Transcript Chapter 4 - Garrett College

Chapter 4
Frontiers of Empire
Diversity

U.S. reflects the diversity of its people
 Melting
pot?
 Salad bowl?
17th and 18th centuries each nation seemed
to be very different from the others.
 To us, Germans, Scots-Irish , British, &
French are similar – all western Europeans
 In
To colonists, all these people were very
different
 Add to that Native Americans and Africans
 Colonists were afraid of what this diverse
population would do to their colonies
 Ben Franklin had a few thoughts on this
blending of peoples
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Benjamin Franklin (1706 – 1790)
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Born in Boston, Massachusetts
Moved to Philadelphia in 1723
Had little formal education but was well-read and
thoughtful
Believed all problems could be solved through
the use of reason
He applied his reasoning to demography, the
study of population
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According to his calculations, population of
the British colonies doubled every 25
years
 Mostly
from natural increase
 Also from immigration from Europe and Africa
primarily
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American population was spreading out into the
back country in Pennsylvania and in the
Carolinas
Many did not speak English
The middle colonies seemed to be more diverse
than those in New England
And they were experiencing a growing
stratification
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William Penn’s liberal offers of land and religious
freedom attracted many non-English speakers
like the Moravians and the Amish from Germany
(Pennsylvania Dutch)
Large groups of Scots-Irish arrived
 Scottish
Presbyterians sent to Ireland by the British
monarch in hopes that they would eventually
outnumber the Catholics in Ireland
 The plan failed
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Scots-Irish in Ireland
 They
were discriminated against by the
Anglican Church
 They were taxed heavily when they traded
with England
 They had bad harvests
 They decided to move to America and went to
Pennsylvania, New York, and New Jersey
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Many came as indentured servants and
provided manual labor for Philadelphia
Others became farmers and obtained cheap
land and produced corn, wheat, beef, and pork
for export
Eastern areas became crowded and so later
settlers moved further west to the Appalachians
and south to the Carolinas and Georgia
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They often competed against Native
Americans for land
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Other non-English Europeans came to
America
 French
Huguenots
 Mediterranean Jews
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They became merchants in port cities selling
foodstuffs and furs
They also traded with the French and the
Spanish
By the mid-18th century immigration and natural
increase had made Philadelphia and New York
major cities
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In these cities wealth was in the hands of the
few and the poor was more dependent on public
assistance
Some social conflict brought on by the mixed
population
 Germans
kept to themselves avoiding assimilation
 When Germans prospered, many feared their colony
would be “Germanized”
Other Ethnic and Economic
Rivalries
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Scots-Irish vs. Delaware Indians Vs. the
Quakers in 1763
 Scots-Irish
in western Pennsylvania asked the
Quaker (pacifists) legislature for military help to fight
the Delaware Indians
 Quakers hesitated, so the Scots-Irish rebels attacked,
on their own, the peaceful Conestoga tribe and then
marched on Philadelphia protesting their lack of
representation in the legislature
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Ben Franklin stepped in and cooled the
situation
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In New York’s Hudson Valley, the Dutch
rented land to English tenant farmers.
 When
the Dutch sent out eviction notices,
armed rebellion was the result in 1760
 It was crushed by the British military
Economic Changes
Colonial economy grew
 White Americans did well
 Farm goods increased
 Majority of American goods went to
England, as per the Navigation Acts
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Periodically, the British tried to impose a
tax on Americans
or Sugar Act of 1733 – placed a
heavy tax on molasses imported from foreign
ports , ex.: France
 Hat and Felt Act, 1732 and the Iron Act , 1750
tried to limit production of colonial goods that
competed with British exports
 Molasses
For the most part, these acts weren’t
enforced -- Salutary Neglect
 The British were making a lot of money off
of the colonies
 Passing acts satisfied the British
 Not enforcing them kept Americans happy
and kept money flowing into Britain
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Americans bought a lot of British goods
 Between
1740 and 1770, English exports to
the colonies increased 360
 The British offered Americans credit and many
fell into debt
Americans traded with other Americans
 They traded with the Spanish
 They traded with the Dutch
 They traded with the French
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The Great Awakening
Jonathan Edwards led a brief religious reawakening in the 1730s in New England
 This revival died out within a decade
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What became known as the Great
Awakening is usually associated with
George Whitefield who arrived in America
in 1739
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By mid-18th century, fewer people were
attending church services
There was a growing religious indifference
George Whitefield stressed that achieving
worldly success without obtaining spiritual
redemption was dangerous
He asked his followers to experience a religious
rebirth and to create a Christian community
He used hellfire and brimstone to get his
point across
 His followers were from all regions and
from all classes, including slaves
 This movement promised spiritual equality
which challenged the other religious
teachings of the day
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These revivalists were called “New Light”
disciples
“Old Lights” and “New Lights” debated one
another
“Old Lights” questioned the revivals that
appealed so much to the emotions
New religions spread like the Methodists and the
Baptists
Baptists accepted African-American converts
Colleges
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“New Light” colleges:
 College
of New Jersey ( now Princeton) by
Presbyterians
 King’s College (now Columbia) by Anglicans
 Brown by Baptists
 Queen’s College (now Rutgers) by the Dutch
Reformed Church
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Religious Pluralism
 Religious
rivals realized that no one group
would dominate, so they grudgingly accepted
this idea
 Religious toleration, not equality, emerged
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The Church of England continued to
receive tax support, but dissenters started
demanding the separation of Church and
State
Government
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In Britain:
 Had
the appearance of 3 branches
King
 House of Lords
 House of Commons
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Really only the aristocracy was represented
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In the Colonies:
 Many
had royal governors and advisors appointed by
the King
 Assemblies were more representative of the
American public even though women and non-whites
could not vote
 Royal governors soon learned that assemblies would
reward them if they went along with their decisions
rather than use the veto
Assemblies paid the governors salaries
 If the assemblymen didn’t like some action
of the governor, they would refuse to pay
him
 More often than not, the assemblies got
what they wanted
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War
1689 – 1763 – Britain and France fought
one another in Europe and by extension in
North America
 One war would end and then a little later a
new one would start
 These wars would have one name in
Europe and a different name in the
colonies
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Some of the earlier wars made colonists
proud to be British
 That changed when the British began
regulating the colonies more
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 For
tax money to pay for the fighting
 By quartering soldiers in private homes
 By drafting colonists to fight
Colonists began to resent British
interference in their lives
 These wars pitted British colonists against
French colonists with Native Americans
choosing sides
 By the end of 1763, the British had pushed
the French out of North America
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Native Americans moved further west
 More imperial regulations curbed the
freedom of the American colonists
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King William’s War 1689 - 1697
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William of Orange was the chief magistrate of
Dutch Republic
He was part of the League of Augsburg, an
alliance fighting France to keep it from
expanding its borders
England had stayed out of that battle
When William was made King of England during
Glorious Revolution, he brought England into the
fight against France
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By extension, this fight spread to America
It was known as King William’s War in North
America
It was the War of the League of Augsburg in
Europe
Native Americans took sides
French and Indian troops attacked New York,
western Massachusetts, and along the
Maine/New Hampshire border
British troops were fighting in Europe, so
Americans had to defend themselves
 Colonists struck out against Montreal and
Quebec
 Border raids, really
 Many Native Americans killed in battle
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War ended in 1697 with the Treaty of
Ryswick
 Returned
all land in colonies to their status
before the war
 Did not settle the dispute over the Hudson
Bay area
Queen Anne’s War
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Called the War of Spanish Succession in Europe
Louis XIV of France wanted to place his
grandson and heir on the Spanish throne
Many thought that would give France too much
power
England allied itself with the Netherlands and
the Holy Roman Empire to oppose this action
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They wanted Charles of Bavaria on the Spanish
throne
England had another bone to pick with France
France was against putting Anne, William’s
daughter, on the throne of England
France wanted James II Catholic son to sit on
the throne of England
Anne was already on the throne of
England and she quickly retaliated against
the French for questioning her authority
 The Americans called this battle Queen
Anne’s War
 In America, French and American colonists
fought each other in northern New
England & in Canada
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1704 – Native Americans who sided with
the French attacked British outposts in
western Massachusetts and in Maine and
destroyed many settlements
 This war showed Americans that their
defenses were weak
 English troops seized the Hudson Bay
area, Newfoundland, and Acadia
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However, the French remained
Americans learned they should be loyal to their
protestant monarch
1711 – Charles of Bavaria ascended the throne
of the Holy Roman Empire, so England and its
allies no longer backed him for the Spanish
throne
That would give him too much power
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The Treaty of Utrecht ended this war in1713 with
no clear winner
Philip of Anjou (heir to the French throne) was
made King of Spain and gave up all claims to
the French throne
British were granted “asiento de negros” which
was the right to sell captive slaves (Africans) in
Spanish colonies like Cuba and Santo Domingo
King George’s War 1744 - 1748
This war was about who would sit on the
throne of the Holy Roman Empire
 Maria Theresa already sat on the throne of
Austria, and she was next in line to take
over the Holy Roman Empire
 Fearing this would give her too much
power, the War of Austrian Succession
broke out
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In the colonies it was known as King
George’s War
 It boiled down to the French and
Americans fighting once again in North
America
 It centered on northern Atlantic coast,
around the Great Lakes, and in the Ohio
Valley
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New Englanders took the French fortress
at Louisburg
 1748 – the war ended and the fortress at
Louisburg was returned to the French,
according to the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle
 Colonists were furious and began to
question the empire’s concern for the
colonies
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The French and Indian War
Known as The Seven Years’ War in
Europe (see chart on page 122)
 This war began in North America and
spread to Europe -- for a change
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 Quest
for territory in America by French and
British
 Protection of territory already taken was all
important
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By mid-eighteenth century the French had
3 major settlements in North America
 Montreal
 Quebec
 New
Orleans
They had no more than a total of 100,000
settlers
British had more than a million settlers
 They had many, many more settlements
than the French -- from Maine to Georgia
& from the east coast far inland towards
the Appalachians
 The French were so interested in settling
their lands as they were using the land for
trapping before 1754
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They did wish to protect their interests and so
set up a series of forts in what is now western
Pennsylvania
Virginia had also taken an interest in the area;
they were looking for fresh soil for tobacco
So Virginia sent out a 22-year old major named
George Washington and 150 men to construct a
fort at what is now Pittsburgh
Washington and his men never made it
that far because they learned that the
French were already building a fort there,
calling it Fort Duquesne
 And they encountered a small band of
French soldiers and diplomats and killed
the diplomat and others
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The French retaliated forcing Washington
to build a crude defensive fort at what is
today called Fort Necessity on Rte. 40 in
Pennsylvania
 4 July 1754, Washington was forced to
surrender
 He was allowed to return to Virginia
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Many Native Americans backed the
French and the war became known as The
French and Indian War
 The Board of Trade in England wanted the
colonies to defend themselves
 So they called the Albany Congress of
1754
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Delegates form all colonies except Virginia
and New Jersey met
 They hoped to organize a colonial militia
 It was written up as “The Plan of Union” by
delegate Benjamin Franklin
 It wasn’t ratified so the colonies did not
have a defensive force
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Many colonists volunteered but were not
well-trained
 They left whenever needed at home
 1755 – 2000 New Englanders seized 2
French forts near Nova Scotia
 The Acadians (French Canadians) refused
to take up arms against France
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So the British expelled them to Maryland
and Virginia for the most part
 But the Acadians kept right on moving until
they got to Louisiana where they were
known as Cajuns
 1755 – the British sent in 2500 troops
under the command of General William
Braddock
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Braddock was to reverse Washington’s
defeat, but he and his troops were
defeated near Fort Duquesne
 900
men including Braddock were killed
 Washington was with them and was wounded
4 times
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Sir Jeffrey Amherst, head of British forces
in America, introduced a new tactic against
Native Americans – Germ Warfare
 He
sent blankets to the Indians that had been
used by smallpox victims
 Many died from this exposure
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The French had 2 important victories in
1756 and in 1757
 They
took Fort Oswego on Lake Ontario and
Fort William Henry on Lake George
The French were ready to move in on New
York, and things looked grim for the British
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Two developments turned the tide for the
British:
 The
Iroquois Confederacy withdrew their
support from the French and became neutral
 1757 – William Pitt was named Secretary of
State in England and was put in charge of the
British war effort
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William Pitt
 Was
an efficient leader
 Had the full support of all the colonial
governments
 Permitted the colonies to do their own
recruiting and requisitioning of supplies
 Said if colonies raised men for the war, Britain
would pay most of the costs of the war
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Pitt appointed General James Wolfe to join
Amherst in the colonies
Wolfe changed the course of the war when he
attacked and won Quebec in 1759
With this victory in Quebec and then in Montreal in
1760, the war ended for Americans in 1760
It continued in Europe until 1763
 The war ended with the Peace of Paris
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 British
got Canada from the French and
Florida from the Spanish
 France had to hand over Louisiana to the
Spanish to compensate them for the loss of
Florida
By 1763, the English saw themselves as strong
Outcomes for the Native Americans
The Treaty of Paris gave nothing to the
Native Americans
 So after this war, the Native Americans
were technically subjects King George III
 However, the Native Americans possessed
the forests west of the Appalachians – not
the British
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The British continued to blunder in their
treatment of the Native Americans
 Sir
Jeffrey Amherst told them that the British
would no longer give them gifts: blankets, iron
tools, guns, and liquor
 So tribes united under Pontiac of the Ottawa
Indians, attacked Fort Detroit, and captured
10 of 14 British outposts
 They
also raided Virginians and
Pennsylvanians killing 2000 of them
The British defeated them in 1764 and then
restored the gift giving
The British then drew an imaginary line along
the Appalachian divide
This was known as the Proclamation Line 1763
Proclamation Line
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No British subject was allowed to purchase land
or settle west of this line
It was done to end contact with Native
Americans
It didn’t work
Over the next 10 years land was quietly bought
up and settled by colonists
Map, p. 124
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Americans saw the Proclamation Line as
an early effort by King George III to
shackle their freedom
Writs of Assistance
British effort to try to stop Americans from
smuggling in goods especially from French
West Indies – result of the war
 These Writs allowed the British to conduct
raids anywhere if they suspected
smuggling -- no search warrants
 Those arrested were tried by a judge, not
by a jury of one’s peers
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The Proclamation Line was another result
of the French and Indian War for the
Colonists
 Amherst asked the Crown for more British
troops to protect colonists from Indian
attack
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 He
asked for 5-6000 troops; he got 10,000costing England 200,000 pounds /year
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Then Britain instituted the Quartering Act
of 1765 which charged the colonies for the
troops room, board, and drink
 Soldiers
would be sheltered in private homes
Before this time, the colonies were not
costing Britain
 The colonies were profitable
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 Before
it cost 70,000 pounds to run the
colonies, and the colonies made 2 million
pounds for Britain
 After the war, it cost 350,000 pounds to run
the colonies
In 1764, Britain had a national debt of 130
million pounds
 British landowners already paid 20% of
their incomes in taxes
 Britain felt it was time for the colonies to
pay for British protection
 To do this, Britain needed more control
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More control meant more rules from
Britain
 Then the colonies could be taxed
 These changes were not welcomed by the
American colonists
 A strained relationship between the two
began
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