Unit 2 | The American Revolution

Enlightenment & Great Awakening (1730s-40s)

• Belief that all people are sinners but can be saved through God's grace

• direct connection with God

• religion should be personal & casual

• advocating for no need for clergy

Significance of Enlightenment & Great Awakening

• Removing hierarchy/power of church —> thinking about removing hierarchy/power of centralized gov

• Ideas of equality, liberty, freedom, justice —> disagreeing when Parliament taxed colonists w/out representation

Locke's Beliefs

• Natural rights (Life, Liberty, Property)

• can overthrow a government that does not support these rights

Rosseau's Belief

people should give up some autonomy for government protection.

Montesquieu's Beliefs

government powers should be separated with checks and balances

(separation of power + checks and balances)

Mercantilism

Economic policy where a nation exports more goods than it imports.

Significance of Mercantilism

• Caused tension between Brit. & colonists- —> Angry + frustrated colonists —> protesting/revolting —> end of mercantilism + Revolutionary war

• Colonists resorted to smuggling bc of trade laws based on mercantilism

Navigation Acts

• British trade laws requiring colonies to EXPORT valuable goods to England FIRST

• IMPORT goods ONLY from English ports.

• —> smuggling culture

• prevented trading w/ other countries

Salutary neglect

British policy allowing self-rule in colonies as long as they were profitable.

Iroquois

• upstate NY area, aided French in F/I War

• recognized importance of preserving balance of power between France & Britain

During French and Indian War/7 Years War

• Phase 1: British struggle against NAs and French 

• Phase 2: British cut off French shipping to the Americas 

  • Capture Montreal and force the French to surrender 

• Treaty of Paris (1763) ends the war 

  • British kept Canada, Florida, and west up until the MI River

• British initially struggled but eventually won (GW came in clutch) —> Treaty of Paris (1763)

French and Indian War Causes and Effects

Causes:

• Britain & French both claim Ohio River Valley

• Colonists ran out of land

• NA = mad bc English are taking their land

Effects:

• Britain in DEBT —> taxing colonists

• Britain won & owns the land

• NAs = mad Britain took their land —> Proclamation of 1763 to alleviate tensions between NA/French

Join or Die

• Benjamin Franklin

• Persuade colonies to combine forces to fight against French/NAs + get Britain to support a centralized/unified colonial government

  • colonies didn’t like it cause it was radical/new/unfamiliar

Proclamation of 1763

• King George III's decree closing lands west of the Appalachian Mountains for settlement by colonists

  • Attempt to alleviate tensions between NA + French

• APP - AL - A - CHIAN —> PROC - LA - MA - TION

Significance of Proclamation of 1763

• Attempted to alleviate tension w/ NA + French

• Closed off colonial westward expansion —> anger from colonists

Treaty of Paris

• ended war and left canada/great lakes/ohio river valley/florida to Great Britain

Pontiac's Rebellion

British Empire vs. several Native American tribes (Chief Ottawa included) after the Seven Years' War over Ohio/Great Lakes land

Albany Conference & Plan

• Proposal by Benjamin Franklin in 1754 to create a centralized government for the colonies.

• Intended to help colonies defend themselves in FI war

• Colonists didn’t join bc they didn’t want to lose their independence

Significance of Albany Plan of Union

first important proposal to conceive of the colonies as a collective whole united under one government

Somerset vs. Stewart + Significance

• Somerset (slave) sues Stewart in England

  • Freed enslaved laborers if they arrived in England 

• Significance: Sets precedent that Britain is more anti-slavery than the American colonies => cause of the revolution (abolitionist ideas)

Quartering Act (1766) + Significance

• required colonies to provide housing and supplies for british troops stationed after F/I war.

  • colonists were not happy and complained but went along because they accepted parliament's right to regulate trade/provide defense

• Significance: increased resentment bc it challenged their right to keep the british at a distance

Sugar Act (1764) + Significance

• Cut price on foreign sugar and raise money for Britain to pay off debt

• Significance: severely restricted colonies’ ability to trade with other countries except Britain = violated colonists rights as British colonists —> moving towards Revolution

Stamp Act + Significance (1765)

• Taxes on printed materials

• Significance: first direct tax imposed by Parliament in the colonies

• —> argued colonies had no representation in parliament and had no right to tax them

Currency Act + Significance

• Prohibited Colonial legislatures from printing paper money

• Significance: Colonists believed they were underpaid and couldn’t support their economy without printing money

Declaratory Act + Significance

• Declared Parliament's authority to make laws and tax the American colonies.

• Significance: Passed same day that Stamp Act was repealed - show of power

Coercive/Intolerable Acts + Significance

• punished Boston by closing the port to trade until colonials paid for the destroyed tea + tax

• increased power of governor at expense of elected assemblies and town meetings

  • left colonists raging, rejected idea that british could shut down trade

Townshend Acts (1767) + Significance

• Indirect taxes on glass, paint, paper, tea (everyday goods)

• Significance: Colonists = mad bc they had to pay more taxes for everyday items + to build houses

• TOWNshend = TOWNhouse

Circular letters

• Written by George Washington

• Documents claiming the British had no right to tax without representation.

Stamp Act Congress (Oct. 1765)

• Congress addressing the Stamp Act civilly/peacefully and encouraging boycotts of British goods.

• Stamp Act Congress didn’t provide rational or logical ARGUMENTS against British rule

Samuel Adams

• Founding member of the Sons of Liberty

• John Adams’ cousin

• Organized Committees of Correspondence

  • 1772 MA to keep colonists informed of British anticolonial actions + to plan resistance

Sons of Liberty

• Rebellious colonists opposing British taxation

• Created by Samuel Adams

• Organized Boston Tea Party

• Colonists opposing the Stamp Act and uniting, patriots, extremely violent protests

Committees of Correspondence (1773)

• Intercolonial committee organized by Samuel Adams to inform colonists of British actions + PLAN!! resistance (didn’t acc do it)

• Promoted leadership/cooperation

  • Parliament backed down but kept tea taxes

Boston Massacre (1770)

• revived protest/violence where biggest riots occurred in boston

• officers seized merchant ship for smuggling

• British were stationed at docks

  • Resulted in lost jobs for people

• Low income threw stuff at officers —> soldiers killing 5 colonists

Boston Massacre Significance

• Sparked American Revolution

• Where political tension between British soldiers & colonists peaked/deadly

• revived protest/violence where biggest riots occurred in boston

Tea Act (1773)

• Allowed British company to sell directly to colonists for tea

• British thought they would be happy bc they lowered taxes for tea

  • British east india company: going out of business bc of competition

  • Women bought a lot of tea (they got mad bc they like other teas)

    • Significant bc not a lot of boycotts were led by women

Tea Act Significance

• Colonists viewed as overbearing/overprotective —> rioting

Boston Tea Party (1773) + Significance

• Patriots dumped tea in harbor, response to Tea Act

• Significance: Angered the British → Intolerable/Coercive Acts

First Continental Congress (1774, Philly)

• response to Boston Tea Party + Intolerable Acts

• UNITED effort to boycott British imports to pressure British to repealing Intolerable Acts

• “give me liberty or give me death” - Patrick Henry

• ““The distinctions between Virginians, Pennsylvanians, New Yorkers, and New Englanders are no more. I am not a Virginian, but an American.”

• STILL SOUGHT TO REMAIN PART OF BRITISH EMPIRE

Only state that didn’t join: Georgia - fear of losing protection from Native Americans + economically supported by trading cash crops w/ Britain

First Continental Congress Significance

• First coordinated/united effort of resistance

• Formally declared colonists should have the same rights as Englishmen

• but still sought to remain part of the British Empire

Minutemen

• Soldiers who had the ability of gathering in a formation at a short notice

  • defended Colonial arms that the British wanted to take 

Lexington and Concord 1775

• Minutemen guerrilla warfare against British troops

• Marked beginning of Revolutionary War

Non-Importation MOVEMENT/ACT (Oct. 1765)

• Threatening British merchants with economic ruin by boycotting their goods and change Parliament-passed laws

Daughters of Liberty

• gave up comforts by promoting boycotting british goods, won respect

  • they were PROMOTING it while Sons of Liberty ENFORCED it

• Aided in non-importation movement

  • spun home (Homespun Movement) made cloth rather than british manufactured ones

Abigail Adams

• Organized Committees of Correspondence

• Advocated for women’s rights

• “remember the ladies” (he forgot the ladies)

Homespun Movement

Focused on creating spun cotton/wool instead of purchasing and supporting british spun textiles

Second Continental Congress (1775)

• Agreed on Washington as Continental Army commander

• Direct response to Battles of Lexington & Concord

Olive Branch Petition

• Last ditch effort to reconcile with Britain, emphasized loyalty to the crown & right as british citizens

• IGNORED

Quebec Act

Extended Canada's southern border

Common Sense + Significance

• Thomas Paine = Author

• Outlined need for American independence

• Reached the masses (wasn’t written too complicated + printed everywhere)

The Declaration of Independence (1776) + Significance

• By Jefferson, inspired by:

  • Locke (Natural rights, LLP)

  • Paine (Common Sense)

• First Part = complaints abt British violating colonists’ rights

• Second Part = declaring independence

3 Phases of the REVOLUTIONARY War

• British started attacking New England (alleviate Boston/MA conflicts)

• Move towards Middle Colonies

• Move towards Southern Colonies to gain support from Loyalists

Battle of Bunker Hill (1775) + Significance

• British saw colonists as unthreatening enemy

• Patriots fortified hills overlooking Boston to drive out British from port

• Lord Howe ordered troops to march straight up hill → major defeat

  • Howe wanted to prove that the trained Brit. troops would beat the untrained colonists

  • British lost 2 more times and won bc Patriots ran out of ammo

• Brit. had higher casualties → Patriots had moral victory

• Significance: confirmed no more reconciliation + moral win for colonists

Benedict Arnold

• Tried taking back fort from the british (Fort Ticonderoga)

• Won, attacked at night with no resistance

• Wasn’t given recognition for his strategies that lead to victory in certain battles and was seen as pro-british bc of marrying a lady who had connections w/ the british → eventually switched over to British side

Battle of Trenton/Washington Crosses the Delaware River (1776) + Significance

• BACKGROUND:

  • British captured NYC and cut off New England from other colonies —> Washington forced to retreat in NJ

• DURING:

  • Dec. 26 Washington counterattacks Hessians 

  • Significance: Modest victory raised Patriot spirits

Battle of Princeton (1777)

• Attack on General Charles Cornwallis’s troops

• 1777 initially started well (Battle of Trenton + Battle of Princeton)

The rest of1777 = defeats for washington, lost Philadelphia to Howe’s army

Battle of Saratoga + Significance

• Showcased Patriots' ability to hold off British

• Significance: TURNING POINT, showed colonists had a chance of winning —> Official French Alliance

America's Alliances

• Franco-American Alliance

  • Provided resources + military expertise (lafayette)

• Spains role

  • Spanish Governor from florida helped

• Alliances were CRITICAL for America’s victory

Native American Participation/Aligning During the War

• Believed British would prevent colonial westward expansion —> loyalist/supported British

African American Participation/Aligning During the War

• Lord Dunmore’s Proclamation (1775) promised freedom to the enslaved laborers that fought for the British

• Some were patriots in promise of manumission

• James Lafayette (double agent)

Marquis de Lafayette

• French aristocrat, supported + joined Patriots

  • Fought under Washington

  • Returned to France to persuade king to send forces to help Americans

• Returned to America to provide military expertise/command forces

• Helped trap British under General Cornwallis at Yorktown

Valley Forge (1777-1778)

• Difficult winter 1777-1778 in PA for Continental Army under George Washington

Battle of Yorktown (1781) + Significance

• French navy helped the Patriots to win the war

• British were on a peninsula and assumed their Navy would come for reinforcements, then George Washington lead the troops around the edge of the land

• Cornwallis’s British forces surrendered

• Significance: led to the end of the war in 1783, with Treaty of Paris

Treaty of Paris (1783)

• Ended Revolutionary War

• Negotiated by Benjamin Franklin + John Adams

  • Franklin secured/negotiated more territory than the Patriots had actually won

• Affirmed American independence + recognized US as independent nation

• Allowed Americans to continue westward expansion past Appalachian

Reasons America Won

• French + Spanish support

• British didn’t understand the nature of the war

  • Soldiers didn’t want to fight the war + they were already in debt

  • Thought they could capture major seaports and they would win

    • Colonists continued to fight bc of their strong desire for liberty

• Guerrilla warfare + George Washington skillful retreats

• Fought on homeland

Loyalists after the war

• Prevented from returning home, many became refugees

• Mob violence

• Slaves + Native loyalists fled

James Lafayette

• Double agent/spy

• enslaved man

  • PPL assumed that since he was enslaved he sided with the Brit and wasn’t smart enough to do anything big to help the war

• joined the Continental Army and served under the Marquis de Lafayette

What did it take for the colonies to declare independence?

• A minority favored independence early on only wanted to reconcile

• Lexington and Concord (1775) 

• Olive Branch petition = IGNORED 

• Common Sense reaches the masses

• Declaration of Independence 1776

Short Term Causes of the American Revolution

• Taxes

• New Laws/Regulations

• Violence

Long Term Causes of the American Revolution

• Great Awakening

• F/I War

• Enlightenment Ideas

How did Britain’s decision to end its policy of salutary neglect influence the development of the American Revolution?

• Created resistance from colonies because they previously experienced increased autonomy/liberty than when they lived in Britain

• Sovereign colonies became accustomed to self-control and self-governing after long period of salutary neglect

How did the French and Indian War (1754-1763) alter the political, economic, and ideological relations between Britain and its American colonies?

Political:

• British ending salutary neglect + imposing new taxes/regulations —> colonies upset, building tension, and realizing their desire for liberty + self-governing + taxation with representation

Economic:

• War debt for Britain —> taxing colonies to pay it off

• Large territorial gain for Britain, but Proclamation of 1763 prevented colonists from expanding westward —> more tension + anger

Ideological:

• Increased desire for self-government, having more representation in the laws that they have to follow

• Increased ideas of natural rights, LLP, and disliking a single overpowered centralized government