Passages History 1301 - Chapter 5 Outline
Chapter Outline
After 1763, Spain found its situation in America changed, as the British presence continued to grow and the Spanish continued to reorient themselves into the Southwest.
A. Florida and Louisiana: Britain gained control of Florida after the Seven Years’ War, and Spain found itself administering Louisiana, including the important port city of New Orleans.
B. Fortifying the Southwest: Facing growing threats from the Apaches and the Comanches in the Southwest, Spain built up both forts and missions in the region.
When George Grenville, England’s new minister of finance, began to develop additional methods aimed toward getting the colonists to provide for their own upkeep, citizens in Britain were pleased but colonists quickly became upset.
A. The Sugar and Currency Act: The Sugar Act of 1764 actually lowered tariffs on molasses, and Grenville believed this move would persuade the colonists to shun smuggling and bribery; the Currency Act, on the other hand, angered the colonists by forbidding them to produce paper money.
B. The Stamp Act: The Stamp Act was one of the most hated edicts, affecting, as it did, virtually every person in the colonies; the result was the formation of propertied men into an activist resistance group, the Sons of Liberty.
C. Protest Widens in the Lower South: Across the lower South, colonists protested not only the actions of the English government but also the perceived unconcern of the colonial elite for the needs of ordinary settlers, especially those on the frontier.
D. The Townshend Revenue Act: The Townshend Revenue Act contributed strongly to the political unrest in the American colonies throughout the 1760s.
1. Colonists were upset that the Townshend Act raised revenue without representation while removing royal officials from control of local lawmakers.
2. John Dickinson’s Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania pulled the colonists together in their struggles against Britain.
3. The result was a series of non-importation agreements that illustrated colonial cohesion.
E. Crisis in Boston: By 1770, the city of Boston had become the center of conflict in the British colonies, a situation most clearly evidenced by the Boston Massacre in March of that year.
F. The Gaspee Incident: Tensions were heightened in 1772 when protesters burned the Gaspée, a British ship, and established Committees of Correspondence to oversee opposition to England.
G. The Boston Tea Party: Perhaps the most notable incident during the pre-Revolutionary period was the Boston Tea Party of 1773, which was a reaction to new British orders in the colonies.
1. The Tea Act was designed to provide protection for the British East India Company, by removing import duties on the company’s tea.
2. Bostonians viewed the act as manipulative and dumped the company’s tea into Boston Harbor.
3. Britain responded with the Coercive Acts which, among other things, closed the port of Boston, reorganized the provincial charter, and provided for the quartering of troops in the town.
H. The First Continental Congress: Responding to the Coercive Acts, colonists organized the First Continental Congress, which met in Philadelphia in the fall of 1774.
During the winter of 1774-1775, the resolve of American colonists hardened, the rift with Great Britain widened, and George III began to view the colonists as already in rebellion.
A. Lexington and Concord: The first shots of the conflict occurred outside Boston in April 1775, when British Redcoats sent to confiscate colonial stores of weapons were met by armed militia from Lexington and nearby areas, at Concord; in the coming days, the conflict spread throughout the area.
B. The Second Continental Congress: The Second Continental Congress met in May 1775, and representatives selected George Washington to head the Continental army.
C. “An Open and Avowed Rebellion”: With the Battle of Bunker Hill, George III declared the thirteen colonies in open rebellion.
D. Taking Sides: As the situation progressed, colonists found themselves having to take sides in the conflict, and both sides came to understand fully the consequences of war.
1. Loyalists tended to be wealthy, often with ties to the colonial governments.
2. One major area of concern was the potential problems to be faced regarding African American slaves who were courted by Loyalists.
3. Patriots eventually found it necessary to conscript colonists to fight, since insufficient numbers of men joined the fight voluntarily.
4. Women supported the Patriot cause in various ways, including serving as nurses, managing businesses and farms, and even taking part in the fighting.
E. Independence and Confederation: In July 1776, the Continental Congress formally declared independence and began to compose a new plan of government, which they dubbed the Articles of Confederation.
The early stages of the Revolution took place in the North, where the British sought to contain the conflict.
A. Invasion of New York: Attempting to divide the colonies, Britain invaded New York during the summer of 1776, pushed the Continental forces across New Jersey, then lost momentum in 1777 and finally surrendered at Saratoga, New York, in October of that year.
B. The British Occupy Philadelphia: The British occupied Philadelphia during the winter of 1777-1778, but General Washington used that harsh winter to turn his troops into a true army at nearby Valley Forge.
C. Alliance with France: The Battle of Saratoga was significant for bringing France into the war on the side of the Colonial forces, a situation that greatly aided the colonial cause.
D. The Wartime Economy: The economy continued to cause problems for the Patriots, both because cash for the purchase of war materiel was in short supply and because some colonists enriched themselves at the expense of the American troops.
By 1778, British officials were concerned enough about the potential for American success to consider moving the fighting into other parts of the colonies, and the West and the South became targets.
A. The Frontier War: More fighting occurred along the American frontier, where the British gained some support from Native American tribes.
B. The Southern Campaign: Britain also invaded the South, hoping to enlist the support of colonists who had up to that point refused to take sides, but the strategy backfired when the majority of the undecided began to support the Continental position.
1. After General Nathanael Greene assumed command of the army, the Patriot cause began to show new signs of life.
2. The British commander, Lord Cornwallis, sealed the fate of the British when he had to surrender his forces at Yorktown, Virginia, in October 1781.
C. The Peace Settlement: The Treaty of Paris (1783) officially brought the conflict to an end, though many serious problems remained between Britain and its former colonies.
1. The new nation of the United States would extend all the way to the Mississippi River in the West, and from Canada in the North to the 31st parallel in the South.
2. Britain agreed to remove its troops from the country as soon as possible, but in reality British forces remained a problem for many years.
3. Loyalists were assured that the new government would try to restore their property to them, but in many cases discrimination led them to give up and leave the country.
Conclusion: The War of Independence changed the face of America forever. Against great odds, the colonial forces defeated a much stronger military power. In the process, the United States created a new government and began to address the many controversial issues confronting the country. The Treaty of Paris (1783) officially recognized the new United States, but time would tell whether the country would last.
