Quiz 2 Flashcards
Northwest Passage
– Waterway through the North American land mass
– First settlement established by the British in North America
Colonists came for profit and religious freedom
They thought it was strategic for both agriculture and piracy
This town almost collapsed due to disease
Turns out Tobacco grows well in the Chesapeake
Colonists governed themselves in this town
Jamestown (1607)
– Separatists who wanted to break away from the church of England and came to America on the Mayflower in 1620 and settled in Plymouth, Mass
Pilgrims (1620)
– Rules for Self-Government established by Pilgrims
Mayflower Compact
– Non-separatists who wanted to reform the Church of England and settled in the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
Puritans (1630)
Founded by William Penn
Natives and settlers would live together in harmony
Freedom of religion would be paramount
“The best poor man’s country”
Pennsylvania (1681)
- economic policy that is designed to maximize the exports and minimize the imports for an economy.
Mercantilism
- The trade occurring between England, Africa, and the Americas.
Sugar becomes a great example of this trade
Sugar went to colonies and was turned into rum
The Triangle Trade
Goods must travel on English or colonial ships
Enumerated Commodities – Certain products could only be exported directly to Britain or British colonial ports
British maintained a monopoly on exporting manufactured goods to the colonies
Some products were given preferential treatment
Five Main Features of Mercantilism
– War between England and France in the colonies between 1754–1763
More English troops in the colonies
Colonists such as George Washington gain military experience
England has wartime debts it needs to pay
Seven Years War (French & Indian War)
- Plan to place the British North American colonies under a more centralized government
The Albany Plan of Union (1754)
– a treaty that officially ended the 7 years war
Treaty of Paris (1763)
– Guaranteed specific rights to the English aristocracy
Inheritance of land
Rights of widows and minors inheriting those estates
It also laid out protections for the nobles
Could not be jailed without a ruling by peers
- demonstrates limits on the monarchy
- social contract (hobbes/locke)
Magna Carta (1215)
– Overthrow of James I which led to further limitation on the monarch by parliament
A monarch could no longer dismiss a judge or create new courts without parliamentary consent
The monarch could not maintain a standing army
The monarch could not raise taxes, that fell to parliament alone
Glorious Revolution (1688)
The monarch was limited at home but powerful abroad
– government positions given to supporters
Balance of Power
Patronage
– French Political Philosopher who developed the idea of a Balance of Power
Mixed government - Form of government that combines elements of democracy, aristocracy and monarchy, ostensibly making impossible their respective degenerations (anarchy, oligarchy and tyranny)
Taxes should be controlled by the legislature
Monarchs should be able to veto acts of legislation
There should be two houses in the legislature
There should be an independent judiciary
Montesquieu
– English enlightenment writer during the Glorious Revolution
Two Treatises on Government
People needed government even if they had to give up personal liberty to attain it
Governments had to govern by established laws
These laws must be for the sole purpose of benefiting the people
The government cannot raise taxes on the people without their consent
The legislature cannot transfer the making of laws to anyone else
John Locke
– Essays condemning corruption and lack of morality within the British political system and warning against tyrannical rule and abuse of power
Cato’s Letters
– King of England prior to, during, and after the American Revolution
He alters how the colonies are managed an administered
He decides that the colonists should share in the cost of the Seven Years War
He believed the role of the monarch had been downgraded too far since the Glorious Revolution
Eventually the need for revenue will cause George (and Parliament) to tax the colonies
King George III
– Elected representative element of the Virginia colonies government
Virginia House of Burgesses
- Provided the form of government and society for the Carolina colony from 1669 to 1698
Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina
- Served as the constitution of Pennsylvania from 1701 to 1776
Charter of Liberties
People could choose their legislative representatives not their executive
Governors had veto power over assemblies
Governors could dissolve or suspend assemblies
The crown and ministers controlled the judiciary
There would be Royal Governors who would have a say in what went on in the colonies
– Case involving the colonists challenging English governments acts they did not like
Otis challenged British rule claiming the writs of assistance were ‘Unconstitutional’ according to British law
Would later become the foundation for the 4th Amendment against unlawful search of seizure
“The child of independence is born” – John Adams
James Otis and the Writs of Assistance (1761)
Colonists are not represented in Parliament
Rights of the British Colonies Asserted and Proved (1764)
- Prohibited English colonists from settling on lands acquired from the French following the French and Indian War
Represented an effort to organize the mainland colonies after 1763
The proclamation laid out the boundaries for east and west Florida
Some existing colonies received additional lands
Provisions dealt with such issues as fishing rights and the internal organization of new colonies.
The act was unenforceable because the Crown lacked the soldiers to police the interior
The act suggested that the king and Parliament were shifting their historic position toward governing the colonies
Proclamation of 1763
- British legislation aimed at ending the smuggling trade in sugar from the West Indies and at providing increased revenues for England
The act lowered the duty on imported sugar in an effort to convince colonists that it was cheaper to be law-abiding than to bribe customs officials.
The act was the first direct tax imposed on colonists
Cocket
All commodities were now enumerated
Creation of a new judicial system
The Sugar Act / Revenue Act (1764)
- A certificate given to merchants warranting that goods have been duly entered through customs and all duties paid
Cocket
- Prohibited the issue of any new bills and the reissue of existing currency
This act forbade the payment of taxes with paper money produced in the colonies
The act threatened the colonial economy, which had long operated with a shortage of hard specie
Colonists feared that the act represented a direct intrusion into the daily workings of the colonial economy
The Currency Act (1764)
Petition from the Massachusetts House of Representatives to the House of Commons; November 3, 1764
Colonists believed that the creation of vice-admiralty courts threatened their rights as freeborn Englishmen
Resolution of the Virginia House of Burgesses on Colonial Authority, November 14, 1764
Despite the fact that the acts had honorable intentions, at least in the minds of the British, many colonists felt otherwise
- Required the purchase of a stamp on any printed material
This Act levied a direct tax on colonists by Britain for the first time
The act also threatened to reveal the authors of anonymous political pamphlets, thereby eroding potential dissent within the colonies
This Act represented a shift in the ways that the British governed North America
The Stamp Act (1765)
- Political organization founded to advance the rights of the colonists and to fight taxation by the British
The organized protests
This organization revealed that they would use violence if necessary to stop the enforcement of the act
The Sons of Liberty
– Leader of the Sons of Liberty and American Revolutionary / Founding Father
Cousin to John Adams
Attended Harvard at 14 and graduated at 18
His hatred for England stemmed from a banking issue that almost bankrupted his family
He originally tried his hand at business but failed
His true talent was in the revolution business
Samuel Adams
- The first gathering of elected representatives from several of the American colonies to devise a unified protest against new British taxation
Stamp Act Congress / Continental Congress of 1765
– British law in response to the reaction to the Stamp Act which stated that the colonies are subordinate to England and any attempt to not recognize England’s power to tax the colonies is null and void.
The Declaratory Act
– Indirect tax on paper, paint, glass, and tea the colonies imported from England
The Townshend Acts & The Revenue Act of 1767
- Formal collective decision made by Boston based merchants and traders not to import or export items to Britain
Boston Non-Importation Agreement
– The idea that colonists were represented in Parliament in the same way as the thousands of British subjects who did not have the vote, or towns not represented in Parliament were
Virtual Representation
– Asserted that ‘virtual representation’ was not representation and that only the colonies respective legislatures could impose taxes
Declaration of Rights and Grievances
– Series of essays (12) written by John Dickinson against the Townshend Acts
Laid out the idea of ordered resistance
Letters from a Pennsylvania Farmer
Imperial officials seized this person for suspected smuggling
Riots break out in support of him who was popular in Boston
In response the British send troops to Boston to manage the crisis
John Hancock
