The major areas of disagreement between the American colonists and the British policymakers that developed during the period 1763 to 1776. Great Britain’s victory in the French and Indian War gained new territory west of the Appalachian Mountains for the Empire but at the same time added great debt to the Empire. Great Britain looked for revenue from the American colonists as part of the solution to their growing debt issues. Great Britain’s attempts to gain tax revenue from the American colonists increased tensions between the colonies and Great Britain. From 1763 to 1776, Great Britain formed a series of Acts and was met with considerable resistance by the American colonists.
During the French and Indian War of 1754-1763, the British and American colonists were united against the French and their Native American allies. This allowed for a moderately stable relationship between the colonies and their motherland. However, after the French receded from their North American territory in 1763, the British began to impose more restrictions on the colonies regarding land acquisition and economics, putting a strain on what used to be a peaceful affair. Before 1763, Britain was not opposed against the westward expansion of the colonies into territories outside their original boundaries such as the Ohio River Valley. However, after the end of the French and Indian War, England became more strict in terms of land acquisition after these territories were surrendered to the British empire.
Hector St. John Crevecoeur strongly argued that the colonists emerged towards creating their identity through the molding together of a melting pot. After the French and Indian War, the colonists realized that they were much different than the British. Written law was preferred by the colonists over “word of law” which the people of Great Britain were fond of. The group of colonists in America who opposed the British referred to themselves as the “Patriots”. The colonists also abolished primogeniture and entail which pulled them further and further away from their mother country’s ways.
Washington waited for reinforcements and then attacked this fort, Fort Duquesne in 1754, marking the first bloodshed in the war. In 1756, after the conflict between the French and British turned into a world war, the British government changed. This change brought William Pitt into office as the head of the ministry. Some of Pitt’s actions and decisions not helped win the war in America, but they also were responsible for creating nationalistic views amongst members of the colonies. Pitt treated the colonists as allies rather than as servants that must follow orders.
An analysis of Britain’s imperial policies during the time period from 1763 to 1776 reveals that British policies regarding issues like taxation and political representation were directly responsible for intensifying colonial resistance to British rule and for strengthening the colonials’ commitment to republican values. Great Britain’s 1763 victory over France in the Seven Years War made it the dominate power in North America, but the challenges associated with managing such a vast Empire required British policymakers to make tough decisions in the years following the war. The Proclamation of 1763 created an incredible amount of anger not only in the colonies, but also with the Native Americans. Many of the actions that resulted from the Proclamation were simply due to the lack of cooperation between the British, colonists and Native Americans. Britain had taken what was rightfully won by the colonies, and this fueled the colonists desire for the American Revolution.
After the French Revolution though, the republic slowly began shifting to a totalitarian regime, first under the Committee of Public Safety and then completely under Napoleon Bonaparte .The facts show that the American Revolution was more successful in establishing a stable and long-lasting republican government that started a precedent for Europe, while the French Revolution’s republic failed to last, being turned into a totalitarian regime. Events leading up to the American and French Revolutions occurred for a similar reason: unfair representation. The people in the American colonies became progressively upset with Britain and its Parliament when they refused the colonists’ representation, while still imposing many different taxes on the colonists. Upset over this tax on one of their most valued imports, the colonists dumped all the tea into the Boston Harbor during the Boston Tea Party. This showed that the colonists were willing, and able, to live without depending on the British government.
This paper will establish the argument that Britain no longer benefited from a mercantilist relationship with the American colonists after 1763. Before 1763, the colonists accepted Parliament's right to take actions on their behalf and even the primacy of England's economic interests over their own. Prior to the Seven Years' War, almost all parliamentary actions had been designed to regulate trade, and while the colonies at times regarded these acts as unfair or inopportune, they did not regard them as especially oppressive or burdensome. After 1763, however, Parliament's actions began to clash with the colonists' interests. At the end of the Seven Years' War, France surrendered Canada and much of the Ohio and Mississippi valley to British rule.
Duggan 1 Paul Duggan APUSH-3 10-20-10 American Revolution DBQ During the period from 1775 to 1800, American’s views toward Britain began to change. British policies between 1763 and 1776 intensified the colonial’s resistance to Britain and commitment to their new Enlightenment ideals. The policies involved many taxes which the colonists’ resisted due to their belief that such taxes without representation abused their rights. Americans began to look for political, economic, and social freedoms that Britain continued to deny them. They felt that the king was abusing his power as a monarch and therefore their rebellion was for a just cause of declaring the independence they wanted.
The American Revolution did not satisfy the colonial goals for civil, political, social, and economic rights; however the Constitution did. All the American Revolution did was drive the British out of America. With the British gone the Americans had the ability to strive for civil, political, social, and economic rights, but the Articles of Confederation became an obstacle in their path to their rightful goals. During the American Revolution the American people wrote a lot about what they wanted to accomplish and attain. In Document A, the Declaration of the Causes and Necessities of Taking Up Arms, it is written that the American people feel they have been wronged by England because their rights are restricted and wish for these basic rights to happiness and such.
Explain how the colonies shifted from the notion of being included in the British Empire to the idea that being in it was a threat to their freedom. In the middle part of the 1760s, the British government was still trying to get over the effects of the Seven Years War. Although the war had resulted in a victory for the English, dominating the eastern half of North America, it had cost a lot of money, much of it spent on military campaigns in North America. It had been determined that conflicts between the colonists and the Indians (assisted by the remaining French settlers in the region), required the continuous guarding by British troops in North America. (1) By the end of 1763, the total yearly expense was so great