Key Concept 3.1 —British attempts to assert tighter control over its North American colonies and the colonial resolve to pursue self-government led to a colonial independence movement and the Revolutionary War.

I. The competition among the British, French, and American Indians for economic and political advantage in North America culminated in the Seven years’ War (the French and Indian War), in which Britain defeated France and allied American Indians.

Pontiac’s Rebellion

British took over Fort Detroit & made changes that the Natives didn’t like (the French had respected their traditions)

British restricted their trade & didn’t provide them with guns

British attitude & actions provoked the distrust & hostility of the tribes in the area

1763 - Pontiac (leader of the Odawa tribe) led 3000 Natives to attack Fort Detroit - British successfully defended the siege

Attacks continued & Native resistance spread

Natives captured 8 of the 11 British forts in the Ohio Valley

Natives were unable to kick the British out of the Great Lakes Region

UPRISING DEMONSTRATED THE VIABILITY OF PANTRIBAL COOPERATION IN THE STRUGGLE AGAINST EUROPEAN-AMERICAN COLONIALISM

Seven Years War

Algonquians sided with French, Iroquois sided with Britain

Albany Plan of Union (1754) - created by Ben Franklin to organize an intercolonial government - including a system to collect taxes & recruit troops

France had previous trade relationships with Native tribes

Diseases and wars forced Native Americans to remake themselves/ piece tribes together through tribalization

CAUSES

Tobacco prices remain stagnant

Plantation owners want to move westward to produce more tobacco

France set up forts along the Ohio River Valley Territory to prevent expansion

Britain & France both claimed ownership of lands in the Ohio River Valley

British began siding with Natives who were against colonial interest to move west

Treaty of Paris (signed in 1973)

France surrendered nearly all of its claims

Native Americans of the region rejected the notion that France had the authority to cede their lands to the British

II. The desire of many colonists to assert ideals of self-government in the face of renewed British imperial efforts led to a colonial independence movement and war with Britain

British Victory

Britain’s unchallenged supremacy in North America

British see’s the colonies as a weak fighting force

Colonies see British as under experienced (in reference to fighting in the unknown territory of America)

Increase of British debt - LED TO THE END OF SALUTARY NEGLECT - British needed money from the colonies to increase the nation’s revenue

Disagreements arose over taxation, expansion, & relations to the Natives

Royal Proclamation of 1763

Reaction to Pontiac’s rebellion by King George III

Drew a boundary line in the Appalachian Mountains & forbade colonists from settling the lands west of the line

British hoped to neutralize conflict between white settlers & Natives

Thousands of colonists defied the law, moving westward to claim land for themselves

Townshend Acts (1767)

Taxes on imports of glass, tea, lead, and paint

New customs officials sent to collect

Courts were created to prosecute violators

Unleashed protest in colonies - colonists argued that British Parliament did not have the right to tax them because they lacked representation in the legislative body

Stamp Act (1765) - levied taxes on all printed material

Affected those who were most politically active

Provoked so much unrest, Britain was forced to repeal it

Sugar Act (1764) - raised prices demanded for sweeteners like molasses and sugar

Significant because molasses was used to make gin

Quartering Act (1765) - required colonial citizens to provide room & board for British soldiers stationed in America

Declaratory Act (1766) - replaced the Stamp Act - maintained the right of the crown to tax the colonies as Parliament’s authority was identical in North America and Britain

Colonists Reaction

Stamp Act Congress (1765) - colonial delegated drew up formal petition to repeal the act - FIRST UNIFIED COLONIAL RESPONSE TO BRITISH POLICY - Stamp Act repealed in 1766

Assemblies of New York & Massachusetts rejected the right of taxation - Britain appointed governor & dissolved colonial assemblies

Colonists organized boycotts of British goods & violent demonstration of protest toward customs officials (tarring & feathering)

Nonimportation Agreement - suspended all imports of British goods

Purpose: to rally opposition to British policies, to educate townspeople about the Constitutional rights, & to encourage townspeople to become politically active

British response: sending naval & military officials to Boston to enforce acts

Samuel Adams urged Massachusetts to employ a Committee of Correspondence to contact townspeople & stay apprised of event occurring at town meetings

Sons & Daughters of Liberty - group of Patriot activists who intimidated tax collectors, burned warehouses holding British imports, & enforced boycotts of British goods

Tea Act (1773) - lowered the tax on tea - since colonists were wary of Britain’s attempt to tax them, they refused to purchase the tea

Boston Tea Party - Sons of Liberty destroyed 342 chests of tea imported from the British East India Company

Caused British to punish Boston & the colony of Massachusetts severely

British troops sent to occupy Boston

Shut down Boston’s port

Shut down Massachusetts’ legislative assembly

Appointed General Thomas Gage as governor - broadly expanded his power

Committees of Correspondence - means by which Patriots could circulate letters of Protest against British policies - vital in organizing the First Continental Congress

Boston Massacre (1770) - British soldiers killed 5 Bostinians - defended by John Adams in court

Intolerable Acts

British troops sent to occupy Boston

Shut down Boston’s port

Shut down Massachusetts’ legislative assembly

Appointed General Thomas Gage as governor - broadly expanded his power

Quebec Act (1774) - allowed former French region to expand its borders taking away potential land from the colonists in the Ohio River Valley

Offensive for Protestant colonist because the act allowed Quebec’s citizens to practice Catholicism freely

First Continental Congress (1774)

Purpose: show support for Boston & work out a unified approach to Britain

Colonies argued about implementing a boycott of British imported goods

Southern colonies were economically dependant on their exports to Britain

Declaration of Rights & Grievances

denied Parliament’s right to tax the colonies

characterized the intolerable acts as an assault on colonial liberties

Rejected British attempts to circumscribe representative government

Requested that the colonies prepare their militias

Did not declare independence at the time

Key Concept 3.2 — The American Revolution’s democratic and republican ideas inspired new experiments with different forms of government.

I.The ideals that inspired the revolutionary cause reflected new beliefs about politics, religion, and society that had been developing over the course of the18th century.

Declaration of the Causes & Necessities for Taking Up Arms

Published by the Continental Congress in 1775

Justified the raising of a colonial military force & urged King George III to consider colonial grievances

Olive Branch Petition

1775 statement by the Continental Congress

Reasserted colonial loyalty to King George III and asked him to intervene with Parliament on the colonies behalf

King refused to recognize the Congress’ legitimacy to make such a request

The Enlightenment

John Locke (natural rights) & Hobbes & Rousseau (separation of powers) began to influence the ideas of Americans in republicanism, democracy, individual rights, the separation of powers, equality, a distrust of aristocracy, and science over religion

Believed in the social contract between the government and the governed

Contact allowed the government to govern while protecting the rights of life, liberty, and property

Locke argued that if natural rights weren’t granted, citizens had the right & responsibility to abolish the government

Enlightenment ideas influenced Ben Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson in their roles as Founding Fathers

Separation of powers - idea that the government should be divided into different branches that check & balance each other

Common Sense by Thomas Paine argued that it was contrary to common sense for the large land of America to be governed by the tiny England

Argued for a republican form of government - emphasis on equality

Frowned upon hereditary passing of power

The Great Awakening

Emphasized individual salvation

Rejection of the Anglican Church

Questioned the dependency on authority to connect to God - this reflected in a political sense

The Declaration of Independence

Second Continental Congress - assembly of delegates from the 13 colonies that passed the Declaration of Independence & the Articles of Confederation

Declaration contained a preamble that heavily reflected Enlightenment ideas about natural rights as well as 27 grievances and wrongdoings aimed at the Crown and English Parliament

Republican Motherhood

Because a woman’s role in the household was to educate their sons to be politically active citizens, women needed increased education in order to do so

This created a shift in the social status of women

II. After declaring independence, American political leaders created new constitutions and declarations of rights that articulated the role of the state and federal governments while protecting individual liberties and limiting both centralized power and excessive popular influence.

Treaty of Paris (1783)

Ended the American Revolutionary War

America promised not to punish loyalists

Geographic boundaries of the British Empire & the United States

Recognized the US as an independent state

US agreed to pay back debts to British merchants

Articles of Confederation (1781)

No executive branch of government - didn’t want to create a “too centralized federal government”

Federal government did not have the power to regulate commerce or levy taxes, no judicial branch, all states had to agree upon amendments

This created competition & disagreements between states about tariffs & whether they should charge each other

Land Ordinance of 1785

Established the basis for the Public Land Survey System in which settlers could purchase land in the undeveloped west

Allowed government to sell land in the West in order to pay of national debt

Government could organize this land into townships & plots of land for public schools

Northwest Ordinance of 1787

Established guidelines for statehood

60,000 people

Banned slavery to the North of the Ohio River and east of the Mississippi

One successful act under the Articles of Confederation

Shay’s Rebellion (1787)

Rebellion led by farmer Daniel Shay

Uprising against tax and debt collection

Rebellion crushed by the state army

Showed the weakness of the Articles of Confederation & spurred the Constitutional Convention

Constitution

Virginia plan - favored larger states - called for representation in both legislative bodies to be based on population

New Jersey plan - favored smaller states - called for equal representation in the legislative branch

Connecticut Compromise - proposal that one legislative body would be based on population & the other would have equal representation

Electoral college - compromise at the Constitutional Convention regarding how to elect the president

electors cast votes as representatives of their states, which delegates believed would protect the election process from corruption and the influence of factions (political parties)

Three-fifths Compromise - slave population would be counted as ⅗ of it’s actuarial population (Southern states had so many slaves that they wanted slave population to count toward total population)

Bill of Rights - first 10 amendments of the Constitution

Created to secure the support of Anti-Federalists in the ratification of the Constitution by explicitly stating individual rights and state sovereignty

System of checks and balances between the legislative, executive, & judiciary branches

Federalist Papers

Collection of papers written in the late 1780s urging the ratification of the Constitution

III. New forms of national culture and political institutions developed in the United States alongside continued regional variations and differences over economic, political, social, and foreign policy issues.

Whiskey Rebellion (1791)

Test of the government’s power under the new Constitution

Excise officials sent to collect the text were faced with refusal and violence

Farmers in Western Pennsylvania rebelled over being taxed on distilled liquors such as whiskey

Quickly defeated - proved central government’s power to stop rebellions & maintain peace

Marbury vs. Madison (1803)

Established the doctrine of judicial review - first legal case in which US Supreme Court first ruled an act of Congress as unconstitutional

Judicial review - power of the courts to examine the actions of the legislative and executive branches and determine whether their actions are consistent with the Constitution

Sparked by Adam’s midnight justice appointment to keep court ruled by the Federalist party

National Bank of the United States

Proposed by Alexander Hamilton

Established in 1791 to serve as a repository for federal funds & as the government’s fiscal agent

Opposed by Thomas Jefferson on Constitutional grounds

Political Parties

Federalists - supported a strong national government & the ratification of the Constitution

Democratic-Republicans - founded by Anti-Federalists and agrarian interests

Deeply committed to the principles of republicanism which they feared were being threatened by the aristocratic tendencies of the Federalists

Wanted increased power for the state governments (feared a strong centralized power)

Opposed the ratification of the Constitution (especially without the Bill of Rights)

Opposed the national bank

Key Concept 3.3- Migration within North America and competition over resources, boundaries, and trade intensified conflicts among peoples and nations.

In the decades after American independence, interactions among different groups resulted in competition for resources, shifting alliances, and cultural blending.

The continued presence of European powers in North America challenged the United States to find ways to safeguard its borders, maintain neutral trading rights, and promote its economic interests.

Proclamation of Neutrality of 1793

Declaration of neutrality of America in the ongoing conflicts between Britain & France resulting from the French Revolution

Supported by George Washington & Hamilton who believed that America was too young & had too much debt to aide another nation in war

Opposed by Jefferson & Madison

Jay’s Treaty

Negotiated by Chief Justice John Jay in 1794

Realized several American economic goals (like removing British forts from the Northwest Territory)

Britain benefited - gave British trading rights & allowed them to continue anti-French maritime policies

Angered the French & Democratic-Republicans

Pickney’s Treaty

Treaty between the US and Spain that was ratified in 1796

Negotiated a settlement of boundary, right of navigation along the Mississippi River, and right to deposit goods for transportation at the Port of New Orleans

Spanish made negotiations in order to avoid an alliance between the US and Britain

Farewell Address

Open letter by George Washington in 1797

Urged against permanent alliances & political parties/ sectionalism

XYZ Affair

Three French diplomats demanded a large sum of money as a loan and additional bribes from an American diplomatic delegation just as an opportunity to speak with French officials - delegation refused to comply