Summary American Independence : The Revolutionary War
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Course
American Independence
Institution
University Of Sussex (UoS)
Summarises the seven years war, the Intolerable Acts, rising revolutionary acts and writers including Thomas Paine, Boston Tea Party, Lexington and Concord. Also, Jeffersonians, Federalists, the U.S. Constitution, Capitalism, Democracy, and Manifest Destiny in Jacksonian America.
The American Revolution and the War of Independence
The seven years war 1754-1763
★ Washington attacked + destroyed a small french patrol + so the french force +
their Indian allies surrounded the camp + fired on them
★ 1755 , British sent troops to seize the French frontier
★ The French + Indians were able to exploit the forest despite only having half
as many men
★ French took the offensive in 1756 + 1757
★ Hunger prevailed in Canada in 1757+1758 + French troops received less than
their usual rations
★ The skyrocketing food prices devastated the Canadian economy + bankrupted
the colonial government
★ France began to pull out + focus on europe
★ The British conquest of Canada cost about £4M, more than 10X what the
French spent to defend it
★ After this, the British won multiple other Global victories against france,
portugal, spain including the philippines, lagos, senegal + many caribbean
islands
★ To regain cuba, the spanish traded Florida with the british
★ Humiliated, France and Spain aimed to rebalance power at the next
opportunity, Britain was regarded as too powerful and had no European allies
to back them anymore
★ The british had replaced the French as an expansionist power
Indian Rebellions
- After the british took the french colonies they began treating the indians
harshly
- The first rebellion took place on the South Carolina frontier
- Some ruthless settlers invaded cherokee islands and scalped them, being paid
£50, others only stole their deers
- In 1759 the cherokee took revenge by killing 30 settlers
- 1761, british colonial forces invaded the Cherokee country to destroy 15 towns
and kill their crops creating mass hunger
- The cherokee had aimed to procure a supply of arms from the french but the
british had blocked the shipments to Louisiana
- They had also expected assistance from the Creek confederacy, the most
numerous and most powerful native peoples in the south east but the creek
relied on their carolina suppliers and so stayed neutral
- The cherokee surrendered to make peace
- In 1763 multiple native groups came together against the british despite
cultural differences
, - During this year natives managed to capture most british forts around
the Great Lakes + the Ohio Valleys, hoping to lure the french back but the
natives failed to capture the 3 largest posts : Detroit, Niagara + Fort Pitt
- In response the british began massacring native groups regardless of their
alignment
Empire of Liberty
★ The colonists clung to Independence as they could own land unlike in GB
★ Free colonists defended their property rights
★ Until the American Revolutionary War of 1774, few colonists aspired to
national independence
★ When war broke out in 1755, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland + Quebec remain
loyal as they depended on british protection + markets
★ By 1763 the british had alienated + lost their most important colonies
★ British were in a false sense of security due to their previous wins against
france + spain
Impact of the Seven Years War (1763)
Greatly expanded British territorial claims on the North American continent, BUT:
● Imperial crisis
- The war was very costly and had necessitated expanding the military
significantly
- During the war, Britain had doubled their debt from £73M to £137M
- In the mid 1760s, income fell
- Most of the money had been borrowed from the Dutch
● Overseas naval management had become unmanageable
- The need to raise money to service the national debt and cover military
expenditures led British politicians to introduce new taxes on their
American colonies
- Believed that the colonies should be making Britain money and so
implemented The Sugar Act + The Stamp Act → made to extract
the most from the colonies
- The Sugar Act (1764) – upset merchants in the north-eastern
colonies in particular
- Merchants had been secretly smuggling french sugar and so if they
were caught they no longer had rights by jury (a protection under
english common law)
- The Stamp Act (1765) – affected virtually everyone and offended
virtually everyone
- Many artisans saw british culture as a sign of moral decay
● Attack on political freedom
- Attacks on newspapers and pamphlets
- In reaction the colonies boycotted certain British goods
- Response to the Stamp Act → organised mobs eg The Sons of Liberty
, - August 26, 1765, a violent crowd of Bostonians assaulted the home of
Thomas Hutchinson, chief justice and lieutenant governor of
Massachusetts.
- Hutchinson and his family were eating dinner when the rioters arrived.
They barely had time to escape before the crowd broke down the front
door and proceeded to destroy or carry off most of their possessions,
including paintings, furniture, silverware, and notes for a history of
Massachusetts Hutchinson was writing.
- By the time they departed, only the outer walls of the home remained
standing.
- Sep 1765 nearly 3000 NYs mobbed an officer and then went to Fort
George
- 5 Nov 1765, the taxes were ended
A revolution in thought
The Stamp Act stimulated resistance among colonists as they perceived it as British
encroachments on their liberties and privileges. This revolution in thought was
rooted in three major intellectual traditions:
1. A strong belief in the traditions of Common Law
- Tied in the past + early english history
- The new taxes defied the common law, shattering justice
- Violation of their rights as englishmen
2. A belief in rationalist enlightenment thought
- The natural state of government is similar to that of a family eg the king
as a father
- esp the work of John Locke, on the natural rights of man and the
concept of the social contract
- Locke → citizens give their assent to be governed
3. Whig political thought
- Oppositional form of politics born in england in the late C17
- opposition to absolute parliamentary rule
- Main thinkers → John Trenchard & Thomas Gordon, Cato’s Letters
(1721)
- Fiercely critical of the political situation in England
- The safest form of government to protect liberty is run by several
groups that keep each other in check
- Sited by B.Franklin
Enforcing non-importation
- The Wool Act of 1699
- Hat Act of 1732
- Iron Act of 1750
forbade colonial manufacturing of these items.
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