The Imperial Crisis

1
The Imperial Crisis

• 1763 - 1775

2
Developing Crisis

• The colonies remained loyal Englishmen, though
  they continued to be unruly they are seen on the
  home island as bordering on disloyal if not out
  right disloyal.
• The colonists began to lobby for representation.
• They did not want representation in Parliament.
• They knew they would be outnumbered and
  ineffective as representatives in Parliament.
• The colonists wanted the king to consult with
  their representative assemblies as he did with
  Parliament putting their assemblies on a equal
  basis with Parliament.

3
The New Imperial System

• Three goals
• Provide for colonies security
• Reassert crowns authority over colonies
• Shift financial burden of war debt and colonial
  defense to colonies

4
Proclamation of 1763
5
(No Transcript)
6
The New Imperial SystemOpening Moves

• Sugar Act 1764 taxes sugar, coffee and other
  imports
• Currency Act of 1764 prohibited use of colonial
  money only the British pound was permissible
• Quartering Act of 1765 required the garrisoning
  of British soldiers at colonial expense
• Stamp Act Required a stamp on newspapers,
  pamphlets, cards, death certificates, etc.
• Problems tax with the sole purpose of raising
  revenue for England not colonies
• Results
• VA (led by Patrick Henry laudanum head)
  declared only it had the right to tax Virginians
• Mob activity (burning the tax collectors in
  effigy liberty poles) tar and feather
• Repealed in 1766

7
George Grenville and his Stamps
8
The Stamp Act Crisis

• Colonial Responses
• Political Actions
• Popular Actions
• British Responses
• British Merchants seek relief
• Parliament Repeals the act in 1766
• Parliament passes the Declaratory Act
• Parliament passes Revenue Act
• Lessons Learned

9
The Townshend Crisis

• Townshend Revenue Act of 1766
• - Duty on lead, glass, paint, paper and tea
• Provocative moves
• - Seeks confrontation
• Colonial responses
• - Sons of Liberty
• - Circular letter
• Parliaments response
• - Dissolve Assemblies
• - Increase British troops strength

10
The Boston Massacre
11
The Last Imperial Crisis

• Tea Act (1773)
• Boston Tea Party (1774)
• The Coercive Acts (1774)
• The First Continental Congress (1774)
• Lexington Concord (1775)

12
The Boston Tea Party
13
Coercive (Intolerable) Acts

• Closed port of Boston
• Powers of Mass. Assembly town meetings
  curtailed
• Permitted quartering of troops in private houses
• Imperial officers exempted from trial

14
The Opening Salvos

• September 1774 - Congress recommends that the
  colonies begin military preparations
• December 1774 - George III declares the New
  England colonies to be in a state of rebellion
• In early 1775 Gen. Gage ordered to restore royal
  rule in Mass by
• 1. Closing Massachusetts Assembly
• 2. Arrest its leading members
• 3. Capturing arms stockpiled by militia
• By spring 1775, colonial leaders and the British
  commander both expected fighting to break out.

15
19 April 1775

• General Thomas Gage
• Commander-in-Chief, North America
• Governor, Massachusetts Bay Colony
• Order British column to Lexington and Concord
  searching for John Hancock, Sam Adams and
  munitions stores.

16
The midnight ride of Paul Revere William Dawes
17
Opening Moves
18
The shot heard round the world
19
Colonial Response to the New Imperial System

• Benjamin Franklin - Repeal the laws, Renounce
  the Right, Recall the troops, Refund the money,
  and return to the old methods