Chapter One Outline

  • Settling the Continent
    • Who are the Indian People?
      • Native people living in the “New World” at the time of its discovery by Europeans.
      • No single physical type characterized all native people.
      • There were over two thousand tribes/groups that all had varying cultures/languages.
      • Once the “New World” was discovered writers proposed theories of how people got over there.
      • They proposed transoceanic migrations; theories that there was once a land bridge connecting the “Old” and “New” worlds in which people from the Eastern Hemisphere migrated to the West.
    • Migration from Asia
      • A Spanish Jesuit was the first the Asian migration hypothesis that is widely accepted today.
      • Scientists believe that there was a landmass connecting North America and Asia by what is today the Bering Straits.
      • This landmass was ice-free, treeless grassland, and 750 miles from north to south; it was referred to as Beringia.
      • Glacial melting made it possible for life to move down an ice-free corridor along the eastern front of the Rocky Mountains.
      • From the Rockies people migrated east into the Great Plains where evidence has been found indicating early settlements.
      • At about 5000 B.C.E. the Athapascan people moved across Beringia and settled in the forests of the north.
      • Beringia was flooded by the rising sea level and soon a maritime hunting people migrated across it on boats in 3000 B.C.E.
    • Clovis: The First American Tech
      • Crude stone tools
      • Early Americans made lance points and fluted blades
      • Occurred at about 11,000 years ago.
      • Clovis bands were mobile communities of foragers.

 

  • New Ways of Living on the Land
    • Hunting Traditions
      • Lowered survival rate and reproduction rates led to overkilling by hunters.
      • Hunters used lanced points attached to wood to make spears to hunt.
      • Used to stampede bison over cliffs to mass kill and take food in great quantities; led to basic preservation techniques.
    • Desert Culture
      • Warming trend in Great Basin area led to desertification.
      • Small communities formed within deserts and were foraging communities.
      • Migrated seasonally within a small range.
      • Innovation spread from deserts to eastern parts of the continent.
    • Forest Efficiency
      • Similar trends in the forests to the east of the Mississippi.
      • Hardwoods grew in the North, Pine in the South.
      • During Archaic period forest communities achieved secure life style.
      • Developed the practice of burning woodlands to stimulate the growth of food, and clear ground for future attempts at farming.
      • During the late Archaic period settlements grew larger and became increasingly permeant.
    • The Development of Farming
      • Mexico
        • At the end of the Stone Age 4 regions in the world developed farming systems each based on different crops.
        • Maize was cultivated in Mexico.
        • Began about 5000 years ago.
        • Mexicans domesticated wide variety of other crops such as beans and squash.
        • Maize was most important and was the foundation.
        • Spread throughout all of North America.
      • Increasing Social Complexity
        • Farming reshaped society.
        • Farming created the material basis for greater social complexity.
        • Families began grouping into tribes/clans.
        • Both men/women worked in fields.
        • When hunting was more important; men hunted and women tended to fields.
        • Divorce was simple/easy.
        • Native women had control of their bodies whereas in Europe they didn’t.
        • Farming led to the development of densely settled communities.
        • First developed in Mesoamerica, region stretching from central Mexico to Central America.
        • Early bureaucracies and governments formed within these communities.
        • Elite rulers usually ruled through use of fear.
        • Example of early urban society: Teotihuacan.
        • Populated by as many as 200,000 at its height in 500 C.E.
        • City had artisans and state sponsored trading systems; may have included costal shipping connections to other civilizations.
        • Began to decline in sixth century; by eighth it was nearly abandoned
        • Was ruled by Toltecs but by fourteenth century Aztecs had migrated from the north and asserted control of the region.
      • The Resisted Revolution
        • Historians described the process of the development of farming as a revolution.
        • They deemed any society that did not adapt to it was too primitive to achieve the breakthrough.
        • Rather than happening overnight the process took many hundreds if not thousands of years.
        • Within deserts farmers had worse diets when compared to hunters/foragers.
        • Cultures in different regions assessed advantages/disadvantages of farming and acted on them.
        • If the climate favored farming people within the region usually adopted the lifestyle.
      • Farmers of the Southwest
        • Farming communities developed in the southwest during the first millennium B.C.E.
        • Among the first to do so were the Mogollons.
        • The Hohokam built and maintained the first irrigation system in America north of Mexico.
        • They shared many traits with Mesoamerican civilizations.
      • The Anasazis
        • Best known farming culture of the Southwest.
        • Shifted from pit houses to multistory apartment type buildings.
        • Grew maize and other crops whilst hunting to gather meat.
        • Constructed a complex within a Canyon that had over 700 interconnected rooms.
        • Their civilization fell to warring tribes when they were raided for food and slaves due to a drought and famine in their region.
        • Eventually their settlements were mostly deserted with people moving further north or south.
      • Mississippian Society
        • Master maize farmers who lived in permanent settlements along the floodplains of the Mississippi Valley.
        • These centers were linked by the vast river transport system of the Mississippi and its tributaries.
        • These centers eventually formed city states.
        • With population growth advancing these centers engaged in vigorous and violent competition for the limited space along the rivers.
        • The tasks of preventing local conflict, storing surplus food, and redistributing foodstuffs from famers to skilled workers required a leadership class with power.
        • Mound buildings were developed along with the system of tribute labor to develop public projects.
        • They were the first truly political societies north of Mexico.
      • The Politics of Warfare and Violence
        • Warfare among the native people predated the colonial era.
        • Organized violence was rare among hunting bands with the exception of small raids.
        • Warfare was common among the farming confederacies fighting to gain control of more land.
        • The bow and arrow was the main weapon to be used as described by Europeans.
        • The practice of scalping originated among the warring tribes who thought one could capture a warrior’s spirting by claiming his scalp lock.
      • Cultural Regions of North America on the Eve of Colonization
        • The Population of Indian America
          • Determining population is tricky and estimations vary widely but the general consensus is that the population of North America (excluding Mexico) was between 5-10 million in the fifteenth century.
          • The whole western hemisphere may have numbered at as much as 50 million or more within the same time frame.
        • The Southwest
          • Fact of life in Southwest: Aridity.
          • On the eve of colonization farmers have been cultivating their land for the past 3000 years.
        • The South
          • Mild/Moist climate with short winters/long summers.
          • Ideal for farming.
          • Mississippian cultural patterns spread and were adopted by many of the peoples of the South.
          • Chiefdoms/Government was unstable.
          • Most prominent ethnic groups: Choctaws/Chickasaws/Creeks.
          • People of the South celebrated a common round of agricultural festivals that brought clans together.
        • The Northeast
          • Cold sector of the eastern woodlands.
          • Varied geography of coastal plains/mountain highlands/rivers, lakes, and valleys.
          • Iroquois lived there for 4.5 thousand years and were the first to cultivate land.
          • Farming was the main support of the economy where the growing season was long enough. In these areas the populations were found to be the most large and dense.
          • Produced a great variety of crops.
          • Created long houses (most were actually around 400 feet long)
          • Due to population growth five new chiefdoms were made across what is today upstate New York, all of which were under the Iroquois.
          • Was persistent violence between the five chiefdoms.
          • To solve this they joined together to form a confederation.
          • Their confederacy warred surrounding tribes/confederacies.
          • Other major population group were the Algonquians whose speakers divided among at least fifty distinct cultures.

Chapter Two Outline

  • The Expansion of Europe
    • European Communities
      • Western Europe was an agricultural society with the majority of its people being peasant farmers.
      • Farming and livestock raising had been practiced in Europe for thousands of years but great advances took place in the late middle Ages.
      • Most Europeans were village people, living in family households. Men preformed basic field work whilst women were responsible for child care, livestock, and food preparation.
      • Europe was characterized by a social system called feudalism.
      • The continent was divided into hundreds of small territories each ruled by a family of lords.
      • Europe was politically fragmented but religiously unified under the Roman Catholic Church.
      • The Church legitimized the power relationships of Europe.
      • Europe was home to numerous communities of Jews who fled Palestine, they were restricted to ghettos and treated poorly by ruling officials.
      • They became long distance merchants.
      • Great majority of Europeans were living under harsh conditions and lacking diets. Disease was plentiful and the mortality rate was high in infants and children.
      • A widespread plague swept the country side and wiped out a third of the population of Western Europe.
  • The Merchant Class and the New Monarchies
    • Strengthened by tech breakthroughs of the late Middle Ages, the European economy proved that it could recover.
    • Commerce increased greatly espically in the trade of basic goods
    • By 1500 Europe had fully recovered from the Black Death and the population had nearly returned to its former peak of 65 million.
    • One consequence of the revival was the rise of a fledgling system of western European state.
    • The monarchs of these states were new centers of power and built legitimacy by asserting domestic political order.
    • Alliances formed between monarchs and the merchant class which paved the way for overseas expansion.
  • The Renaissance
    • During the late Middle Ages the cities of Venice, Genoa, and Pisa launched armed commercial fleets that seized control of trade in the Mediterranean.
    • These fleets became the principal outfit for the Crusades.
    • Conquest of the Holy Lands delivered the silk and spice trades of Asia into the hands of Italian merchants.
    • Asian civilizations also provided new technological innovations such as the compass and gunpowder.
    • Contact with Islamic civilizations provided Western scholars with access to important Greek and Roman texts.
    • The revival of interest in classical antiquity sparked the period of intellectual and artistic flowering in Europe known as the Renaissance.
    • It celebrated human possibility and supported advancements in a wide variety of fields such as mathematics, science, and the arts.
  • Portuguese Explorations
    • They became the first to explore distant lands.
    • Prince Henry founded an institute devoted to seafaring
    • He played a key role in sponsoring explorations.
    • Technological innovations made longer sea voyages possible
    • The Portuguese explored the Atlantic coast of Africa seeking direct access to gold and slaves.
  • Columbus Reaches the Americas
    • In 1492 Columbus gained the approval of the ruling monarchs of Spain who had just finished conquering Grenada and were seeking out new riches.
    • They gave him the funds to undertake the mission of finding new riches and land for Spain.
    • In 1492 Columbus reached the Bahaman Islands.
    • He discovered a new world for all Europeans and a land of new riches prime for the taking.
    • One of his most important contributions was the discovery of the clockwise circulation of Atlantic winds and currents that would carry thousands of ships and people to the “New World” over the following decades.
    • Columbus reported that the natives were primitive but had large amounts of riches that could easily be taken along with their land and/or people.
    • Columbus returned to Spain and later back to the Americas with a force of seventeen ships and 1.5 thousand men.
    • Soon the native population and culture was decimated due to warfare and disease.
    • Columbus made 2 additional voyages to the Caribbean region both in search for slaves and gold.
  • The Spanish in the Americas
    • The Invasion of America
      • Following Columbus’s discovery and subsequent raiding/pillaging of the Caribbeans the Spanish sent more armies under the leadership of conquistadors that were tasked with conquering land and seizing riches in the name of Spain.
      • They enacted the encomienda system onto the natives. This system compelled the natives to work for the Spanish lords.
      • The Spanish landed on the coast of Mexico and within a year made contact with the Aztec empire.
      • The Aztecs had migrated to the highlands of the valley of Mexico from the deserts of the American southwest.
      • In 1519 Hernan Cortes, a conquistador landed on the Mexican coast with armed troops and within the following two years he had overthrown the Aztec empire and seized their land and treasures.
    • The Destruction of the Indies
      • The native people of the Americas resisted the opposing forces of Europe but proved a poor match due to increased skill and technological advantages on the European side.
      • Some Europeans didn’t support the conquest of new lands due to the bloodshed it had caused.
      • The population of Mexico fell from 5 to 10 million in 1519 and then to just over a million in the following century.
      • Most didn’t die in battle but rather from the disease Europeans brought with them.
      • War, famine lower birthrates, and disease caused the native population to spiral downward until it began to swing upward in the twentieth century but by that point the native population fell by 90%.

 

  • Intercontinental Exchange
    • Disease was brought to the new world along with new technologies, ideas, people, crops, and livestock.
    • In return for this rare metals like silver and gold were taken back to Europe to be sold in the markets.
    • Additionally crops and other livestock were brought back to Europe so they could be cultivated there.
    • Crops such as tobacco, chocolate and vanilla were all brought back from the New World.
  • The First Europeans in North America
    • Soon in 1513 conquistadors began to move north into the present day US state of Florida. The first to do so was Ponce de Leon who was in search of potential slaves.
    • The chiefdoms fought back Ponce and his army and eventually killed him in 1521.
    • Soon following Ponce another man by the name of Panfilo do Narvaez attempted to invade and conquer Florida but failed again due to the majority of his troops being lost in a ship wreck.
    • Survivors of the wreck resided in the Gulf of Mexico region until they were rescued several years later.
    • A survivors report inspired two future conquests.
    • The first was led by Hernando De Soto who led his army deep into the South. Eventually they were defeated and De Soto died after they failed to locate the great cities they were told of.
    • The next conquest was led by Vasquez de Coronado with some 300 Spanish troops. He was with the help of natives marched north into the Southwest region of present day US.
    • He was disappointed with the crude buildings he saw but ventured onward to the Great Plains where he also saw nothing.
    • Due to these failures Spain lost all interest in the Southwest for the next fifty years.
  • The Spanish New World Empire
    • The Spanish gained control of a powerful empire within the Americas.
    • They had colonized Brazil under the terms of the Treaty of Tordesillas, a 1494 agreement dividing the Americas between Spain and Portugal.
    • Most settlers lived in the 200 settlements founded during the conquests.
    • Women only made up 10% of the population therefore the men married or cohabited with the native women, this led to a mixing of races and the result was the group known as mestizos and mulattoes.
    • Thousands of natives died but their genes were passed on to generations of mixed ancestry which became the majority population in mainland Spanish American empire.
    • The empire operated as a highly centralized and bureaucratic system.
  • Northern Explorations and Encounters
    • Fish and Furs
      • Long before colonies were formed in the North European fishermen were exploring the costal North American Atlantic waters.
      • The first official voyages for exploration were made by John Cabot who reached Labrador in 1497.
      • In 1524 Giovanni da Verrazano, sailing for the French, explored the coast from present day North Carolina to Maine.
      • They were encouraged to make attempts to find a North Western Passage but none existed.
      • Later Cartier was tasked with finding the passage but like all others failed; but he did succeed in laying claim to lands for France in present day Canada.
      • The French and other Europeans quickly discovered the natives and they became trading partners unlike what the Spanish did in the South.
      • Cartier gained interest in the fur coats of the natives and saw an opportunity to make a profit.
      • He would get furs and send them back to Europe where the price for fur was high due to the shortages.
      • The North American fur trade therefore filled an important demand and produced high profits.
      • Like with the exchanges in the South disease was exchanged and violent warfare broke out over access to hunting grounds.
      • By 1600 over a thousand ships were involved with the fur trade.
      • Early in the 18th century the French would move to monopolize the fur trade by planting colonies along the coast and on St. Lawrence.
    • The Protestant Reformation and the First French Colonies
      • The first French colonies in North America were planted farther south by religious dissenters known as the Huguenots.
      • The Reform had begun in 1517 when a German Priest publicized his differences with Rome.
      • He gained support throughout Europe but his followers were prosecuted so they fled to the new frontier in hopes of religious freedom.
      • In 1562 151 Protestants landed on Parris Island in present day South Carolina. They nearly starved to death and resorted to cannibalism before being rescued by passing ships.
      • As a result of the Protestant settlement the Spanish established a fort, St. Augustine which would become the oldest city in North America.
    • Sixteenth Century England
      • The English movement across the Atlantic, like the French one, was tied to social change but also economic change.
      • English landlords were attempting to make a profit by driving people into the cities. This led to overcrowding and the spread of disease and homelessness/poverty.
      • As a way to escape this people moved to the New World in hope of a better life there.
    • Early English Efforts in the Americas
      • England’s first ventures in the New World were made against the backdrop of its conflict with Spain.
      • British traders violated Spanish regulations and were fired upon leading to English privateers leading raids against Spanish New World ports and fleets.
      • The privateers enriched their investors by doing so and this began American adventures by slaving and plundering.
      • Soon the Queen was advised that England should begin to lay claim to land in the New World and to begin colonizing.
      • They soon settled in lands the Pope apparently reserved for only Catholics and this angered the Spanish King to the point at which he sent his Armanda consisting of 130 ships carrying 30,000 men to the British Islands to invade them.
      • The Spanish fleet was defeated by lesser British ships that could move faster and maneuvered more easily and also by the storm that they sailed into.
      • The Spanish monopoly of the New World had been broken in the English Channel.

Chapter Three Outline

  • Spain and its Competitors in North America
    • New Mexico
      • Pueblos offered a harvest of converts for Christianity but by the 1580s were at work in the Southwest.
      • Rumors of deposits of gold along the Rio Grande River sparked Spanish interest and led to an expedition being sent out to investigate.
      • The expedition encountered resistance and laid siege to a town. They broke through the walls and slaughtered anyone inside. 800 killed. 500 enslaved.
      • There proved to be no gold and the expedition was recalled. Spain was ready to give up on the region again but the Church convinced the monarchs to set up New Mexico as a special missionary colony.
      • The economy of the colony was not prosperous due to the fact that it was made up of small scale farming and sheep raising.
      • Very few people actually wound up settling there but the population rose over the years to about 3,000.

 

  • New France
    • In the early 17th century the French planned to monopolize the fur trade.
    • In 1608 Champlain founded the settlement of Quebec on St. Lawrence River so he could intercept the traffic in furs traveling down river.
    • He joined forces with the Hurons who had access to rich fur grounds.
    • French had geographic and political advantage with placement of Quebec.
    • By 1700 the colony only grew to a total of 15,000 colonists.
    • The French didn’t have the manpower to bully/enslave native population so they worked with them.
  • New Netherland
    • The United Provinces of Netherland, aka Holland, had been at the center of Europe’s economic transformation.
    • They made new farming methods to increase yields that would support the growth of the world’s most urban and commercial nation.
    • Dutch investors built the largest commercial and fishing fleet in Europe and captured the North Sea with it.
    • Soon they established trading posts in America.
    • Organized 2 great monopolies (Dutch East/West Trading Company)
    • They seized maritime trade in Asia and the Atlantic.
    • Built trading posts across the world.
    • They partnered with the Iroquois to gain access to the fur trade and gave them weapons which they used to fight the French and their neighbors.
    • The Dutch also seized a small colony of Sweden’s and incorporated it into their sphere of influence.
  • England in the Chesapeake
    • Jamestown and Powhatan Confederacy
      • King James said to colonize the mid-Atlantic region (Virgina)
      • Virginia Company sent ships and a hundred men to Chesapeake Bay where they built a fort they named Jamestown. It was the first English settlement in North America
      • Native communities of the Bay bound together by a political system known as the Powhatan Confederacy.
      • The Powhatan provided food for the colonists thinking they could benefit from them but later when more arrived they saw them as a threat and stopped bringing food to them.
      • During the winter more than 400 starved and some resorted to cannibalism. Only 60 remained alive at the end of it all.
      • The Virginia Company vowed revenge and armed colonists to extract revenge. In the end they caught the daughter of Powhatan but she was married off to a colonist director in exchange for peace.
      • She later died back in England and Powhatan abdicated.
    • Tobacco, Expansion, and Warfare
      • Virginia discovered they could grow tobacco as a cash crop
      • Provided Virginia Company with profitable returns.
      • Problem is it required lots of manual labor so the company gave grants for plantations to bring workers from England, due to homelessness in the cities many came to Jamestown for a new life.
      • Massive immigration occurred and it would prove to be a distinguishing characteristic of the English in North America.
      • 10,000 colonists came but 9,000 died from disease.
      • With a need for workers the English pushed the natives into working for them. Additionally they began taking native land so they could begin to grow more tobacco. This ultimately led to the chief preparing his people for a massive assault against the English.
      • On Good Friday they assaulted the settlement killing 347 people, the colonists kept surviving for the next 10 years.
      • Eventually the natives wanted peace which they received but the war sent Virginia Company into bankruptcy so it was converted into a royal colony.
      • In 1619 a representative house of colonists was formed in Virginia. It was the first representative government for colonists in the English colony.
      • In 1644 the natives attacked again killing 500 colonists but the next year they were crushed and put onto small reserves. By 1670 the native population fell to about 2,000 whereas the British population rose to 40,000.
    • Maryland
      • In 1632 King Charles granted 10 million acres at the norther end of Chesapeake Bay to the Calvert family, the Lords Baltimore. (Important supporters of the throne)
      • They named their colony Maryland to honor the Queen.
      • They owned all the land and planned to carve it up and rent it out to make profit. They also encouraged settlement by their coreligionists.
      • Wealthy Catholic controlled it.
      • Mirrored Virginia when it came to making money (they started growing tobacco)
      • By the 1670s their population numbered more than 15,000
    • Indentured Servants
      • At least ¾ of the migrants were indentured servants.
      • In exchange for the cost of their transport to the New World men and women contracted labor for a master during a fixed time period. Most were young and unskilled males who served for two to seven years.
      • Masters were to feed, clothe, and house the servants.
      • Service was usually awful along with hard work so many servants attempted to escape but they risk being captured and having their time doubled.
      • African slaves were first introduced in 1619 but they were more expensive then indentured servants and as late as 1680 they still only made up less than 7% of the population.
      • Servants were basically treated as slaves.
      • Due to malaria and other diseases 2 out of every 5 servants died during their service time.
      • When service was over the master was to give you a severance package of sorts: clothing, tools, a gun, a spinning wheel, and help getting a place to live.
      • In most cases if a servant could afford going back to England, they did.
    • Community Life in Chesapeake
      • Most emigrants were men so unmarried women got married quickly.
      • Men had a higher mortality rate when compared to women.
      • Family size was smaller and kinship bonds were weaker as a result of this.
      • Crude conditions of community life.
    • The New England Colonies
      • The Social and Political Values of Puritanism
        • Most English Men/Women continued to practice Christianity.
        • Followers of John Calvin were known as Puritans because they wished to purify and reform the English Church. They felt the reforms had not gone far enough in improving the Church.
        • When King Charles I took the thrown he abandoned the policy of religious tolerance and openly persecuted the Puritans. As a result thousands of English Puritans migrated to New England.
      • Early Contacts in New England
        • In 1613 the English at Jamestown sent ships to destroy French settlements and harass the Dutch.
        • Later a Captain from Jamestown explored the north and christened the region “New England”. He planned to set up a colony but the plan failed when the French captured him.
        • From 1616 to 1618 an epidemic ravaged the native population wiping out entire villages and leaving few remaining to even bury the dead.
        • The epidemic disrupted French/Dutch fur trading.
        • 9/10s of the native population died from it.
        • The natives were so crippled by this that they couldn’t resist the establishment of colonies and settlements on their land.
      • Plymouth Colony and the Mayflower Compact
        • First colony in New England was founded by Pilgrims.
        • In their time they were called Separatists because they believe the Church of England was so corrupt that had to establish their own.
        • They moved to Holland but feared the Dutch would corrupt their children so they emigrated to New England with the help of the Virginia Company.
        • 102 people sailed from Plymouth England on the Mayflower in Sep. 1620.
        • The Pilgrims and a group of single men arrived in Massachusetts Bay and renamed the site of a former native village to Plymouth.
        • The single men soon grew incontent with Pilgrim authority so they drafted up an agreement by which male members of the expedition unite themselves into a single civil body.
        • This agreement is the Mayflower Compact and was the first document of self-government in North America.
        • Over the winter half the pilgrims died but the survivors were rescued by natives by giving food and advice in exchange for an alliance against their enemies.
        • Plymouth colony was never financially successful.
        • Most people grew their own crops and livestock but gave little to export.
        • The settlement stayed alive for another two/three decades but then began to split apart into eleven different communities.
      • The Massachusetts Bay Colony
        • Puritans were seeking religious freedom so some wealthy Puritans gained a royal charter to establish a colony. They called their enterprise the Massachusetts Bay Colony, a force of some 200 settlers.
        • They reached an English fishing settlement in Massachusetts Bay and renamed it Salem.
        • Their emigration was referred to as the Great Migration because from 1629 to 1643 some 20,000 people relocated there.
        • In 1630 they built the town of Boston and connected it to towns thirty miles inland some five years later.
        • The Puritan leaders found a loophole in the charter and moved their company operations to America. Eventually the company turned into the civil government.
        • Originally freemen were only members of the corporation but the Governor extended it to any male heads of households who were church members.
        • Eventually the freemen secured their right to select representatives to represent their towns when drafting laws for the colony.
        • These representatives along with the magistrates formed the colony’s two legislative houses.
      • Indians and Puritans
        • Natives were unprepared for the “invasion” of Puritan settlers due to disease and other factors. The Puritans did not have economical relationships with the natives, they only seeked their land for their growing settlements.
        • The English believed they had the right to take lands that weren’t being used the “English way” and as a result they targeted depopulated native villages.
        • The English used several tactics to have chiefs sign “quitclaims”, documents that would relinquish all of their rights to the specified property.
        • They fined natives for breaking English laws and demanded land as payment.
        • Many costal natives found themselves to be disorganized and demoralized so they put themselves under the protection of the English.
        • Natives to the west resisted the English strongly until they were devastated by Smallpox.
        • Following the epidemic Puritans established many new inland towns.
        • By the late 1630s only a few tribes in Southern New England remained somewhat of a threat. One of which was the Pequots.
        • The English convinced the enemies of the Pequots to join them in a war that destroyed the Pequots.
      • The New England Merchants
        • In England, the conflict between King Charles I and the Puritans broke out into armed conflict in 1642.
        • Several years of violent civil war followed and led to Charles’ execution in 1649.
        • Due to this Puritan victory, Puritans no longer needed to emigrate to the colonies in North America to seek religious freedom and as a result the emigration rate slowed and some even returned to England.
        • The New England economy depended on the sale of supplies and arrival of new settlers but as those rates decreased the importance of that market followed.
        • The emerging economy depended on cod fishery.
        • New English traders began shipping salted cod as well as farming products and lumber to the West Indies where they exchanged these products for sugar, molasses, and rum.
        • By the 1660s New England had a commercial fleet of more than 300 vessels and by 1700 Boston had become the third largest English commercial center.
        • The development of this diversified economy provided New England with tremendous long term strength.
      • The Proprietary Colonies
        • Early Carolina
          • In 1663 the King issued the first of his colonial charters calling for the establishment of a settlement called Carolina which would stretch from Virginia to the Spanish territory of Florida.
          • By 1675 North Carolina was home to some 5,000 small farmers and large tobacco planters.
          • Settlement further south began in 1670 with the founding of Charlestown.
          • Most South Carolina settlers came from Barbados, a Caribbean colony owned by England that grew extremely wealthy by the production of sugar.
          • By the 1670s the island became overpopulated so people moved to SC.
          • By the end of the 17th century SC’s population was 6000 including 2.5k slaves.
        • From New Netherland to New York
          • Charles also wanted the Dutch colony of New Netherland.
          • As a result he engaged in armed conflicts with Holland that resulted in a naval war from 1652 to 1654. In 1664 an English fleet sailed into Manhattan and forced the Dutch to surrender. That war ended in 1664.
          • A third and final conflict was fought and resulted in the bankruptcy of the Dutch West India Trading Company and marked the ascension of England to dominance in the Atlantic. Holland still controlled the Baltic and East Indies.
          • Charles II granted his brother a charter that gave him control of the former Dutch settlement and he renamed it New York to honor himself.
          • In 1665 the communities in the Delaware Valley split off as a proprietary colony of New Jersey although it was still governed by NY.
          • By the 1670s the population of these settlements rose to over 10,000 with more than 1.5 thousand people clustered into the governmental and commercial center of NYC.
        • The Found of Pennsylvania
          • In 1676 the property rights of part of Western New Jersey was sold to a group of English religious dissenters called the Quakers who were devoted to religious tolerance and pacifism.
          • In 1681 to settle a debt the King owed to Sir William the King issued a property grant to Sir William Penn’s son that gave him a huge territory west of the Delaware River.
          • The next year young Penn voyaged to America and supervised the establishment of his capital of Philadelphia.
          • Penn issued his first constitution called the Frame of Government which guaranteed the rights of religious freedom, civil liberties, and elected representation.
          • He also attempted to fairly deal with the native people in his area and later on during his life this led to a number of native groups resettling in his colony.
          • Penn organized the most efficient colonization effort in the 17th century, during the first decade over 10,000 colonists arrived and spread out in his territory.
          • In 1704 Penn approved the establishment of a separate government which became known as the colony of Delaware.
          • Philadelphia became the most important colonial port in North America.
        • Conflict and War
          • King Philip’s War
            • In New England nearly 40 years after the previous war natives and colonists were living in close and tense contact.
            • Several Puritan ministers converted about 2 thousand natives to Christianity and they eventually relocated to native Christian communities.
            • Several independent tribes remained and the wide scale expansionism done by the Puritans led to inexorable pressures between the tribes and colonists.
            • In 1761 after a series of conflicts colonial authorities in Plymouth pressured a local chief into giving the English control of his territories. This led to the natives taking up armed resistance while the Puritans prepared for a war of conquest.
            • In the spring of 1675 Plymouth magistrates arrested and executed three natives for murder which sparked the overall war.
            • Soon the local chief who gave up his lands was seeking a defensive pact with other tribes against the English.
            • The English took this as an excuse to invade the native’s countries with armed force that attacked and burned down a number of villages.
            • At first things went well for the natives as they forced the abandonment of several villages and torched other settlements that were very close to Boston.
            • Soon the tides turned due to a combined colonial army that swept through the native’s lands burning villages and killing anything or anyone in their way. They also defeated a large native force in the battle known as the Great Swamp fight. The local chief went to the Iroquois for assistance but they attacked and defeated his forces.
            • With nothing left the chief retreated back but the colonists annihilated anything he had left.
            • Some 4,000 natives and 2,000 colonists died during the war and dozens of settlements on either side were left in ruins. It proved to be one of most destructive wars in American history.
          • Bacon’s Rebellion
            • Violent conflict in Virginia during 1675 to 1676 beginning with settlers attacking Native Americans but culminating in a rebellion led by Nathan Bacon against Virginia’s government.
            • In the end of the rebellion Bacon fell ill and died and his rebellion collapsed. The government made peace with the Native Americans but most had already moved north into the lands of the Iroquois.
          • Culpeper’s Rebellion
            • The overthrow of the established government in the Albemarle region of
            • North Carolina by backcountry men in 1677.
          • Wars in the South
            • Colonists in South Carolina attempted to enslave native populations which resulted in resistance.
            • By 1710 more than 12,000 Florida natives had been captured and sold while thousands of others had been killed or dispersed and the Spanish mission system was destroyed.
            • This slave trade went well into the 18th century and thousands of natives were sold into slavery. Most slaves were shipped to northern colonies or the Caribbean.
          • Glorious Revolution in America
            • Dynastic change in England resulted in violence in North America.
            • When King Charles II died his brother James II began a concerted effort to strengthen the royal control over the colonies. He abolished the once powerful assemblies within the colonies and placed all power in the colony’s Governor.
            • The assemblies continued to operate in other colonies but were challenged by the governors.
            • The King abolished the charters of NY, NJ and New England and combined them all under one super colony. The governor of this colony imposed Anglican forms of worship in all areas, especially Puritan ones.
            • In England the same thing was happening
            • James converted to Catholicism and after the death of his first wife he married a Catholic aristocrat from Italy. His appointment of Catholic to high positions raised tensions and when his Catholic wife bore a son Parliament was done.
            • They deposed him from his throne in favor of his Protestant daughter. The Army favored his daughter forcing him to flee to France.
            • The new monarchs signed the English Bill of Rights which promised to respect traditional civil liberties, to summon and consult with Parliament annually, and to enforce and administer Parliamentary legislation. England was now a constitutional monarchy.
            • When news of this reached the colonies in North America colonists rose in a series of rebellions against the authorities set in place by James II.
            • The new monarchs carefully measured their response fearing revolution but when a colonist attempted to prevent the landing of King’s troops in NY he was executed.
            • The monarchs continued to dismantle the Dominion of New England.
            • All affected English colonies quickly revived their assemblies and returned to their traditional self-rule governments.
            • In 1692 MA, NY, and Maryland all were declared royal colonies once again.
  • King William’s War
    • The first of a series of colonial struggles between England and France.
    • These conflicts occurred on the frontiers of New England and NY between 1689 and 1697.
    • The persistent violence of the last quarter of the 17th century resulted in English authorities raising concerns about the possible loss of their North American land from outside attack or internal disorder.
    • In 1701 the English Board of Trade recommended all charter and proprietary governments be turned into royal colonies. This happened for the most part.
    • Under a brief period of royal rule William Penn regained control of his colony.
    • Among the royal charter colonies Rhode Island and Connecticut retained their original governments.
    • The result of this quarter century of violence was the tightening of the imperial reins over its North American holdings.
READ:
Essay: Should the U.S. have annexed the Philippines

Chapter Four Outline

  • The Beginnings of African Slavery
    • Sugar and Slavery
      • African slaves came to the Americas with the introduction of sugar production.
      • Due to the native population being decimated they brought in African slaves.
      • Once the profitability of sugar had been shown France/England wanted sugar colonies of their own.
      • They constructed plantations/sent slaves to the islands of Lesser Antilles.
      • English took over Jamaica in 1655 and French took Haiti in 1670.
      • Caribbean sugar/slaves became centerpiece of European colonial system.
    • The African Slave Trade
      • The Demography of the Slave Trade
        • 10-12 million Africans sent to Americas in the 400 years of its trade.
        • 76% arrived between 1701 to 1810
        • Half went to Caribbean, a third to Portugal/Brazil, 10% to Spanish America and roughly 600,000 to British colonies in North America.
        • Ratio of men to women was 2:1.
        • Age was from 15-30.
        • Nearly every ethnic group was represented.
      • Slavers of All Nations
        • All nations in Western Europe participated in slave trade.
        • European presence in Africa was confined to the costal outposts.
        • As the trade peaked American traders set up operations with local headmen or tribal chiefs.
        • This offered opportunities to small operators such as New England slave traders who entered the trade in the early 18th
      • The Middle Passage
        • The voyage of slave ships from the middle part of the triangular trade route.
        • The voyage from West Africa and the New World slave colonies.
        • One voyage typically held 450-600 slaves.
        • Terrible conditions for slaves onboard.
        • Suicide/slave revolts were somewhat common.
        • 1/6 of the Africans in the ship died.
      • Political and Economic Effects on Africa
        • Africa grew weaker.
        • Death/destruction spread all throughout.
        • Depopulated, for every one that was taken another might as well have died in Africa.
        • Labor was drawn from farming and other productive exports/jobs.
        • Paved the way for European conquest in the 1800s.
      • The Development of North American Slave Societies
        • Slavery Comes to North America
          • First Africans arrived in 1619.
          • Servants/slaves worked and ate together.
          • Many slaves were Christians so it raised questions of if they could be kept as slaves.
          • Dark skin=automatically to mean slavery/segregation/absence of rights.
        • The Tobacco Colonies
          • Demand for tobacco increased
          • Increased production in Chesapeake.
          • Tobacco didn’t require large plantations, could be grown on small farms.
          • By 1770 250,000 slaves were transported to the Upper South
          • In 70 years about 80 thousand Africans were imported to tobacco colonies.
          • By 1730s slave population was self-sustainable
          • By 1750s 80% of the slaves were “country-born”
        • Slavery in the Spanish Colonies
          • Slavery was common but African slavery raised concerns by the church and crown.
          • Papacy denounced slavery.
          • Slavery remained intact due to the need for labor despite denunciations from the Church.
          • Character of slavery varied widely depending on the local conditions.
          • In 1699 the Spanish attempted to undermine England by declaring Florida as a refuge for escaped slaves from the British colonies.
          • They offered free land to those escapees in exchange for the promise that they would defend their country if they were called to do so.
          • Over the next half century the escapees established many communities around St. Augustine.
          • In New Mexico the Spanish depended on native slavery.
          • They were sent to mines in Mexico.
          • Enslavement of natives led to Pueblo Revolts
          • Spanish grew cautious in treatment of Pueblos due to them being considered Catholics.
          • Spanish captured and enslaved infidel natives such as Apaches.
        • Slavery in the North
          • Slavery was accepted throughout America but the Northern colonies could not be considered slave societies.
          • Use of slavery grew during 18th century in commercial farming regions where slaves made up 10% of the population
          • Rhode Island’s slave population was more like 25% due to their dominance in the slave trade.
          • Slavery was widespread in port cities like Boston.
          • Slave ownership was universal among the wealthy and ordinary among craftsman and professionals.
          • The Quakers kept slaves but were the first colonies to voice anti-slavery sentiments.
          • In 1758 the Philadelphia Friends Meeting voted to condemn slavery and urged masters to free their slaves voluntarily.
          • When the Revolution occurred antislavery attitudes spread throughout the colonies.
        • Slavery and Empire
          • Slavery the Mainspring
            • Slavery contributed to economic growth and development
            • Slave colonies accounted for 95% of the exports from Americas to Great Britain.
            • Slavery was the foundation of the economy.
            • Slavery generated enormous profits that became a source of capital investment in the economy.
            • 15% of invested capital in slave trade 10% in plantations.
            • This capital founded the first modern banks/insurance companies.
            • Slavery contributed to the economic development of GB by supplying raw cotton essential to the Industrial Revolution
            • Slavery provided an enormous stimulus to the growth of manufacturing by creating a huge colonial market for exports.
  • The Politics of Mercantilism
    • Mercantilism= economic system where the government intervenes in the economy for the purpose of creating national wealth.
    • France started the trend of mercantilism and were followed by Britain, both of which profited greatly.
    • Parliament established a uniform national monetary system.
    • England also sought to organize and control colonial trade.
    • Mercantilists viewed the economy as a zero-sum game in which total economic gains were equal to total loss.
    • Nation that accumulated the most gold/silver would be most powerful.
  • Wars for Empire
    • Mercantilist era was characterized by intense and violent competition among the European states.
    • Wars arose from Old World issues and spilt over into the New World.
    • Some originated in the colonies themselves.
    • Colonial wars in the south had everything to do with slavery.
    • In 1702 troops from South Carolina invaded Florida and St. Augustine.
    • The Spanish retaliated by bombarding Charlestown.
    • England won this war and gained the exclusive right to provide Spanish colonies with slaves.
    • European powers went to war many times during this period.
  • British Colonial Regulation
    • Mercantilists used means other than war to win the wealth of the world.
    • In 1609 Parliament passed the Navigation Acts, creating legal and institutional structure of Britain’s colonial system.
    • The acts defined the colonies as both suppliers of raw materials and as markets for British manufactured goods
    • Merchants other than the British were forbidden to trade in British colonies.
    • Commodities from the colonies had to be shipped in British ships or in the ships of the colony.
    • England also passed limitations on colonial enterprises that may have been competition for ones at home.
    • Ex: Wool Act, Iron Act, Hat Act, etc.
    • Colonial assemblies couldn’t impose tariffs on English imports.
    • As trade in colonial products increased most Britons came to agree that it made little sense to tamper with such a prosperous system.
    • Any colonial rules deemed contrary to good business practice were ignored and not enforced.
    • Quantity of goods exported from colonies to GB increased by 165%, imports increased by 400%.
    • Colonists complained very little about such polices before the 1760s.

 

  • The Colonial Economy
    • Despite harsh regs the economic system operated to the benefit of planters, merchants, and white colonists in general.
    • They enjoyed a protected market.
    • Northern colonies produced enumerated goods so they could be shipped freely.
    • They found their most ready markets in British West Indies and the lower South.
    • New England shipbuilding increased greatly under the navigation acts.
    • Greatest benefits for port cities came from commercial relationships to slave colonies.
    • Because the restrictive rules/regs were not enforced by Britain the merchants/manufacturers of port cities prospered.
    • Southern colonies were major exporters of tobacco, rice, and indigo.
    • Middle colonies=exported grain.
    • Gradually North/South economies became integrated.
  • Slavery and Freedom
    • Social Structure of the Slave Colonies
      • Slavery produced a highly stratified class society.
      • At the summit of power: wealthy planters who held half the cultivated land and 60% of the wealth.
      • They binded through strategic marriages, secret alliances, etc.
      • Wore fancy attire.
      • Typical wealthy elite owned thousands of acres of prime farmland.
    • White Skin Privilege
      • Whites had privilege.
      • As slavery became more important legal distinctions were made between colonists and Africans.
      • Free Africans were prohibited from owning Christian servants.
      • Any African who struck a Christian would receive 30 lashes, free or not.
      • In 1691 an act was enacted stating there would be severe penalties for interracial sexual relationships.
      • Such penalties rarely applied however to masters who had sexual relations with their slave women.
      • Racism set up wall of contempt between colonists and African Americans.
READ:
The Trail of Tears: History & Cherokee

Chapter Five Outline

  • North American Regions
    • Indian America
      • As the native people of the Atlantic coast lost their lands to colonists they moved further West and became active in the fur trade
      • They used firearms and metal tools and built their homes from logs as the frontier settlers did.
      • In the process they became dependent on Europeans
      • In general the French had better relations with the natives than the English did.
      • Native populations continued to be decimated by disease, population dropped from 7-8 million to under a million.
      • Natives became overwhelmed by invading colonists.
      • By the early 18th century horses were introduced and natives used them greatly.
      • The invention of the nomadic plains native culture was a dramatic cultural innovation of the 18th
    • The Spanish Borderlands
      • In the mid-18th century what is today the Sunbelt of the US formed the largest and most prosperous European colony on North America, the Viceroyalty of New Spain.
      • Included 1 mil colonists, 2 mil natives.
      • Mexico City was the capital and was perhaps the most sophisticated city in the Western World.
      • Officials oversaw these colonies through the use of buffer zones.
      • Compared to English colonies it was relatively static.
      • Concerned about the expansion of other colonial empires they established new northern outposts.
      • French activity on the Mississippi led to the establishment of military forts in that region.
      • In the early 18th century the Spanish established missions in Lower California.
      • Soon they increased their influence by expanding to Northern California.
      • Over the next 50 years the number of California settlements grew to include 21 missions and half a dozen presidios and towns, including L.A.
      • Over the next few decades’ immigration to this area decreased.
    • The French Crescent
      • In France the church and state were intertwined.
      • They laid out Catholic imperial policy and under their guidance colonists constructed a second Catholic empire in North America.
      • In 1674 church and state established the bishopric of Quebec which would founded numerous other seminaries.
      • The French sent few colonists to New France in the 18th century but the natural population rose from fewer than 15,000 in 1700 to 70,000 by mid-century.
      • French used their trade and alliance network to establish colonies/military posts/settlements.
      • At the heart of their empire there were communities of farmers or habitants that stretched along the banks of St. Lawrence.
      • There were also farming communities in Illinois.
      • Among the most distinctive French stamps on American landscape were the long lots that stretched back from rivers providing each family a share of good bottomland to farm.
      • Detroit, the most important of those, was a stockaded town.
    • New England
      • Just as New Spain/France had their churches, so did New England.
      • They were governed by Puritan congregations.
      • The Puritan colonies allotted each congregation a tract of communal land and this was divided among each of the congregation’s members.
      • The Puritan tradition was a mix of freedom and repression.
      • Although local communities had considerable autonomy they were tightly bound by restriction of the Puritan faith and General Court.
      • They banned Anglicans and Baptists and exiled, jailed, whipped, and even executed members of the Society of Friends who came to preach.
      • It was one of those exiled dissenters, Roger Williams, who made one of the first formal arguments for religious toleration.
      • In 1661, King Charles ordered the stop to religious persecution in MA. (The Toleration Act)
      • It was first resisted by Puritans but they gave into it.
      • As towns grew too large for available land groups of residents left together making new churches and towns elsewhere.
      • They were interconnected through roads/rivers.
    • The Middle Colonies
      • In striking contrast to CT and MA, NY had one of the most ethnically diverse populations on the continent.
      • African Americans made up 15% of the population of the lower Hudson.
      • Puritans, Quakers, Baptists, and Catholics all worshipped without problems.
      • In NYC several hundred Jews attended services in one of the first synagogues.
      • NYC grew by leaps and bounds but because land owners chose to rent instead of sell it was less appealing for immigrants.
      • Instead they went to PA where Quakers sold land to anyone who could afford it.
      • The Society of Friends never became a Church.
      • It was a perspective well suited to the ethnically and religiously diverse populations of PA.
      • Most German immigrants were Lutherans or Calvinists, most north Britons were Presbyterians but there were plenty of Anglicans and Baptists.
      • Institutions of gov’t were a pillar of community organization.
      • Colonial officials appointed judges of peace among leading men and these justices provided stability for the countryside.
    • The South
      • The South was a tri-racial society with intermingled communities of white colonists and black slaves along with substantial native communities.
      • Much of the population was enslaved Africans who made up 40% of the population by 1750.
      • They specialized in the production or rice, tobacco, and other commercial crops.
      • These colonies were very rural.
      • Farms/plantations were dispersed across the countryside and villages/towns were few.
      • English authorities made the Church of England the state religion in Chesapeake colonies.
      • Residents paid taxes to support the church and many were forced to attend its services.
      • No other churches were allowed in VA or MD.
      • Along the rice coast the dominant social institution was the large plantation.
      • Transforming the countryside into farmland required heavy capital investment.
      • Lower South was the closest thing to the Caribbean in North America.
      • Cash crops could be grown in small plots, tobacco quickly drained soil but tobacco land could be converted to corn land for a few years and then it’d have to rest for 2 decades or so.
      • In the Lower South there was no community life outside the plantation.
      • The most important community institution was the county court which held both executive and judicial powers.
    • The Diverging Social and Political Parties
      • Population Growth and Immigration
        • All colonial regions experienced unprecedented growth in the 18th
        • In 1700 there were 290,000 colonists north of Mexico; 50 years later there were 1.3 million, an average growth rate of 3%.
        • High fertility and low morality rates were key.
        • In most colonial areas there were fewer than 30 deaths per 1000 people, a rate 15-20% lower than those in Europe
        • British colonies grew faster than France/Spain due to immigration.
        • British were the only ones to not segregate who got to go to their colonies and they encouraged foreigners to settle there.
        • Some colonies sent recruiters to Europe and English/Dutch merchants would bring them to the colonies on their way there.
        • British colonies allowed for citizenship to be gained by foreigners.
        • Largest immigration was by Africans (600,000)
        • Second largest was by the Irishmen (150,000)
        • At least 125,000 of them settled in colonies known as the Dutch.
        • Ride to new world was horrible for all, more horrible for slaves though.
      • Social Class
        • Although traditional working roles were transferred to North America, attempts to transplant the European class system were less successful.
        • North American society was not aristocratic in the European fashion but it wasn’t without a social hierarchy.
        • Throughout all colonies the social hierarchy was quite similar:
          • Large landowners/Merchants/Rich People
          • Middle Class (Farmers/Craftsman/etc)
          • Slaves/Servants
        • Economic Growth and Increasing Inequality
          • One of the most important differences in North America was the economic stagnation of New France/Spain
          • They were weighed down by royal bureaucracies and overbearing regulations.
          • In British North America however the annual growth rate was about 1.5% and that prevailed during the era of American industrialization.
          • As economic growth increased the rise of the economic pie, mostly middle/upper class British Americans began to enjoy better living conditions.
          • Prosperity led to the concentration of assets in the hands of wealthy families.
          • Another trend worked against the hope of social mobility in the countryside, as population grew and generations succeeded one another in older settlements, all land was already taken.
          • Land prices rose beyond the reach of modest families.
          • Eventually soil was exhausted, in New England this trend was the most pronounced and as a result there was a notable increase in the landless poor
        • The Cultural Transformation of British North America
          • The Enlightenment Challenge
            • Enlightenment thinkers in Britain and Europe argued that the universe was governed by natural laws.
            • Enlightenment thinking appealed most to those whose ordered lives had improved their lot, the colonial elite had good reason to believe in progress.
            • Many sent their sons to college where the text of new thinkers were promoted.
            • Led to an increase in education and literacy rates, about half adult men and a quarter adult women were able to read.
            • In New England the Puritans were committed to Bible reading and as a result 85% of the men and 50% of the women could read, in addition they developed a system of public education.
            • The Enlightenment brought about new techniques and innovations in all of the colonies.
            • More interest in education/the arts/literature.
          • A Decline in Religious Devotion
            • At the same time of new ideas flourishing devotion to religion was lessening.
            • Secularism was spreading.
            • People began to question the foundations/teachings/rules of religion.
          • The Great Awakening
            • The colonial revival of religion which occurred after the Enlightenment.
            • Religious leaders condemned the laxity, decadence, and officalism of established Protestantism and reinvigorated it with calls for purity.
            • Among Presbyterians open conflict broke out between the revivalists and the old guard and in some parts of the church hierarchy it was divided into separate organizations.
            • In New England similar groups such as the Old Lights and New Lights accused each other of heresy.
            • Many congregations split into feuding factions and minsters found themselves being challenged by their newly awakened parishioners.
            • These movements were widespread and so typical of many communities that they are considered the first national US movement by many.
            • The young flocked to these different churches in greater numbers than ever seen before.

Chapter Six Outline

  • The Seven Years’ War in America
    • The Albany Conference of 1754
      • Conference hosted in colonies composing of colonists + Native Americans where the British wanted the colonies to consider a collective response to the continuing conflict with New France and Native Americans of the Interior.
      • Native Americans walked out refusing to join.
      • The conference did adopt Benjamin Franklin’s Plan of Union which proposed that native affairs, western settlement, and other items of mutual interest should be placed under one general government for the colonies.
      • The colonial assemblies rejected the Plan of Union.
    • Colonial Aims and Indian Interests
      • Absence of cooperation between North American colonies proved to be one of the largest flaws in the British Empire.
      • 3 principal flashpoints of conflict in North America:
        • Northern Atlantic Coast
        • Border region between New France and New York
        • Ohio country
      • In each of these flashpoints Britain and France clashed.
      • Iroquois Confederacy as a whole sought to play off one European power against the other to its own advantage.
      • Their position would be greatly undermined by an overwhelming victory for either side.
    • Frontier Warfare
      • At The Albany Conference the delegates received news that Colonel George Washington who was sent to ward off French settlers from the region granted to the Ohio Company but he was forced to surrender his troops.
      • In response the British sent two regiments under General Braddock across the Atlantic.
      • His offensive captured two French forts but ultimately failed on the other two fronts and eventually his forces were killed by a small number of natives and French. He also died in that battle.
      • His defeat sparked an all-out war between Britain and France in 1756 which was known as the Seven Years’ War in Europe and the French and Indian War in America.
      • Was a near catastrophe for GB.
      • Absence of colonial cooperation proved to be one of their ultimate downfalls.
      • In climate of this defeat the British adopted a harsh policy of retribution against French speaking farmers of Acadia who lived peacefully under British rule for over 40 years.
      • The Acadians’ refusal to bear arms in defense of Britain led to their expulsion, they were dispersed throughout the Atlantic world.
    • The Conquest of Canada
      • William Pitt becomes Prime Minister of Great Britain and commits the Prussians to fight the Seven Years’ War in Europe while Britain focuses on North America.
      • He dispatched 20,000 regular soldiers over the Atlantic and amassed 50,000 armed colonists against Canada.
      • Britain gains the support of Natives Americans by saying they’d return some land in exchange for assistance.
      • Britain slowly but surely captured forts and won battles and soon converged on Quebec.
      • In response to General Wolfe’s orders British troops plundered farms and shelled the city.
      • The BA prevailed and Quebec fell.
      • The conquest of Montreal next year marked the end of the French empire in North America.
      • British swept French ships from the Atlantic coast.
      • Treaty of Paris is signed in 1763, France loses all land in North America mainland, with the exception of New Orleans.
      • Spain secedes Florida to GB in exchange for all Caribbean and Pacific colonies.
      • Imperial rivalry came to an end in North America with Britain as the victor.
    • The Imperial Crisis in British North America
      • The Emergence of American Nationalism
        • Despite the anger of frontier settlers, the conclusion of the Seven Years’ War had left most colonists proud of their place in the British Empire.
        • On the contrary, during the war many had begun to notice important contrasts between the colonists and their mother country.
        • Colonists shocked by what the British Army did and what officers did to keep their men in line.
        • Colonial forces were composed of volunteer companies, officers tempered their administration of punishment to maintain morale.
        • The war also strengthened a sense of identity among the colonies.
        • Nationalist perspective increased.
      • The Sugar and Stamp Acts
        • The emerging sense of American political identity was soon tested by British measures designed to raise revenues in the colonies.
        • To quell native uprisings the British kept 10,000 soldiers stationed in the colonies.
        • Cost of maintaining these forces added up along with cost of war had created desperate needs for money.
        • As a result the Sugar Act was enacted, it was a law passed in 1764 that lowered the duty from 6 pence to 3 pence per gallon of foreign molasses imported to the colonies; it also increased the restrictions on colonial commerce.
        • The Sugar Act was followed by the Stamp Act. It required the purchase of specially embossed paper for all newspapers, legal documents, licenses, insurance papers, ship papers, and even playing cards.
      • The Stamp Act Crisis
        • The American reaction created a crisis of unprecedented proportions. The stamp had to be paid in hard money during a period of economic stagnation.
        • Of more importance for the longer term were the constitutional implications.
        • Although colonial male property owners elected their own assemblies, they did not vote in British elections.
        • But the British argued that Americans were subjected to acts of Parliament because of “virtual representation” which stated that members of Parliament were thought to represent not just members of their districts but instead all citizens of the empire.
        • Such constitutional issues were emphasized in the Virginia Stamp Act Resolutions written by Patrick Henry which in part stated that there should be “no taxation without representation”
        • Measures denouncing the Stamp Act spread all throughout the colonies along with the slogan.
        • Groups emerged such as the Sons of Liberty.
        • They all called for moderate forms of protest, circulated petitions/pamphlets/etc.
        • By the end of 1765 almost all stamp distributions had resigned or fled, making it impossible for the Stamp Act to be enforced.
      • Repeal of the Stamp Act
        • Pressured by British merchants Parliament repealed the Stamp Act out of fear of further nonimportation movements.
        • Followed by the Stamp Act was the Declaratory Act in which Parliament affirmed its authority to make laws binding the colonies.
        • It signaled that the conflict had not been resolved but merely postponed.
      • “Save Your Money and Save Your Country”
        • The Townshend Revenue Acts
          • After several failed governments King George III asked Pitt to be Prime Minister again but he was suffering from a prolonged illness so Charles Townshend took his place.
          • One of the first problems the new government faced was national debt, in response he passed the Townshend Revenue Acts which imposed duties on colonial tea, lead, paint, paper, and glass.
          • Some Americans resisted it through use of the British constitution, others warned that it was part of a British conspiracy to suppress American liberties.
          • Townshend reinforced these assumptions by asserting his power over colonies through the suspension of some assemblies.
        • The Politics of Revolt and the Boston Massacre
          • British troops stationed in North America became the object of scorn and hostility over the next two years.
          • There were regular conflicts between them and radicals in NYC, often focusing on the Sons of Liberty.
          • In protest of the suspension of the NY assembly and Townshend Acts the Sons of Liberty erected a liberty pole but it was soon chopped down and into two pieces that were placed in front of a tavern frequented by the Sons
          • Confrontations also took place in Boston, soldiers were hauled into Boston courts and local judges adopted an unfriendly attitude to them.
          • In February 1770, an 11 year old boy was killed after being shot by a customs officer, he was in a rock throwing crowd.
          • This heightened tensions between civilians and soldiers.
          • Soon another incident occurred where a guard was being harassed by a crowd, troops went to his aid but were pelted by stones. They fired into the crowd killing 5 and injuring 6. The soldiers escaped to their barracks due to crowds numbering the hundreds rampaging in the streets seeking vengeance. The commander of British Forces in the city withdrew his forces in fear of an attack against them. This incident became known as the Boston Massacre.
        • From Resistance to Revolution
          • Intercolonial cooperation grew due to a nationalist feeling throughout the colonies and the growth of a common enemy for them all, the British.
          • The information most damaging to British influence came out of Boston. It created a torrent of anger against the British and their officials in the colonies.
          • On December 16, 1773 an incident occurred in which Bostonians disguised as Native Americans, destroyed some 10,000 British pounds worth of tea belonging to the British East India Trading Company in order to prevent payment of duty on it.
          • Following the Tea Party several acts described as the Intolerable Acts were passed as retribution.
          • These acts included the:
            • Coercive Acts
            • Quartering Act
            • Quebec Act
          • In 1774 the first Continental Congress met and discussed action to be taken in response to the Intolerable/Coercive Acts.
          • It was the point that people began to refer to the colonies as the American states.
          • On September 1, 1774 General Gage sent troops from Boston to seize stores of canons and ammo from the MA militia in Charlestown and Cambridge.
          • In response the MA House of Representatives formed a Committee of Safety which called up the militia and formed special units known as the minutemen.
          • Gage requested reinforcements feeling that he had insufficient troops to quell a rebellion.
          • King George was convinced that the time had come for war.
          • On the evening of April 18 1775 Gage gave the orders to capture American ammo at the town of Concord.
          • The British marched on Lexington where they won and then to Concord where they faced defeat and retreated.
          • The engagement forecast what would be a central problem for the British: they were forced to fight an armed population defending their own communities against outsiders.
        • Deciding for Independence
          • On May 10, 1775 the Second Continental Congress opened.
          • It resolved to put the colonies in a state of defense on May 15 and on June 15 George Washington was nominated to be commander-in-chief.
          • In 1775 and 1776 Americans are forced back from Canada, the British are forced out of Boston and Halifax and the Americans turn back a British Assault of Charlestown.
          • Hopes of reconciliation died with the mounting casualties of the fighting.
          • The Second Continental Congress declared British vessels open to capture and authorized privateering.
          • They also declared colonial ports open to trade from all nations but Britain.
          • Emotional ties proved hard to break but help arrived in the form of a pamphlet written by Thomas Paine.
          • In April, the North Carolina Convention operated as the replacement for the old assembly became the first to empower its delegates to vote for a declaration of independence.
          • In May the Continental Congress recommended that each state adopt constitutions.
        • The Declaration of Independence
          • On June 7, 1776 Richard Lee of Virginia offered a motion to the Continental Congress stating that we should declare independence.
          • After some debater a vote was postponed until July but a committee was formed to prepare a draft of American independence.
          • On July 1st the Congenital Congress supported independence, on July 2nd a second vote was taken in which 12 voted in favor of independence while NY abstained.
          • The delegates then turned to the declaration itself and revised it, taking out parts about condemning slavery and other things.

 

  • There was little debate among the Congress about the principals of the Declaration. They realized that the coming struggle would require the steady support of ordinary people.
  • In voting for independence the delegates proclaimed their community but also committed treason against their king and empire.
  • They would be condemned as traitors, hunted as criminals, and stand on the scaffold awaiting their death to pay for their sentiments.
  • On July 4, 1776 these men approved the text of the Declaration of Independence without dissent.

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William Anderson (Schoolworkhelper Editorial Team)
William completed his Bachelor of Science and Master of Arts in 2013. He current serves as a lecturer, tutor and freelance writer. In his spare time, he enjoys reading, walking his dog and parasailing. Article last reviewed: 2022 | St. Rosemary Institution © 2010-2024 | Creative Commons 4.0
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