Britain & the 13 Colonies

Britain & the 13 Colonies

1. 13 Colonies

   • New England
     • New Hampshire Massachusetts Connecticut Rhode Island
     • 80% English origin
     • Timber sea product exported
     • Rhode Island religious haven
   • Mid-Atlantic
     • New York New Jersey Pennsylvania Delaware
       • Many Dutch in NYC and NJ
       • Germans in Pennsylvania
       • Fertile land in Philadelphia & NY
       • Quakers influential in Pennsylvania
   • South
     • Maryland Virginia N & SCarolina Georgia
       • 89% Black Africans
       • 1/4 white were literate
       • Slave labour KEY
       • Cash crops cotton, sugar, tobacco
       • Maryland refuge for Roman Catholics

2. Relations Between Colonies and Britain

   • Salutary Neglect 1720-1748
     • gradual more power to colonial assemblies
     • powerful men didn't like
     • gave colonies bit more control
   • Merchantilism
     • colonies to be sources of raw materials
     • colonies forbidden to use their own coinage
   • Navigation Act 1660
     • restriction on foreign shipping
     • foreign goods only in English ships
     • goods had to go through England or wales first to be inspected and pay duties
     • as a result N Americas economic growth doubled
       • were guaranteed a market

3. Irritants in the Colonies

   • Impressment
     • getting men drunk then making them join the navy
     • 1747 Boston riot against press gangs
   • Archbishop Secker
     • He wanted to send Bishops to colonies
     • colonists would be taxed to support the Bishops
     • Died out when Secker died

4. 7 Year War

   • Colonies (led by Washington) & British VS French and Spanish Troops
     • washington learned his military skills in this war
   • colonial merchants violated Navigation act
     • traded with French and Spanish
   • When George III came king he wanted peace
     • got rid of Pitt the elder as PM
       • He wanted to extend war to Spain
     • 1763- signed the first Treaty of Paris
   • Pitt injected money and troops

5. Treaty Of Paris

   • Britain gained massive national debt
     • 1763- £122,603,336
   • Sugar Act 1764
     • Put inplace to reduce national debt

6. ACTS

   • Stamp Act 1765
     • would effect everyone in America
     • Internal tax
     • Tax would have to be payed for a stamp on on any paper goods
       • cards, legal documents, newspapers pamphlets etc
     • didn't go ahead
       • protest of "no taxation without representation"
       • Sons of Liberty hung effigies of stamp collectors to scare them off
         • sons of Liberty formed as an action committee
       • boycott on European goods by merchants in New York until stamp act was repealed
     • Repealed in 1766
       • embarrassment for Britain
       • Declaratory Act put in place so that parliament had full control over the colonies
   • Quartering
     • soldiers could stay in the colonies paid by the colonists
   • Townshend Act 1767
     • taxed papers, glass, tea, lead
     • External tax- be collected at ports
     • paid for governors & officials
     • started non-importation boycotting on British goods
     • was repealed but kept tea tax

7. Boston Massacre 1770

   • extra British regiments sent to Boston to protect American Custom Boards
     • bostonians didn't like them there
       • found them brutal, thought gangs baited soldiers in the streets
   • angry mob closed in on a group and they opened fired
     • 3 died 6 wounded
       • first bloodshed
   • colonist exaggerated it "massacre" propaganda

8. Boston Tea Party 1773

   • Britain supported East Indian Company by shifting tea to colonies
     • colonies forced sold so cheap
   • boarded ship dressed as Mohawk Indians, dumped 342 chests of tea in harbour
   • Boston port shut down until tea lost was paid for
     • Boston Port Act