Strain of the Empire: Colonial Control in 18th Century

1. The Empire Under Strain Chapter 4

2. Distance • After Glorious Revolution (1688) England made no serious effort to tighten control over colonies • Kings Control • Colonies • i. New Jersey 1702 • ii. North and South Carolina 1729 • iii. Georgia 1754

3. Distance (cont.) • Mercantilist Laws • i. Navigation Acts • ii. restricting colonial manufactures • iii. prohibiting paper currency • iv. regulating trade

4. Loose Policy • Robert Walpole, PM, believed that little control was good • Few officials visit America • Colonial appointments came from bribery or favoritism • First American Assemblies • 1750s claim right to levy taxes, make appropriations, approve appointments and pass laws • Colonists continue to think of themselves as loyal English subjects • England only tie

5. Improving Communication • Trade = roads and seaports • colonial postal service • Still Weak • 1754 when faced with war against French and Indians British gov. allows delegates from Penn., Mary., NY, NE to meet in Albany • Ben Franklin proposes Albany Plan

6. Ben Franklin proposes Albany Plan • “one general gov.” • “retain it’s present constitution” • “president general” • It was REJECTED / Failure to agree.... Ben Franklin exclaims that colonists are a bunch of “weak noodles”

7. The War Before the War • French and Iroquois • French and English coexisted peacefully for nearly a century • French deep in continent • French Jesuits • French men married natives

8. Tensions arise • Louis XIV wishes to expand empire • “Louis”iana • Battle for N.A would be determined by which group could best win the allegiance of natives: • English offered goods • French offered tolerance

9. Iroquois Confederacy • five Indian nations • Unified • Ohio Valley • French claimed it • Indians lived there • English colonists begin to expand into it

10. More Drama in Europe! • William of Orange takes over England • William is one of Louis XIV’s biggest enemies Louis wants to expand and William opposes him (King William’s War 1689-1697) • France = Catholic ; Spain = Catholic ; Spain + France = Powerful Allies

11. More Drama in Europe! Cont’d • Queen Anne (William’s sister in law) ascends the throne 1702 • Queen Anne’s War 1701-1713 • border fighting with Spanish in South • border fighting with French to Northwest • France + Prussia vs. England + Austria = King George’s War 1744-1748 • Iroquois begin trading with English, thus English move west • French set up forts in response in the Ohio Valley

12. Phase One: French Indian War (aka Seven Year’s War) • Fort Necessity Debacle • Fort Necessity • George Washington’s troops forced to surrender • Weak British Assistance • General Edward Braddock failed in 1755 to stop a fleet of French reinforcements • ambush leaves Braddock dead and troops in disarray • Indian Raids • all Indian tribes (except Iroquois) allied with French

13. Phase Two: French Indian War • Intercontinental • Fighting in Europe, W.Indies, and India • Principal Struggle in North America • William Pitt: America Under British Control • impressment • housing/quartering

14. Phase Three: French Indian War • Pitt agrees to reimburse the colonists for all supplies taken during the war • Returned control of military recruitment to the colonial assemblies • Turning the Tide • French were always outnumbered • Poor Harvests 1756 • Scalp bounties = brutal raids as counter attack • Peace of Paris • French give some West Indian islands • Gave Canada and all other French territory east of the Mississippi to Great Britain • Ceded New Orleans and all lands west of the Mississippi to Spain

15. Effects • English Perspective • Greatly expanded England’s territory in New World • Enlarged Britain’s debt • Officials in England angry about colonists • Particularly bitter at colonists • Colonists Perspective • colonial assemblies • illegitimacy of British presence • British perceived as arrogant • Native perspective • Ohio Valley natives: disastrous because allied with French = enemies with Britain • Iroquois: mistrust from British because of inaction during war • outnumbered and unorganized

16. From Rash Recovery to Rebellion • King George III • ascended to throne in 1760 • age twenty-two • suffered from bouts of insanity • nominates George Grenville PM in 1763 • tried to control colonists • believed in limiting their freedoms

17. King George III Cont’d • Marquis of Rockingham succeeds Grenville as PM in July 1765 • tried to appease both English and Americans • got king to repeal Stamp Act • kicked out of office • William Pitt becomes PM (again) 1766 • old and mentally unstable • Charles Townshend substitutes • CT dies in 1767 • Lord North becomes PM 1767 • repeals all Townshend Acts except tax on Tea

18. Post War Policies • Proclamation of 1763 (Grenville) forbid settlers to advance beyond a line drawn along the Appalachian Mts. • British Incentives: • control west. movement of colonial pop. • avoid conflict with Natives ($) • keep colonists near coastline for trade ($) • Cherokee supported it, hoped to end white expansion west • Colonial Response: • Whites continued to claim lands across the boundary line

19. Post War Policies Cont’d • Sugar Act of 1764 (Grenville) • British Incentives: • eliminate illegal sugar trade • British courts in America to try accused smugglers, • Colonial Response; • hampered trade • business, $, lost • anger towards outside control • Currency Act of 1764 (Grenville) • stop issuing paper money and to destroy all money in circulation

20. Post War Policies Cont’d • Stamp Act of 1765 (Grenville) • imposed a tax on most printed documents in the colonies: newspapers, almanacs, pamphlets, deeds, wills, licenses • British Incentives: • profit • limit propaganda, communication • Colonists Response: • taxes prior were intended to raise commerce, this one raised money • anger towards taxation without consent • Patrick Henry “Virginia Resolves” • Stamp Act Congress meets in NY • Son’s of Liberty terrorize stamp agents • Riots • British Response to Colonial Response (Rockingham): • New gov’t convinces king to end the Stamp Act in 1766 • English power’s demand a new law in response...

21. Post War Policies Cont’d • Declaratory Act 1766 (Rockingham) • asserted Parliament’s authority over the colonies “in all cases whatsoever” • gave Parliament sweeping power • Mutiny Act of 1765 (Grenville) • colonists required to assist in the provisioning and maintaining of the army • colonial officials ordered to take up posts (no more substitutes) • restricted colonial manufacturing • British Incentives: • stop smugglers • keep colonial businesses from competing with English • Colonial response: • trade limited, businesses go bankrupt • anger towards outside control • taxation without consent • British Response to Colonial Response.....

22. Post War Policies Cont’d • Townshend Acts 1767 • disbanded NY assembly • levied new taxes on different products • board of customs in Boston • imposes a tax on tea • 1st Colonial Response: • Massachusetts Assembly circulates letter to all colonial gov’ts urging them to stand against every tax • boycott • British Response (North; Townshend dead): • repeals all Townshend Acts except tax on Tea

23. The Boston Massacre (the “snowball” effect) • Townshend Acts had taken toll: • redcoats” everywhere • presence resented • March 5, 1770 snowball fight turns into Boston Massacre killing 5 • Angry colonial propaganda by colonial writers fuel a fire (Samuel Adams)

24. The Boston Tea Party • Strict enforcement of Nav. Acts + continued British presence = rev. sentiment • In RI angry residents board the British schooner Gaspee and set in on fire • accused sent back to England for a trial • 1773 British East India Company had a surplus of Tea, in response British government passed the Tea Act (1773) • gave BEI Company the right to export into the colonies without having to pay the tax that colonial merchants had to pay • allowed BEI Company to gain a monopoly on tea

25. The Boston Tea Party Cont’d • Many colonists responded by not buying tea: boycott • Women were instrumental • Dec 16, 1773 in Boston Harbor • Bostonians refused to pay for the property they had destroyed • Coercive Acts 1774 (North) • Closed the port of Boston • permitted royal officers to be tried in other colonies or in England • Colonist propaganda referred to these acts as the “Intolerable Acts”

26. Quebec Act 1774 (North) • object was to provide a civil government for the French-speaking Roman Catholic inhabitants of Canada and the Illinois country • granted Political rights to Roman Catholics and recognized the legality of the Roman catholic Church • colonists believed that this meant the Pope and Holy Roman Empire would be allowed to take over the New World

27. Cooperation and War • The First Continental Congress • Sept. 1774, Carpenter’s Hall, Philadelphia • Major Decisions: • plan for a colonial union under British Authority • statement of grievances • military preparation • boycotts

28. First Battles: Lexington and Concord • For months, farmers and townspeople had been gathering ammunitions and training as “minutemen”... preparing to fight on a minutes notice

29. Why the Revolution started: where historians disagree • Brinkley (Greenville upset almost everyone) v. Zinn (“rich v. poor,” or the elitist theory) • Brinkley • common grievances to Grenville policies • Time of economic depression • Cities? • Conserve liberties • Enlightenment

30. Zinn • Propaganda used by wealthy to deflect attention on England • Locke was a racist, an elitist, and supported child labor • Jefferson owned slaves until the day he died. • Language of Bible and D of I, were both used for propaganda purposes. • Financial move for the wealthy – Beard An Economic Interpretation of the Constitution