The American Revolution: Road to Independence until 1775
The Road to Revolution
Post French and Indian War Land Distribution and Native American Resistance
Shifting Colonial Power: After the French and Indian War, France was removed from North America. The North American land formally claimed by France was primarily divided between Spain and England.
British Expansion: England acquired all land east of the Mississippi River, including Florida for a period. This encouraged English colonists residing east of the Appalachian Mountains to eye westward expansion into areas that are now Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, and Tennessee.
Native American Displeasure: British soldiers began creating forts in these newly accessible western territories. Native Americans, who had largely aligned with the French, were angered by this westward push, as these were their ancestral lands.
Pontiac's Rebellion (1763):
Led by Pontiac, a chief of the Ottawa tribe (notable connection: Ottawa, the capital of Canada, is named after this nation), this rebellion united various Native American groups against British westward expansion and settlement.
British forts in the west were destroyed or captured by Native Americans.
An estimated 2,000 British soldiers and colonists were killed in a relatively short period, indicating the intensity of the conflict.
Quaker Influence in Pennsylvania: In Pennsylvania, a region with significant Quaker political influence, the government promoted peaceful negotiation with Native Americans. They largely refused to militarily support settlers moving west, arguing settlers should negotiate or avoid conflict.
The Paxton Boys: A group of Scottish-Irish immigrants from Paxton, Pennsylvania, frustrated by the Quaker government's pacifism, took matters into their own hands. They marched into western Pennsylvania, seeking to avenge attacks on English settlers.
In doing so, they attacked and killed about 20 peaceful Native Americans, illustrating the difficulty of identifying specific hostile groups and the dangers of retaliatory violence (a theme also seen in Bacon's Rebellion).
The Paxton Boys then threatened Moravian Indians, who were not only peaceful but had also converted to Christianity.
The Moravian Indians fled to Philadelphia and were granted refuge by the Pennsylvania colonial government, which famously denied the Paxton Boys' demands to surrender them.
End of War & Blame: The French and Indian War (or Seven Years' War) officially ended in 1763. The war had GLOBAL scope, with fighting in the Caribbean, Europe, India, and North America. While initial skirmishes were often attributed to land speculator interests and actions by figures like George Washington in the Ohio Valley, the broader global conflict was part of a long-standing rivalry between Britain and France (this was the fourth such French and Indian War).
King George III and New Policies (1760-1763)
New Monarch: George III ascended to the throne in 1760 at the young age of 22 after his grandfather, George II, passed away. He lacked the wisdom, experience, and maturity typically required to rule a vast empire.
Historical accounts suggest he was temperamental and later in life suffered from mental illness (e.g.,