EXPERIENCE OF EMPIRE: EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA

1. EXPERIENCE OF EMPIRE: EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA America: Past and Present Chapter 4

2. Growth and Diversity • 1700-1750--colonial population rises from 250,000 to over two million • Much growth through natural increase • Large influx of non-English Europeans

3. Distribution of European and African Immigrants

4. Ethnic Cultures of the Backcountry • 800 miles along Appalachian Range from western Pennsylvania to western Georgia • Already populated by Native Americans and African Americans • Large influx of European immigrants in the eighteenth century

5. Scotch-Irish Flee English Oppression • Many from Northern Ireland • Concentrate on the Pennsylvania frontier and Shenandoah Valley • Often regarded as a disruptive element

6. Germans Search for a Better Life • Fled from warfare in Germany • Admired as peaceful, hard-working farmers • Tried to preserve German language, customs • Aroused the prejudice of English neighbors

7. Convict Settlers • Transportation Act of 1718 allows judges to send convicted felons to American colonies • 50,000 convicts to America 1718-1775 • some felons were dangerous criminals • most committed minor crimes against property • life difficult for transported convicts • British praise system, colonists deplore it

8. Native Americans Stake Out a Middle Ground • Many eastern Indians moved into trans-Appalachian region • a "middle ground" where no colonial power was yet established • Remnants of different Indian peoples regrouped, formed new nations • European trade eventually weakened collective resistance to European aggression

9. Spanish Borderlands of the Eighteenth Century • Spain occupied a large part of America north of Mexico since sixteenth century • Range from Florida Peninsula to California • Indian resistance, lack of interest limited Spanish presence • Never a secure political or military hold on borderlands

10. Conquering the Northern Frontier • 1692—final establishment of Spanish rule in New Mexico after Popé’s revolt (1680) • 18th-century St. Augustine a Spanish military outpost unattractive to settlers • 1769—belated Spanish mission settlements in California to prevent Russian claims

11. Peoples of the Spanish Borderlands • Slow growth of Spanish population in borderlands • Spanish influence architecture, language • Spanish influence over Native Americans • Spanish exploit native labor • Indians live in proximity to Spanish as despised lower class • Indians resist conversion to Catholicism

12. The Spanish Borderlands, ca. 1770

13. The Impact of European Ideas on American Culture • Change in eighteenth-century colonies • Growth of urban cosmopolitan culture • Aggressive participation in consumption

14. Provincial Cities • Urban areas included Boston, Newport, New York, Philadelphia, and Charles Town • Economies were geared to commerce • Inhabitants took lead in adopting new fashions, the latest luxuries • Emulated British architecture • Cities attract colonists seeking opportunity

15. American Enlightenment • An intellectual movement stressing reasoned investigation of beliefs and institutions • optimistic view of human nature • view cosmos as orderly result of natural laws • belief in perfectibility of the world • search for practical ways of improving life • Mixed reception in America

16. Benjamin Franklin • Franklin (1706-1790) epitomized provincial, urban culture • Became a writer by emulating British literature • Achieved wealth through printing business • Dedicated to practical uses of reason, science

17. Economic Transformation • Rising demand for English, West Indian goods • Colonists paid for imports by • exporting tobacco, wheat, and rice • purchasing on credit • Dependence on commerce led to colonial resentment of English regulations • England restricted colonial manufacture or trade of timber, sugar, hats, and iron.

18. Birth of a Consumer Society • English mass-production of consumer goods stimulated rise in colonial imports • Wealthy Americans began to build up large debts to English merchants • Intercolonial, West Indian trade earn colonists the surplus needed for imports • Inter-colonial commerce gave Americans a chance to learn about one another

19. The Great Wagon Road

20. Religious Revivals in Provincial Societies • The Great Awakening was a series of revivals • revival: a phenomenon among Protestant Christians characterized by large meetings where large numbers experience religious conversion in response to gifted preaching • People began to rethink basic assumptions about church and state, institutions and society

21. The Great Awakening • Awakening occurred among many denominations in different places at different times • New England in the 1730s, Virginia in the 1750s and 1760s • Jonathan Edwards was a prominent minister during this time • His sermons encouraged people to examine their eternal destiny

22. The Voice of Popular Religion • George Whitefield symbolized the revivals • Whitefield preached outdoor sermons to thousands of people in nearly every colony • Itinerants disrupted established churches • Laypeople, including women and blacks, gain chance to shape their own religious institutions • The Awakening promoted a democratic, evangelical union of national extent

23. The Voice of Popular Religion (2) • Most revivalists well-trained ministers • Revivalists found Princeton, Dartmouth, Brown, and Rutgers • Revivalists held optimistic attitudes toward America's religious role in world history • Fostered American patriotism

24. Clash of Political Cultures • Colonists attempted to emulate British political institutions • Effort led to discovery of how different they were from the English people

25. The English Constitution • The British Constitution universally admired • not a written document, but a system of government based on statute and common law • Believed to balance monarchy, aristocracy and democracy • Balance believed to guarantee liberties

26. The Reality of British Politics • Less than 20% of English males could vote • Members of Parliament notorious for corruption and bribery • “Commonwealthmen” criticized corruption, urged return to truly balanced constitution

27. Governing the Colonies: The American Experience • Colonists attempt to model England’s balanced constitution • Royal governors • most incompetent • most bound by instructions from England • possessed little patronage for buying votes • little power to force their will • Governors’ councils steadily lose influence

28. Colonial Assemblies • Elected officials depended on popular sentiment • Assemblies more interested in pleasing constituents than in obeying the governor • Assemblies controlled all means of raising revenue • Assemblies jealously guarded their rights • Assemblies held more popular support than governor

29. Colonial Assemblies (2) • Commerce, communication, religion broaden colonists’ horizons by 1754 • Colonial law courts increasingly adopt English usage • Growing awareness of ideas, institutions, problems shared with England, each other

30. Century of Imperial War • British Americans increasingly drawn into European conflict during eighteenth century • Main opponents: France and Spain • British colonies militarily superior to New France but ineffective

31. North America, 1750

32. King William's and Queen Anne's Wars • King William’s War (1689-1697): French frontier raids on New York, New England • Queen Anne’s War (1702-1713): French frontier raids on North, Spanish South • Wars settled nothing • France subsequently extended its American empire from Canada into Louisiana

33. King George's War and Its Aftermath • Fought 1743-1748 • Embroiled colonists more extensively than earlier wars • 1745--New England troops captured Fort Louisbourg on Cape Breton Island • 1748--Louisbourg returned to France by Treaty of Aix-la-Chappelle • 1750s--fresh conflict over Ohio Valley

34. Albany Congress and Braddock's Defeat • Albany Congress, 1754--Benjamin Franklin propose plan for a central government • Albany Plan disliked by English and Americans, fails • 1755--General Edward Braddock leads force to drive French from Ohio Valley • Braddock’s army ambushed, destroyed

35. Seven Years' War • 1756--England declares war on France • Prime Minister William Pitt leads English to concentrate on North America • 1759--Quebec captured • 1763--Peace of Paris cedes to Great Britain all North America east of Mississippi

36. The Seven Years War, 1756-1763

37. Perceptions of War • Colonists realize how strong they could be when they worked together • English learn that Americans took forever to organize, easier to command obedience

38. North America after 1763

39. 7th ed. revisions by Don Whatley, Blinn College

40. Rule Britannia? • Most Americans bound to England in 1763 • Ties included • British culture • British consumer goods • British evangelists • British military victories • Empire seemed bound by affectionate ties