CAUSES OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION: 1650 – 1774

Two Revolutions? Anti-Imperialist or Social/Domestic

KEY CONCEPTS• Prior to 1763, American capital goes across the

pond.• French and Indian War transformed the

relationship between Britain and the American colonies.

• American colonists were divided over what course of action to take.

• The Americans created a government, the Continental Congress, to address the deteriorating relationship between Britain and the colonies.

EUROPEAN COLONIES IN THE

NEW WORLD

• By mid 1700s, France and Britain in inter-imperialist struggle for dominance in N.A.

• French allied with Native American tribes (ex. Algonquin and Huron against Iroquois)

• Focal point of French and Indian War is the Ohio River Valley (stop westward expand.)

• Albany Congress created• Led by Benjamin Franklin• Goal was to keep Iroquois tribes loyal to

Britain• American colonial response to the French

became known as the Albany Plan of Union– Carryout diplomatic relations with tribes– Control public territory– Raise an army– Tax colonial citizens

• Albany Plan was not accepted:– Colonists too concerned about their

own interests– Unwilling to relinquish control to a

provincial congress– Created a foundation for future

colonial cooperation

• British defeat French in the French and Indian War

• Results of the Peace of Paris– Britain receive all of French Canada and all

territory south of Canada and east of the Miss.– France and Spain lose West Indian colonies– Britain received Florida from Spain– Spain receive from France its territory west of

the Mississippi, including control of New Orleans.

PROBLEMS INHERITED BY BRITAIN FOLLOWING THE

WAR

• Political and Economic problems for the British post war

• Large debt and a fiscal crisis, force British to respond to needs of empire building:– New land must be governed– Revenue must be raised to absorb costs

(citizens in Britain were already taxed heavily)– Native Americans in Appalachian region– French Canadians need to be assimilated– Economic competition from colonists

PRE-REVOLUTIONARY WARBRITISH POLICY IN THE

COLONIES

• Salutary neglect: 1750-1763• Limited intervention and management as

long as ‘mercantilist policy is profitable• Policies not challenged; infrequently

enforced, difficult to implement

British Mercantilist Policies Pre-1760 Period

• Overseeing trade: British Board of Trade• Navigation Laws – establishes British

authority to regulate colonial trade• The Wool (1669), Hat (1732) and Iron

(1750) Acts • The Molasses Act (1733) – Rum, not well

enforced

1763 – TURNING POINT• Cost of empire exceeding its benefits1. King George III appoints George Grenville

as Prime Minister. Under Grenville, Britain transforms political, economic and trade relationship w/ colonies.

2. Policy of Salutary Neglect is abandoned3. Proclamation of 1763

DISCONTENT ON THE FRONTIER

POST PROCLAMTION OF 1763 ACTS

• Sugar (Revenue) Act of 1764 – replaces ineffective Molasses Act of 1733

• Currency Act of 1764 – Forbade colonies from printing currency; all taxes had to be paid in hard (specie) currency

• Quartering Act – Provide food and supplies to British troops stationed in the colonies

• Stamp Act (1765) – Taxing all virtually all printed material

• Virginia’s Patrick Henry, ‘No taxation without representation’

• Raises up the colonial middle class• 1765- Nine colonies form the Stamp Act

Congress; issue a Declaration of Rights• Boycotts and rebellion groups like Sons and

Daughters of Liberty and the Loyal Nine

• Declaratory Act (1766) – Britain repeals the Stamp Act, but declares right to tax through:

‘virtual representation’

• Colonial response: – Boycott– Circular letter– John Dickinson, ‘Letters from a Pennsylvania

Farmer’ (1767)– Tar and Feathering– Boston Massacre (1770) – Crispus Attucks– Paul Revere and Sam Adams– Committees of correspondence- exchange of

ideas and unified response by colonial govt’s.

TEA TIME!!!

• Gaspee Incident• Boston Tea Party

– Tea prices fall dramatically– Parliament passes regulations to give British

East India Company monopoly on tea trade– December 16,1773 – Boston Tea Party– Governor Hutchinson returns to England

BRITISH RESPONSE:INTOLERABLE (COERCIVE) ACTS

OF 1774• The Boston Port Bill –

– closed the port of Boston; relocated customs house

• The Administration of Justice Act –– trials for royal officials held in Britain

• The Massachusetts Government Act-– limited right to organize freely; Crown

appointments

CHARLES TOWNSHEND

CHARLES TOWNSHEND

• British elites critical of Parliament’s appeasement of the colonies

• ‘Champaign Charlie’ new Prime Minister• Townshend Acts (1767)• Prices inflated to cover taxes• Suspended New York Assembly• American Board of Customs; admiralty

courts

• Quartering Act expands to include housing• The Quebec Act (1774)

– Purpose to incorporate French Canadians– Quebec’s boundary extended to the Ohio River– Catholicism recognized as official religion– Nonrepresentative government was established

• Condemned by colonists:– Feared precedent of nonrepresentative gov’t.– Resented territorial expansion– Offended by Crown’s recognition of

Catholicism

THE FIRST CONTINENTAL CONGRESS

• 12 colonies represented – most want peace• 3 distinct groups of delegates form

– Radicals; force Britain to accede to their demands or declare independence

– Moderates; relationship between colonies and Great Britain could be repaired

– Conservatives; colonial ‘grand council’ Galloway• Galloway Plan rejected opening way to radicals

• Use Thomas Jefferson's, A Summary View of the Rights of British America as philosophical inspiration– Parliament possessed no inherent authority to

tax colonists– The British Empire was a compact between the

itself and the colonies– Each colony possessed its own legislature

independent of Britain’s legislative authority– Collective allegiance to the king.

• Delegates adopted a statement of rights:– The Declaration of Resolves (originally enacted

in Massachusetts as the Suffolk Resolves)– Declare Intolerable Acts null and void– Recommend colonists arm themselves and

militias be formed– Boycott of British goods (“Associations”

formed in each colony)

THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION: 1774 - 1783

• KEY CONCEPTS:– Both British and Colonists had military,

political and economic disadvantages and advantages in the war

– The Battle of Saratoga was the turning point of the war; brings in French support.

– Black Americans played an important role in the war

– American victory did not fundamentally change the condition or status of blacks or women

• Thomas Gage, royal governor of Mass. dispatches troops to seize military supplies in Lexington and Concord.

• 8 militia killed at Lexington; over 300 British killed during battle at Concord

• Lexington and Concord has a lightning rod effect over the colonies

• Colonists begin organizing to confront the British

• Second Continental Congress assembles in Philadelphia

• Congress draws up military plans in the Declaration of the Causes and Necessities for Taking Up Arms– Army to be organized and led by George

Washington– Navy to be created to disrupt British shipping– Military expedition to be led by Benedict

Arnold to wrest Canada from British Empire

• Troops from both sides pour into Boston• Battle of Bunker Hill – British overtake and

drive-out Americans, but not after fierce battle.

• Colonists able to stand ground against European power

• Olive Branch Petition to King George III• Prohibitory Act:

– Declared all of the colonies in open rebellion and suspended all trade

DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE

• Richard Henry Lee (VA.) introduces resolution

• Thomas Jefferson- – Influenced by Enlightenment thinkers– Preamble explains the necessity of

independence for the preservation of basic natural laws and rights (John Locke, Two Treatises of Government and Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s, Social Contract)

• Second part of the document lists a series of ‘abuses and usurpations’ by the king and his government

• King violated the social contract justifying the actions of the colonists

• Ends with informal declaration of war• Second Continental Congress appointed

committee to draft the first constitution of the United States – the Articles of Confederation

THE TREATY OF PARIS (1783)

• American diplomats: John Jay, Benjamin Franklin and John Adams

• Concerned over French interests• Terms:

– Britain formally and unconditionally recognizes independence of United States

– Boundaries established

• American fishing ships were given unlimited access to the waters off Newfoundland

• U.S. gov’t would not interfere legally with British creditors and merchants seeking to collect debts owed to them by Americans

• United States would compensate loyalists whose property had been confiscated during the war

• WOMEN and the REVOLUTION– Women’s rights not addressed by a major

reform movement until the mid-1800s– Will not get right to vote until 1919– Abigail Adams voices concern for lack of rights

for women– Women play major role in maintain economy– Ran family farms and businesses– Provided essential supplies– Nurses– Patriarchic Hal society survives

• BLACKS and the REVOLUTION– Many Founding Fathers (i.e. Washington and

Jefferson) owned slaves– Dr. Samuel Johnson, “How is it that the loudest

yelps for liberty come from the drivers of slaves?”

– Blacks fought on both sides of the war– Some had fought in French and Indian War– Continental Congress prohibited blacks from

serving in the Cont. Army (south pressure)– 5,500 fought for the American side (segregated)

Two Revolutions? Anti-Imperialist or Social/Domestic