Unit 2Foundations of American Govt

Colonial Tensions

Seeds of Revolution

Navigation Acts: 1660• Colonies could ONLY trade their goods to

England• Created a FAVORABLE BALANCE OF TRADE for

England.– England is Exporting (sell) more goods than

it is importing (buy)

–Mercantilism – Making money for the mother country.

Triangle Trade Route

French & Indian War: 1754-1763

• War between the British & French over control of the colonies

FRENCH & INDIAN WAR MAPS

BEFORE AFTER

Salutary Neglect

F & I war: started a period of time of self govt in the Colonies

• England was so concerned with the war that they left the colonies alone to govern themselves.

• They did not try to regain control until after the war was over.

Post F&I War

The Proclamation of 1763:

– British passed this law that

prohibited Colonists from moving

west of the Appalachian Mountains into

French territory.

The red line is the Proclamation line

REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD

Period in the Americas between the late 1750’s & the mid 1770’s. This period led to the Declaration of Independence & the Revolutionary War.

CAUSES OF THE REVOLUTION• Navigation Acts (1660)• Proclamation Line (Act) (1763)• Sugar Act (1764)• Stamp Act (1765)• Quartering Act (1765)• Townshend Acts (1767)• Writs of Assistance• Boston Massacre (1770)• Tea Act (1773)• Coercive (Intolerable) Acts

(1774)

• Battles of Lexington & Concord (Massachusetts)

COLONIAL OPPOSITION1. Albany Plan of Union

(1754)

2. Sons of Liberty – Stamp Act

3. Stamp Act Congress

4. Boston Tea Party

5. Thomas Paine – Common Sense

COLONIAL SOLUTUIONS• 1st Continental Congress –

drafted letter to King & Parliament demanding rights be restored.

• 2nd Continental Congress – DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE

Sugar Act: 1764

• colonial merchants were required to pay a tax per gallon on imported foreign sugar & molasses

Stamp Act: 1765Tax on ALL materials printed on paper

– All printed goods had to have a special stamp on it

– Colonists response to tax: cried “no taxation without representation” (in Parliament)

– Stamp Act seemed to hurt the freedom of speech

Quartering Act: 1765

Under this act, if asked, colonists were required by law to provide temporary housing & food to British soldiers.

–The colonists considered this an invasion of their privacy

Townshed Acts: 1767

• Tax on glass, paint, oil, lead, paper & tea

Writs of Assistance

Blanket searches that allowed soldiers to search whatever, whenever they wanted

Boston Massacre 1770

• By the late 1700’s the British government was very alarmed by colonial protests.

• Britain sent regiments of soldiers to keep order.

• Colonists provoked a British regiment, & they killed five colonists.

• As word spread through the colonies, it became known as the Boston Massacre, a violent confrontation between British soldiers & colonists.

Tea Act: 1773

Tax on tea that was designed to prop up the East India Company (chief tea import company in VA) & was burdened with eighteen million pounds of unsold tea

Boston Tea Party: 1773

Members of Sons of liberty disguised as American Indians boarded British ships in Boston & dumped their tea in the harbor to protest the tea tax.

Intolerable Acts (Coercive Acts):1774

Passed to punish the colonists for the Boston tea party.

• Closed the Boston harbor

• Made colonists pay back the lost tea

• Implemented the quartering Act

• Stopped town meetings

First Continental Congress: 1774

Appealed to the King about the taxation & lack of representation

Second Continental Congress: 1775

Drafted the Declaration of Independence

13 Colonies in 1776

Declaration of Independence

• Signed July 4, 1776

• Explained why the American Colonies were separating from Great Britain

– Listed many abuses the colonies suffered under the British king

4 parts of Declaration of Independence1. Preamble (purpose)

IntroductionExplanation of Separation from

England

2. Declaration of RightsGeneral theories of GovernmentPeople are born with Natural RightsOrigin of government was a social

contract

3. Grievances**Largest SectionCharges against King George III

4. Declaration of IndependenceGoal was to preserve peace, but forced towards independence

Common Sense: 1776

Written by Thomas Paine arguing it was “common sense” to fight for independence

United States in 1783

Lexington & Concord: 1775

“shot heard round the world”

1st battles of the Revolutionary War

Yorktown: 1781

Last battle of Revolutionary War

Treaty of Paris (1783)

• United States gains Independence

• British troops to leave US soil

• United States gains land to the Mississippi River