APUSH Chapter Five: The Problems Of Empire

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Colonies in North America were growing rapidly by 1750. Both British and French settlements were seeing huge boosts in population thanks to soaring economies, trans-Atlantic migration, and the slave trade.

As more colonists became wealthier and more adventurous, land boundaries were tested and expanded constantly.

In 1754, overlapping British and French claims in the Ohio River Valley led to conflict between France and Great Britain.

France had many notable Native American allies in the region, but Great Britain was allied with the Iroquois Confederacy, a powerful confederation of tribes from Britain's northern, Atlantic colonies.

British merchants wanted access to the rich resources and furs of the Ohio River Valley, but the French protected their claims in the area through a series of outposts and forts, one of the most considerable being Fort Duquesne (Du-Kane).

To reassert British authority in the region, a small expedition was mobilized and led by Colonel George Washington into the Ohio River Valley.

The expedition was supported by the Iroquois Confederacy and met a small French and Native America force where a skirmish erupted between British and French forces.

Washington was eventually defeated by a larger French force, but the incident was monumental in its impact.

The Iroquois wanted conflict in the region because it was an opportunity for them to expand their control over the Native American tribes in the region.

Benjamin Franklin, after the incident, proposed the Albany Plan of Union at the Albany Congress.

Franklin's plan was to create "one general government..." in the colonies that could mobilize greater amounts of resources against French/Native American aggression.

Two rising British politicians, Lord Halifax and William Pitt encouraged war with the French despite increasing debt issues and high taxes.

The French and Indian War eventually found its way to Europe where it became known as the Seven Years' War.

The war transformed into the Great War for Empires after Great Britain launched offensives in the West Indies, India, and West Africa.

Great Britain, with the assistance of some European and Native American allies, defeated the French (and Spanish), which led to the Treaty Of Paris in 1763 where Great Britain was granted sovereignty over half of North America.

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The Great War for Empire (1756-1763) cost a significant amount of money and resources to pursue for the British Empire.

The national debt increased from £75 million to £133 million, becoming the primary focus of every Englishmen.

It was also during this period when taxation was shifting from the landed entry onto consumable goods across the Empire.

Taxation on consumable goods had increased o much by the 1760's that it accounted for nearly 20% of every Englishman's annual income.

MAIN IDEA: The more the British Empire expanded and controlled, the more the Empire was forced to expand its own government's capabilities, which affected more and more people.

The war allowed Great Britain to expand into new territories across the globe, including thousands of non-British peoples in Asia, India, the West Indies, and North America.

These new people worried British officials and forced them to deploy numerous battalions across newly acquired territory, especially North America and the newly acquired territory especially North America and the newly acquired Ohio River Valley and French Canada.

This mass mobilization of troop was massively expensive, however, costing £225,000 per year for North America alone.

Therefore, British officials in London believed that their colonies could share the financial burden because these new troops were deployed to prevent insurrection and rebellion by newly conquered peoples.

George Grenville was picked by the British government to develop new means of raising money from the colonies to assist in the payment of these new military battalions and war debt.

Grenville worked to pass the Sugar Act of 1764 to collect monies on imported French sugar products that were being smuggled into the colonies.

The import of French sugar and molasses was a huge industry that many prominent businessmen throughout the colonies engaged in, angering numerous wealthy American merchants.

The Sugar Act was also symbolic of the end