The Bonds of Empire

1
Chapter 4

• The Bonds of Empire
• 1660-1750

2
Introduction

• 4 major questions
• How did the Glorious Revolution shape relations
  between England and its North American colonies?
• What were the most important consequences of
  British mercantilism for the mainland colonies?
• What factors explain the relative strengths of
  the British, French, and Spanish empires in North
  America

3
Introduction (cont.)

• What were the most significant results of the
  Enlightenment and Great Awakening in the British
  colonies?

4
Rebellion and War, 1660-1713

• Introduction
• Until the restoration of the Stuart kings in
  1660, England made little effort to rule its
  overseas territories
• With the accession of Charles II (ruled from
  1660-1685)
• England sought to expand its empire and trade
• Impose royal authority on its colonies
• Regulate their economic activities so as to
  benefit English commercial interests

5
Royal Centralization, 1660-1688

• Stuart kings wanted to become absolute monarchs
  like Louis XIV
• Rarely called parliament into session
• Ignored the colonial legislatures
• 1684Charles II revoked Massachusettss charter
• Between 1686 and 1688, James II consolidated all
  of the New England colonies, NY, and NJ into the
  Dominion of New England
• Abolished their assemblies
• Placed full power into the hands of his arbitrary
  and dictatorial royal governor (Sir Edmond Andros)

6
Royal Centralization, 1660-1688 (cont.)

• The colonists bitterly resented this denial of
  their rights
• Tensions ran particularly high in Massachusetts
  and NY

7
The Glorious Revolution, 1688-1689

• 1688-1689James IIs high-handed, pro-Catholic
  actions led to the Glorious Revolution in England
• He was forced into exile
• The throne went to William and Mary
• Agreed to a limited monarch and promised to
  summon Parliament annually and respect the civil
  liberties of English people

8
The Glorious Revolution, 1688-1689 (cont.)

• When news of the Glorious Revolution reached
  America in 1689, New Englanders rebelled against
  Andros and his councilors
• Massachusetts and other colonies appealed to
  William and Mary for the return of their charters
• The new monarchs dissolved the Dominion of New
  England and issued charters granting each colony
  the right to have a representative assembly

9
The Glorious Revolution, 1688-1689 (cont.)

• Massachusettss new charter did not give it as
  much independence as it had formerly enjoyed
• Its governors would be appointed by the crown,
  not elected
• It would have to tolerate and share power in the
  colony with Anglicans

10
The Glorious Revolution, 1688-1689 (cont.)

• Leislers Rebellion in New York and John Coodes
  uprising in Maryland also were inspired by the
  Glorious Revolution

11
A Generation of War, 1689-1713

• British and French fought against each other in 2
  wars
• King Williams War (War of the League of
  Augsburg)
• Queen Annes War (War of the Spanish Succession)
• Most of the fighting was done in Europe
• Some fighting happened in North America

12
A Generation of War, 1689-1713 (cont.)

• Peace returned in 1713
• France still controlled the North American
  interior
• English colonist felt a heightened sense of
  British identity and dependence on their mother
  countrys protection from their powerful neighbor

13
Colonial Economics and Societies, 1660-1750

• Mercantilist Empires in America
• Mercantilismeach nations power was measured by
  its wealth, especially in gold
• Followed by Britain, France, and Spain
• The country should produce within its own empire
  as much of what it needed as possible
• Its exports to foreign competitors should exceed
  its imports

14
Mercantilist Empires in America (cont.)

• To achieve the goals of mercantilism
• British Parliament passed a series of laws known
  as the Navigation Acts
• 1651 to 1733
• Required all trade to be conducted on
  British-owned ships
• Prohibited Americans from selling certain
  products (tobacco, rice, furs, indigo, and naval
  stores) to foreign countries unless they first
  passed through England

15
Mercantilist Empires in America (cont.)

• Navigation Acts (cont.)
• Placed high taxes on products that Americans
  bought from outside the empire (i.e. molasses
  from French Caribbean)
• Forbade colonials form competing with British
  clothing manufactures

16
Mercantilist Empires in America (cont.)

• Navigation Acts (cont.)
• Parliament intended these laws to benefit only
  England, the acts in practice did not unduly
  hamper the colonists
• The laws cut into the profits of rice and tobacco
  planters

17
Mercantilist Empires in America (cont.)

• Benefits of Navigation Acts
• Shipping had to be done on British vessels and
  this stimulated the growth of Americas merchant
  marine, shipbuilding, and ports
• Bounties paid to producers of hemp, lumber, and
  other items under the Navigation Acts encouraged
  the development of those industries in the
  colonies

18
Mercantilist Empires in America (cont.)

• The restrictions on large-scale manufacturing did
  little harm, since only home production and small
  workshops were economically feasible in America
• http//www.usahistory.info/colonial/Navigation-Act
  s.html

19
Mercantilist Empires in America (cont.)

• French and Spanish colonies in North America did
  not develop nearly as robust economies as the
  British
• New France
• Main export was furs
• By 18th century furs did not bring much profit
• French govt. even underwrote the fur-trading with
  the Indians in order to keep on good terms with
  their Native American allies

20
Mercantilist Empires in America (cont.)

• Spanish colonies
• Colonists smuggled British and French products
• Did very little manufacturing
• Mercantilist principles did not work well for
  France and Spain because they did not have the
  large merchant class with liquid assets to invest
  in the colonies and other commercial ventures
• Great Britain could do this

21
Population Growth and Diversity

• French and Spanish colonies in NA lagged behind
  the British in population growth as well as
  economic development
• 1750
• British North America had 1.1 million
• New France had 60,000
• Spanish North America had 19,000

22
Population Growth and Diversity (cont.)

• Religion
• British opened their colonies to all Europeans of
  whatever religion
• French and Spanish barred non-Catholics and made
  no effort to attract settlers from countries
  other than their own
• The steady growth of the British colonies
  outpaced not only their European rivals, but also
  Britain itself

23
Population Growth and Diversity (cont.)

• After 1700, British North America grew rapidly
  from both natural increase and the arrival of
  newcomers.
• 18th century immigrants came less from England
  and more from other places (pg. 97)
• Africans brought on slave ships
• Scots-Irish, Irish, and Germans
• Many of the Europeans came as indentured servants
• English colonies became more racially and
  ethnically diverse (not always welcomed by all
  English colonist)

24
Population Growth and Diversity (cont.)

• Most 18th century white immigrants were too poor
  to buy land in the already developed coastal
  areas so they pushed into the Piedmont region
• Eastern slope of the Appalachians
• By 1750 1/3 of colonial population lived there
• Map on page 98

25
Population Growth and Diversity (cont.)

• From 1713 to 1754, the importation of slaves to
  the mainland was greatly increased
• Black colonial population rose from 11 to 20
• Most slaves lived in the South
• 15 were in the colonies north of MD
• African American population also multiplied
  through natural increase

26
Rural White Men and Women

• Worked small farms
• Depended on the labor of their sons
• Supplemental production from wives and daughters
• Clothing
• Vegetables
• Poultry
• Few inherited land
• Young couples at first
• Worked for others
• Borrow to buy own farms

27
Colonial Farmers and the Environment

• Rapidly cut down the forests
• Bring more land under cultivation
• Uses of timber
• Fences
• Fuel
• Buildings
• Sold wood to townspeople

28
Colonial Farmers and the Environment (cont.)

• Results of deforestation
• Drove away large game
• Greater extremes in temperature
• Less dependable water levels in streams
• Reduced amount of fish
• Dried and hardened the soil

29
Colonial Farmers and the Environment (cont.)

• Farmers grew tobacco and other soil-depleting
  plants
• Did not use fertilizer
• No crop rotation or letting field lie fallow
• Land lost fertility
• Yields seriously diminished

30
The Urban Paradox

• 1740--4 of colonists lived in cities
• Philadelphia, New York, Boston, Charles Town
  (Charleston today)
• Thriving ports
• Shipped livestock, grain, and lumber that
  enriched the countryside
• Escalating problems
• Urban poverty, crowding, poor sanitation,
  periodic epidemics of contagious diseases

31
The Urban Paradox (cont.)

• Women in cities
• Middle-class women ran complex households that
  included servants, slaves, and apprentices
• sewing, knitting, daily trips to public market,
  family businesses, etc.
• Most had at least 1 household servant
• Help with cooking, cleaning, laundering

32
Slavery

• The economic progress of colonial America meant
  that most masters could afford to keep their
  slaves healthier.
• For the slavesmeant heavier workloads and longer
  lives
• Worked harder and longer and had lower standards
  of living than whites
• Masters generally spent 60 more to maintain
  their white indentured servants than their black
  slaves

33
Slavery (cont.)

• The number of slaves residing in cities mounted
• 20 of population in NYC
• Majority of population in Charles Town and
  Savannah
• urban racial tensions ran high
• 1739 Stono Rebellion in South Carolina
• 1712 and 1741 slave conspiracies in NY
• Almost all rebellions by slaves were suppressed
  by frightened whites

34
The Rise of the Colonial Elites

• In the 18th century, class differences were
  becoming more apparent in America
• Wealthy rural gentry and urban commercial elites
  attempted to imitate the fashions and lifestyles
  of the European upper class
• Bought expensive chinaware
• Learned formal dances
• Studied foreign languages
• Cultivated the manners of the gentry
• Some even sent sons abroad to study
• Growing taste for British consumer goods

35
Competing for a Continent, 1713-1750

• France and the American Heartland
• After 1713, France resumed building its empire in
  North America
• 1718founded New Orleans
• Made it the capital of Louisiana province
• Farming, hunting, fishing, trading with Indians
• Alliances with the Choctaws in LA
• Tried to win over Native American trading
  partners in the Ohio Valley and Great Plains

36
France and the American Heartland (cont.)

• Several French posts in the Ohio Valley became
  sizable villages housing Indians, French, and
  mixed-ancestry metis
• Generally more successful in getting along with
  the Indians than the British, the French also
  crushed tribes that stood in their way such as
  the Natchez

37
Native Americans and British Expansion

• The Carolinians met resistance from the Indian
  tribes on whose lands they were encroaching,
  culminating in the Tuscarora (1711-1713) and
  Yamasee (1715) wars
• Those tribes were driven from the area
• Tuscarora moved to upstate New York and joined
  the Iroquois Confederacy

38
Native Americans and British Expansion (cont.)

• Covenant Chain
• Series of treaties
• Aided the colonists fight for lands
• Solidifying Iroquois power among Native Americans
  throughout the Northeast
• http//www.iroquoisdemocracy.pdx.edu/html/covenant
  chain.htm

39
Native Americans and British Expansion (cont.)

• Pennsylvania coerced the Delaware Indians into
  ceding their lands and moving into territory
  adjacent to that of the Iroquois
• Other eastern tribes also were pushed westward
• they were used by the Iroquois as buffer between
  themselves and the aggressive English

40
(No Transcript)
41
British Expansion in the South Georgia

• Georgia was the last of the original 13 colonies
  to be established on the North American mainland
• Only one to received some financial support from
  the British govt.
• James Oglethorpe founder
• Haven for English debtors
• Outpost protecting the Carolinas from the Spanish
  empire to the south

42
British Expansion in the South Georgia (cont.)

• 1733Savannah was established
• 17402,800 settlers there
• Most were not English debtors
• 1/2 were not English
• German, Swiss, Scottish, Jewish
• Society of industrious small farmers
• Able to defend themselves from attack
• Banned African slavery
• Limited size of landholdings

43
British Expansion in the South Georgia (cont.)

• Settlers switched to rice cultivation to make a
  profit
• Needed large farms and slaves
• 1750 restrictions were dropped
• Attracted more settles and developed a booming
  plantation-slave economy

44
Spains Borderlands

• Spain spread its empire throughout the Southwest
  and part of the Southeast
• European population in New Mexico grew very
  slowly
• Navajo and Apache raids ceased
• Those tribes made an alliance with the Spanish
  against the Utes and Comanches

45
Spains Borderlands (cont.)

• Texas
• Spanish established outposts and missions
  (including the Alamo)
• Indians in Texas traded more with the French
• Did not like to farm for the Spanish
• Periodic raids on the province by the French and
  Comanches discouraged Hispanic settlement in
  Texas
• As late as 1760, only 1,200 Spaniards lived there

46
Spains Borderlands (cont.)

• The Spanish attempted to weaken the British
  Carolinas and Georgia by offering freedom to
  English-owned slaves who fled to their colony of
  Florida

47
The Return of War, 1739-1748

• War among the imperial rivals for North America
  resumed in 1739
• First war was between British and Spanish over
  the Florida-Georgia border
• This war merged with the larger War of the
  Austrian Succession (King Georges War)
  (1740-1748)
• Only one battle on North American soil during
  King Georges War
• Battle of Louisbourg which was on the St. Lawrence

48
The Return of War, 1739-1748 (cont.)

• New Englanders seized Louisbourg from the French
• In the peace treaty (Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle)
  the British returned Louisbourg for an outpost
  the French had taken in India
• Many Americans felt lingering resentment over how
  little England appreciated the lives they had
  sacrificed to gain Louisbourg

49
Public Life in British America, 1689-1750

• Colonial Politics
• Shift from royal governors and appointed
  officials to the representative colonial
  assemblies
• Most important political result of the Glorious
  Revolution and the adoption of the English Bill
  of Rights in British America
• These legislative bodies exercised influence over
  the governors by controlling their salaries,
  authorized spending, imposed taxes, etc.
• America (at least the upper class) became more
  and more self-governing (except for trade
  regulations, restrictions on printing money, and
  declaring war)

50
Colonial Politics (cont.)

• Wealthy elites dominated colonial politics
• Elected to the colonial assemblies
• Appointed to the governors councils
• Appointed to judgeships in the courts
• Women, blacks, Indians could NOT vote or hold
  office
• Property qualifications excluded about 40 of
  white males from voting and holding office
• Proportion of men who did have the vote was
  higher than in England and Ireland during the
  same time period

51
The Enlightenment

• American intellectuals were influenced by the
  ideals of the 18th century Enlightenment
• Emphasized reason, progress, science, and
  capacity for human improvement

52
The Enlightenment (cont.)

• Skeptical of beliefs not founded on science or
  strict logic
• Mostly in cities
• Circulated the latest European books,
  investigated nature, conducted experiments
• Some were Deists (believed in a god who created
  the universe and set it in motion according to
  natural laws discoverable by human intellect but
  who did not intervene thereafter with miracles

53
The Enlightenment (cont.)

• Franklin and Jefferson were Deists
• Formally attended church and called themselves
  Christians
• Enlightened intellectuals took a dim view of the
  emotional excesses of the Great Awakening

54
The Great Awakening

• 1740s
• an outpouring of passionate Christian
  revivalism
• Across all 13 colonies
• Jonathan Edwards, William Tennent, Theodore
  Frelinghuysen, George Whitefield
• Colonists repented and seek salvation

55
George Whitefield
56
The Great Awakening (cont.)

• Many new colleges were founded to educate
  ministers
• Princeton (Presbyterian)
• Columbia (Kings College) (Anglican)
• Brown (Baptist)
• Dartmouth (Congregationalist)
• Insistence on the equality of all born-again
  Christians in Gods eyes and the corruption of
  unsaved upper-class leaders

57
Conclusion

• By 1750, the British mainland colonies had
• grown prosperous,
• established representative governments,
• upper-and middle class intellectuals
  participating in the developing of new ideas
  sweeping Europe known as the Enlightenment
• Anglo-American society was also torn by class,
  race, and religious tensions

58
Conclusion (cont.)

• The imperial wars that Britain fought with the
  aid of the colonists between 1739 and 1748 both
  drew Americans closer to the mother country and
  spawned some resentment about British lack of
  appreciation for Americans contributions