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Proclamation Line: Virginia is the colony most affected
Angered colonists because they felt cheated out of land, most largely ignored it as border controls were lose. It was marked by the Appalachian mountains. It kind of acted as a buffer zone between anglo-american colonists and the French and Indians, also protected British mercantilist system. The Royal Proclamation was more successful in its ability to restrict the aims of private, Virginia-based land companies and their investors who sought to capitalize on the sale of lands in the Ohio Valley. -
Sugar Act
Most Affected Colonies: New England rum distilleries in Massachusetts and Rhode Island. Also affected tidewater elites drinking tea. Reinforced idea of unfair taxation without parliament representation. De jure tax reduction form 6d to 3d but a de facto tax increase as before the sugar act only 1d was collected on average due to salutary neglect. -
Currency Act
Prohibited the printing and issuance of paper money by colonial legislatures. Made it difficult to pay off colonial war debt from 7 years war, creates tension between colonist and british merchants. Banned colonial fake money -
Mutiny (Quartering) Act
Colonies were required to house British Red Coats in quarters provided by the colonists. -
Stamp Act
Required everything to carry stamps so everything more expensive especially for influential people in the colonies like lawyers and printers. Movement of 'No taxation without representation' starts, here leads to organized groups like the Stamp act congress and the Sons of Liberty. All classes affected-even birth certificates have stamps. -
Virginia Resolves
Patrick Henry passes these:
• The colonists possessed the rights of Englishmen
• Their rights were guaranteed by royal charter
• They could be taxed only if they had proper representation • Colonists had the right to give their consent to their laws
• The House of Burgesses had the sole right to tax Virginians
This inspired another 8 colonies to do the same -
Merchants in new York: Non-Importation agreement against british goods until stamp act repealed
Wider Boycott of British goods begins and shows colonists they have economic independence from Britain. -
Declaratory Act
Gives the British Parliament full authority to make laws 'to b ind the colonies and people of America in all cases whatsoever'.It stated that the British Parliament's taxing authority was the same in America as in Great Britain- essentially, end of Salutary neglect. Stamp act is also repealed alongside this. -
Townshend Acts
1st- New York restraining act: prohibits new york assembly from taking legislative decisions until compliance with quartering act 2nd- Towshend Duties: new taxes on colonial imports of glass, wine, china, lead paint, paper, tea. Moderate taxes- would raise around £40,000/year. Repealed in 1770 -
American Board of Customs Commissioners was created
Placed in Boston. Strictness on tax evaders and smugglers. -
Boston Massacre
British soldiers at the state house attacked by a mob of Bostonians. A snowball hits one of the red coats and he shoots by accidents. And the rest follow- five shot dead
8 redcoats brought to trial, 2 found guilty and 6 were acquitted. John Adams defended them as their lawyer. -
Gaspee Incident
British which enforced navigation acts around rhode Island (HMS Gaspee) ran aground, a few member of the sons of liberty led by Abraham Whipple boarded and torched it -
Tea Act
Introduced to revive the East India Co. by allowing it to export and sell tea directly to teh colonies wihtout being taxed by briths ports, whilst the olonists still had to a pay a tax for it. EIC undercut prices from American merchants and Dutch tea so caused the loss of many jobs. -
Boston Tea Party
From 28 of Nov when ships Dartmouth (114 chests of East India Co. tea)
2 Dec ship Eleanor arrives
15 Dec ship Beaver arrives
Dec-16 60 sons of Liberty men dressed in Mohawk Native Americans boarded the three ships and threw 342 chests of tea into the harbour (£10,000)
No british troops intervention for fear of worsening crisis. (Admiral Montagu and troops station in Castle Williams) -
Coercive Acts AKA Intolerable acts
4 laws to punish Boston for their tea party
- The Boston Port Act
- The Massachusetts Government Act
- The Impartial Administration of Justice Act
- A new Quartering Act (now allowed British troops to also occupy empty buildings) Essentially took away self-governance -
Quebec act
Mistake by Lord North
Land given back to Quebec colony in Ohio river valley was a huge blow to colonists who had fought with France over this. Creates huge tension. -
First Continental Congress
Met in Philly from 5 Sept to 26 Oct Full Trade Boycott agreed
and agree to meet in May 1775 -
Second Continental Congress
May 1775-March 1781 -
Outbreak of War: General Gage receives letters from Lord Dartmouth which ordered him to arrest rebel leaders and use force to disarm the population
Sep 1774- Powder Alarm. Gage successfully seizes weapons and ammunitions
Feb 1775- Gage fails at Salem
18 April- he send men to arrest members of the Provincial Congress Sam Adams and John Hancock
19 April- Path of British troops stopped by 70 minutemen at Lexington, shots fired, 8 colonists killed.
At concord British fail to arrest leaders
On return to Boston British suffered 273 casualties compared to 92 of the colonists. -
Bunker Hill
British pyrrhic Victory
King George III declares open state of rebellion 23 August 1775 -
Virginia Declaration of Rights
Written by George Mason
It enumerated those fundamental English liberties which
Americans had come to regard as their own: freedom of
expression, worship and assembly, the subordination of military to civil power, the right to jury trial, protection against cruel and unusual punishments and guarantees against self-incrimination, against arrest without knowing one’s accuser and against search warrants -
State Constitutions: - All the constitutions agreed that sovereignty ultimately resided with the people
- All concerned about the separation of powers. Virginia was the first state to propose that the ‘the legislative, executive and judiciary departments shall be separate and distinct’
- two houses (except Pennsylvania and Georgia) lower house (for the people) upper house (or Senate) (for the ‘gentlemen’)
- property ownership or payment of taxes to vote
- Every state (except Pennsylvania) had an executive head (the governor), chosen by the legislature (1 year terms) (only in ny&mass can they veto)
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Common Sense Published
50 page-long 500,000 copies sold In Paine’s view, rule by nobility, oligarchy or faction was no more compatible with republicanism than rule by a king The idea of republicanism was not yet interchangeable with the idea of democracy but it did imply a form of government which represented the whole people. Republicanism, essentially, was government by the consent of the governed -
Congress adopted a resolution by John Adams calling on all states that did not have a permanent constitution based on popular sovereignty to adopt one
Between 1776 and 1780 all the states but two adopted new
constitutions (The exceptions were Rhode Island and Connecticut which merely revised their colonial charters, deleting all reference to royal authority)
Most of the new state constitutions were drawn up and put into effect by state legislatures without specific authorisation from the electorate. A few were the work of specially elected conventions (Massachussets) -
Pennsylvania Constitution: In June 1776 the radicals called for a special convention to draft a new state constitution. Traditional property requirements for voting were waived, benefiting the previously under-represented frontier areas
The Pennsylvania constitutional convention, consisting of 96
delegates (including Benjamin Franklin), sat from July until
September 1776
- Legislative powers were vested in a single assembly
- The assembly was to be elected annually by all taxpayers over the age of 21
- No requirements to be elected
- Instead of a governor there was to be an elected twelve-member executive council -
Battle of Brooklyn (Long island)
General Howe and Admiral Howe slow attack on New York. Both are looking to negotiate with the patriots before and during attack.
Allows Washington to escape with his army intact -
Battle of Trenton
Crosses the icy Delaware river with 2,400 men to attack 1,500 hessian forces led by Johann Rall which were down. -
Two New York counties – Gloucester and Cumberland – formed themselves into a separate state of Vermont in 1777
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Battle of Princeton
Together with Trenton first victories of the Continental army. Defeats Cornwallis here -
1st Battle of Saratoga (Freeman's farm) British Victory
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General Howe occupies Philadelphia (capital city of the revolutionaries), Liberty bell is hidden as a symbol of the revolution- it rang during the first reading of the declaration of independence
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2nd Battle of Saratoga (Bemis Heights) Patriots win.
General Burgoyne surrenders his entire army on the 17th
General Burgoyne marched from Canada down towards New York.
Plan was to cut the New England colonies off.
Poor communication with Clinton in New York and Howe going down to Philadelphia.
Burgoyne’s army surrounded and he surrendered 8,000 British redcoats to General Horatio Gates, war hero as a consequence.
This is the first time a British army surrenders huge importance
Clinton replaces Howe after Saratoga disaster. -
Clinton begins the Southern strategy
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France signs alliance with United States and declares war on Britain
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Baron von Steuben (Prussian military officer) arrives at Valley Forge and trains the Continental Army. Conditions in camp are poor, 1/3 don't have shoes. Winter encampment 20 miles north of Philly of 11,000 men.
Camps lasts from Dec 1777-June 1778. Perfect place atop a hill and surrounded by hills, close form Philly to keep an eye on the British At this time too Washington leadership is being questioned (9/13 battles won) by the 'Conway Cabal' trio which includes Horatio Gates He was accused of incompetence and dictatorial ambitions by the trio who had just been appointed to the Board of War by congress and would oversee the war effort jointly with Washington -
Spain enters war against Britain
121 coalition ships of the line (the great wooden battleships employed from the seventeenth to the mid-nineteenth centuries) vs 90 for Royal Navy. Main Spanish aim during war was Gibraltar -
Massachussets Constitution: Convention, with 300 delegates elected meets to draft it. Resulting document, largely the work of John Adams, closely resembled the previous colonial system:
- There was to be a bicameral legislature
- The legislators were to be elected by males over 21 who earned £3 per year in freehold property or had £60 in total property
- Senators were required to have £600 total property and representatives £200
- The governor, elected to a four-year term, had extensive powers, including the right to veto legislation
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Southern strategy: British take Charleston
Clinton leaves General Cornwallis in charge in the South and returns to defend New York. Cornwallis only has 4,000 men -
Battle of Camden
Huge British win in Southern campaign. Cornwallis defeats Horatio gates. Even though American double in size (4,000 men) -
Dutch Join war as Britain declares war on them for helping the americans
137 ships of the line (the great wooden battleships employed from the seventeenth to the mid-nineteenth centuries) vs 94 for R. Navy. -
De Grasse defeats Royal Navy at Chesapeake
The battle was strategically decisive, in that it prevented the Royal Navy from reinforcing or evacuating the besieged forces of Lieutenant General Lord Cornwallis at Yorktown, Virginia. On the 28th the siege of Yorktown begins -
Siege of Yorktown ends in American victory
Cornwallis surrenders and the Britain end their control over the colonies -
House of Commons vote to cease hostilities
And later in March Lord North resigns as PM -
Treaty of Paris: Generous terms given to America as Britain wants to create an ally against France. Britain lost the 13 colonies, Menorca and Florida to Spain, Trincomalee to Holland and St Lucia, Goree and Pondicherry to France
Drafted on Nov 30th 1782 Signed Sept 3rd 1783.
Wider Consequences:
- Debt rises to 232 million pounds
- British economy recovered quickly. Reached pre-war trade levels by 1785 with the former 13 colonies.
- Value of British exports to Europe doubled between 1783-1792. Height of the Industrial Revolution
- North’s resignation led to election of a strong government (William Pitt as PM from 1784-1801)