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Paper 2: THE Birth of The USA(Topic 2G)
Contents: Covers AS and A-level content
AS (Year 12)
Þ Relations between the American colonies and the Mother
country, 1760-63
Þ Enforcing the Colonial Relationship
Þ The end of the Colonial relationship and the lead up to war
A-Level (Year 13)
Þ The War of Independence (Key events, Strengths &
Weaknesses, why it was lost)
Þ Founding the Republic (development of republicanism)
Þ Washington and Adams
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Relations between the American colonies and the Mother
Country, 1760-63
Different social and ethnic groups of the colonies
• The Colonies were divided into three groups: the New England colonies (New
Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut), the Middle colonies (New
York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware) and the Southern colonies (Maryland,
Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia)
• Between 1750 and 17 70 the population of the Thirteen Colonies rose from 1.25 million
to over 2.3m
• Virginia was the largest colony in population and land area with 500,000
• There were only five towns of any size, all of which seaports, (Philadelphia, New
York, Boston, Newport and Charleston)
• 400,000 people from Europe and Africa migrated to the Thirteen colonies between 1700
and 1763.
• Less than one fifth of eighteenth-century migrants were English
• The largest group of immigrants were Scots-Irish Protestants (150,000)
• 65,000 Germans crossed the Atlantic, with many settling in Pennsylvania, making up ⅓
of the colony’s population with smaller immigrant groups including Dutch and Swedes
• By 1763, there were 350,000 slaves (⅙ of the entire population)
• 90 % lived in the South
• Settlers did not assimilate with the Native Americans, with their presence still a
powerful force west of the Appalachian Mountains
Style of government and society
• In most colonies, the governor was appointed and could be removed only by the King.
• This did not include: proprietary colonies (Maryland, Pennsylvania and Deleware -
where the proprietor who ran the colony appointed the governor) and corporate
colonies (Connecticut and Rhode Island - governors were popularly elected)
• Governors in theory had large powers but could be dismissed at will by the British
government and were dependent for revenue on colonial assemblies
• Colonial assemblies consisted of two houses: the Upper House (appointed by the
governor, generally colonial elites enlisted to serve as an advisory board to the governor)
and Lower House (this was an elected house, it retained considerable power but was
prone to the veto of legislation by the sitting governor)
• British rule was primarily tied up with charters, but in the case of the colonies was
conferred by Parliament to review colonial laws.
• Responsibility for colonial supervision lay with the Board of Trade, with agencies such as
the Treasury, War Office and the Admiralty having other roles in the administration
• Colonies tended to employ agents in Britain to warn of any pending measures that would
affect the colonies
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Economic issues and mercantilism
• The British government realised it was best not to stir up trouble in the colonies and left
the Colonies to their own devices. This was known as ‘salutary neglect’.
• The presumption in Britain was that the colonies were subject to parliamentary legislation
whilst the colonists did not necessarily accept this view
• Farming remained the dominant economic activity, employing nine-tenths of the working
population albeit with great diversity from region to region
• Ie. Tobacco was the mainstay of the southern economy, rising to £100m by the 1770s
whilst rice, indigo and grain was also produced for export
• Mercantilism: the belief that colonies existed essentially to serve the economic interests
of the mother country
• The Trade and Navigation Acts were met with few complaints by Americans as the
system was not well enforced, high duties rarely collected
• Deputies sent to perform their duties were easily bribed
• American products thus enjoyed a protected market in Britain and its Empire, with its
shipping profiting by the exclusion of foreign ships from colonial trade
The struggle with France
• Britain declared war on France in 1756
• Britain were losing the war until William Pitt was recalled to power in 1757
• Pitt adjudged that defeating France in North America was the key to ultimate victory
Results of Seven Years’ War
• Britain received Canada and all French possessions east of the Mississippi
• Britain acquired most of France’s Caribbean islands
• Britain acquired Florida from Spain
• France ceded Louisiana to Spain
• Britain became the world’s leading imperial power, controlling North America, the
Caribbean and much of India
• Ironically, the war gave training to men who later became senior officers in the
American army
• Mutual contempt existed between some American and British soldiers, with the British
officers regarding the Americans as a rabble whilst the Americans considered the British
officers to be incompetent
• Americans, particularly those living close to the frontier (ie Virginia), expected to
benefit from the expulsion of the French, with a huge area of western land beyond
the Appalachian mountains seemingly open for settlement
• French elimination from North America weakened the colonists’ sense of military
dependence on Britain
Britain by 1763
• Population rose to 7.5 million, with most tied up in farming
• However, the Industrial Revolution began to take effect
• British society was hierarchical, with high offices taken mostly by nobility and their
relations.
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