america in the british empire the british colonial system –british colonies were founded...
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AMERICA IN THE BRITISH EMPIRE
• The British Colonial System – British colonies were founded
independently by people with differing backgrounds and motivations
– each British colony had its own form of government, and British government did not regard colonies as a unit
– English political and legal institutions took hold throughout colonies
– Crown left colonists to make own laws pertaining to local matters
– King’s Privy Council responsible for formulating colonial policy
– Parliamentary legislation applied to the colonies
– occasionally, British authorities attempted to create a more cohesive and efficient colonial system
– late 17th century, British policy was to transform proprietary and corporate colonies into royal colonies
– Board of Trade took over management of colonial affairs in 1696
– failure to establish a centralized colonial government contributed to the development of independent governments and eventually to the United States’ federal system
• Mercantilism – mercantilism described to a set of policies
designed to make a country self-sufficient while selling more goods abroad than it imported
– if colonies lacked gold and silver, they could provide raw materials and markets for the mother country
• The Navigation Acts – commerce was essential to mercantilism – in the 1650s, Parliament responded to Dutch
preeminence in shipping with Navigation Acts
– reserved the entire trade of colonies to English ships and required that captain and 3/4 of crew be English
– acts also limited export of certain enumerated items
– acts were designed to stimulate British industry and trade and to restrict and shape, but not to destroy, infant colonial industries
• The Effects of Mercantilism – Mercantilist policy benefited both
England and the colonies– England’s interests prevailed when
conflicts arose
– the inefficiency of English administration lessened the impact of mercantilist regulations
– when regulations became burdensome, the colonists simply ignored them; and England was inclined to look the other way
• The Great Awakening – people in colonies began to recognize
common interests and a common character
– by about 1750, the word “American” had entered the language
– one common experience was the Great Awakening, a wave of religious enthusiasm
– two ministers, Theodore Frelinghuysen (a Calvinist) and William Tennent (a Presbyterian), arrived in the 1720s
– they sought to instill evangelical zeal they witnessed among Pietists and Methodists in Europe
– colonial tours of George Whitefield, a powerful orator, sparked much religious enthusiasm
– Whitefield did not deny the doctrine of predestination
– preached of a God receptive to good intentions
– many denominations split between the “Old Lights” or “Old Sides,” who supported more traditional approaches, and the “New Lights” or “New Sides,” who embraced revivalism
– the better educated and more affluent members of a congregation tended to support traditional arrangements
• The Rise and Fall of Jonathan Edwards – Jonathan Edwards was the most famous
native-born revivalist of the Great Awakening
– took over his grandfather’s church in
Northampton, Massachusetts, in 1727– Edwards’s grandfather, Solomon Stoddard,
practiced a policy of “open enrollment” – Edwards set out to ignite a spiritual revival
– sermons warned in graphic language of the
Hell awaiting unconverted
– Edwards’s approach upset some of his parishioners, and in 1749 they voted unanimously to dismiss him
– a reaction against religious enthusiasm set in by the early 1750s
– although it caused divisions, the Great Awakening also fostered religious toleration
– the Awakening was also the first truly national event in American history
• The Enlightenment in America– the Enlightenment had an enormous
impact on America– the founders of colonies were
contemporaries of scientists such as Galileo, Descartes, and Newton
– they who provided a new understanding of the natural world
– earth, heavens, humans, and animals all seemed part of a great machine, which God had set in motion
– through observation and reason, humans might come to understand the laws of nature
– faith in these ideas produced the Age of Reason
– ideas of European thinkers reached America with startling speed
– the writings of John Locke and other political theorists found a receptive audience
– ideas that in Europe were discussed only by an intellectual elite became almost commonplace in the colonies
• Colonial Scientific Achievements– colonials such as John Bartram,
Cadwallader Colden, and Benjamin Franklin contributed to the accumulation of scientific knowledge
– the theoretical contributions of American thinkers and scientists were modest, but involvement in the intellectual affairs of Europe provided yet another common experience for colonials
• Other People’s Wars – European nations competed fiercely
for markets and raw materials– war became a constant in the 17th
and 18th centuries
– European powers vied for allies among the Native American tribes and raided settlements of opposing powers
– colonies paid heavily for these European conflicts
– in addition to battle casualties, frontier settlers were killed in raids; and taxes went up to pay for the wars
– these conflicts served to increase bad feelings between settlers in French and English colonies
– more important Europe’s colonial
wars inevitably generated some
friction between England and its
North American colonies
• The Great War for the Empire – England and France possessed competing
colonial empires in North America
– in 1750s, the two powers came into direct conflict
– the result was another colonial war; but this one spread from the colonies to Europe
– English effort was badly mismanaged
– not until William Pitt took over the British war effort did England’s fortunes improve
– Pitt recognized the potential value of North America and poured British forces and money into the war
– he also promoted talented young officers such as James Wolfe
– British took Montreal in 1760, and France abandoned Canada to the British
– British also captured French and Spanish possessions in the Pacific, in the West Indies, and in India
– Spain got back Philippines and Cuba, in exchange for which it ceded Florida to Great Britain
– the victory in North America was won by British troops and British gold
– the British colonies contributed relatively little money, and the performance of colonial troops was uneven
– the defeat of the French seemed to tie the colonies still more closely to England
• The Peace of Paris – under terms of Treaty of Paris, signed
in 1763, France gave up virtually all claims to North America
– given extent of British victories in battle, terms of treaty were moderate
– England returned captured French possessions in Caribbean, Africa, and India
• Putting the Empire Right – Britain now controlled a larger empire,
which would be much more expensive to maintain
– Pitt’s expenditures for the war had doubled Britain’s national debt
– British people were taxed to the limit – American colonies now required a more
extensive system of administration– issues such as western expansion and
relations with the Indians needed to be resolved
– many in England resented the growing wealth of the colonists
• Tightening Imperial Controls – British attempts to deal with problems
resulting from victory in great war for empire led to American Revolution
– after great war, British decided to exert greater control over American colonies
– Britain allowed the colonies a great degree of freedom, thus colonists resented new restrictions on freedom
– English colonies increased their pressure on the Indians
– British stationed 15 regiments along the frontier
– as much to protect the Indians from the settlers as the settlers from the Indians
– a new British policy prohibited settlement across the Appalachian divide
– this created further resentment among colonists, who planed development of Ohio Valley
• The Sugar Act – Americans were outraged by British
attempts to raise money in America to help defray cost of administering the colonies
– Sugar Act placed tariffs on sugar, coffee, wines, and other imported goods
– violators were tried before British naval officers in vice-admiralty courts
– Colonists considered the duties to be taxation without representation
– the law came at bad time because economic boom created by war ended with war
• American Colonists Demand Rights
– British dismissed protests over Sugar
Act
– under concept of “virtual representation,” every member of Parliament stood for interests of entire empire
• The Stamp Act: The Pot Set to Boiling – Stamp Act placed stiff excise taxes on all
kinds of printed matter – Sugar Act had related to Parliament’s
uncontested power to control colonial trade– Stamp Act was a direct tax– Virginia's House of Burgesses took lead in
opposing new tax
– irregular organizations, known as the Sons of Liberty, staged direct-action protests against act
– sometimes protests took form of mob violence
• Rioters or Rebels? – rioting took on a social and a political
character
– if colonial elite did not disapprove of rioting, looting associated with protests did alarm them
– mass of people were property owners and had some say in political decisions; they had no desire to overthrow established order
– Stamp Act hurt business of lawyers, merchants, and newspaper editors people who greatly influenced public opinion
– greatest concern was Britain’s rejection of the principle of no taxation without representation
– as British subjects, colonists claimed
“the rights of Englishmen”
– passage of Quartering Act further convinced Americans that actions of Parliament threatened to deprive them of those rights
• Taxation or Tyranny? – English people were recognized as
the freest people in the world which was attributed their freedom to balanced government
– actually, balance between the Crown, the House of Lords, and the House of Commons never really existed
– to Americans, actions of Parliament threatened to disrupt balance
– British leaders believed that the time had come to assert royal authority
– colonies were no longer entirely dependent on England
– British leaders were not ready to deal with Americans as equals
– Americans refused to use the stamps and boycotted British goods. The Stamp Act was repealed in March 1766
• The Declaratory Act
– Parliament passed the Declaratory
Act
– asserted that Parliament could enact
any law it wished with respect to the
colonies
– Declaratory Act revealed the extent
to which British and American views
of the system had drifted apart
• The Townshend Duties – Townshend Acts (1767) placed levies on
glass, lead, paints, paper, and tea imported colonists responded with new boycott of British goods
– leaders of resistance ranged from moderates, John Dickinson, to revolutionaries, Samuel Adams
– British responded by dissolving Massachusetts legislature, and by transferring two regiments from frontier to Boston
• The Boston Massacre – March 5, 1770, rioters began throwing
snowballs at British soldiers – crowd grew hostile, the panicky troops
responded by firing on it – five Bostonians lay dead or dying – John Adams volunteered his legal
services to the soldiers– British also relented; Townshend duties
except tax on tea were repealed in April 1770; a tenuous truce lasted for two years
• The Pot Spills Over
– trouble erupted again when British
patrol boat ran aground in
Narragansett Bay in 1772
• The Tea Act Crisis – in 1773, Parliament agreed to remit British
tax on tea; Townshend tax was retained– Americans regarded measure as a diabolical
attempt to trick them into paying the tax on tea
– public indignation was so great that authorities in New York and Philadelphia ordered ships carrying tea to return to England
– December 16, 1773, colonists disguised as Indians dumped tea in harbor; England received news of the Boston Tea Party with great indignation
• From Resistance to Revolution – Parliament responded to Boston Tea Party
by passing Coercive Acts in spring of 1774 – acts weakened colonial legislatures and
judiciary and closed Boston harbor until citizens paid for tea
– also known as the Intolerable Acts– First Continental Congress met at
Philadelphia September 1774 – John Adams rejected any right of
Parliament to legislate for colonies – Congress passed a declaration
condemning Britain’s actions since 1763, a resolution that the people take arms to defend their rights