§ Social Class system was based on wealth and occupation (Europe was based on birth)
§ Highest colonial social class was gentry
§ People were capable of moving into a new social class (social mobility)
§ This was a time period that emphasized science and reason as the guides to life.
§ John Locke introduced his social contract theory saying if government doesn’t do its job, the people should change it.
§ Benjamin Franklin was a great inventor during this time period.
§ By the 1730’s, more colonists were literate.
§ Many colonists couldn’t afford books, so a library system was created. Ben Franklin created the “Library Company of Philadelphia”
§ Communication and travel improved also.
§ Travel was done on old Native American foot trails.
§ Mail was slow and inefficient.
§ In 1753, Ben Franklin improved mail carrying.
§ This improved communication helped ideas spread. One of those ideas was revolution.
§ Throughout the 1700’s, France & Great Britain were both trying to become the most powerful country in Europe.
§ Several wars were fought over this, and it trickled into their colonies.
§ England, France, Spain, & Russia claimed lands in North America.
§ Russia – along the Pacific Coast (Alaska)
§ Spain – Florida & the present day Southwestern U.S.
§ England – 13 colonies
§ French – Canada along the Atlantic Coast, and the MS River Valley
§ France & England claimed the area known as the Ohio Valley located west of the Appalachian Mts. & south of the Great Lakes
§ French and English settlers moved to the area and conflicts erupted.
§ Native Americans inhabited the area
§ Native Americans had to choose sides
§ The Iroquois League supported the British
§ 1753 Virginia Governor Robert Dinwidie sent 21 year old George Washington to tell the French to leave the Ohio Valley b/c they were trespassing. The French refused to leave
§ Washington was ordered to build a fort at the forks of the Ohio. However, the French already built a fort here named Fort Duquesne. Washington attacked it and killed 10 French soldiers.
§ Washington and his men built a fort quickly and named it Fort Necessity. They were surrounded and captured by the French, but were later released.
§ With war approaching, colonial leaders tried to unite.
§ They wanted to unite for defense and fighting purposes.
§ Benjamin Franklin created the Albany Plan. This plan created a colonial council to handle military affairs and to raise a colonial army and navy.
§ The colonists refused this plan b/c they wanted each colony to handle their own affairs.
§ In 1755 2,000 British troops tried to capture Fort Duquesne under General Edward Braddock.
§ Braddock fought using traditional British tactics
§ On July 9, 1755 he was ambushed at Turtle Creek and 1,000 of his soldiers were killed.
§ The War officially began in 1756
§ William Pitt was named Minister of War in Britain.
§ Pitt thought the war would be won in the Americas and devoted his efforts here.
§ The British began winning victories in the Americas
§ British Gen. James Wolfe was given the task of capturing Quebec, capital of New France.
§ Quebec has walls surrounding it and it sits atop high bluffs on the St. Lawrence River
§ Wolfe failed a few times, but finally entered the city
§ General Wolfe and the French General Montcalm fought on the Plains of Abraham.
§ The British were victorious, but both generals were killed.
§ This virtually ended French power in Canada.
Treaty of Paris
§ The Treaty of Paris ended the French and Indian War in 1763
§ France had to give the following to Great Britain:
§ New France (Canada)
§ The Ohio Valley
§ And all lands east of the MS River (except for New Orleans)
§ Spain had to give Great Britain Florida
§ However, Spain gained all lands west of the MS River (Louisiana) and New Orleans
§ France was left with no holdings in North America
§ Pontiac’s Rebellion caused King George III to pass the Proclamation of 1763, which said colonists could not move beyond the Appalachian Mountains.
§ British Parliament wanted the colonies to pay for the war, Colonists thought the British should.
§ British Prime Minister George Greenville passed laws to make colonies pay for the war
§ Sugar Act & Quartering Act
§ Passed in 1765
§ Taxed daily things like newspapers, documents, playing cards, etc.
§ Colonists opposed this b/c they were being taxed by a Parliament that they did not elect.
§ Colonists called this “taxation without representation”
§ Sons of Liberty emerged & protested this act.
§ Colonies boycotted British goods.
§ October 1765, colonial delegates sent a petition King George III denouncing the Stamp Act.
§ In March 1766 Parliament repealed the Stamp Act, but passed the Declaratory Act which stated that Parliament had the right to rule and tax the colonies.
§ Townshend Acts were passed in 1767 by Parliament
§ Placed import taxes on paint, lead, glass, paper, and tea coming into America.
§ Colonists boycotted the goods. The Sons of Liberty enforced the boycott.
§ March 5, 1770 a group of dockworkers were harassing a British soldier. Things escalated.
§ Shots were fired and 5 people were killed
§ Samuel Adams called this the Boston Massacre.
§ To improve relations, Prime Minister North repealed the Townshend Acts in 1770, except for the Tea Tax.
§ 1773 Tea Act was passed giving the British East India Tea Company a monopoly on selling tea to the colonies. The company used its own ships and sellers.
§ This made colonists mad, b/c American jobs were lost.
§ In 1773, members of the Sons of Liberty dressed as Mohawk Indians and boarded a ship in Boston Harbor with East India Company tea aboard. They dumped the tea into the harbor.
§ This became known as the Boston Tea Party and it enraged Parliament
§ Great Britain wanted to punish Massachusetts for the Tea Party
§ Parliament passed a series of unfair laws called the Coercive Acts in 1774 to do this.
§ Coercive Acts were called the Intolerable Acts in the colonies.
§ These made the colonists want to fight.
§ September 1774, 56 colonial delegates met in Philadelphia at the First Continental Congress
§ The Congress approved a plan to arm and train a militia.
§ They banned all trade with Great Britain.
§ They wrote to King George III and asked him to make peace.
§ Agreed to meet again in May 1775.
§ In 1774 & 1775 more British troops were sent to Boston, and American militiamen, known as minutemen, were constantly training.
§ Tensions grew.
§ In Spring 1775 American spies learned of a planned attack by British Gen. Thomas Gage on Concord (near Boston).
§ Night of April 18, 1775, Dr. Joseph Warren sat inside Boston’s North Church bell tower. Flashed a light once if British approached by land and twice if they approached by sea.
§ He signaled William Dawes and Paul Revere, who rushed to Concord warning that the Redcoats were coming.
§ 700 British troops marched toward Concord
§ Met by 70 minutemen at Lexington (small town along the way) just before dawn on April 19, 1775.
§ No one knows who fired the first shot, but 8 colonists were killed and 10 wounded. 1 British soldier was wounded
§ British continued marching to Concord.
§ All minutemen in the area were called to arms.
§ They fired on the British from the cover of trees and walls.
§ British were forced into a wild retreat back to Boston
§ British casualties were three times that of the Americans
§ Met in May 1775
§ Named George Washington to build a Continental Army.
§ They tried to avoid war.
§ Sent Olive Branch Petition to King George III begging him for peace.
§ He refused.