Week 5: The American Revolution

Review questions: English North America Name the economic philosophy holding that England’s colonies existed for England’s economic benefit, and should have restricted trade with other countries. Answer: mercantilism

Review questions What term refers to the British policy of allowing the North American colonies to largely govern themselves? Answer: salutary neglect

Review questions What conflict made England and Spain the only two European powers claiming territory in North America? Answer: Seven Years’ War/French and Indian War

Review questions: English North America What law imposed the first direct tax on goods purchased by American colonists, rather than a tax on imports or exports? Answer: Stamp Act

Review questions: English North America What group of activists protested the Stamp Act and other British taxes, sometimes violently? Answer: Sons of Liberty

Review questions: English North America What did the Declaratory Act do? Answer: Asserted the right of Parliament to tax the colonies, in response to the Stamp Act crisis

Review questions: English North America Name the author of Common Sense. Answer: Thomas Paine

Review questions: English North America What set of laws did the British pass in response to the Boston Tea Party? Answer: Intolerable (or Coercive) Acts

Review questions: English North America What did the Proclamation of 1763 do? Answer: Restricted white settlement west of the Appalachians

Long Essay, Again

Long Essay Evaluate the extent to which the Seven Years’ War (French and Indian War, 1754-1763) marked a turning point in American relations with Great Britain, analyzing what changed and what stayed the same from the period before the war to the period after it.

What changed? British start taxing Americans

◦ Stamp Act◦ Sugar Act◦ Tea Act

British abandon salutary neglect and start enforcing mercantilism◦ Intolerable Acts◦ Declaratory Act◦ Proclamation of 1763

More violence + protest against BritishSons of LibertyBoston Tea PartyBoston MassacreBoycotts/non-importation/homespun clothContinental CongressCommon Sense and other protest literatureCommittees of correspondence“No taxation without representation”

Why did changes happen? Why did the British abandon salutary neglect?

◦ Needed money – the war was expensive◦ Felt threatened – losses from war◦ Taxes are a way of asserting British authority + improving British

government finances◦ Feel that the colonists owe them

Why did the colonists fight back?◦ Taxes cost money…◦ “No taxation without representation”◦ Felt that they were being mistreated

What stayed the same? Colonists still think of themselves as British “Rights of Englishmen”

The Philosophy of the American Revolution

Where does government get its authority over the colonists? Very old answer: divine right – the king can rule because God said so More recent answer: virtual representation – members of Parliament govern on behalf of all British subjects (including colonists) But many colonists want actual representation – “we can only be taxed by people we vote for”◦ In other words, the colonial assemblies

John Locke and the Revolution The social contract – people give up some liberties in exchange for the protection of a government People retain natural rights even under a government – “life, liberty, and property” Government exists by the consent of the governed People have the right to rebel against an unjust or oppressive government

Locke in the Revolution We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

Natural rights

Locke in the Revolution That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,

Social contract

Consent of the governed

Locke in the Revolution That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government…

Right to rebel

List the colonists’ grievances (complaints) against the King.

Was the Revolution political or economic?POLITICAL GRIEVANCES ECONOMIC GRIEVANCES