Unit 2 Flashcards
Traditional Imperial Policy (1688-1763)
• Mercantilism dominates British imperial policy
o Colonies exist to bring money into the mother country
o Colonies cannot trade with other countries or produce their own goods (Navigation Acts/ Orders in Council) because it would take money away from the mother country.
• Wool Act (1699) – to promote the sale of English wool, the act prohibited colonies from selling their wool outside their colony
o Example of how British policy is designed to help the mother country, but limit the economy of the colonies (mercantilism)
• Molasses Act (1733) – colonists must pay a tax of 6 cents per gallon of molasses that does not come from the British colonies in the West Indies
o Parliament tries to force colonies to buy molasses from British West Indies instead of the French, Spanish, or Dutch (mercantilism example)
o Colonists largely ignore act and smuggle in foreign molasses
o Smugglers who are caught are usually found innocent by colonial juries
• In truth, Parliament ignores North American colonies = Era of Salutary Neglect (1689-1764)
o Does not enforce Navigation Acts
o Colonies used to trading with other countries, making their own laws, and avoid British taxation.
The French and Indian War (1754-1763)
• Causes
o Increasing Colonial population and high demand for new land to grow tobacco = colonists want to expand west into the French and Indian land in the Ohio River Valley
George Washington leads 150 Virginia militia west to survey land
French attack Washington and force his surrender at Ft. Necessity = start of war
• Prime Minister William Pitt sends British troops to colonies
o Colonials, British troops, and Iroquois allies vs. French and their Indian allies
o British troops experienced little success – refuse to fight Indian style and too many colonial settlements to protect on frontier
• Results of the War
o England wins the war and France forced to give up land in North America
o England broke from this and previous wars
o French no longer a threat to the colonists
o Colonists lose some respect for England after:
Watching them lose battles on the frontier
Observing harsh treatment of British soldiers in military
Colonial leaders were treated as second-class citizens by British (like Washington)
New Imperial Policy (1763-1776)
• England broke after French and Indian War = looking for new ways to raise revenue
o New series of taxes will end the Ear of Salutary Neglect
• Sugar Act (1764) – England taxed the colonists 3 cents per pound of sugar
o Tax paid at port by merchant (external tax)
o England will enforce tax (no longer neglect) with Admiralty Courts
Special military courts with no jury = higher chance of convicting smugglers
• Colonials upset about new policies
o 1st time England taxed colonists to raise revenue instead of regulating trade
o Merchants (elite of northern colonies) have to pay the tax
o Admiralty Courts take away traditional English rights of trial by jury of your peers
Trouble on the Frontier (1763)
• After the French and Indian War, natives in Ohio River Valley:
o Lose access to French trade, goods, weapons, and military support
o Must face a wave of English settlers who are moving west into their land
o Scotch Irish settlers move onto frontier and fighting begins with natives
Paxton Boys massacre natives and then march toward capital – angry over failure of eastern elite to protect them.
• Natives respond by:
o Attempting to trade furs with British companies in return for goods and weapons
o Pontiac’s rebellion – Chief Pontiac creates a pan-Indian alliance to stop the movement of colonists west
• The British government attempted to create peace on the western frontier.
o England broke after numerous wars – did not want to protect the frontier
o English fur companies want to trade for furs with the Ohio River Valley Indians
o British pass Proclamation of 1763
Forbids colonists to move west of the Appalachian Mountains into native lands
• Colonists angered by the Proclamation of 1763 and move west anyway (ex. Of early colonial defiance
Stamp Act Crisis (1765)
• Taxes paper products (legal documents, newspapers, playing cards) to pay English debt
• Colonists angered by the tax
o Law violates traditional English right of no taxation without representation (there were no colonial representatives in Parliament)
o Internal tax = everyone must pay tax
o Lawyers and newspaper owners hit especially hard by tax = very vocal leaders
• Colonial Response
o Stamp Act Congress – 9 colonies meet to plan a united response to tax = write letters to Parliament asking for repeal of tax
o Sons of Liberty formed – organized groups of men attack and intimidate tax collectors
o Protestors sign non-importation agreements to boycott English goods
• English Response
o Parliament states they can tax colonies due to theory of “virtual representation”
o Declaratory Act (1765) – Parliament repeals Stamp Act (due to boycott) but asserts that they have the right to tax the colonies in the future
Townshend Act (1767)
• After uproar against the Stamp Act (internal tax), Parliament tries again to raise revenue with the Townshend Acts
o Taxes lead, paper, paint, and tea
o External tax accessed at the port by merchants
o British use the money to pay governor’s salaries (***change from past, when salaries were controlled by colonial legislatures) = colonies lose control of the executive branch
• Colonial Response
o Non-importation agreements
o Sons of Liberty intimidate tax collectors
o Protest strongest in Boston (trade and important part of their economy)
• England sends troops to the colonies to enforce tax and protect tax collectors
o Most troops go to Boston – center of protest against new taxes
Boston Massacre (1770)
• English troops sent to Boston to enforce new taxes (Townshend Act)
• English troops (red coats) experience friction with locals
o Troops compete with locals for jobs when they are off duty
o Troops do not follow Puritan beliefs (keeping Sabbath holy)
o Sons of Liberty antagonize troops for protecting tax collectors
• Mob (probably organized by Sons of Liberty) surround customs house (tax headquarters)
o British troops get nervous and fire into crowd – killing five (Boston Massacre)
o Sam Adams helps to organize Committees of Correspondence
Organization in each colony that will spread anti-British propaganda
Paul Revere publishes propaganda that makes shooting look like a deliberate act of murder
The Boston Tea Party (1773)
• Evening of December 16th, 1773, 150 men (Sons of Liberty) dressed as Mohawks board 3 ships and dump the tea into Boston Harbor
o Protest over the Tea Act and the monopoly given to the British East India Company earlier that year. British East India Company does not have to pay the tax, and gives them an unfair trade advantage
o Other seaports follow Boston’s example
• Colonist action directly leads to Coercive Acts
Intolerable/Coercive Acts (1774)
• Direct Result of the Boston Tea Party, George III and Lord North make an example of Boston passed in 1774
o Boston Port Act: Boston Harbor closed until all the tea is paid for
o Massachusetts Government Act: no town meeting without Governor’s approval, colonial law enforces now appointed
o Quartering Act: forces people to house soldiers
o Act of Impartial Administration of Justice (Murder Act): transfer of trials for government employees who kill in the line of duty to England
• Results in the calling of the 1st Continental Congress
1st Continental Congress (1774)
• Called for colonies to discuss reaction to Intolerable Acts
• All but Georgia attend
• 5 major decisions made
o Rejected plan for colonial union under British authority
o Endorsed a statement of grievances which called for repeal of all oppressive legislature passed since 1763
o Agreed to start to collect and store military supplies
o Created “Continental Associations” to enforce non-importation, non-exportation, non-consumption agreements in the colonies
o Agreed to meet again in May of 1775
Quebec Act (1774)
• Passed after the Coercive Acts in 1774 and not related, but Colonists don’t see the distinction
• Increases boundary of Quebec to include Great Lakes, grants political rights to Catholics and recognizes the legality of the Catholic church in the province
o Colonists see this as a threat that expands power of Catholic Church and gives more land to a province that does not have a representative government
o Colonists fear it will hinder colonial expansion into western lands
o Colonists see Quebec Act and Intolerable Acts as evidence that England is moving away from democracy
Conflict in 1775
• Lexington & Concord, April 1775
o 700 British regulars sent to Lexington to arrest John Hancock and Sam Adams and to Concord to search for military supplies
o British kill 8 militia at Lexington Green
o Meet resistance in Concord and retreat back to Boston under fire (270 British Casualties)
o “Shot heard round the world” starts active fighting of revolution
• Ticonderoga, May 1775
o Colonial troops under Ethan Allan and Benedict Arnold capture British fort on Lake Champlain (controls lake and rivers in New York)
o Fort could be used by British to cut off New England from the rest of the colonies
o Capture cannons and gunpowder used at Bunker Hill
• Bunker Hill, June 1775
o Colonists entrenched on Breed’s Hill (can shell British in Boston)
o 3,000 British attack 1,500 Colonials
o British suffer heavy losses but take hill after colonial’s ammo runs out
Reluctant Revolutionaries
• Colonists were reluctant to declare their independence, even after fighting had started
o England had more people, money, and armed forces than the colonies
o England had a strong centralized government that could raise taxes, borrow money, and make quick decisions; the colonies had no central government.
• Second Continental Congress sends the Olive Branch Petition (July 1775)
o Pledges loyalty to the Crown, asks for an end to hostilities
o Rejected by the Crown; Colonists are declared in rebellion
• Most Americans at first desired to return to pre-1763 policies (era of neglect)
• Patriots never amount to more than 40% of the population
• Ongoing hostilities, the use of Hessian mercenaries, and Common Sense slowly help to turn sentiment to independences
2nd Continental Congress (1775-1781)
• Meets in May 1775 representatives from 12 of 13 colonies (no Georgia until fall of 1775) in Philadelphia
• Still push for boycotts, petitions, and continue to field army
• John & Sam Adams (MA) and Richard Henry Lee (VA) want independence, John Dickinson (PA) modest reform
• This body will meet throughout the war and function as our government during the war
• Responsible for:
o Olive Branch Petition
o Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms
o Declaration of Independence
o Articles of Confederation
Arguments for Revolution (1776)
• Common Sense by Thomas Paine (January 1776)
o Best-selling political pamphlet (120,000 copies in 3 months)
o Helped turn public opinion to support of independence
Argues in favor of a republican government; a king is not needed
England is keeping America from trading with other nations
Calls for a declaration of independence
Widely read in taverns, churches, town squares, soldier’s camps, etc.
• The Declaration of Independence by Thomas Jefferson (July 1776)
o Adopted by the Second Continental Congress; makes the United States a sovereign nation
o Rooted in the statement “all men are created equal” and inspired by John Locke’s natural rights (altered slightly) “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”
o Includes a long list of grievances against George III that justify independence
o Key grievances included violations of rights as Englishmen, town burnings, the use of Hessian mercenaries and Indians, and impressments of Americans
