The American Revolution

1. The American Revolution The founding of the United States of America.

3. Early Colonization • English Colonization in America • What did England Colonize? -10 colonies along the Northern Atlantic -3 colonies that they seized from the Dutch -These colonies are the basis of the United States today • Motives of the English Government. • World Power: Equating a colonial empire with world power the government encouraged settlement. • Mercantilism: An economic theory that a country should try to get and keep as much gold and silver as possible by exporting more than they import. Under this theory, colonies would assure raw materials and markets for English manufactures, trade for merchants, and revenues for the government

4. Motives of the English Settlers • Religious Freedoms: Catholics, dissenting protestants(ex: Quakers, Puritans, Pilgrims) suffered discrimination in England. • Political Reasons: To escape government tyranny and political unrest many English moved to the colonies. • Economic Reasons: Wealthy landowners began fencing in land for use as sheep pastures and new farming techniques. This enclosure movement displaced tenant farmers. • To start anew with the possibility of acquiring their own farms & businesses, many poor men began to look to the New World.

5. QUESTIONS • What did England Colonize? • Why would people move to the New World? • Why would the government encourage people to move to the New World? • What is Mercantilism? • Why would Mercantilism help England?

7. Factors Leading to Revolution The Seven Years War (AKA: The French and Indian War 1754-1763) • War between France and Britain that started when Virginia Militia clashed with French forces for control of the Ohio Valley. • Treaty of Paris ended the war and eliminated France as a colonial power. Ceded all of Canada and land east of the Mississippi except New Orleans.

8. Effects of the French and Indian War • The colonies: • gained confidence and felt they should be full-fledged citizens of a great empire. • Gained valuable military experience • Saw a need for colonial unity to solve a common problem • Had the danger of attack by the French and some native American tribes removed. • England: • Determined to change policy of “salutary neglect” for the colonies. • Felt that the colonies had gained much from the war and that they should help pay some of the cost of the war.

9. Salutary Neglect England’s policy of not interfering in the American Colonies’ politics and economy as long as such neglect served British economic interests.

10. Questions • What is the Seven Year’s War? • What is the Treaty of Paris? • Did the French and Indian War have any effect on the colonies? • How did the War effect England? • What is “Salutary Neglect?”

11. Britain’s New Policy for Colonial America • Enforce Existing laws • The Navigation Acts: Laws requiring that colonists • Transport their goods ONLY on English ships • Export certain goods (i.e.: Tobacco, sugar, indigo, fur, etc.) ONLY to England • Purchase their imports from Britain or when colonial ships secured non-British goods, they stop at a British port and pay duties or tariffs. • Writs of Assistance: allowed British officials to enter and search colonial homes and merchant ships they believed to be holding smuggled goods.

12. Britain's New Policy for the Colonies 3. New Taxes • Sugar Act 1764: reduced the existing duties on sugar imports and molasses but was strictly enforced. • Stamp Act 1765: 1st direct taxation of colonists. Required the purchase of stamps to be put on ALL printed material. • Townshend Acts: new import taxes on lead, paper, glass, paint, and tea. • Tea Act: created to save the British East India Company. Allowed BEI to sell surplus tea in the colonies but retained the tax on Tea. • New Laws • Proclamation of 1763: Prohibited colonists from settling west of the Appalachian mountains • Quartering Act of 1765: required colonists to provide food and living quarters for British soldiers.

13. Britain’s New Policy for Colonial America • Colonists accused of violating the new laws were tried in Military courts where they were denied a jury trial.

14. Colonial Opposition Colonial Opposition • Violated the laws-continued smuggling to avoid import duties, settled beyond Appalachian mountains. • Committees of Correspondence-started by Samuel Adams, provided an inter colonial network of information • Boycotts and Demonstrations • Non importation Agreements: Pledges not to import British goods until Stamp Act repealed

15. Colonial Resistance • 1764 Sugar Act: colonists responded with written protests, occasional boycotts, and cries of “NO TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESNTATION!” • 1765 Stamp Act: Violent protests. Stamp Act congress called and devised a boycott of all British goods. • 1765 Quartering Act: Most colonial legislatures refused to pay for supplies for the army as required.

16. Colonial Resistance • 1767 Townshend Acts: “letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania,” a widely read series of letters protesting the act, were published in nine colonial newspapers. Colonists resumed boycotting British goods, cutting trade in half. • March 5, 1770 The Boston Massacre: • A mob gathered in from of the Boston Customs House and taunted British soldiers standing guard. Shots were fired and five colonists, including Crispus Attcuks, were killed. <insert video>

18. Colonial Resistance • 1773 The Boston Tea Party: A large group of Boston rebels disguised themselves as Native Americans and proceeded to take action against three British Tea ships. They dumped 18,000 pounds of Tea into Boston harbor. • 1774 The Intolerable Acts: Closed Boston Harbor, until the tea was paid for. Other acts eliminated self-government in Massachusetts and required colonists to house soldiers in their homes.

19. OUTBREAK OF REVOLUTION • 1st Continental Congress • Planned to present a united response to the boycotting of British goods. All colonies but Georgia represented. • Lexington and Concord, April 18, 1775 • British troops moved under cover of night to seize the weapons stockpiled in Concord and arrest John Hancock and Samuel Adams. Warned by Paul Revere, Minutemen were waiting and fighting broke out.

20. The 2nd Continental Congress • May 1775 • Two paths emerged • Creation of a Continental army under Gen. Washington • Olive Branch Petition reaffirming their loyalty and seeking a halt to the fighting until a solution could be reached. Was rejected in November 1775 by King George. • Meanwhile: The Battle of Bunker Hill, and a British Naval Blockade went into effect spurring the Colonist to action.

21. Declaration of Independence • July 4, 1776 • The Continental Congress committee choose Thomas Jefferson to draft a statement of reason for the separation of the Colonies from England. • Jefferson was heavily influenced by the Enlightenment thinker John Locke. • CLASS READING OF DECLARATION WITH DISCUSSION

22. The Revolutionary War • Important Battles of the Revolutionary War: • Saratoga: The American Victory at Saratoga convinced the French to help the Americans • Yorktown: The final battle. Reinforced by French troops and the French Navy moving in from the Caribbean, Washington moved on the British stronghold of Yorktown

23. Articles of Confederation • Written in 1776, approved in 1781, the Articles of Confederation were the 1st set of laws to govern the U.S. • Under the Articles: • Consisted of just a congress with no judicial or executive branches • Each state had one vote, 9 votes needed to pass anything, any amendments required all 13 states.

24. Articles of Confederation • Congress did not have the power to tax-had to beg for money from the states • All law enforcement left to states • Had no power to stop states from issuing their own money. • States would ignore the federal requests for troops • No power over interstate or foreign commerce • No power to make the states do wheat they wanted.

25. Articles of Confederation • Brought Revolution to a Successful Close • Negotiated the treaty of Paris • Kept States united in name if not in fact • Passed the Land Ordinance of 1785 • Provided western lands be surveyed and divided into townships of 36 sections. Income from the land sold no less than a $1 per acre • Passed the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 • Declared the territory would be divided into no more than 5 territories and forbade Slavery in the territories and encouraged Public Education.

26. Shay’s Rebellion • Daniel Shay’s led a debtors in an armed rebellion seeking to end imprisonment for debt, halve foreclosures of farm mortgages, and compel the stats to issue cheap paper money. The Congress was helpless to act and had to rely on the Massachusetts State Militia.

27. Constitutional Convention • May 1787 • Delegates begin arriving in Philadelphia. They were assembling to revise the Articles at first but it soon became clear that dramatic changes were in store. • The convention had 55 delgates