Download Amer and Brit Perspective on Amer War

USH
Darnell
Justification for American Independence: Two Different Perspectives
Which European nations came to North America and why?
The “willing” included the Spanish, French, Dutch and English. The involuntary included West
Africans. They sought to gain power and prestige. To some extent, each power went there because the other
powers were doing so. The Mercantilist battle between European powers for North American domination
spurred European immigration and conflict—conflict between European powers and with Natives. Under the
policy of Mercantilism, the colonies provided affordable raw materials and markets to buy manufactured goods
from the mother country, while the mother country provided military protection. But make no mistake about it,
rulers of Spain, France, the Netherlands, and England also wanted their people to gain some of the wealth that
they thought the Americas had. Closely allied with the desire to explore North America was the desire to
colonize it. To hold on to an area that was claimed involved leaving colonists, as well as military units.
Why did European settlers come?
The reasons European colonists came to North America were varied. Some came to convert Native
Americans to Christianity. Others came to be free to worship as they wished. The Puritans of Massachusetts,
for instance, had been persecuted in England because they demanded reforms in the established Church there.
Quakers settled in Pennsylvania for similar reasons. English Catholics too wanted freedom of religion, and
many settled in Maryland for that purpose.
Perhaps economic reasons for coming to North America were most important. Early Europeans came to
fish or to trade in furs and other goods. Then European farmers came. In England and elsewhere, there was not
enough land available for everyone who wished to farm. The inexpensive, fertile land in North America
seemed the answer for some Europeans. The opportunity to make money and better their social position
attracted many settlers. Indentured servants came because they had little at home to keep them and believed the
colonies offered the chance for a better life. They agreed to 4-7 year terms of servitude in exchange for the cost
of passage. Georgia was settled by criminals, debtors, and other poor Europeans. Africans were brought to the
colonies in chains to work plantations and do other jobs.
Why did the Colonies rebel and who participated?
The ideas that fueled the independence movement of the British colonies in North America were, in part,
the same ideas that spurred the evolution of English rights from the Magna Carta in 1215 to the English Bill of
Rights in 1689. From 1688-1763, the British implemented an informal policy called “Salutary Neglect” toward
the colonists. Under this informal policy the British loosely regulated and enforced their political and economic
power over the colonists. As a result, the colonists developed economic and political systems based on local
needs and local ideas.
European Enlightenment philosophy greatly influenced American Colonial thought. In 1690 John
Locke published Two Treatises on Government, in which he outlined the “Natural Rights” of people. Namely,
that all people have inalienable rights to “life, liberty, and property;” that government power derives from the
people; that the government only has power as long as people consent to be governed; that if government
unjustly denies people their basic rights then they have the power to overthrow it. In The Social Contract, JeanJaques Rousseau extended Locke’s idea of a social contract to reflect that people did not make an agreement
with the government; rather, they make a social contract with each other to sacrifice some individual freedom in
favor of the general community’s needs and obey community decisions. Finally, Baron de Montesquieu
promoted a practical government system to protect people’s Natural rights. In his book, The Spirit of the Laws,
Montesquieu stated the best way to do this is to limit the powers of government by dividing government powers
among a number of authorities. Colonial needs and ideas led to the development of a culture unique from
England and other European nations.
1
USH
Darnell
The issues that inspired revolution centered on federalism and mercantilism. After the French and
Indian War, 1754-1763, the British re-established a tighter reign over colonial economic and political actions,
effectively ending Salutary Neglect. Feeling a sense of economic hardship stemming from fighting eight world
wars between 1688 and 1763, the British reinforced their mercantilist relationship with the colonies. The main
objective of Parliament’s shift was to decrease Britain’s debt and to offset future costs associated with
protecting its North American colonies. Following Pontiac’s Rebellion (Odawa tribe) in 1763 the Proclamation
Line was established to decrease potential conflict between colonists and Natives by prohibiting colonial
settlement west of the Appalachian Mountains. Beginning in the 1760s, the British increased taxes on the
colonists and strictly enforced the Navigation Acts—laws that barred most foreign ships from trading ports in
Great Britain and its colonies. Examples included: the Sugar Act, Stamp Act, Declaratory Act, Tea Act,
Quebec act, Vic-Admiralty Courts and Writs of Assistance. A decade later, the British passed the Coercive
Acts. The colonists called them the Intolerable Acts because they were so damaging to their economy. To the
British these measures were passed to safeguard the colonies and the economic status of the British Empire. To
the colonists the shift in British policy management over the American colonies was tyrannical as they had no
direct political voice in the decision-making; the reinvigorated British imperial policies angered more and more
colonists until eventually some called for independence. By the time Thomas Jefferson sat down to write the
Declaration of Independence in 1776, Enlightenment ideas swirling through the colonies had rendered
mercantilism an obsolete economic system and justified revolution.
The British Perspective on the Causes of the American Revolution
The British believed the American Revolution was much to do about nothing. Simply put, The British
felt the American colonists overreacted to reasonable government policies. From 1688-1763 the British fought
the French in eight world wars. These wars put a serious drain on the British treasury. In the last major war
these nations fought, known as the French and Indian War in Colonial America and the Seven Years War in
Europe, the British debt nearly doubled from 75 million pounds to 133 million pounds. There is little question
the period of Salutary Neglect had been good to British and American colonial economic growth; however, the
cost of war in general and providing protection to the colonists in particular, compelled the British to pass a
series of laws after 1763 designed to curb the empire’s soaring debt.
Following Pontiac’s Rebellion in 1763, the British implemented the Proclamation Line, prohibiting
colonists from travelling west of the Appalachian Mountains. The British placed troops along the eastern slope
of the range to protect colonists from Natives. In order to pay for the military costs, the British passed the
Quartering Act of 1765, having colonists house British troops as a cost savings measure. In addition, a series of
excise (sales tax) and enumerated (tax on goods imported from Britain) taxes were enacted, including the Sugar
Act, Stamp Act, and Tea Act. Naturally, along with the increase in taxation, to reduce wartime debt and cover
costs associated with protecting Colonial America came an increase in the number of British officials to
administer and collect the taxes.
When colonists protested the taxes as burdensome and unfair, since they did not have representation in
Parliament, the British repealed the Stamp Act, demonstrating the effectiveness of Virtual Representation. To
the British the Colonial protests were not justifiable. First off the average English citizen paid 25 times the tax
paid by the average American colonist. Second, all of the actions were taken in the name of securing the
interests of the British Empire: colonial protection and debt reduction. Third, England was the Mother Country
in the relationship, so she naturally held ultimate authority over her colonies throughout the empire; and the
Declaratory Act merely reminded the colonies of this mercantilist reality. Fourth, Parliament’s actions in
repealing the Stamp Act and shifting from internal to external taxes in response to escalating colonial protests
demonstrates the responsiveness of Virtual Representation: The people spoke and Parliament responded to their
demands. Finally, the British provided naval protection on the high seas to safeguard American trade.
2