggression.
II. SPANISH BORDERLANDS OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY
Spain still occupied a large part of America north of Mexico and developed there a unique
culture.
A. Conquering the Northern Frontier
The Spanish had explored and colonized the area north of Mexico in the
sixteenth century, but Indian resistance and a lack of interest limited the Spanish
presence.
B. Peoples of the Spanish Borderlands
Spain never had a secure political or military hold on her borderlands, but
Spanish cultural influence persisted, especially in architecture and
language. Those Indians who agreed to live under Spanish rule suffered
economic discrimination, but not racial segregation.
III. THE IMPACT OF EUROPEAN IDEAS ON AMERICAN CULTURE The seaboard
colonists also lived in an expanding, changing world. A. Provincial Cities
The vast majority of Americans lived in small towns or isolated farms, but
some urban areas began to develop. Boston, Newport, New York,
Philadelphia and Charleston had lifestyles distinct from rural America.
Their economies were geared to commerce; they were not industrial centers.
Because of their more frequent contacts with Europe, city people led the way
in the adoption of new fashions and the latest luxuries. Emulating British
architecture, they built grand homes and filled them with fine furniture.
However, American cities could merely hint at the grandeur of London, and it
was to that city that talented colonists, such as John Singleton Copley, traveled
for opportunity and inspiration.
B. American Enlightenment
Unlike the European Enlightenment, the colonial American version was
less radical. Science was esteemed, but mainly because of its practical
uses, and only if it did not threaten religious ideas.
C. Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin (1706--1790) epitomized provincial, urban culture.
Enraptured as a boy by British literature, Franklin became a writer
himself, offering practical advice in a witty way. Uninterested in religion, he
dedicated himself to reason and science, always with the practical use of
scientific theory in mind.
D. Economic Transformation
America's prosperity created a rising demand for English and West Indian
goods. The colonists paid for their imports by exporting tobacco, wheat, and
rice and by purchasing on credit. Because so much of their standard of living
depended on commerce, the colonists resented English regulations. In addition
to the laws described in Chapter 3, England restricted colonial manufacture
or trade of timber, sugar, hats and iron.
E. Birth of a Consumer Society
As England entered the Industrial Revolution and began to mass-produce items
of everyday use, American imports of English goods rose, and wealthy
Americans began to build up large debts to English merchants. Americans
also traded extensively with the West Indies and with each other. These
trades usually earned a surplus and enabled the colonists to pay for English
imports. Inter-colonial commerce also gave Americans a chance to learn about
one another.
IV. RELIGIOUS REVIVALS IN PROVINCIAL SOCIETIES
The Great Awakening, a series of religious revivals, occurred at different places at
different times. These revivals, like the one led by Jonathan Edwards at
Northampton, Massachusetts, encouraged the "awakened" to question their own
values and the values of their society.
A. The Great Awakening
George Whitefield, an itinerant minister from England, made revivalism a
mass movement. Using his abilities as an orator, Whitefield preached
outdoor sermons to thousands of people in nearly every colony. Whitefield
and his many imitators urged congregations to desert unconverted
ministers, thereby disrupting established churches. Laypeople, including
women and blacks, finally had a chance to shape their own religious
institutions. The Awakening thus promoted a democratic, evangelical union of
national extent before there was an American political nation.
B. The Voice of Popular Religion
Some of the revivalists were anti-intellectual fanatics, but most were welltrained ministers whose concern for learning led them to found several colleges:
Princeton, Dartmouth, Brown and Rutgers. In addition, most of the
revivalists had optimistic attitudes toward America's religious role in world
history, thus fostering American patriotism and preparing for the development
of a revolutionary mentality.
V. CLASH OF POLITICAL CULTURES
The colonials tried to copy British political institutions, but in doing so, discovered how
different they were from the English people.
A. The English Constitution
The British Constitution was universally admired because it seemed to
perfectly balance monarchy, aristocracy and democracy, thus guaranteeing the
liberties of the people.
B. The Reality of British Politics
In reality, very few of the English people were represented in the political
system. Over 80 percent of the adult males had no right to vote, and
members of Parliament were notorious for corruption and bribery.
"Commonwealthmen," like John Trenchard and Thomas Gordon, railed against
the degeneracy of English politics and urged a return to a truly balanced
constitution.
C. Governing the Colonies: The American Experience
Americans liked to think that their colonial governments were replicas of
Parliament, but they were not. Royal governors, as a rule, were incompetent
political hacks who could not have governed the colonies even if they had
taken an interest. They were so bound by instructions from England and
had so little patronage with which to buy votes that they were, in effect, given
the task of ruling as despots without having the power to force their will on
the colonists.
The colonial assemblies bore no resemblance to the House of Commons. Most
white males could vote in America, so elected officials knew they could not
do something too unpopular without suffering at the polls. The assemblies were,
therefore, more interested in pleasing their constituents than in obeying the
governor.
D. Colonial Assemblies
The assemblies controlled all means of raising revenue and quickly
protested any infringement of their rights. When a governor did succeed in
controlling an assembly, the public reacted with alarm and flooded the
colonial press with arguments for a return to balanced government.
America's ties with the mother country became closer in the eighteenth
century, especially in the law courts, where English usage became more
common. Americans grew increasingly aware that they shared similar
political ideas, institutions and problems with England and with each other.
VI. CENTURY OF IMPERIAL WAR
In the eighteenth century the colonies participated in four major imperial wars that
pitted England against France. The Americans, with English aid, attempted to take
Canada, but were unsuccessful, despite the fact that they vastly outnumbered the
French in Canada. French Canada was later subdued in 1759 by an English army.
This section shows how the wars led to greater inter-colonial association and
cooperation.
A. King William's and Queen Anne's Wars
From 1689 to 1713, England and France struggled for the mastery of Europe,
and their colonists fought one another in America. These wars settled
nothing, and the grounds for a new conflict were laid when France extended
her American empire from Canada into Louisiana.
B. King George's War and Its Aftermath
From 1743 to 1748, another imperial war dragged Americans into conflict.
New England troops won an impressive victory when they captured
Louisbourg on Cape Breton Island, but the fort was returned to France in the
peace treaty.
In the 1750s both sides realized the strategic importance of the Ohio Valley,
which became the cockpit for the next round of skirmishes. The French
built a fort at the head of the Ohio River, at present-day Pittsburgh.
Virginia considered the area its own and sent its militia under a young
officer, George Washington, to expel the French. Washington was defeated.
C. Albany Congress and Braddock's Defeat
Some Americans, such as Ben Franklin, realized that France could not be
defeated by a single colony. He proposed, in 1754, a new arrangement between
Great Britain and her colonies that would give America a central government
(the Albany Plan). Neither the English government nor the colonial assemblies
liked the plan, and it came to nothing.
In 1755, England sent an army under General Edward Braddock to drive the
French out of the Ohio Valley. On his march west, Braddock fell into an
ambush, and his army was destroyed.
D. Seven Years' War
In 1756 England declared war on France and the two nations fought in
every corner of the globe. The English, led by William Pitt, concentrated
their efforts in North America and captured Quebec in 1759. The century of
struggle for control of the wealth of a continent was now ended.
E. Perceptions of War
The English and Americans learned two opposite lessons during the imperial
wars. The colonists realized how strong they could be when they worked
together; the English learned that the Americans took forever to
organize and that it was easier to just command them to obey orders.
VII. CONCLUSION: RULE BRITANNIA?
In 1763, most colonial Americans believed that they were bound in brotherhood with
the English people. British culture, British consumer goods, British evangelists and
British military victories swept all Americans, even the non
English, into what seemed to be a great empire tied together by admiration and
affection.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
After mastering this chapter, your students should be able to:
1. Assess the reasons behind the phenomenal population growth of the colonies. 2. Discuss
reasons for colonial economic expansion and patterns of settlement.
3. Explain the differences and importance of Scotch-Irish and German settlement.
4. Determine the nature of and problems relating to the Spanish North American empire.
5. Describe the influence of the Great Awakening on American religion, common interest, and
"nationality."
6. Explain the rise of the colonial assemblies and the governing problems they faced.
7.
8.
9.
Discuss the different advantages and disadvantages of the British American colonists and the French in
the wars for mastery of the North American continent.
Determine Pitt's (British) overall plan and strategy for victory in the Seven Years' War.
Summarize the "fruits of victory" for the British and also possible seeds of discontent and distrust in Britain's
relationship with the colonies.
LESSON SUGGESTIONS

Assign outside reading, a biography on any Colonial figure. Write six-page book report. Each
report must strive to incorporate materials not widely known about figure.

Write a historical fiction journal of a frontiersman living west of the Appalachian Mountains
during the French and Indian Wars.

Conduct a religious revival from the Great Awakening.

For test review, have students create a crossword puzzle or word find using Chapter Four key
terms.
ESSAY AND DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1. Why were Americans of the eighteenth century caught between two cultures? What economic and social
differences by this time distinguished them from the British?
2. What factors made America ripe for a religious reawakening in the 1740s?
3. Discuss the differences between the developing political systems in the American colonies and the British form
of government.
4. What was at stake in the bitter showdown for supremacy in North America between the British and the French?
5. What was the genius behind Franklin's Albany Plan?