The Road

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The Road to Revolution (1770-1776)
https//www.youtube.com/watch?vm5YIBmfZid0
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Was the American Revolution Inevitable??
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17th and 18th Centuries

• Great Britain followed a policy of MERCANTILISM
• The theory that a country should sell more goods
  to other countries than it buys
• Favorable balance of trade
• Profit made on exports exceeds the costs of
  imports

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MERCANTILISMIMPACT

• Positive
• New England shipbuilding prospered
• Chesapeake tobacco farmers had monopoly on
  British trade
• Protection from England
• Negative
• Limited manufacturing
• Low price for crops
• High prices for manufactured British goods
• Enforcement
• Navigation officials in charge, but known for
  corruption
• Led to smuggling

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1600s

• British government passed a series of
  NAVIGATION ACTS
• The colonies could trade only with England.
• American goods must be exported in British
  ships.

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Early 1760s

• WRITS OF ASSISTANCE
• British customs officials were given the
  authority to search peoples homes for smuggled
  goods without a warrant.

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The French and Indian War

• French empire collided w/ British empire
• British debt high American Taxes

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Treaty of Paris Proclamation of 1763

• Britain claimed land east of the Mississippi
  River
• Banned all settlement west of Appalachian Mts.

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1764 Sugar Act

• British Action
• Raised taxes on goods like
• Sugar
• Textiles
• Wine
• Coffee
• Indigo

• Colonial Response
• First time a tax had been passed to raise revenue
  rather than regulate trade
• Colonial merchants protested the increased duties

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No Taxation Without Representation

• England had just won the Seven Years War/French
  and Indian War and was in debt
• Felt that the colonist should have to help pay
  for the war because they received more land
• became a rallying cry for colonists
• Americans didnt feel they should have to pay
  taxes when they did not have anyone to represent
  them in parliament

James Otis The Rights of the British Colonists
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Stamp Act

• The Stamp Act of 1765 was passed by Great
  Britain.
• It required all legal documents, permits,
  commercial contracts, newspapers, pamphlets, and
  playing cards in the American colonies to carry a
  tax stamp.

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Stamp Act

• Colonists rioted threatened tax collectors with
  tarring and feathering.
• Unified the Colonists against Britain directly
  led to the revolution

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1765 Quartering Act

• British Action
• Colonists had to keep British troops in their
  homes
• Purpose to keep troops in the colonies and reduce
  the cost

• Colonial Response
• Colonists did not get along with army and did not
  want them there permanently
• They despised the British occupation and the
  soldiers
• Began to form meetings about the Acts they
  disliked

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Sons of Liberty

• This secret society formed as a result of the
  Stamp Act
• Many times they would seize the stamps or the
  papers that were stamped and burn them.
• The Sons enforced boycotts and occasionally
  resorted to violence.

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TOWNSHEND ACTS

• Britain bragged they could tax the colonies
  without them knowing
• Passed the Townshend Duties
• British Rationale
• Internal (indirect) tax
• Colonial Reaction
• Colonist slow to react

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The Boston Massacre (March 5,1770)
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Boston Massacre

• On March 5, 1770 the Boston Massacre occurred
  when a few troops fired on Bostonians who were
  throwing snowballs, rocks clamshells at them.
• 5 colonists were killed
• The soldiers and their officer were charged with
  murder.
• A jury found the officer and six of eight
  soldiers not guilty.

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The Boston Massacre

• Crispus Atticus, a dockworker who was part
  African, was the first man killed in the Boston
  Massacre
• Also killed were
• Samuel Gray
• James Caldwell
• Samuel Maverick
• Patrick Carr
• The Boston Massacre led many to call for stronger
  boycotts against British goods

Died from their wounds afterward
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• Fill in the Blank
• 1. The Rallying cry for colonists was
  ___________________________________________.
• 2. The _________________________ required
  colonists to pay for an official stamp, or seal,
  whenever they bought paper items.
• 3. The _______________________________ were
  formed in protest against the Stamp Act.
• 4. ______________________________ was the first
  man killed in the Boston Massacre.
• 5. A total of ______________ people were killed
  in the Boston Massacre.

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Tea Act (1773)

• British East India Co.
• Monopoly on British tea imports
• Many members of Parliament held shares
• This created an opportunity for cheaper tea
• England expected the colonies to eagerly choose
  the cheaper tea

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Boston Tea Party

• The Tea Act (May 1773) enraged the Colonists
• A group of colonists, led by Samuel Adams and
  Paul Revere disguised themselves as Native
  Americans, boarded ships on the night of Dec. 16,
  1773, and threw the tea into the harbor.

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Boston Tea Party (1773)
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Intolerable Acts

• The British government responded by
• closing the port of Boston and
• Passed the Intolerable Acts (1774).
• The Boston Tea Party eventually proved to be one
  of the many causes that led to the American
  Revolution.

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The Coercive or IntolerableActs (1774)
1. Port Bill
2. Government Act
3. New Quartering Act
Lord North
4. Administration of Justice Act
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INTOLERABLE ACTS

• Britain called Coercive Acts
• 1774
• Boston harbor would remain closed until tea paid
  for
• Closed Massachusetts Legislature increased
  power of royal governor
• Expanded the Quartering Act
• Allowed royal officials to be tried in England
• British Rationale
• Punishment for Boston Tea Party, Reimburse
  merchants
• Colonial Reaction
• First Continental Congress

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• The British actions against Boston increased the
  colonists need to be more unified against the
  king
• Samuel Adams decided that a meeting, or congress,
  of representatives from all the colonies should
  be held

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First Continental Congress (1774)
55 delegates from 12 colonies
Agenda ? How to respond to the Coercive Acts?
1 vote per colony represented.
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• First Continental Congress
• Adams invited all colonies to a convention in
  Philadelphia
• A convention is a formal meeting called for a
  special purpose
• This Continental Congress would help to bring
  about a better understanding of possible actions
  against the king
• The meeting was called a Continental Congress

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• All of the colonies except Georgia elected
  delegates to the Congress
• Fifty-six outstanding men attended, including
  George Washington, Patrick Henry, Samuel Adams,
  John Adams, and John Jay
• These patriots were well educated and were
  leaders in their colonies
• A patriot is someone who loves his or her own
  country
• The Continental Congress was held in Carpenters
  Hall in Philadelphia in September of 1774

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• The delegates debated important issues for seven
  weeks
• The delegates agreed that a Declaration of Rights
  should be adopted and sent to the king
• The Declaration made it clear that taxation by
  the British would be unacceptable to the colonies
• Another Continental Congress would be held on May
  10, 1775, if the king rejected the Declaration of
  Rights

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The British Are Coming . . .
Paul Revere William Dawes make their midnight
ride to warn the Minutemen of approaching British
soldiers.
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The Shot Heard Round the World!
Lexington Concord April 18,1775
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The Second Continental Congress(1775)
Olive Branch Petition

• One last attempt to avoid a full blown war with
  England
• Reached the King at the same time as John Adams
  letter discussing an inevitable war with England

England believed that the Petition was INSENCIRE
as a result
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Thomas Paine Common Sense
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Declaration of Independence (1776)
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Main Points of the Declaration of Independence

• All men are created equal.
• We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that
  all men are created equal.
• Men are given by God certain unalienable rights.
• They are endowed, by their Creator, with
  certain unalienable rights, that among these are
  Life, liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.
• We have the natural right by God to declare our
  independence from England.
• When in the course of human events it becomes
  necessary for one people to dissolve the
  political bands which have connected them with
  another, and to assume among the Powers of the
  earth, the separate and equal station to which
  the Laws of Nature and of Natures God entitle
  them

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Main Points of the Declaration of Independence

• Governments derive their authority from the
  consent of the people.
• Governments are instituted among Men, deriving
  their just powers from the consent of the
  governed.
• When a government abuses its power, the people
  have the right to overthrow it.
• That whenever any form of Government becomes
  destructive to these ends, it is the Right of the
  People to alter or to abolish it
• The colonies tried repeatedly to compromise with
  King George, but he has been a tyrant.
• Such has been the patient sufferance of these
  Colonies and such is now the necessity which
  constrains them to alter their former Systems of
  Government.

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The American Revolution 1775-1783
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Washingtons Headaches

• Only 1/3 of the colonists were in favor of a war
  for independence the other third were Loyalists,
  and the final third were neutral.
• State/colony loyalties.
• Congress couldnt tax to raise money for the
  Continental Army.
• Poor training

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Military Strategies
The Americans
The British

• Attrition the Brits had a long supply line.
• Guerilla tactics fight an insurgent war ? you
  dont have to win a battle, just wear the British
  down
• Make an alliance with one of Britains enemies.

• Break the colonies in half by getting between the
  No. the So.
• Blockade the ports to prevent the flow of goods
  and supplies from an ally.
• Divide and Conquer ? use the Loyalists.

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Phase I The Northern Campaign1775-1776
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Bunker Hill (June, 1775)
The British suffered over 40 casualties.
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Phase II NY PA1777-1778
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Battles in NY and PA

• George Washington divides his army in two within
  New York
• The British arrive and completely overwhelm one
  half of his army.
• The British DO NOT chase Washington and the other
  half of his army and thus lose a chance to end
  the war.

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Saratoga Turning Point of the War
A modern-day re-enactment
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Phase III The Southern Strategy 1780-1781
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Britains Southern Strategy

• Britain thought that there were more Loyalists in
  the South.
• Southern resources were more valuable/worth
  preserving.
• The British win a number of small victories
• Good US GeneralNathanial Greene

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The Battle of Yorktown (1781)

• France sends troops to aid the Colonists in the
  war against England.
• England is in desperate need of supplies and
  moves to Yorktown, VA
• England was being spied on by one of their
  generals slaves
• The colonists and France surround the British and
  force them to surrender

Count de Rochambeau
AdmiralDe Grasse
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Cornwallis Surrender at Yorktown (1781)
The World Turned Upside Down!
Treaty of Paris (1783) The signed document that
officially ended the war