2.4 + 3.5: The Midcentury Challenge: War, Trade, and Social Conflict 1750 - 1763

Seven Years’ War (French and Indian War)

1756 - 1763

***Territorial disputes in the Ohio River Valley between the French and the British caused this war to begin in 1754***

French and Indians vs. British

Algonquians sided with French, Iroquois sided with Britain

• 1753 George Washington (Lieutenant Colonel in Virginia militia) warned the French of encroaching on British holdings in the Ohio River Vally

  • French Commander rebuffed him

    • Britain took contorl of a British post in Penn. → Fort Dunquesne

      • French took it back 2 months later

Albany Congress

1754

delegates from British colonies discussed a more organized colonial response to !frontier defense, trade, and westward expansion!

• invited Iroquois’s Confederacy in hopes of allying iwth them

  • However, delegates did not involve them from the conversations

****As long as these European nations were fighting, the American Indians had a chance to maintain some control***

Albany Plan of Union

created by Benjamin Franklin

• colonies established a council of representatives to discuss !!; However, this was rejected

• British forced American men to joint he Royal Navy

• They quartered troops in colonial homes

  • if anyone resisted housing them they were threatened with violence

Peace of Paris

Signed in 1763 when Seven Years’ War ended

• Spain gave Florida to Britain

• French were expelled from North America and Spain was given control of that French lands west of Mississippi

• All east land of the Mississippi River (Ohio River Valley) was granted to the British

Proclamation Line

1763

• forbade colonists from migrating west across the Appalachian mountains and Ohio River Valley

  • colonist did not follow this

• (War was expensive - British Parliament raised taxes on American Colonies)

(Salutary Neglect)

(British Parliament left politcal rule to the colonists

• colonists believed that they were more independent than the King and Parliament believed them to be

Quartering Act

1765

• kept British soldiers stationed in colonies, colonists responsible for soldiers’ food and housing

Sugar Act

1764

• taxes on coffee, wine, and various luxury items, and enforeced existing taxes on molasses

Stamp Act

1765

• tax on all paper items produced in the colonies (newspapers, playing cards, and legal contracts)

Currency Act

1764

• Prohibited colonial assemblies from printing their paper currency

  • American colonies were experiencing declining wages with a rise in unemployment at the same time → very stressed

Stamp Act Congress

1765

• 27 delegates from 9 colonies petitioned the British Parliament to repeal the Stamp Act; however they acknowledge that they were loyal subjects of King and country

  • Parliament repealed the Stamp Act and Sugar Act in 1766…HOWEVER…

Declaratory Act

1766

• they then passed down this, which affirmed Parliament had the right to pass any law

Townshend Act

1767

• imposed taxes on paper, tea, and glass imported into the colonies

  • As a result, women spun clothes by hand, and their own tea

Sons of Liberty/Daughters of Liberty

merchants, traders, artisans

Boston Massacre

1770

• Dec. 50 Sons of Liberty disguised themselves as Indians and dumped 45 tons of British Tea into Boston harbor

  • B/c of this, Parliament passed the…

Coercive Act

1774

• closed Boston Harbor until all lost tea were paid off