Tightening the Reins s1

A New Colonial Policy Key People, Events, Terms and Ideas Salutary Neglect – Proclamation of 1763 – Pontiac’s Rebellion Main Idea: A successful conclusion to the war with France resulted in significant changes in Britain’s policy toward the American colonies. ------Britain’s decisive victory in the French and Indian War in of rapid population growth in the colonies and there 1763 removed the French threat to its American were pressures to open western land to settlement. empire. The war was expensive, costing Britain £150 And hadn’t George Washington and other Virginians million (equal to tens of trillions of dollars today). fought in the French and Indian War specifically to open Interest on the money borrowed from banks and this area to settlement? The Proclamation Line was an investors cost half the government’s annual revenue. unexpected barrier to this opportunity. The tax burden in Britain had reached unprecedented Secondly, this issue was complicated by the revolt in heights. It seemed only reasonable that the colonists 1763 of the western Indians under the leadership of should help pay the bill for their protection. To pay Pontiac, chief of the Ottawa tribe. Chief Pontiac1 had these costs, Britain adopted a new set of policies for been an ally of the French. The removal of the French, America, including new taxes, more aggressive ways of whose empire was based primarily on fur trading, collecting them, and more severe methods of enforcing alarmed the Indians. Farms and villages along the these measures. The colonists had grown accustomed colonial frontier were laid to waste and hundreds of to running their own affairs during England period of white settlers were killed. The uprising was put down salutary neglect and viewed these policies as a first step largely by British troops. Putting down Pontiac’s in a plot to deprive them of their liberties. Rebellion had been a bloody and expensive affair. As a PROBLEMS OF DEFENSE AND WESTERN LANDS result, the English government decided to quarter, or house, ten thousand British troops in the colonies. Britain’s victory in the French and Indian War forced the British government to chart a new direction for dealing with America. A cornerstone of the new policy was the Proclamation of 1763, which prohibited settlement in lands west of the Appalachian Mountains. This policy of delay was twofold. First, if colonies in the immediate proximity to the western lands, like Pennsylvania, New York, Virginia and the Carolinas, were permitted to extend their boundaries westward, colonies without access, like Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Jersey and Maryland would be placed at a disadvantage. Should new colonies, therefore, be formed in the territory beyond the Appalachians? The colonials were impatient to take advantage of the new territory. They did not take too seriously the Royal Proclamation. Frontiersman Daniel Boone was one who was undeterred. He led parties of settlers into Kentucky’s “dark and bloody” ground. These were years 1 Pontiac’s name lives on as an American car. The Pontiac logo is a stylized arrowhead. 1