Transcript Colonies 1660-1763 uploadx

Growth and Conflict, 1660s-1763
During the 17th century,
Africans endured a
transatlantic crossing
from Africa to the North
American Colonies
 Cruelty characterized the
months long journey –
13% died on route




New England, Middle
Colonies, and the South – all
developed distinct
economies and societies
In the South, rural
Plantations with a single
cash crop were common
Small Southern farmers
(Germans, Scots, Irish) and
African slaves made up the
majority of people
Southern Plantation
LIBERTY
BELL



The development of cities,
expansion of trade, and
diverse economies gradually
made the North radically
different from the South
Philly was the 2nd largest
British port
Farming differed from the
South: smaller, more diverse
crops in North
MERCANTILISM: AN
ECONOMIC SYSTEM
IN WHICH NATIONS
SEEK TO INCREASE
THEIR WEALTH BY
OBTAINING GOLD &
SILVER AND WITH A
FAVORABLE
BALANCE OF TRADE
MERCANTILISM

Mercantilism was a system by which the
government deliberately controlled the
economic affairs of the state in order to
accumulate national wealth. The ultimate
purpose of mercantile policy was to enhance
national strength, provide self-sufficiency, and
pay for military power. Mercantile theory came
to include the notion that no nation could be
great without colonies as sources of markets and
raw materials. The British became especially
dependent upon their colonial empire.

International economics were seen as a zero sum
game—at any given moment only a finite amount of
wealth exists in the world; therefore, the only way for
a nation to increase its wealth was to fight for bigger
share. If one pictures all the wealth in the world or
within a group of nations as a large pie chart, and
acknowledges that while the whole pie may get
larger, thereby increasing everyone's wealth, those
changes are likely to be at best only incremental, at
least in the short term. To rapidly increase one's
wealth in the immediate future, one must accumulate
new wealth at the expense of someone else.





A “favorable Balance of Trade” is the major goal—more
exports than imports to bring wealth to the home nation.
Nations should concentrate on producing marketable
goods—cash products. (Adam Smith advocates national
specialization in The Wealth of Nations.)
Nations should limit the importation of goods and services
as much as possible so as to prevent the exporting of gold.
It is necessary to accumulate silver and gold as bulwarks of
national wealth and power.
All the major nations were mercantilist; each European
nation practiced some form of Mercantilism. Spain tried to
control metals, France regulated internal trade, the Dutch
controlled external trade, etc.

Great Britain had four major aims in its mercantile
policy:
 Encourage growth of a native merchant marine fleet
(which would include colonial ships.)
 Protect English manufacturers from foreign competition.
 Protect English agriculture, especially grain farmers.
 Accumulate as much hard money as possible. (Americans
had to pay for everything with hard currency, which was
scarce in the colonies. Instead, they often paid with
tobacco or other goods in lieu of cash. Colonial paper was
not legal tender in England. The coins that actually
circulated in America were often Spanish or Dutch, if they
could be obtained.)
1651- England’s Parliament
passed a series of laws
known as the Navigation
Acts
 These laws restricted the
colonies shipping & trade
 Ships, destinations, crews,
goods: All strictly regulated
by the English
 The colonies were
developing a spirit of selfdetermination. Therefore,
they were NOT happy with
these restrictions

1700s: An intellectual
movement known as the
Enlightenment began in
Europe and a religious
movement known as the
Great Awakening started in
the Colonies
 The Enlightenment
emphasized reason, science,
and observation and led to
the discovery of natural laws
 Copernicus, Galileo, Franklin
and Newton were key
figures

A series of religious revivals
aimed at restoring devotion
& piety swept through the
colonies in the mid-1700s
 Jonathan Edwards was a
Puritan priest from New
England who was
instrumental in the
movement
 Fire & Brimstone style of
worship; large, emotionally
charged crowds
 Like the Enlightenment the
movement stressed the
importance of the individual

George Whitefield
preaching
•Religious revival
movement
•Evangelicism –
“new birth”
considered the
ultimate religious
experience
•Followers
accepted that they
were sinners and
asked for
salvation
20
•Before the 1730s, most colonies had two
established religions.
•Congregationalism was the largest
religion in New England (Puritans and other
dissidents who broke away from the Church
of England).
•Anglicanism was the largest religion in
New York and the Southern colonies (same
as the Church of England).
21
•Churches that grew as a result of the Great
Awakening: Presbyterianism, Methodism,
Baptism (New Lights)
•Great Awakening challenged authority and
hierarchy of established churches (Old
Lights: Congregationalists and Anglicans)
•Great Awakening said that anybody could
be converted and born again. You didn’t
need traditional church leadership to decide
whether or not you belonged.
22

Distance = time = “distance decay”

Voluntary separation

Lack of aristocracy (“Dukes don’t emigrate”)

Birthplace

Restless population, movement west

Lack of history, tradition, heritage

New World wilder, exotic

Constant interaction w/ Indians

Interaction w/ other ethnicities and classes

Representative gov’t, solve own problems

Friction w/ governors and officials (“Power of
the purse”), smuggling

Fewer capital offenses

Practicality valued (“what can you do for me
today?”, not “whose house were you born
in?”

Recognized as American by English, looked
down on




Competition in North
America led to a war
(1754-1763) between old
rivals France and England
The French in North
America were tradesmen
(furs) not long-term
inhabitants
Ohio River valley was the
site of the conflict
The Colonists supported
the British while the
Natives supported the
French
FRENCH INDIAN WAR
BY NAT




WILLIAM PITT ON A
COIN
While the French had early
victories, the British led by
William Pitt and George
Washington eventually
defeated the French
Treaty of Paris ends the war
in 1763
Brits claim most of North
America including Florida
(from French ally Spain) &
Canada
Native Americans also
realized a French loss was a
Native American loss
• The British victory in the French-Indian War created
the impression that British arms were invincible.
• The Treaty of Paris, 1763, ended the French presence
of the North American mainland, though France retained
their West Indian sugar islands.
• England received all French lands east of the
Mississippi River except New Orleans, while Spain
received the Trans-Mississippi West and New Orleans.
•
Britain emerged as the dominant European power.
Map: European Empires in North America, 1750-1763


To avoid further
costly conflicts with
Native Americans,
the British
government
prohibited colonists
from settling west of
the Appalachian
Mountains
The Proclamation
established a line
along the
Appalachian that
colonists could not
cross (They did
anyway)
Economic Development and Imperial Trade in the
British Colonies: Becoming more like England: the
growth of cities and inequality
• The growth of commerce stimulated the rise of seaport
cities. Boston, Philadelphia, New York, and Charleston
rivaled many British provincial towns in population and
had similar cosmopolitan characters.
• Two out of three artisans lived in colonial cities, many
laboring in trades related to overseas commerce.
• Colonial manufacturing occurred in workshops
attached to the houses of artisans. The workforce included
other family members, journeymen, and apprentices.
• Over time, the gap between the rich and poor widened
leading to poverty in the cities and relief efforts.





The American colonists became more “English” as the
seventeenth century moved into the eighteenth, but
regional distinctions and sectional differences remained.
The seeds of the American Republic were planted early—the
settlers brought some sense of independence with them.
Colonists got used to doing things their own way through
their own assemblies; local control over taxes was always
important.
Americans were probably the healthiest people in the world
once acclimatized. Clean water, plentiful food and healthier
conditions generally prevailed, though not equally
everywhere.
By around 1750 American were probably the most literate
people in the world, at least in New England.
Americans tended to be tough, self-reliant people,
individualists. England's new attitude toward the colonies
did not yet produce a sense of nationalism for the
colonies; the colonists were rebellious by nature, but not
yet ready to challenge British authority in the main—the
American Revolution was still decades off, and Americans
saw themselves as loyal subjects of the crown.
 Settlers from non-English backgrounds generally did not
object to English governance; it was at worst no worse
than what they were used to, and frequently much better.
 By 1750 Great Britain had 31 colonies from North America
to Asia governed by various sets of rules. Even the various
North American colonies had different charters.

The Colonial Political World: Diverging Politics in the
Colonies and Great Britain
• English people on both sides of the Atlantic likened the
state to a family. States worked best when all members
fulfilled their responsibilities.
• Another popular idea was that government should
reflect the hierarchical organization of society and was
reflected in England by the monarchy and Parliament.
• American colonial society grew closer to the British
model but had some differences, including the absence of an
aristocracy
• A major issue was the distinction between virtual and
actual representation. The colonies had experienced actual
representation and were skeptical of virtual representation,
leading to disputes between colonial governors and the
colonists.
Expanding Empires: British colonists in the
backcountry
• Most of the Atlantic coast was settled by 1760,
meaning new German, Scotch-Irish, and English
immigrants had to settle in the backcountry. Most lived
on subsistence farms.
• Tensions grew between backcountry settlers and older
seacoast communities regarding political representation
in colonial legislatures.
• Tensions also emerged when settlers encroached on
Indian lands.
• The Spanish and French responded to English
expansion by expanding their territories and
strengthening relations with Indian peoples.
Expanding Empires: The Spanish in Texas and
California
• Spanish fears of French expansion in the southwest
led to the creation of buffer zones in Texas and California.
• The Spanish constructed an extensive system of forts
and missions in California.
• The scarcity of Spanish settlers and coercive control of
the Indian population left Spain at a disadvantage
compared to the strong commercial empires of France
and England.
Map: Expanding Settlement, c. 1750
Expanding Empires: The French along the
Mississippi and in Louisiana
• French expansion followed the major waterways of the
St. Lawrence River, the Great Lakes, and the Mississippi
River into the interior of North America.
• In the eighteenth century, forts, trading posts, and
villages were founded, forming a chain of way stations
between Canada and the Gulf of Mexico.
• French Louisiana contained a diverse population and
some plantations were established. But the French
approach to empire was based on Indian alliances.
• French expansion along the Mississippi Valley drove a
wedge between Florida and Spain’s other mainland
colonies and blocked English expansion westward.
A Century of Warfare: Imperial conflict and the
establishment of an American balance of power,
1689-1738
• European wars had colonial theaters. King William’s
and Queen Anne’s wars ended indecisively.
• European nations financed wars on credit. England
created a huge funded debt to harness its economy to
military ends. But the growing debt led to increased taxes
stimulating the rise of Country or “Real Whig” ideology
that feared the growth of state power threatened liberty.
• The Iroquois League adopted a policy of neutrality in
1701, using their strategic location to play the French
and English against each other.
A Century of Warfare:The French and Indian
War, 1754-1760: a decisive victory
• The outbreak of war between Britain and France led
to the idea of the Albany Plan of Union but it was
rejected.
• From 1754-1758, the war favored the French but the
tide turned in 1758 to the British.
• William Pitt soothed colonial dissatisfaction with the
war by promising reimbursements to the colonies in
proportion to their contributions.
• The Iroquois decision to enter the war on the side of
the Anglo-Americans sealed the defeat of the French.
Map: The French and Indian War, 1754-1763