Transcript 2. American Revolution:1763

AMERICAN REVOLUTION
1763-1815
Introduction
• “The Revolution was effected before the war commenced.
The Revolution was in the minds and hearts of the people;
a change in their religious sentiments of their duties and
obligations. This radical change in the principles,
opinions, sentiments, and affections of the people, was the
real American Revolution.”
• Radicalization of American Colonists
Causes of the American Revolution
1. End of the French Threat
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Immediate Response to the victory in the French and
Indian Wars
Long-term response to this victory. Common enemy
was gone. Factors that divided replaced factors that
united.
2. Impact of the Great Awakening. Moralistic
thinking replaced political thinking
Causes of the American Revolution-cont.
3. Constitutional Issues divide English
leaders & American colonists
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Was the English Empire to be a Federal
empire or a unitary one?
Concepts of Sovereignty and Republicanism
4. Issues centering on economic contribution
of American colonies to English empire:
Drain or gain?
Causes of the American Revolution-cont.
• English leaders’ position: Colonies were a drain.
Colonists were NOT paying their fair share of costs
• American colonial leaders responded: Wrong,
wrong, wrong!!-Trade drained wealth to England. It
kind of balanced out.
– Importance of Specie (gold/silver coin)
Causes of the American Revolution-cont.
5. American colonies have a different ethnocolonial mix
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Puritan element in American culture dominant
Many colonists non-English
What is England? British Isles include Scotland, Wales,
Ireland
Non-British strain, esp. Dutch, German, and African
Causes of the American Revolution-cont.
6. Emergence of new values in American
rooted in an Anglo-American identity
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Most important value is equality. Meaning of
equality: English & American the same
Importance of this to American leaders:
Benjamin Franklin as an example
Road to Revolution:1763-1776
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1. Stamp Act Crisis: 1765-66
Events serve to inflame relations between colonists and
English leaders
Stamp Act and its analysis
Protest: the Virginia Resolves
Protest: Violence in Massachusetts
Complex factors: local politics and resistance to England
combine explosively
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Protest: Stamp Act Congress
Protest: Economic Warfare
Repealing the Stamp Act & the Declaratory Act
Road to Revolution:1763-1776 (cont.)
2.
Townsend Duties Crisis: 1767-1770
• Townsend Acts & related actions by Parliament
• Circular Letter initiated in Massachusetts
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Caution of colonial radicals. Role of Sam Adams
Overreaction in London whips up radicals
Boston as center of resistance
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Arrival of the Board of Customs Commissioners: Imperail
Bureaucracy & the response of Boston
Violent résistance to the acts of the Board
Dispatch of two regiments of the Royal Army to Boston.
Commander is Thomas Gage
March 6, 1770: Boston Massacre
Road to Revolution:1763-1776 (cont.)
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Resistance: Economic Warfare
Tea Act Crisis & Aftermath: 1773-1776
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Tea Act: Bailout for the British East India Company. How it
affected the colonies
Resistance & the Boston Tea Party (Dec. 1773)
London’s response: the Intolerable (or Coercive) Acts
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Boston Port Act
Massachusetts Government Act
Massachusetts Judiciary Act
Quartering Act
Resistance—First Continental Congress-Sept. 1774
Continental Association: Economic warfare becoming a
revolutionary government
Road to Revolution:1763-1776 (cont.)
• Road to Independence
– Outbreak of war and what to do next
– Significance of Thomas Paine’s Common Sense
– July 1776: Proclaiming Independence
War for Independence
• Strategies
– Strategy of the American Revolutionary Army
• Force England to withdraw from its American colonies and
grant those colonies independence. This means forcing
England to withdraw its military forces.
• Continental Army provided weak opposition to the English
military machine. Its General, George Washington, focused on
preserving the Army, avoiding regular battles, and launching
raids against English outposts and isolated units
• Playing to political opposition in England against its
government’s war policy. Build pressure to force government
to change its war policy, withdraw the military, and grant
independence
• It worked! A weak army defeated Europe’s strongest military
machine
• Strategy pursued by the English military
machine.
• England possessed both powerful, well-trained and
well-equipped army and navy, probably the best
military machine in Europe
• Leaders of the government believed that it faced in
America a small group of trouble makers who
refused to see themselves as subordinate to England
• England intended to use its military machine to
crush the trouble makers by using overwhelming
military might
• Political and military leaders did not appreciate the
widespread nature of the rebellion
• Capturing strategic points was important goal,
although there were no strategic points in America
War for Independence—Cont.
• War in New England: 1775-1776
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April 19, 1775: Battle of Lexington-Concord
May 1775: Formation of the Continental Army
June 17, 1775: Battle of Bunker Hill
Siege of Boston. Engish withdrawal in late
March 1776
• May 1775: Importance of a minor skirmish at Fort
Ticonderoga in wilderness of New York
War for Independence—Cont.
• War in the Middle Colonies: 1776-1777
– August-November 1776. Battle for New York City
– December 26, 1776: Continental Army & Raid on
Trenton
– General William Howe & the Capture of Philadelphia
• Howe’s reliance on the Royal Navy
• September 1777: Battle of Brandywine Creek opened road to
Philadelphia
– Saratoga Campaign: July-October 1777
War for Independence—Cont
– Saratoga Campaign: July-October 1777
• General John Burgoyne’s campaign to win the war: Complex
plan, based on unrealistic geography and fantasy
• Burgoyne’s march to disaster
– Philip Schuyler: Skilled in war of harassment, taking full
advantage of geography in northern New York
– Setbacks: Failure in Mohawk Valley & Battle of Bennington
– Two Battles of Freeman’s Farm: Sept. 19 & Oct.7
• Burgoyne’s surrender to General Horatio Gates: Oct 19
• Meaning of this surrender makes this victory a turning point
War for Independence—Cont
• War in the South: 1778-1781
– England faced a new world war with France
and Spain entering the war
– England’s “Southern Strategy”. Conquer the
South—establish a base
– First Phases
• Georgia easily conquered
• South Carolina: English victories at Charleston &
Camden. Revolutionary fervor abating
– Battle of King’s Mountain & General Nathanael
Greene: Turning points
War for Independence—Cont
– Greene’s strategy: “Winning by losing”
• January 1781: General Dan Morgan’s victory at
Cowpens
• Greene vs. Cornwallis. What does Greene do to
destroy the effectiveness of a much stronger army?
– March 1781: Battle of Guilford Courthouse
• Cornwallis’s retreat to Yorktown
– October 1781: Cornwallis’s world turned
upside down at Yorktown
– England’s abandonment of its war policy
War for Independence—Cont
• 1783:Paris Peace Treaty
– England recognized independence of the United
States
– England agreed to recognize the Mississippi
River as the western boundary of the United
States
– England agreed to withdraw its military forces
from within the boundary of the United States
Thomas Jefferson & the Revolution
1. Introduction: Making a real revolution
2. Eliminating aristocratic elements in property
law. No entail. No primogeniture
3. Liberty of Conscience, including legal
recognition of right to freedom of religion
4. Emphasis on the West as key to American
growth
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Ordinance of 1785
Northwest Ordinance of 1787
Making of a New Constitution & Its
Aftermath
• Coming of the 1787 Constitutional Convention
– Shays Rebellion
• Constitutional Convention: May-Sept. 1787
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James Madison and the Virginia Plan
Great Compromise
3/5 Compromise
Other provisions
• Ratification.
– Hamilton, Madison, and Jay and The Federalist Papers
Implementing a new government
1. The New Government
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Bill of Rights. First 10 Amendments to the
Constitution
Alexander Hamilton’s Financial Policies & the Birth
of the first party system: Republicans vs. Federalists
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Hamilton, as first Treasury Secretary. His three reports
trigger debates with Madison & Jefferson in opposition
Funding the national debt & creating a national bank
More profound than partisan debate.
 Federalists, more or less, respected the English model of
government as a successful model
 Republicans rejected this model. To them, the American
Revolution met rejecting England as a model
Implementing a new government (cont.)
2. Impact of a Revolution in France:1789-1799
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Initial response in United States was highly favorable
As French Revolution became more radical, it
became an emotional force polarizing the Federalists
& Republicans
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Federalist paranoia of Republicans as pro-French
subversives and terrorists
Republican paranoia of a pro-English monocracy (monarchy
+ aristocracy)
Implementing a new government (cont.)
• Revolution triggers new war between England &
France. U.S. tries to stay neutral, but the war kept
getting caught up in United States politics
– U.S. tried to avoid war, but there is a French military
alliance
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1793: Neutrality Proclamation
1794: L’affaire de Citoyen Genet
1795: Jay Treaty
1796: Presidential Election
1797: XYZ Affair and the Quasi War with France
1798: Alien and Sedition Acts
1800: Convention of 1800 terminated the French alliance
1801: Jefferson & the Republicans gain control of U.S.
government
Republicans in power
1. Marbury v Madison. John Marshall empowering
the Supreme Court
2. 1803-Louisiana Purchase. Doubling the territory
of the U.S. Western boundary now the crest of
the Rocky Mountains
3. War of 1812. 1812-1815
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Peace of Ghent (1814). Ended war on basis of status
quo ante
Battle of New Orleans. January 1815