the american revolution text chapter 5. the american revolution attempts at diplomatic solution in...

The American The American RevolutionRevolution

The American The American RevolutionRevolution

Text chapter 5Text chapter 5

The American Revolution

• Attempts at diplomatic solution in 1775-76 failed because

• long lines of communication between North America and Great Britain

• Parliament’s intransigent refusal to allow colonial representation (“virtual representation” should be enough)


• First Continental Congress met in Philadelphia 1774, considered Franklin’s “join or die” idea

• Instead, adopted “Suffolk Resolves”• Acts of Parliament are null and void• Encouraged economic action only


• 1775, Britain acted to seize Boston militia’s stash of weapons

• “Minutemen” began to drill in public, show of force against British

• British military began march through countryside, to show force

• 1775 April 18 “Shot Heart Round the World”


• AMERICAN ADVANTAGES• A better cause, clearly understood• Excellent leaders: Adams, Washington,

Jefferson, Franklin• French and Prussian assistance after

Saratoga• Knew land better; used “Indian” tactics• Spanish and Dutch loans


• BRITISH ADVANTAGES• Best trained and most successful

army in the world• Better cash base• Existing system of alliances• Most experienced government


• AMERICAN DISADVANTAGES:• Inexperienced military leaders• Poor equipment and supplies• Lack of allies before 1777


• BRITISH DISADVANTAGES• Arrogant military leadership• Long supply lines, drove up cost of war• Hostile local populations• Lack of support back home; war unpopular• Needed to hire mercenaries who lacked

idealistic attachment to the war• French and Spanish hoping for British loss


• Major characters in Revolution• Samuel Adams, 2nd cousin of attorney,

Burgess, and future president John Adams• A “patriot” (urged outright independence,

not appeasement and reconciliation)• Advocated violent means• Was behind “Tea Party” and publicizing

notion of a “massacre” in Boston, 1773


• Ethan Allen – Vermont militia leader of Green Mountain Boys. Captured British Fort Ticonderoga in May 1775

• Thomas Paine – author of anonymous pamphlet “Common Sense”

• King is responsible from troubles, not colonists; England’s will is not ours; there are advantages to war, not reconciliation


• Paine’s perceived advantages:• 1. Only as a country can we ask other

countries for financial aid• 2. Only as a country can we seek

alliances with other countries• 3. As long as we are colonies, our

soldiers will be treated as rebels; if we are a country, they will be POWs (better treatment if captured)


• Common Sense sold 150,000+ copies


• The Second Continental Congress• Met fall of 1775, became the de facto

government of the colonies• Began to write a framework for

government, should that be necessary (Articles of Confederation)

• Appointed George Washington to Commander in Chief of military


• Thomas Jefferson: A Virginia Burgess, descended from John Rolfe (thus, one of the FFV’s or “First Families of Virginia”)

• Interested in Enlightenment ideas• Excellent writer• Designated by Congress in 1776 to

write the first draft of an actual declaration of war against Britain


• Various sides of the political conflict:• LOYALISTS – preferred remaining part of

the British Empire. (AKA “Tories”)• PATRIOTS – preferred full independence

to any attempted reconciliation• MODERATES – (largest group) don’t

move too quickly, maybe reconciliation will work)


• By 1776, due to Common Sense and British atrocities in warfare, Loyalists had begun to quietly evacuate to Britain.

• Moderates were less and less able to justify their moderation.


• TJ submitted his draft declaration to Congress, which made 86 changes and deletions (notably, a complaint that George III had allowed the importation of slaves into North America. Most delegates to the Congress were slave owners)


• The Declaration came from several sources:

• Locke’s Second Treatise• TJ’s own preamble to the Virginia

Constitution• George Mason’s Virginia

Declaration of Rights


• Generals to know, besides Washington• Horatio Gates: a New England general,

led the victorious Patriot army at Saratoga

• William Howe: British, led the clumsy show of force that lost at Breed’s Hill; several times failed to capture G. Washington


• John Burgoyne: British, credited with the loss and surrender at Yorktown. “Gentleman Johnny,” more concerned with his hair and uniform than with his troops.

• Marquis de Lafayette: French commander, allied with US after Saratoga. Instrumental in eventual British defeat.


• Baron von Steuben: Prussian military expert, allied with US and great assist to Washington in teaching tactics and discipline to US forces


• Peace of Paris (AKA Treaty of Paris) 1783• Recognized new USA as a nation• Ceded all land east of the Mississippi River

to the new USA• Allowed new USA right to fish off the coast

of Canada• In return, Americans will pay Britons for

any property confiscated during war


• Nature of the new government, established by the 2nd Continental Congress

• REPUBLIC: property-owning males will vote for the representatives that will govern them (NOT a democracy!!)


• Governmental bodies:• The 2nd Continental Congress: ran the

war. Had no taxing authority, no authority to pass laws that affected the states individually. Chief role was war and foreign policy

• Individual state legislatures: ran each state. The real power to make law was here


• Articles of Confederation the written framework for government

• Only one branch: legislature (why is this a weakness)

• COULD: run the war, make treaties and alliances

• COULD NOT: legislate for the individual states, tax, draft soldiers


• REASONS FOR THIS FRAMEWORK• American suspicion of “far away”

governments transferred to the Congress• American suspicion of any authority to

tax that was given to people they did not know directly

• American loyalty was to “my state.” No firm idea yet of loyalty to “my country.”


• The Confederation Congress was thus far weaker than our Congress today.

• Still, had some notable successes:• Won a war against the most powerful

country on earth• Passed laws (two Northwest ordinances)

for organizing lands won from Britain• Kept country together 1776-1787

the american revolution text chapter 5. the american revolution attempts at diplomatic solution in...

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