Seminar Unit 1

HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Topics for discussion:

1. New world beginnings.

2. Discovering a new continent: from Vikings to Christopher Columbus.

3. Spanish, French and Dutch earlier explorations of the new world.

4. English settlement in North America.

5. Governing colonial society.

6. Winning freedom. The War for Independence.

Reading material:

1. The first people to reach North America were Asian hunters and nomads. Following game along the Siberian coast, they crossed the land bridge that connected the two continents about 30,000 to 34,000 years ago. Once in Alaska, it took these first North Americans, the ancestors of Native American tribes, thousands of years to work their way south to what is now the United States. Evidence of early life in North America has been found at sites throughout North and South America, indicating that life was probably already well established in much of the Western Hemisphere by some time prior to 10,000 B.C.

Around that time the mammoth began to die out and the bison took its place as a principal source of food and hides for these early North Americans. Gradually, foraging and the first attempts at agriculture appeared. Indians in what is now central Mexico led the way, cultivating corn, squash and beans, perhaps as early as 8,000 B.C. Slowly, this knowledge spread northward. By 3,000 B.C., a primitive type of corn was being grown in the river valleys of New Mexico and Arizona. Then the first signs of irrigation began to appear, and by 300 B.C., signs of early village life.

Indian customs and culture at the time were extraordinarily diverse, as could be expected, given the expanse of the land and the many different environments to which they had adapted. Some generalizations, however, are possible. By all accounts, Indian society in North America was closely tied to the land. Most tribes, particularly in the wooded eastern region and the Midwest, combined aspects of hunting, gathering and the cultivation of maize and other products for their food supplies. Indian life was essentially clan-oriented and communal, with children allowed more freedom and tolerance than was the European custom of the day. There was a good deal of trade among various groups.

Review questions:

1. Where was the land bridge which the early people used to cross into the Western

Hemisphere?

2. Why did the early people in the Western Hemisphere develop different cultures?

3. After the Ice Age, how did the early people get food?

4. What three groups of people developed great cultures Middle and South America?

5. Where did each of the three great cultures develop?

6. What are some of the accomplishments of each group?

7. How did ways of life differ among the people of North America?

 

2. Some Europeans had explored less known areas of the world as early as the 800's. The first groups to sail far into the Atlantic Ocean came from the northern countries that are now Denmark, Sweden, and Norway. These people are also called Vikings. Sailing west in their sturdy ships, the Vikings found the islands if Iceland and Greenland and left settlers on them. About the year 1000, a group led by Leif Ericson sailed west from Greenland. They came to the coast of North America and stayed there for a short time, little news of these adventures reached other people, however.

From about 1100 to 1250, Europeans took part in religious wars in the Middle East. In these wars, called Crusades, Christians tried to drive Muslims out of such Holy Land cities as Jerusalem and return them to Christian rule. The wars were not generally successful, but they helped to bring about great changes in the world. European soldiers came home knowing more about the geography and peoples of the Middle East. They also brought with them spices, silks, fine cottons, and other goods from these eastern Mediterranean lands. The goods were rare and costly in Western Europe at the time, because they came from the faraway lands of India, China, and Southeast Asia.

A strong trade grew between Europe and Asia in the 1300's. To take part in the trade Western Europeans dealt with traders of the Middle East and Central Europe. The Middle East merchants had a monopoly because they alone knew the safe routes to the Far East. In turn, they traded only with a few merchants in Europe, mostly those of Venice and Genoa in Italy. The goods changed hands many times along the trade routes. Each time, the prices were raised to cover the merchant's costs and to add some profit. Western Europeans wanted to avoid high prices by trading directly with Asian merchants.

Little was done about finding a new route until the early 1400's. Then a group of Muslims known as the Ottoman Turks rose to power. They took over the Middle East, swept through North Africa, and put Eastern Europe in danger. In 1453, the Turks captured Constantinople, a city at the crossroads of Asia and Europe. Trade was endangered because the Turks controlled much of the land and the known sea routes between Europe and the Far East. Western Europeans became more determined to find their own routes to Asia.

By the 1450's, some countries in Europe were changing from a collection of small kingdoms into large national states. Countries like Portugal, Spain, France, and England were slowly becoming unified under strong leaders. They had their own separate languages and systems of laws. They had large national armies and rich treasuries. Some of them could pay to have explorers find new trade and to set up colonies. In the early 1400's, too, there were great improvements in sails and shipbuilding.

Portugal was the most able of the western seagoing countries. Portuguese explorers found a way to reach Asia by sailing south then east around Africa in 1498, earlier, a sailor named Christopher Columbus had suggested another route. Columbus wanted to sail directly west from Europe to reach Asia. Columbus was an Italian who had worked as a sailor and mapmaker in Portugal. He tried to get the Portuguese to finance a trip tо prove his idea. They refused. A few years later, Columbus was able to get the help he needed from Spam's rulers, Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand. At sunrise on August 3,1492, three small ships—the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria —sailed from the harbor of Palos, Spain.

After a short stay at the Canary Islands in September, the ships sailed west into the Atlantic. Five weeks later, a lookout from one of the ships spotted land. On October 12,1492, Columbus and his sailors went ashore to an island they named San Salvador. It is part of the group in the Caribbean Sea now called the Bahamas. Columbus believed that he had come to the Indies Islands off the southeast coast of Asia. He called the people he found living there Indians. He did not find the Asian cities of trade that he expected, but Columbus took some of the Indians back to Spain.

The islands that Columbus reached are now called the West Indies, and he returned there three times in the next ten years. The news of his travels spread to other countries in Europe. A few years later, Amerigo Vespucci also explored the area for Portugal. He believed that these lands were part of a new continent which "it is proper to call a new world." In 1507, a German mapmaker gave the name America to these lands in honor of Vespucci, who had identified them as separate continents.

 

3. Spain's rulers encouraged their people to follow Columbus. They wanted to find the route to Asia, but they became even more interested in making claims on the new lands across the Atlantic. Almost all the news brought back from these lands had of great amounts of gold to be found there. Catholic priests were among the first people to follow the explorers to the New World. They came as missionaries to teach the Indians Christianity and to make them members of the Catholic church.

As the Spanish empire spread in the late 1500's and 1600's, the plan of setting up missions went with it. By the late 1600's, there were missions in Arizona and the southern part of California. In the late 1700's, mission chain was added as far north as what is now San Francisco.

In 1589 when Henry IV came to the throne, France turned its interest to North America. Leaders in the fur business in France were very interested in the reports that carried news of the great numbers of fur-bearing animals in North America. With the king's permission, they hired Samuel de Champlain in 1603 to lead a group who would start fur-trading posts in eastern Canada. Beginning that year, Champlain made several such trips through Canada. He founded a settlement at Quebec in 1608, setting up a trading post and building a fort there. He also made allies of Huron and other northern Indians. In the spring of 1609, Champlain's group explored the area south of the St. Lawrence River with some Huron and other Indian warriors. They moved into northern New York, reaching a lake which Champlain named for himself.

Catholic missionaries were among those who followed Champlain to Canada. They set up missions as the Spaniards had done. They worked well with the Hurons but were not as successful with other Indians, especially the Iroquois. The Iroquois looked upon the French missionaries as great enemies. They tortured and killed some of them but the missionaries did not leave the Indian lands. They believed strongly that it was their duty to make the Indians members of the Catholic church. The French government was eager to make lasting settlements in North America. By the end of the 1600's, France claimed a three-part empire in North America.

During the late 1500's and early 1600's, the Dutch carried on a very busy trade with Asia. Like other Europeans, the Dutch were interested in a faster, western route to Asia. In 1609, the company hired Henry Hudson to cross the Atlantic and search for the Northwest Passage. Hudson sailed his ship, the Half Moon, along the coast of North America and into a river which he named for himself. Although Hudson failed to find a route to Asia, the Dutch claimed the land along the Hudson River. The Dutch built a fort and trading post at the northern end of the river (now Albany, New York) in 1614. Another post was built on Manhattan Island at the southern end of the Hudson. In 1626, the Dutch bought Manhattan Island from the Indians for about $24 in trading goods. The name Manhattan was changed to New Amsterdam.

People from Sweden also came to North America in the late 1630’s. They built a few forts and settlements along the Delaware River, just South of New Netherland.

Review questions:

1. What events led to greater trade between Europeans and the people of the eastern Medetiranian?

2. Why were European nations interested in finding an all-water route to Asia?

3. How was Portugal able to take the lead in searching for new routes to Asia?

4. Why did Christopher Columbus call the people he met in the New World "Indians"?

5. Where did the Dutch settle in the New World?

6. Where was New Sweden?

4. Toward the end of the sixteenth century English activity in exploration of the New World also increased because many people in England wanted to share the glory of expansion. King James I wanted New World trade and settlements, but he could not pay to start colonies. Instead, he encouraged private companies to do so.

Most individuals, like the king, could not afford to start colonies by themselves. They chose to form groups calledjoint stock companies. In these, the head of the group asked the king for acharter. It was an official paper giving permission for settlements and trade in a certain area. It also allowed the company to sell shares to raise money for settlement. Theinvestors—people who bought shares in the company—expected to make a profit from the trade carried on by the settlers. The charter also set some of the rules for the colony, often allowing the company to set the rest.

In 1606, James I granted a charter forming two joint stock companies known together as the Virginia Company. They were to settle the lands claimed by England in North America. One joint stock company, the London Company, was granted rights to settlement of the southern area including what is now North Carolina and Virginia. The other company was the Plymouth Company. It was given the northern region, most of which is now known as New England.

The London Company was the first to make a lasting English settlement in North America. It sent a group of 105 colonists to explore the area around the Chesapeake Bay. There, in the spring of 1607, the colonists started a settlement and called it Jamestown in honor of the king. It was the beginning of the colony of Virginia.

Disease and lack of food killed more than two thirds of the colonists in their first few months. Those who lived seemed more interested in searching for gold and silver than in planting crops. The colony survived mostly because of Captain John Smith. Smith was a soldier who served as the colony's leader. He forced the settlers to work, especially at growing their own food. Smith also bargained for food from the powerful chief of the Indians. As time passed, the London Company sent more farmers to the Virginia colony. They planted crops and raised herds of animals.

The Plymouth Company became the Council for New England in 1620, with the right to grant land to settlers for colonies. The first people to take advantage of this left England for America not only for money and land, but also for the kind of religious freedom they could not find in their homeland.

Many English people did not like the forms of worship that Queen Elizabeth had established for the Church of England. They believed that she had kept too manyrituals from the Catholic church. Some who joined the national church wanted to work make it better or to "purify" it. Because of this, they became known as Puritans. Others wanted to separate from the church, and they were known as Separatists.

The Separatists heard about the success of the Jamestown colony in Virginia. In 1620, the M ayflower set sail from England with 35 Separatists and 66 other passengers aboard. These people were also called Pilgrims because they were travelers in a strange land. They were headed for Virginia, but strong winds blew their ship farther north. They landed in New England just north of Cape Cod Bay, in what is now Massachusetts,

The Pilgrim leaders realized that they had not reached Virginia. Some of the people were upset, saying that they had only been given the right to settle and set up a government in Virginia. In order to prevent any possible trouble, 41 passengers of the Mayflower signed acompact, or agreement, to set up a civil government and to obey its laws. This Mayflower Compact was the basis for government in the colony.

In late 1620, the Pilgrims began building a small settlement. They called it Plymouth after the town in England from which they had sailed. Their first winter was a hard one. Half the colonists died from the cold, illness, or the lack of food. Their lives became somewhat easier in the spring with the help of some Indian tribes. In time, the Pilgrims got an official land grant from the Council of New England.

A number of educated and wealthy Puritans in England formed the Massachusetts Bay Company in 1629. They received a charter and a grant of land in America. The Puritans took their charter with them when they left for America. They did not want to be controlled by people in England, as the colonists in Jamestown had been. The Puritans wanted to be independent and to govern themselves according to their own ideas.

More than 1,000 settlers arrived in Massachusetts in 1630. They founded Boston and several other towns. Many of these settlers died during the first hard winter, and some returned to England in the spring. People came to the colony in great numbers in the next few years, however.By 1640, the population was about 16,000.

The Puritans practiced in Massachusetts the type of religious life they had wanted in England. They set up a congregational form of worship. There were many restric­tions on life in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Because of this, many settlers decided to leave and start their own settlements elsewhere. One of the first to go was Roger Williams. He had been a minister in Salem, a town north of Boston. Williams believed that people should be able to worship as they pleased and that the church and the government should be separate. He also spoke out against taking land from the Indians.

Massachusetts leaders were angered by Williams and decided to send him back to England in 1635. Williams and five friends fled into the forests and made their way south to Narragansett Bay. Williams bought a nearby piece of land from the Narragansett Indians and started a settlement he called Providence. Religion was not used as a basis for voting, and people did not have to pay taxes to support the church.

Some other people from Massachusetts followed Williams into the area south of Boston. One of them was Anne Hutchinson, whose religious views also upset the Boston leaders. Hutchinson founded a settlement to the south of Providence. Roger Williams went to England in 1643. He received a charter for the various settlements the next year, and they became the colony of Rhode Island.

Other groups from Massachusetts moved west toward the Connecti­cut Valle and founded the town of New Haven in 1637. The king of England granted a charter in 1662 which joined New Haven and Hartford and set up the colony of Connecticut.

Charters to set up colonies such as Virginia and Plymouth had been given by English kings to private groups. The kings also gave charters to some of their rich friends. These people became knownas proprietors, and they were given large areas of land in America. There they foundedproprietarycolonies. The proprietors most often stayed in England. The first proprietary colony founded in North America was Maryland.It was a result of efforts of a Catholic English noble.

The first group of some 200 colonists arrived in Maryland in the spring of 1634. From the beginning, the colony did well. The climate and soil were ideal for farming. A representative assembly gave the people a voice in the running of their colony. People of many religious groups came to live in Maryland.By the mid-1600's, there were more Protestants than Catholics. To protect religious freedom for both groups in Maryland, the Toleration Act was passed in 1649. It granted freedom of worship to all people who believed in Jesus Christ.

Things in Maine and New Hampshire did not work out as the English hoped. Over the years, Massachusetts Bay slowly and quietly bought up the holdings of the proprietors. It took over Maine as well as the colony of Plymouth in 1691. Massachusetts also tried to buy New Hampshire. To prevent this, New Hampshire was changed in 1679 from a proprietary colony to a royal colony, one under the direct control of the king. It was the first royal colony in New England.

After England took New York and New Jersey, it was 17 years before another English colony was set up in America. The colony of Pennsylvania, chartered in 1681, was the work of William Penn. Penn was a member of the Society of Friends, or Quakers. This group believed that people did not need established churches or ministers to worship God. They did not approve of war and refused to serve in the army. They also refused to pay taxes to the government or the Church of England. Because of their beliefs, Quakers were often persecuted. William Penn asked Charles II for land in America where Quakers and people of other faiths could worship God in their own ways. The king owed a debt to Penn's father and gave Penn a grant of land west of the Delaware River in 1681. It was called Pennsylvania (Penn's woods).

Settlers from many countries with many religions came to Pennsylvania. Quakers from England, Presbyterians from Scotland, Catholics from Ireland, Huguenots (Protestants) from France, Calvinists from Holland, Lutherans from Germany, and many others established settlements there. Only eight years after its founding, Pennsylvania had over 11,000 settlers. The main city, Philadelphia, was a settlement of brick houses, with a planned system of streets. Philadelphia was the largest and busiest city in the English colonies by 1750.

Because Pennsylvania had no outlet to the Atlantic Ocean William Penn got a grant from the Duke of York in 1682 for an area called Delaware, first settled by the Swedes. Delaware was governed by the leaders of Pennsylvania for almost 20 years. People from Delaware elected their own representative assembly in 1701.

The last English colony in North America was established 50 years after Pennsylvania was founded. James Oglethorpe, an English reformer, wanted to create a refuge for people who were in English prisons because they could not pay their debts. The English government saw this as a chance to set up a military defense against the Spaniards in Florida. So in 1732, George II granted Oglethorpe a charter for the land between the Savannah River and the Florida border. The colony, named Georgia after the king, grew slowly. Some of the debtors refused to work and ran away. In 1752 the king took over, and Georgia became a royal colony.

During the early 1600's, England did not have a definite plan for governing the colonies. Jamestown, Plymouth, Massachusetts Bay, Rhode Island, and Connecticut all began without direct involvement of the crown. As years went by, most of these colonies took care of their own affairs. In a short time, colonies like Maryland and New Hampshire had few close ties with the crown.

By 1660, the English colonial system in America was made up of many different settlements spread out along the Atlantic coast. It was a loose grouping with no real unity. Charles II decided to take a more active role by forming royal colonies. In these, the governor and the members of the council (the upper house) were chosen by the crown. The assembly (the lower house) was elected by the colonists. The governor, with the council and the assembly, governed the colony by the crown's rules. In this way, the crown took part directly in the governing of a royal colony.

Even with the growing number of royal colonies, England was having trouble with so many different colonies spread over such a great area. The people were used to leading their own lives and making their own rules. They had run their own assemblies and selected their own representatives. They chose their own church leaders, built their own ships, and set up their own defense. They often failed to pay their taxes to England. They fought with governors they did not like and refused to obey English laws. These problems were more common in the New England colonies which were not royal colonies. They had strong local assemblies and did not regard the authority of England very highly,

Charles II died in 1685 and was succeeded by his brother James, the Duke of York. James П immediately went ahead with a plan to reorganize the colonies. The governments of New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Plymouth, Massachusetts Bay, New Hampshire, and Maine were joined to form the Dominion of New England. This was meant to create a strong, unified area on the border of French Canada.

Review questions:

1. How were the first settlements financed?

2. What hardships did the first settlers face?

3. Which two religious groups formed settlements in Massachusetts?

4. How was the colony of Maryland different from the other early

colonies?

5. How did England gain control of New York and New Jersey?

6. Which group established the colony of Pennsylvania?

7. Who founded the colony of Georgia? Why?

8.. What was a royal colony?

9. Why was the Dominion of New England created?

5. The English took more than 100 years to build their colonial empire in North America. By the 1730's, the English had 13 colonies, stretching from French Canada in the north to Spanish Florida in the south. The 13 English colonies were different from each other in many ways. They had their own local governments and their own ways of life.

People from several countriesimmigrated to the English colonies of North America.By 1700, the colonies had about 250,000 people. This number increased ten times in the next 75 years. By 1775, the population of the English colonies was about 2.5 million. Most of the people were white Europeans who wanted to come to the New World. They hoped to have religious freedom, to escape poverty, and to find new ways of improving their lives. Some who arrived in the colonies were forced to come. This was especially true of the black people from Africa.

About 60 percent of the white settlers in the English colonies were of English nationality. They brought many English ways with them, and their language became the common one in the colonies. Most of them belonged to one of the Protestant religious groups.

The next largest group of English-speaking white settlers were Scots. Many came from southern Scotland, where they had worked as weavers and mechanics. They sought peace and safety in America. Most of the Scots who first came to America settled n Pennsylvania. In the early 1700's, some moved farther southwest toward the mountain valleys of the Appalachians.

One of the largest groups of non-English-peaking Europeans to come to the 13 colonies were Germans. The Germans left their homeland in the early 1700's to escape war and hunger. Most settled in Pennsylvania. Sometimes they were called Pennsylvania Dutch because the German word for "German" is Deutsch. The political freedom offered by Pennsylvania, together with the richness of the land, provided opportunities for many Germans to bесоmе successful. Most became well-to-do farmers.

In addition to the German there were several other groups of non-English-speaking Europe settlers. The Dutch located mostly in the Hudson Valle region of New York, contributed many things to American life. The French settled in many colonies. They provided America with many artists and artisans. Swedes and Finns established settlements throughout the Delaware Valley. They developed ways to build log cabins that later became popular among settlers moving farther west.

The people who came to live in the various parts of the English colonies had many different manners and customs. Gradually, the emigrants to the New World began to form a way of life that was different in many ways from the one they had in the Old World. They began to shape an American way of life. There were many reasons why settlers in the English colonies shared similar ways of life. There were also reasons why some parts of the colonies were quite different from other parts. The English colonies were not all located in one small geographic area. They did not all have the same kind of climate, soil, and land formations. The colonies ran all the way from the Canadian border with its cool temperatures to Spanish Florida with its warm climate. This area contained three major regions—the New England Colonies, the Middle Colonies, and the Southern Colonies. In each of these, the people developed their own political systems, economic structures, and social patterns.

The colonies in the New England region —Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts including Maine—had certain features in common. The people there were almost all of English background. Congregational­ism, with strict Puritan beliefs, was the major form of worship. Religion and politics were local matters in New England.

Education was considered very important in the New England Colonies. The colonists believed that their children should be able to read and understand the Bible. In 1647, Massachusetts passed a law providing for a tax-supported public school system. Even before that, in 1636, Harvard College was founded in Cambridge, Massachusetts, near Boston. It was the first English colonial college, and it was built to train Congregationalist ministers. In 1701, Yale College in New Haven, Connecticut, and in 1769, Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, were founded for the same reason.

Many of the people in the New England Colonies had small farms. They worked the land usually with the help of family members, including children. People in New England traded with such European countries as England, Portugal, Spain, and France.

The people in the Middle Colo­nies —New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware—were quite different in their national backgrounds and religious beliefs. The Scots were mostly Presbyterian. The largest religious group among the Germans, Finns, and Swedes was Lutheran. The Dutch were Reformed, Lutheran, and Catholic. Most of the French were Huguenots (Protestants). Quakers, Baptists, and Methodists were mainly English and Welsh. The Jews who settled in New York and Philadelphia in the 1600's were Spanish and Portuguese. Differences in nationality and religion prevented close political cooperation in the Middle Colonies.

Public education in the Middle Colonies was not widespread. There were a number of schools and academies, usually run by private or church groups. Several schools of higher education were founded in the 1700's.

Farming was the main way of making a living in the Middle Colonies. The size of the farms varied. There were the huge estates of the Dutch in New York. There were the small farms of the Germans and the Scots in Pennsylvania.

In the Southern Colonies -Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia-one religion and one social group dominated the area. The Church of England (in America known as the Episcopal church) was the leading religion. Political life was directed by planters.

The scattering of people over the large area of the Southern Colonies made it difficult to organize a public school system. Children of planters were usually taught at home by tutors. The other children worked on the farms and received little formal education. Farming was by far the most important way of life in the Southern Colonies. There were many small farms throughout the area, especially in the western valleys.

A handful of planters ruled the southern political and business life. They controlled most of the farming and theexporting and importing from other countries. The tobacco, rice, andindigo (a vegetable dye used on cloth) grown on the plantations of the Southern Colonies were in great demand in England. The planters made a large profit on these crops because they did not have to pay the slaves who were forced to work their large plantations.

The number of people in the three major regions grew rapidly. As this happened, more and more settlers moved west into the fresh lands on the outer limits of the colonies, called the frontier. In the 1600's, this meant the eastern foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. By the early 1700's, people from Pennsylvania, Virginia, and North Carolina pushed farther west.

Life on the frontier was hard and rugged. Most frontier settlers lived isolated lives. Families had to rely on themselves for their material and spiritual needs. They cleared their own land and built their own one-room cabins. There were no schools, and children had little formal education.

Threats and dangers from outside often cause people with different points of view to work together for their common safety. Most settlers in the English colonies fought with many Indian groups almost from the moment they arrived. As more settlers came to the colonies, they took over land where the Indians had lived and hunted for hundreds of years. The Indians saw the land being taken away and their ways of life being destroyed. So they often fought back. In 1643, the colonists of Massachusetts Bay, Plymouth, Connecticut, and New Haven joined together in the New England Confederation. The New England Confederation was formed to protect the member colonies against the French and Dutch settlements as well as against the Indians

During the time of settlement, the English did not pay much attention to their colonies. The colonists were allowed to handle their own affairs. After King Charles II came to the throne in 1660, however, the English government decided to set up stricter rules and regulations. It wanted to use the colonies to increase wealth in England.

To enforce this policy, many laws were passed in England to control colonial trade. The Navigation Acts of the 1660's listed such colonial products as tobacco, cotton, indigo, and turpentine which must be exported to England only. The English government ruled that colonists could import only English goods.

The Woolen Act of 1699 stopped the colonists from exporting wool products. The Hat Act of 1732 and the Iron Act of 1750 also limited manufacturing. These laws were designed to keep colonial manufactur­ers from competing with English manufacturers. Merchants, traders, and leaders in business had reacted against the English laws by finding ways to avoid them by the early 1700's. Colonies carried on their own trade with foreign countries. They imported manufactured goods directly into the colonies. They used their own ships to smuggle tea from Holland, textiles from France, wine from Portugal, and molasses and sugar from the West Indies.

The other major threat to British colonial security was the presence of the French in North America. In the late 1600's and early 1700's, the British and the French engaged in a series of wars to see which would be the leading world power. The rivalry between Britain and France finally became a worldwide struggle that once again involved Europe and India, as well as North America.

When fighting broke out in 1754, the colonists found themselves at war with the French.

In 1763, Britain and France signed the Treaty of Paris. It officially ended the series of wars around the world and set down peace terms. According to the treaty, Britain received from France all of Canada and all the lands east of the Mississippi River. Britain also got all of Spanish Florida, since Spain had helped France in the war. Spain had been given Louisiana in 1762 to encourage it to join the war on the side of France. The Treaty of Paris marked the end of France as a colonial power in North America.

 

Review questions;

 

1. From what countries did the various people in the English colonies come?

2. Where did the people of various national backgrounds settle in the colonies?

3. How did the trip to the New World of blacks differ from that of whites?

4. How were the geographic regions of the colonies different from one another?

5. What early colleges were established in each region?

6. What colonial products were in demand in England?

7. Why was there conflict between the Indians and the settlers?

8. Why were the French a threat to British colonial security?

6. The end of the French and Indian War in 1763 marked a turning point in relations between Britain and its American colonies. Britain decided to tighten its controls over the colonies, and the colonists disagreed with the change in policy.

Britain changed the way it treated the colonies because of the needs it had after the French and Indian War. The war had cost a great deal of money, and the British government faced large debts. Many leaders in Britain felt that the colonies should help pay a part of the debts. They said that the war had been fought in large measure to protect the colonies from the French and their Indian allies.

New policies for the colonies were introduced. One idea was to have the colonies strictly obey the Navigation Acts. These laws, passed in the late 1600's, were to limit colonial trade only to Britain. The colonies had been trading with other areas, and this was illegal. In addition, a new series of laws were introduced.

The Grenville Acts included several separate parts. Three of these resulted in much disagreement between Britain and the colonies. The first was the Proclamation of 1763. It prevented colonists from settling west of the Appalachian Mountains. The second was the Sugar Act of 1764 to raise more money from colonial trade. So it placed a tax on sugar, wines, and coffee and set up a plan to enforce the collection of the tax on molasses. More British navy ships were to patrol the American coast to stop smuggling. The third major part of the Grenville Acts was the Stamp Act, passed in 1765. According to this, people had to buy stamps to put on all newspapers, pamphlets, contracts, wills, and certain other printed materials. The money raised from the sale of the stamps was to be used to help pay for British soldiers stationed in the colonies.

The British leaders felt they were right in passing the Grenville Acts. The colonies, on the other hand, felt that the British government took improper steps to control them. A storm of protest broke out in the colonies over the Grenville Acts. Many colonists insisted that Britain was trying to ruin colonial trade. They also felt they had the right to settle on land west of the Appalachian Mountains.

Part of the disagreement was over the meaning of representation in government. Voters in England selected the members of Parliament to represent all the people of the British Empire. These members did not represent a certain town, county, or area. In the colonial legislatures, the idea ofdirectrepresentation had developed. This meant that people of a certain area selected a representative who worked for that area. No American colonists sat in Parliament. Therefore, the colonists felt that they were not represented. In attacking the Stamp Act, Patrick Henry of Virginia stated that "taxation without representation is tyranny!"

Measures were taken against the policies of the British government. The colonists organized aboycott — they refused to buy British goods. People were told not to buy the tax stamps. As the conflict between the British and the colonists increased, the American people divided into two groups. The colonists who supported a possible break with Britain were called patriots. Those who remained loyal to England were called loyalists. On the night of March 5, 1770, a crowd of people gathered in the streets of Boston and threw snowballs at a British guard. Other soldiers arrived to help the guard and were attacked by members of the crowd with sticks and pieces of ice. Some of the soldiers shot into the crowd, killing three people and wounding several others.

In 1773, the British government passed a law aimed at saving the East India Company from going bankrupt. This huge trading company was important in India and elsewhere in the British Empire. British officials feared that if it went bankrupt, it might hurt the British economy. So Parliament passed the Tea Act. Under the plan, the company could ship 17 million pounds of unsold tea directly for sale in America. Other importers of tea had to land their product in England first and had to sell it to merchants there for resale. This added to the cost of the tea. Parliament wanted the East India Company to be able to sell its tea much cheaper than anyone else. The idea that the East India Company was to have a monopoly of the tea trade angered merchants in the colonies.

From South Carolina to Massachusetts, there were riots and even destruction of East India Company tea. On the night of December 16, 1773, the Boston Sons of Liberty, dressed as Mohawk Indians, dumped the tea cargo from three ships into Boston harbor. This famous "Tea Party" was the patriots' response to the British tea policy.

Meanwhile American leaders called for a meeting to discuss ways to deal with the British government. The Virginia House of Burgesses asked each colony to send delegates to Philadelphia for a Continental Congress which could plan the next move. Representatives from every colony except Georgia met in the First Continental Congress in September 1774. They were deeply worried by the British actions but were divided in their ideas for meeting the crisis. Some hoped to ask the king for help. If George III would aid them, they would remain in the British Empire. They believed there were still some advantages to being tied to England and under Parliament's rule. Patriots like John Adams of Massachusetts and Patrick Henry of Virginia took the view that Parliament had no authority over the colonies.

The First Continental Congress took two major steps. As some delegates wished, a letter of grievances was sent to the king. In a more extreme move, the First Continental Congress created a Continental Association. It was to enforce a boycott of British goods until Parliament repealed the Intolerable Acts. George III and the British leaders were determined not to back down again. They wanted British soldiers in America to enforce the laws. Early in 1775, British General Thomas Gage in Boston learned that patriots were collecting guns and ammunition and storing them at Concord, Massachusetts, near Boston. Gage, recently made governor of the colony, planned to take military action to stop them.

On the evening of April 18, Gage sent 800 soldiers to seize the military supplies. Patriots in Boston heard of the move. The British soldiers arrived at Lexington, a town between Boston and Concord, at dawn. They were met there by 70minutemen — patriot soldiers who could be ready for duty at a moment's notice. Shooting broke out and the British march became a retreat. With the fighting at Lexington and Concord, a war had started. A Second Continental Congress met in Philadelphia on May 10, 1775. The delegates named George Washington of Virginia as commander-in-chief of colonial armed forces, the Continental Army. For those still hoping for peace, the delegates sent to George III one last appeal—the Olive Branch Petition. George turned it down, and he declared that the Americans were rebels. The time for appeals was over. The second Continental Congress became a government for the patriots in revolt.

 

 

By early 1776, the independence cause was gaining support. On June 7, 1776, Richard Henry Lee of Virginia presented a resolution in the Second Continental Congress stating that "these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent states...." Jefferson himself completed the final writing of what is known as the Declaration of Independence. Jefferson wrote that all people are created equal and that all people have certain basic rights which no government can take away. He stated that all governments get their authority from the people. Jefferson also wrote that if a government did not protect the rights of the people, then the people could overthrow that government and make a new one. According to Jefferson, since George III did not protect their rights, the American colonists had the right to declare their independence.

On July 4, 1776, the delegates of the Second Continental Congress formally approved the Declaration of Independence. Copies of it were sent to all the colonies to inform the people. The colonists considered themselves independent, but they still had to fight and win a war to prove it. Early fighting took place on New England and the northeast area, especially around Boston. Then in the early 1776, the Continental Army under George Washington set up heavy guns and cannon at Dorchester Heights, hills to the south of Boston. British General William Howe in Boston realized that he could no longer hold the city. He took his troops out of Boston in March.

The British then made plans to defeat the Americans completely in the northeast during 1777. They wanted to gain control of the Hudson River Valley in New York. The British plan was a failure from the start and in October 1777 they were defeated at Saratoga. The American victory at Saratoga was considered the turning point of the war. It was important to Americans because it brought France into the war. France was a longtime enemy of Britain, and it saw the opportunity to work for Britain's defeat. From this point on, the French, who had already given secret aid to the Americans, began helping them openly. In 1778, French leaders signed a treaty of alliance promising guns, ships, and money to the American colonies.

In 1780 and 1781, the Continental Army fought the British in several major battles. After this last defeat, British General Charles Cornwallis retreated to Virginia. He moved to Yorktown on the Atlantic coast to rest his soldiers and get supplies. Washington saw a chance to trap Cornwallis. He sent a large Continental force to block the British by land. They were joined by nearly 8,000 French soldiers under the command of the Marquis de Lafayette. Late in August 1781, a French fleet of warships blocked the British from the sea. Cut off from land and sea, Cornwallis surrendered his 7,500 soldiers to Washington. This American victory ended nearly all British hope for winning the war.

Some fighting went on over the next two years. In 1783, British and American leaders signed a treaty of peace in Paris, France, ending the war. According to the terms, Britain recognized American independence. The boundaries of the new country were set at Canada in the north, the Mississippi River in the west, and Florida in the south. The 13 British colonies had become a new and independent nation.

Review questions:

1. What were the restrictions the British placed on the colonists after 1763?

2. Why did the colonists object to British taxes?

3. How did patriots act toward the colonists who supported Britain?

4. Who was the commander of the Continental Army during the American Revolution?

5. Why was the Battle of Saratoga important to the Americans?

6. What was the last major battle of the Revolution?

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