The Imperial Crisis

1. The Imperial Crisis 1763 - 1775

2. Developing Crisis • The colonies remained loyal Englishmen, though they continued to be unruly: they are seen on the home island as bordering on disloyal if not out right disloyal. • The colonists began to lobby for representation. They did not want representation in Parliament. They knew they would be outnumbered and ineffective as representatives in Parliament. • The colonists wanted the king to consult with their representative assemblies as he did with Parliament putting their assemblies on a equal basis with Parliament.

3. The New Imperial System • Three goals: • Provide for colonies’ security • Reassert crown’s authority over colonies • Shift financial burden of war debt and colonial defense to colonies

4. Proclamation of 1763

6. The New Imperial SystemOpening Moves Sugar Act 1764 – taxes sugar, coffee and other imports Currency Act of 1764 – prohibited use of colonial money: only the British pound was permissible Quartering Act of 1765 – required the garrisoning of British soldiers at colonial expense Stamp Act – Required a stamp on newspapers, pamphlets, cards, death certificates, etc. • Problems: tax with the sole purpose of raising revenue for England not colonies • Results • VA (led by Patrick Henry [laudanum head]) declared only it had the right to tax Virginians • Mob activity (burning the tax collectors in effigy; liberty poles) tar and feather • Repealed in 1766

7. George Grenville and his Stamps

8. The Stamp Act Crisis Colonial Responses • Political Actions • Popular Actions British Responses • British Merchants seek relief • Parliament Repeals the act in 1766 • Parliament passes the Declaratory Act • Parliament passes Revenue Act Lessons Learned

9. The Townshend Crisis Townshend Revenue Act of 1766 - Duty on lead, glass, paint, paper and tea Provocative moves - Seeks confrontation Colonial responses - Sons of Liberty - Circular letter Parliament’s response - Dissolve Assemblies - Increase British troops strength

10. The Boston Massacre

11. The Last Imperial Crisis Tea Act (1773) Boston Tea Party (1774) The Coercive Acts (1774) The First Continental Congress (1774) Lexington & Concord (1775)

12. The Boston Tea Party

13. Coercive (Intolerable) Acts Closed port of Boston Powers of Mass. Assembly & town meetings curtailed Permitted quartering of troops in private houses Imperial officers exempted from trial

14. The Opening Salvos September 1774 - Congress recommends that the colonies begin military preparations December 1774 - George III declares the New England colonies to be in a state of rebellion In early 1775 Gen. Gage ordered to restore royal rule in Mass by: • 1. Closing Massachusetts Assembly • 2. Arrest its leading members • 3. Capturing arms stockpiled by militia • By spring 1775, colonial leaders and the British commander both expected fighting to break out.

15. 19 April 1775 • General Thomas Gage • Commander-in-Chief, North America • Governor, Massachusetts Bay Colony • Order British column to Lexington and Concord searching for John Hancock, Sam Adams and munitions stores.

16. The midnight ride of Paul Revere & William Dawes

17. Opening Moves

18. “The shot heard ‘round the world”

19. Colonial Response to the New Imperial System • Benjamin Franklin -“Repeal the laws, Renounce the Right, Recall the troops, Refund the money, and return to the old methods”