High birth rates and heavy immigration bespoke easily available land, widely distributed among the farming population. The colonists' dispersion and ethnic diversity helped produce the fragmentation and political instability that became pronounced as populations spread westward after the French and Indian War (known in Britain as the Seven Years' War). The easy availability of land weakened American elites; lacking the ability to live off rents, gentlemen also lacked a secure economic and political base. The southern colonies had stable aristocracies, based on slave ownership; but even the greatest planters lived in fear of slave rebellions. Nor did colonial institutions create stability: governments were small, poor, unbureaucratized, and lacked permanent constabularies; neither a unified market economy nor a
Conflicts of this time arose from growing tensions between residents of Great Britain's 13 North American colonies and the colonial government, which represented the British crown. The war officially begun in 1754 when twenty two year old militia officer George Washington ambushed a French patrol in the Pennsylvania back woods. Skirmishes between British troops and colonial militiamen in Lexington and Concord in April 1775 kicked off the armed
France and Britain both wanted power in North America. They turned Ohio Valley into a war zone. In 1763, The British was acting like conquerors in Indian countries, “As the year begun, Indian peoples complained about the presence of British
8th That the late Act of Parliament, entitled, "An Act for Granting and applying certain Stamp Duties, and other Duties in the British Colonies and Plantations in America &c by imposing Taxes on the Inhabitants of these Colonies, and the said Act, and several other Acts, by extending the Jurisdiction of the Courts of Admiralty, beyond its Ancient limits, have a Manifest tendency to Subvert the Rights, and liberties of the Colonists.... 11th That the Restrictions imposed by several late Acts of Parliament on the Trade of these Colonies, will render them unable to purchase the Manufactures of Great Britain. 12th That the Increase Prosperity and happiness of these Colonies, depend on the full and free Enjoyment of their Rights and Liberties, and an Intercourse with Great Britain mutually Affectionate and Advantageous. 13th That it is the Right of the British Subjects in these Colonies to Petition the King, or either House of
The Indians to wanted this, only 20 years earlier. In a speech to representatives of Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia in 1742, Canassatego (Chief of the Onondaga Nation of the Iroquois Confederacy) didn’t want any more white people to hunt or settle on Indian land. The British Empire had expanded greatly (Following the Treaty of Paris, a peace treaty France signed after the British defeated them in 1763, France was required to surrender it’s large western territory in Louisiana and other claims to Spain in compensation for it’s loss of Florida to Great Britain. Along with Florida, Great Britain also gained territory in French Canada. The map of colonial Empires in North America in 1754 and 1763 shows the shift of colonial power before and after the French and Indian War (document A).)
MID TERM ESSAYS 1. What problems did Britain face after the Seven Years’ War (French and Indian War) and how did it propose to find solutions? How reasonable were London’s solutions and how did the colonists view them as an attack upon their liberty? Extreme war debt, Debt. Every war costs huge amounts of money; the British were simply trying to raise money to pay the costs of the North American components of the Seven Years War, which was the French and Indian War.
On January 10,1776, Thomas Paine’s “Common Sense’’ is published in Philadephia. This 50 page pamphlet is highly critical of King George III and it attacks allegiance to Monarchy in principle while it provided strong documents for American independence. “We have it in our power to begin the world anew.. American shall make a stand, not for herself alone, but for the world,” Paine states and due to continuing actions of the Parliament, many who disliked it, such a Thomas Paine, had been tired of it. Members of the Philadelphia Congress, instructed by their respective colonies, gradually edged toward a clean break; on June 7, 1776, fiery Richard Henry Lee of Virginia moved that “these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent states…” after considerable debate, the motion was adopted nearly a month later, on July 2, 1776. The passing of Lee’s resolution was the formal “declaration” of independence by the American colonies and technically this was all that was needed to cut the British tie.
The british, in response to the smuggling, set up a court without a jury present and the presumption was that the colonists were guilty. This caused widespread protest throughout the colonies. The following year the Currency Act of 1764 was enacted by the British Parliament, which extended the currency act of 1751 restricting the printing of paper money by the colonies of New England. The Act limited
This act is also linked to the Boston Massacre because it was the last act passed before this event. Declaratory Act The Declaratory Act was passed in 1766 by the Parliament following the repeal of the stamp act. It stated that the authority of the Crown in America was the same as in England and created almost complete Royal control of the government. This made the colonist very angry because they were protesting so much against the stamp act and then the English come in and pull this stuff! Quartering Act This act was part of the intolerable acts and was passed on June 2nd 1774.
In the 18th Century in North America the Frenchmen from Canada and Englishmen from Britain had their regions. The region where they traveled was mostly occupied by the Native Americans that owned most of the wildlife. As population grew bigger by the British colonies they started to look for the lands across the Appalachian Mountains for settlement and growth. The Great Lakes, Mississippi River, Ohio River valley and St. Lawrence River, were owned by the French and they didn’t want the Englishman into their part of the region. The French decided to build Forts so the English settlers could not establish in their region.