Chapter 4 - IMPERIAL WARS AND COLONIAL PROTEST, 1754-1774

Patrick Henry

young Virginian lawyer who spoke for many when he stood up in the House of Burgesses to demand that the king’s government recognize the rights of al citizens including the right not to be taxed without representation.

Stamp Act Congress

representatives from nine colonies met in NY in 1765. resolved that only their own elected representatives had the legal authority to approve taxes

Sons and Daughters of Liberty

secret society organized for the purpose of intimidating tax agents. members of this society sometimes destroyed revenue stamps and tarred and feathered revenue officials.

John Dickinson

wrote Letters From a Farmer in Pennsylvania” (1767-68) — see flaschard

“Letters from a Pennsylvania Farmer”

wrote that Parliament could regulate commerce but argued that because duties were a form of taxation, they could not be levied on the colonies without the consent of their representative assemblies. argued that the idea of no taxation without representation was an essential principle of English law.

Samuel Adams

• wrote the Massachusetts Circular Letter with James Otis

• kept the view that the British officials were undermining colonial colonies. initiated the Committees of Correspondence.

James Otis

• Massachusetts - initiated a call for cooperative action amongst the colonies to protest the Stamp Act

• wrote the Massachusetts Circular Letter along with Samuel Adams

Massachusetts Circular Letter

• urged the various colonies to petition Parliament to repeal the Townshend Acts.

• British officials in Boston ordered the letter retracted, threatened to dissolve the legislature, increased the number of British troops in Boston.

• colonists conducted boycotts of British goods. Merchants increased their smuggling activities to avoid the offensive Townshend duties.

Committees of Correspondence

initiated by Samuel Adams in 1772. spread the idea that the British officials were undermining colonial liberties.

Intolerable Acts (Coercive Acts)

created by the British government as a result of the Boston Tea Party.

1. Port Act - closed the port of Boston, prohibiting trade in and out of the harbor until the destroyed tea was paid for.

2. Massachusetts Government Act - reduced the power of the Massachusetts legislature while increasing the power of the royal governor.

3. Administration of Justice Act - allowed royal officials accused of crimes to be tried in Great Britain instead of in the colonies.

4. expanded the Quartering Act to enable British troops to be quartered in private homes. It applied to all colonies.

George III

wanted American colonies to bear more of the cost of maintaining the British empire

Whigs

patriots who wanted American colonies to bear more of the cost of maintaining the British empire. dominant political parliament

Parliament

whigs were the dominant party. see other flashcards

salutary neglect

Britain had exercised little direct control over the colonies and had generally allowed its navigation laws regulating colonial trade to go unenforced - abandoned after the Seven Years War and the British adopted more forceful policies.

Lord Frederick North

new prime minister of London who called on Parliament to repeal the Townshend Acts in 1770

Pontiac’s Rebellion

• first major test of the new British imperial policy came in 1763 when Chief Pontiac led a major attack against colonial settlements on the western frontier

• American Indians were angered by the growing westward movement of European settlers onto their land and by the British refusal to offer gifts as the French had done

• destroyed forts and settlements from New York to Virginia

• British sent regular British troops to put down the uprising

Proclamation of 1763

• proclamation issued by the British government that prohibited colonists from settling west of the Appalachian mountains.

• British hoped it would prevent future hostilities but the colonists reacted with anger

Seven Years’ War (French and Indian War)

• fourth and final war of big series

• Britain and France sent troops overseas to North America rather than relying on their amateur colonial forces

• Beginning

  • From a British perspective, the French provoked the war by building chain of forts in Ohio River valley, but they did this to spot the westward growth of British colonies.

  • governor of Virginia sent a militia under Washington to win control of Ohio River valley. They then surrendered to the French and Natives, which started the final war for empire

  • 1755 - British failure in war

• See flashcards: Albany Plan of Union

• William Pitt (British Prime minister) focused on conquering Canada. —> British victories —> Peace of Paris

• British victory in the war gave them supremacy in North America and established them as a dominant power in the world. No more attacks from French, Spanish, and their native allies.

• change in how the British and the colonists viewed each other

• British views after the war: low opinion on colonial military abilities. concluded that the colonists were unable and unwilling to defend the new frontiers of the big British empire.

• colonial view: opposite. proud of their record and were confident that they could provide their own defense. not impressed by British troops and leadership.

Albany Plan of Union (1754)

a plan developed by Ben Franklin that provided for an intercolonial government and a system for recruiting troops and collecting taxes from the various colonies for their common defense. but it never took effect because each colony was too jealous of its own taxation powers to accept the plan.

• significance; set a precedent for later, more revolutionary congresses in the 1770s.

Edward Braddock

led the British in an expedition from Virginia which ended in a disastrous defeat

George Washington

young colonel who the governor of Virginia sent a small militia under

Peace of Paris (1763)

European powers negotiated a peace treaty after European victories. Great Britain acquired both French Canada and Spanish Florida. France gave up to Spain its huge western territory, Louisiana, and claims west of the Mississippi River in compensation for Spain's loss of Florida. With this treaty, the British extended their control of North America, and French power on the continent virtually ended.

Sugar Act (1764) OR Revenue Act

• placed duties on foreign sugar and other luxuries

• purpose: raise money for the crown

• stricter enforcement on Navigation acts

Quartering Act (1765)

required colonists to provide food and living quarters for British soldiers stationed in the colonies

Stamp Act (1765)

required that revenue be placed on most printed paper in the colonies, including all legal documents, newspapers, pamphlets, and advertisements. first direct tax paid by people in the colonies (taxes on imported goods were already paid by merchants)

Declaratory Act (1766)

Parliament voted to repeal the Stamp Act after Greenville was replaced, but this was an act that asserted that Parliament had the right to tax and make laws for the colonies "in all cases whatsoever. led to renewed conflict between colonists and British government.

Townshend Acts (1767)

• Parliament enacted new duties to be collected on colonial imports of tea, glass, and paper.

• required that the revenues raised be used to pay crown officials in the colonies, thus making them independent of the colonial assemblies that had previously paid their salaries

• provided for the search of private homes for smuggled goods.

• suspended New York's assembly for that colony's defiance of the Quartering Act.

• At first, most colonists accepted the taxes under the Townshend Acts because they were indirect taxes paid by merchants. But soon leaders began protesting the new duties.

• Repeal: Lord Fredrick North (new prime minister of London) urged Parliament to repeal because they damaged trade and generated negligible revenue. repealing ended the colonial boycott and other than the Boston Massacre there was a three year break from political troubles.

• small tax on tea was retained.

Writs of Assistance

a general license to search anywhere rather than a judge's warrant permitting a search only of a specifically named property

Tea Act (1773)

passed by Parliament — made the price of British Easy India Company tea cheaper than Dutch smuggled tea. but most Americans refused ot buy the cheaper tea because it would give in to the right to tax —> Boston Tea Party

Coercive Acts (1774)

see Intolerable Acts + Quebec Act

Quebec Act (1774)

• established Roman Catholicism as the official religion of Quebec, set up government without a representative assembly (created fear that British would do the same in America), extended Quebec’s boundary to the Ohio River (took away from the 13 colonies)

• passed alongside the Coercive Acts, and it organized the Canadian lands gained from France.

• Accepted by most French Canadians but resented by Americans.

Enlightenment

peak in 18th century (when the future leaders like Washington, Jefferson, Franklin, and Adams were coming to maturity)

Deism

belief that God had established natural laws in creating the universe, but that the role of divine intervention in human affairs was minimal.

Rationalism

trusted human reason to solve the many problems of life and society

John Locke

Enlightenment leader; see previous chapter

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

French philosopher who developed Locke’s Enlightenment ideas