AMERICAN REVOLUTIONREVOLUTION Thethe Enlightenmentenlightenment Thethe Ageage Ofof Reasonreason
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AMERICANAMERICAN REVOLUTIONREVOLUTION TheThe EnlightenmentEnlightenment TheThe AgeAge ofof ReasonReason ▶ 1650-1800 ▶ Laws of Nature applied to society ▶ Rationalism . “Dare to know! Have the courage to use your own reason!” – Immanuel Kant ▶ Liberalism ▶ Deism . “The Clockmaker” . Absent of human affairs TheThe EnlightenmentEnlightenment JohnJohn LockeLocke ▶ Second Treatise on Government . “The state of nature has a law of nature to govern it, which obliges every one: and reason, which is that law, teaches all mankind … that, being all equal and independent, no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty, or possessions” . “Men being, as has been said, by nature, all free, equal, and independent, no one can be put out of this estate, and subjected to the political power of another, without his own consent.” . “Whensoever therefore the legislative shall transgress this fundamental rule of society; and either by ambition, fear, folly or corruption, endeavour to grasp themselves, or put into the hands of any other, an absolute power over the lives, liberties, and estates of the people; by this breach of trust they forfeit the power the people had put into their hands for quite contrary ends, and it devolves to the people, who have a right to resume their original liberty, and, by the establishment of a new legislative, (such as they shall think fit) provide for their own safety and security, which is the end for which they are in society.” TheThe EnlightenmentEnlightenment AdamAdam SmithSmith ▶ An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations ▶ Laissez-faire . Free trade ▶ “the invisible hand” ▶ Three Laws . More production from self- interest . Economic competition . Supply and demand TheThe EnlightenmentEnlightenment TheThe PhilosophesPhilosophes ▶ Voltaire . Candide ▶ Baron de Montesquieu . Spirit of the Laws ▶ Separation of powers ▶ Checks and balances Voltaire ▶ Jean-Jacques Rousseau . The Social Contract ▶ “the general will” ▶ Mary Wollstonecraft Mary Wollstonecraft SalutarySalutary Neglect/BenignNeglect/Benign NeglectNeglect ▶ British absenteeism . Distance between England and America . Political turmoil and relative peace ▶ English Civil War (1642-1651) ▶ Glorious Revolution (1688) ▶ Colonies virtually on their own . Developed unique economies based on region . Economic growth ▶ Colonial GNP was 25 million pounds ($2.25 billion) ▶ 1/3 of the Great Britain’s GNP ▶ GDP per capita was highest in the world by 1775 . Self-government . Proud British loyalists . High life expectancy and literacy rates BritainBritain ExertsExerts MoreMore ControlControl ▶ NavigationNavigation ActsActs strengthenedstrengthened . Increased concept of mercantilism . Vice-admiralty courts ▶Merchant courts, juryless, “corrupt judges” . Board of Trade ▶Develop mercantilist policies over colonies ▶ MolassesMolasses ActAct (1733)(1733) . Tax on non-British import of sugar FrenchFrench andand IndianIndian WarWar (1754-1763)(1754-1763) ▶ England vs. France . Washington, Fort Duquense, and Fort Necessity . Most Natives allied with French . William Pitt . Increased British troop activity in America . Colonists contributed to effort ▶ Albany Plan of Union (1754) . Benjamin Franklin ▶ Results/Consequences . British victory ▶ Acquisition of French Canada and land east of Mississippi ▶ War debt . 72M pounds (1755) . 129M pounds (1764) ▶ British believed more control necessary . Colonial pride ProclamationProclamation ofof 17631763 ▶ Pontiac’s Rebellion (1763) . Extensive Native alliance to deter colonists ▶ Purpose . Avoid conflicts ▶ Colonial Reaction . Denial of land Preliminary Rebellions ▶ Paxton Boys (1764) . Pennsylvania Scots-Irish upset with Quaker government and toleration of natives . Massacred Susquehannock ▶ Regulators (1764- 1771) . NC frontiersmen upset with eastern corruption BritishBritish PrimePrime MinistersMinisters Encouraged unrestricted Believed colonies development of colonies should foot the bill for wars and defense Robert Walpole George Grenville 1721-1742 1763-1765 Charles Townshend Chancellor of Exchequer 1766-1767 Enforced Parliament’s power but defended Supported taxation colonies and desire of the colonies and for representation ran Parliament William Pitt during Revolution Frederick North 1766-1768 1770-1782 TimelineTimeline ofof ParliamentaryParliamentary ActsActs ▶ Sugar Act of 1764 ▶ Tea Act of 1773 . Revenue tax . Support British East India Company ▶ Quartering Act of 1765 ▶ “Intolerable Acts” ▶ Stamp Act of 1765 . Coercive Acts of 1774 . First direct tax ▶ Massachusetts Government Act (royal appointments) ▶ Declaratory Act of 1766 ▶ Port Act (Boston closed) . Parliament’s right to tax ▶ Administration of Justice Act (trial whatsoever of royal officials moved) ▶ Townshend Acts of . Quebec Act of 1774 ▶ Appointed government; 1767 Catholicism recognized . Pay royal colonial officials ▶ Prohibitory Act of 1775 . Writs of assistance . Colonies in open rebellion Parliamentary Acts The Sugar Act (1764) ▶ Purpose . Increased regulation of colonial trade . Raise revenue for war debt ▶ Lowered tax rate . Sugar, spices, lumber . Vice-admiralty courts ▶ Colonial Reaction . Colonial merchants and shippers . Boycotts ▶ Repealed in 1766 Parliamentary Acts Stamp Act (1765) ▶ Purpose . First direct tax . Generate revenue for troops in America ▶ Colonial Reaction . “No taxation without representation.” - James Otis . Stamp Act Congress . Sons and Daughters of Liberty . Committees of Correspondence Parliamentary Acts Townshend Acts (1767) ▶ Purpose . Raise revenue for administration of colonies . Glass, tea, paper, lead, paint ▶ Colonial Reaction . Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania - John Dickinson ▶ “If they may be legally deprived… of the privilege of legislation, why may they not, with equal reason, be deprived of every other privilege? Engraving by Paul Revere, 1768 Or why may not every colony be treated in the same manner, when any of them shall dare to deny their assent to any impositions that shall be directed?” Boston Massacre (1770) Parliamentary Acts Tea Act (1773) ▶ Purpose . Support British East India Company ▶ Reaction . Boston Tea Party Parliamentary Acts “Intolerable” Acts (1774) ▶ Purpose . Boston Port Act . Quartering Act . Administration of Justice Act . Massachusetts Government Act . Quebec Act ▶ Colonial Reaction . Suffolk Resolves . First Continental Congress Bostonians paying the exciseman Tar and Feathering WhichWhich SideSide AreAre YouYou On?On? Colonies British Empire/Parliament ▶ Fought and died in wars ▶ Provide protection from with Natives and European Natives and Europeans enemies ▶ Benefit exceptionally well ▶ Risk life and health in a from success of British new environment Empire with little ▶ Proud and loyal English contribution subjects entitled to rights ▶ Abide by the rule of law ▶ Developed economies ▶ Colonists as second-class which benefit the Empire citizens ▶ Familiar with life in ▶ “virtual representation” colonies more so than in ▶ Britons pay 2-3 times England taxes than colonists ▶ God-given liberty LexingtonLexington andand ConcordConcord (April(April 19,19, 1775)1775) ▶ Organization of militia (Minutemen) compels Governor Gage to send 700 British soldiers to arrest rebel leaders and confiscate arms ▶ William Dawes and Paul Revere ▶ 8 Minutemen die and 1 (about from FIU to South Beach) Redcoat wounded at Lexington ▶ “Shot heard ‘round the world” at Concord SecondSecond ContinentalContinental CongressCongress ▶ Delegates from 13 colonies begin meeting in May of 1775 ▶ Battles of Breed’s Hill and Bunker Hill (June 1775) ▶ Olive Branch Petition (July 1775) ▶ Proclamation of Rebellion (August 1775) ▶ Prohibitory Act (December 1775) ▶ Continental Army and George Washington ▶ State Constitutions ▶ Virginia Declaration of Rights (May 1776) ▶ Declaration of Independence (July 1776) ThomasThomas PainePaine’’ss CommonCommon SenseSense (January(January 1776)1776) ▶ “But Britain is the parent country, say some. Then the more shame upon her conduct. Even brutes do not devour their young, nor savages make war upon their families; wherefore the assertion, if true, turns to her reproach; but it happens not to be true, or only partly so and the phrase PARENT or MOTHER COUNTRY hath been jesuitically adopted by the king and his parasites, with a low papistical design of gaining an unfair bias on the credulous weakness of our minds. Europe, and not England, is the parent country of America. This new world hath been the asylum for the persecuted lovers of civil and religious liberty from EVERY PART of Europe. Hither have they fled, not from the tender embraces of the mother, but from the cruelty of the monster; and it is so far true of England, that the same tyranny which drove the first emigrants from home, pursues their descendants still.” ▶ “As to government matters, it is not in the power of Britain to do this continent justice: The business of it will soon be too weighty, and intricate, to be managed with any tolerable degree of convenience, by a power so distant from us, and so very ignorant of us; for if they cannot conquer us, they cannot govern us. To be always running three or four thousand miles with a tale or a petition, waiting four or five months for an answer, which when obtained requires five or six more to explain it in, will in a few years be looked upon as folly and childishness--There was a time when it was proper, and there is a proper time for it to cease. Small islands not capable of protecting themselves, are the proper objects for kingdoms to take under their