The American Revolution: Battle Over Who Will Govern

Part I

I. The American Revolution—Its Background & Significance "It is evident that the American Revolution was a great event in the history of Britain. It was also a great event in the history of Europe, reverberating into the nineteenth and even the twentieth centuries. More immediately, its impact on French finances, and, with that, on French politics, was enormous. And in the realm of ideas, it seemed like a fantasy realized." The Frenchman Turgot observed in 1778 that "the American people are the 'hope of the human race; they may well become its mode.' . . . For its European well-wishers, the American Revolution was a just cause, but it was also more than that; it was the culmination of a development to which enlightened men could look with hope. America was the Enlightenment in action"(Eugen Weber, Modern Europe, pp. 446-447). II. The Background "The American Revolution illustrates this complex process of revolt" (Divine, Breen, Frederick son, and Williams, America: Past and Present, p. 138). A. The Background: Discovery of the New World 1. Christopher Columbus

Columbus gained official approval for his voyage from Columbus’ Columbus set foot on American Spanish monarchs Flagship, Santa soil on October 12, 1492 Christopher Columbus Ferdinand & Isabella Maria a. Official approval of voyage—April 17, 1492 b. Columbus departs and Edict of Expulsion—August 2, 1492 c. Landing in America—October 12, 1492

B. English Settlement in North America 1. Colonization under Elizabeth I, 1533-1603 (r. 1558-1603) the final Tudor monarch of England

Raleigh’s failed colony at Sir Humphrey Roanoke, Virginia Queen Elizabeth I Gilbert Sir Walter Raleigh a. Sir Humphrey Gilbert—1578, 1583-1585 b. Sir Walter Raleigh—1585, 1587 Elizabeth's principal concern: to garner a share of the New World's wealth so conspicuously controlled by Spain.

1 2. Colonization under James I & Charles I, the first Stuarts of England

King Charles I Puritans at worship King James I a. Vis-à-vis the Puritans James was impatient with Puritan theology; he threatened to "harry them [the Puritans] out of the land."

b. James issued licenses for private joint stock companies to establish New World colonies.

Plymouth Rock (below)

Jamestown Captain John John Colony The Mayflower Smith William Winthrop Bradford (1) Jamestown—founded in 1607 Captain James Smith (2) Plymouth Colony—founded in 1620 The Mayflower, the Pilgrims, and William Bradford (3) Massachusetts Bay Colony—founded in 1630 John Winthrop's "City on a Hill" Note the emphasis given Winthrop and his community in the Alistair Cooke video "America: Home Away from Home."

The religious factor impelling immigration

3. Immigration during the Interregnum—1649-1660

Oliver Cromwell's Protectorate prompted a conspicuous decline of immigration to the New World. Potential immigrants were motivated to remain at home by a renewed hope for religious change or at least tolerance in Britain.

Cromwell’s Charles II Oliver Cromwell James II

2 Parliament

4. Immigration under Charles II and James II a. Population in 1660:1 200,000 b. Population in 1754: 1.5 million There was a seven-fold increase in less than a century. 5. Ethnic make-up of **13 colonies by 1775—at 3.2 million a. 1.7 million—English b. 450,000—Scotch-Irish c. 400,000—Black slaves d. 200,000—German

B. English Colonial Policy 1. Sir Robert Walpole, PM—1721-1742 a. **Walpole's motto: "Let sleeping dogs lie."—RQ1 Salutary or Benevolent Neglect: Walpole made no serious effort to control the colonies or establish a centralized, uniform government. In such a setting, there evolved a drift toward democratic self-rule and a strong sense of self-sufficiency.

Lineage Chart of Hanoverian George I George II Kings of England George III Robert Walpole Father of . . . Grandfather of. . b. The First Two Georges They were thoroughly German and almost totally disinterested in English politics. 2. George III, 1760-1820 and Lord Frederick North, PM—1770-1782 a. George III "The new monarch was determined to play an aggressive role in government. . . . George was trying to turn back the clock, to reestablish a personal Stuart monarchy free from traditional constitutional restraints. . . . His actions threw customary political practices into doubt. . . . [George III] gradually drove a wedge between the colonists and the mother country [but members of Parliament] must share the blame for they failed to provide innovative answers to the explosive constitutional issues of the day" (America, pp. 127-128). **George III was determined to rule as well as reign—i.e., reestablish a pattern that went into atrophy under the rule of the first two Hanoverian Georges. 3. Lord North, PM from 1770-1782

Lord North—George III’s ham-

1 The year of the "Stuart Restoration" in England.

3 fisted prime minister

**North's ministry was the first under George III that endured for any length of time. Previous to him, the ministerial administration suffered from chronic instability and absence of long-range policy. North was: a. short-sighted b. disliked his job c. passionately and uncritically devoted to the policies of the king. d. had the ability to build and maintain a Parliamentary majority e. congenial f. well-meaning g. lacking in talent

C. Unfolding of Events—The Long View

1. The Anglo-French Colonial Rivalry

a. The Norman Conquest—“1066 and All of That”

William led the William brought The Bayeux Norman claims to French Tapestry tells the Conquest lands story of conquest

**The Norman Conquest initiated 500 years of conflicting Anglo-French claims to territory on the Continent of Europe.

b. **Mary I (1516-1558) and the Loss of Calais (1558)

Calais is located in Calais—the shortest the northeastern corner of Mary I, Queen of distance between Continental France England England & France

The loss of England’s last holding on the Continent seemed, at the time, a disaster. In fact, it set the stage for English domination of the 19th century. It forced the English to look seaward and develop a powerful navy—the most important modern-day prerequisite to world domination and the construction of the British Empire.

4 c. **Why the French Presence in North America?

Cartier opened the way for Cartier discovered the mouth Champlain Jacques Cartier France Map of the City of Quebec of the St. Lawrence founded Quebec

1) Exploration—Jacques Cartier (1491-1557) discovered the mouth of the St. Lawrence River in 1535 2) Settlement—Samuel de Champlain (1567-1635) founded Quebec in 1608 3) Furs and fish

The French sought profit from the fur trade. They also hoped to convert the native Indian population to Christianity.

4) Christianize the Native American population d. **France Became England’s Main Opponent in North America 2. French and Indian War, 1754-1763

Venues for the **Indians allied French & Indian with France War

**Wolfe’s victory at Quebec was the French commander Wolfe himself lost his life decisive battle of Montcalm also died at Quebec, 1759 James Wolfe the conflict at Quebec Marquis de Montcalm a. The war nearly doubled the British national debt (1) **That debt rose from £14.5 million to £145 million Over half of the annual national budget went to retire interest on debt accumulated during the war. (2) England’s supply bills rose from £14.5 million to £145 million (3) The colonials had borne very little of the cost of this war.

5 George III "insisted on keeping the largest peacetime army in British history on active duty, supposedly to protect Indians from predatory frontiersmen and to preserve order in the newly conquered territories of Florida and Quebec. . . . Maintaining such a force so far distant from the mother country fueled the budgetary crisis. . . . The colonists doubted the value of this very expensive army. First, Britain did not leave enough troops in American to maintain peace effectively. . . . During even this brief outbreak [Pontiac's rebellion—see below], the British army proved unable to defend exposed colonial settlements" (America, p. 131).

b. Victory in the war removed the incentive that the colonists had to desire a British military presence in the colonies. c. **It enabled England to drive France off the North American continent.

The Peace of Paris (1763) transferred French holdings in North America (left) to the expanding English colonial empire. It French holdings had extended down the St. transformed England Lawrence river valley and along the into the world’s foremost Mississippi’s eastern shore. colonial power.

2. Pontiac's Conspiracy Pontiac (1720-1769) was an Ottawa warrior who coordinated an Indian uprising comprised essentially of western Indians formerly allied to the French and who hated the British. He had a plan of concerted Indian action to attack British forts in 1763.

3. Boundaries Proclamation of 1763 "The colonists fully intended to settle the fertile region west of the Appalachian Mountains [right] . . . . Disappointed Americans viewed the [English] army as an obstruction to legitimate economic development, a domestic police force that cost too much money" (America, p. 131).

a. The proclamation attempted to quell the stirring up of Indian trouble that would precipitate the need for costly British military intervention. b. It sought to stop the influx of settlers might destabilize the profitable fur trade beyond the Alleghenies. c. British feared that westward expansion might stimulate local manufacturing and a domestic industry to compete (in an age of strident mercantilist philosophy) with the imports from the mother country. d. Finally, the act intended to divert flow of settlers into Canada 4. American Smuggling a. Navigation Act of 1651 This Act required all goods shipped to or from the colonies to be carried on English or colonial ships with the majority of sailors being English- or colonial-born.

6 b. To circumvent the act, colonials smuggled in goods from other exporting nations. c. England responded by passing taxes designed to recover profits that were lost due to smuggling.

Enterprising businessmen like John Hancock (left) became rich through their smuggling The English required the operations. Boston Harbor colonists to trade only with England (1) Molasses Act—1733 (2) Iron Act—1750 (3) Sugar Act—1764 Technically, this was the Revenue Act of 1764, designed to force colonists to contribute to the maintenance of the army. It "redefined the relationship between America and Great Britain. Parliament now expected the colonies to generate revenue. . . . The purpose of the Sugar Act was to discourage smuggling, bribery, and other illegalities that prevented the Navigation Acts from being profitable. Parliament reduced the duty of molasses. . . . At so low a rate, Grenville reasoned, colonial merchants would have little incentive to bribe customs collectors. Much needed revenue would be diverted from the pockets of corrupt officials into the Treasury." From the American perspective, however, this "legislation deprived Americans of 'the right of assessing their own taxes.'" However, "the protests were still confined to the members of the colonial assemblies, to the merchants, and to the well-to-do Americans who had personal interests in commerce" (America, pp. 131-132). d. Loose half-hearted enforcement of these acts The acts proved innocuous, the various acts being impossible to enforce across so vast an area. e. Grenville Administration's (1763) "cracked down" on smuggling through Writs of Assistance. Grenville was rigid and rather unimaginative. Grenville's "course seemed clear to him: across the seas lived nearly two million British subjects who had violated practically every law on the books, manufactured what they were forbidden to manufacture, exported what they were forbidden to export, traded with enemy merchants in time of war, and evaded most taxes for a century. . . . The colonists would rather live under high tariffs that were not collected than under moderate ones that were. . . . For several years the British government, appalled at the outcry in America, vacillated" (Modern Europe, pp. 451-452). 5. "Taxation Without Representation" Americans were incensed by what they perceived as arbitrary taxation a. American tradition of self-government (1) Mayflower Compact

The 41 signatories agreed to The Mayflower form “just and equal laws.”

(2) Salutary Neglect

7 The British colonial policy of leaving the colonies to fend for themselves developed some decidedly democratic behaviors that would contribute to the Puritans in prayer—the earliest American Revolution of colonists sought freedom of They worshipped as Sir Robert 1775-1783. religious practice. their own lights led them. Walpole (3) Impulse toward Religious Individualism

Men like William Penn (far left) and Roger Williams (left) took advantage of religious freedom afforded in Newly arrived immigrants They felt a bond that held the New World. shared hardships. them together. (4) Difficult but common experience of immigration "Migrants to America found voyages to their homeland arduous if not perilous. All these factors gave survival value to qualities that Americans later claimed as particularly their own: ingenuity, adaptability, self-reliance, and a certain sense of social freedom, almost egalitarianism. . . . In this vast, largely unexplored and promising new land many traditional guideposts lost their meaning. Social boundaries were more porous, social mobility was easier, sheer ability counted for more than it had at home, in the ‘old country’" (Modern Europe, p. 448). b. The British perspective "The American call for representation was confronted with the British doctrine of 'virtual representation'— members of Parliament were held to represent not this district or that, but all of Britain's great empire. The interests of colonials were safeguarded by members of Parliament in the same way as were those of English subjects who did not have the right to vote. The Americans were not impressed" (Modern Europe, p. 453). (1) Before 1763, Parliament had never tried to tax the colonies. (2) **The taxes imposed in 1763 were only 1/25th those paid by native Englishmen (a) British public debt averaged £18 per person (b) American public debt averaged 1/20th of that, or 18 schillings 6. Stamp Act of 1765 This Act "transformed conversation among gentlemen into a mass political movement" (America, p. 132).

Efforts to tax the Members of the British colonies British stamps affixed Angry colonials government mourn the passing met with to various legal This publication ceased operation tar and feather a of the Stamp Act that was strident documents, bills, and due to increased expenses from British tax revoked in 1766. resistance. newspapers. the Stamp Tax collector.

The act required revenue stamps fixed on all legal documents, bills, newspapers, and roused opposition from the most vocal classes within the colonies: lawyers, merchants, newspaper editors, tavern-keepers, clergymen.

8 Britain hoped to generate £60,000 a year from this tax. It touched the lives of ordinary men and women, and as such, it generated a storm of protest among people incensed by Parliament's seeming insensitivity and the prospect of increased unemployment and poverty. Patrick Henry, in the Virginia House of Burgesses, argued for the right of the colonists to tax themselves by their own lights, casting his evangelical-style rhetoric in terms of "liberty." Henry's "Virginia Resolves" against the tax made it appear that Virginians had "taken an extremely radical position on the issue of the supremacy of Parliament (America, p 132). a. Stamp Act Congress—October 7, 17652

Nine states sent representatives to New York City. It was the first inter-colonial assembly since the Albany Congress of 1754.

Patrick Henry (right) These cartoons dramatize the argued for liberty— need for united colonial action. the right of colonists Henry vigorously to tax themselves. opposed Parliament.

The Stamp Act Congress was a seminal step forward in welding the colonies together for common planning and action. It passed a resolution of protest affirming that taxes could not be imposed without the consent of those taxed. Its tone, however, was restrained if not conciliatory, avoiding any mention of independence or disloyalty to the Crown.

b. "Sons of Liberty"

Barber treats British customer roughly (left); Obelisk erected on Boston Common (right) celebrating the Abuse of a British tax collector, repeal of the 1774 Stamp Act in 1766 In Boston, the Sons of Liberty stirred up protest and used violence, hoping to intimidate royal officials. In a masterful political innovation, the Sons of Liberty persuaded and/or coerced colonial merchants to boycott British goods until the tax was repealed.

c. Popular Protests "Popular participation in these protests was an exciting experience for people who had traditionally deferred to their social betters. After 1765, it was impossible for

2 First Continental Congress—September 5, 1774—was the successor of the Stamp Act Congress. This later body met in response to the "Intolerable Acts" of 1774.

9 either royal governors or patriot leaders to take the common fold for granted. . . . In this highly charged moral atmosphere, one in which ordinary people talked constantly of conspiracy and corruption, it is not surprising that Americans of different classes and backgrounds advocated a radical change in buying habits. Private acts suddenly became part of the public sphere. . . . The Stamp Act crisis also eroded the colonists' respect for imperial officeholders in America. Suddenly, these men—royal governors, customs collectors, military personnel—appeared alien, as if their interests were not those of the people over whom they exercised authority" (America, pp. 133-135).

d. Declaratory Act of 1766 "Lest its retreat on the Parliament repealed the Stamp Stamp Act be interpreted as Act in 1766 but simultaneously weakness, the House of passed the Declaratory Act that Commons passed the affirmed the subordination of the Declaratory Act (March colonies to Parliamentary 1766), a shrill defense of supremacy or control. parliamentary supremacy over the Americans 'in all cases whatsoever'" (America, p. 135).

7. Quartering Act of 1765 Colonists had to supply British troops with housing and other items.

8. **Colonial Sympathizers Respite of 1770-1773: "For a short while, American colonists and British officials put aside their recent animosities. Like England's rulers, some colonial gentry were beginning to pull back from protest, especially violent confrontation with established authority, in fear that the lower orders were becoming too assertive." It was a "period of apparent reconciliation . . . but appearances were deceiving. The bonds of imperial loyalty remained fragile" (America, p. 140). a. John Wilkes

(1) **Wilkesian Liberty John Wilkes, Champion of 1725-1797 freedom of speech Wilkes and liberty. agitated for "Wilkes and liberty both at liberty" became a home and in popular slogan of the colonies. the period.

(2) American Liberty "The concept of liberty so magnificently expressed in revolutionary pamphlets was not. . . simply an abstraction, an exclusive concern of political theorists. . . . It also motivated ordinary folk. . . to take up weapons

10 and risk death. Those who survived the ordeal were never quite the same, for the very experience of fighting, of even taking lives of British officers gave dramatic new meaning to social equality" (America, p. 126). Americans generally failed to grasp the nature of Wilkesian polemic against George III, and certainly overlooked the vices that stained John Wilke's personal character.

b. Edmund Burke

Edmund Burke, 1729-1797

Burke was the exponent of an argument of expediency—retention of the colonies was worth far more than imposition of rightful but alienating taxation.

c. William Pitt, the Elder (Earl of Chatham), 1708-1778

William Pitt the Elder Architect of Empire—an inveterate The map on the left shows the vast extent of French opponent of American independence, claims in North America before the French and he was intensely eager to preserve his Indian War (1754-1763). The two maps to the right imperial legacy. As such, he show how England emerged from that conflict with advocated moderate colonial policies. control of the continent east of the Mississippi River. Pitt was the most gifted Parliamentary orator of the day and the man most likely able to rescue the deteriorating situation; ironically, Pitt went mad from the spring of 1775 through the spring of 1777, a most critical period in English-colonial relations. On April 7, 1778, Pitt was stricken on the floor of Parliament, with the stroke that eventually killed him, while delivering a speech against granting independence to the colonies. He died on May 11, 1778 denying England a valiant advocate of preserving Britain’s North American Empire. TO BE CONTINUED