Do two of this After carefully going through all of the materials from the Module, post your Historical Analysis Essay (HAE) and reply to at least two of your classmates. You will be evaluated accordi

Mod 5 Intro and Student Learning Outcomes

HIST 1301 Module Five

Topic: The Origin of the American Revolution

Readings: -Introductory Essay by Downs

-Resolutions of the First Continental Congress (Links to an external site.)

-Declaration of Independence (Links to an external site.)

Learning Outcomes:

Upon completion of this lesson, students will be able to:

Discuss the significance of the French and Indian War and its impact on the relationship between the English colonies and England.

Describe the various pieces of legislation that antagonized the colonists into rebellion.

Analyze the colonial response to such legislation.

Discuss the purpose of the Declaration of Independence.

Introductory Essay by Downs

As we begin our investigation into the American Revolution, I will keep coming back to one question: How revolutionary was the American Revolution? Many questions need to be answered along the way to come to some kind of understanding and interpretation of the American Revolution. Was it a revolution at all? Was it a war of independence? Was it both? Historians have debated these questions for a long time. To fully see the revolutionary aspects of the American Revolution, we must distinguish between the American Revolution as a political process and the revolutionary war. Winning the war was just the beginning. What kind of nation and government would emerge from the war is the more important question.

1763

This date is arguably more significant than that of 1776 because in 1763 the entire relationship between England and her North American colonies changed forever. 1763 is the year in which the French and Indian War (1754-1763) came to a conclusion. The English were victorious in all three theaters of war: North America, Europe and India. The French were completely defeated on three continents. The end result was that France was no longer a presence in North America. England was firmly in control of the continent from the east coast to the Mississippi River. Why was England able to defeat France? To win a war, you must have two things. The first is money and this is seemingly the more important of the two for with it one can buy not only the technology, weapons and equipment necessary to wage war, but also soldiers and especially mercenaries. The second item is, on the surface less important but perhaps may actually prove to be the most significant, and that is the will of the people back home to make the necessary sacrifices to win. England began this war badly but with the leadership of William Pitt as prime minister was able to turn the war around in 1757 and bring about final victory in 1763. England had an institution that France did not and that was the Bank of England, founded in 1696. A bank backed by the nation of England was able to generate war loans that the English government could use to wage war in a way that France simply could no. It should come as no surprise then that one of the first things Alexander Hamilton will do as the first Secretary of the Treasury is to demand the creation of a national bank, the Bank of the United States. Why would the defeat of France lead to problems between England and her colonies? The Bank of England, after the war, wants its money back plus interest. How is England going to pay for the war?

British Legislation

To pay for the war, the British parliament began passing legislation to deal with the burdens of administering an empire. Having an empire projects power and influence, allows one to extract and exploit wealth and resources, but they are also expensive and have to be defended. In the very year after the French and Indian War came to a conclusion, Parliament passed the Sugar Act, then the Stamp Act, the Quartering Act and many pieces of legislation to raise revenue, increase trade and defend the Empire. And they did so without asking the Americans. This led to all kinds of resentment and protest about American liberties being violated by a tyrannical and ruthless parliament. The Sons of Liberty was created to protest the Stamp Act and engaged in what can only be described, particularly from a British perspective, as acts of terrorism in order to prevent the enforcement of the laws of the land. What was at stake for the Americans was not the amount of tax, but who had the right to tax. For over a century, Americans had taxed Americans and now the British were imposing taxes without their consent. This is where the phrase “No taxation without representation” came into being. Read carefully about the various pieces of legislation from Parliament and the colonial response. It was very much a cause and effect relationship that grew more tense leading up to 1776 and the Declaration of Independence.

Chapter Outline

4.1 Charles II and the Restoration Colonies

4.2 The Glorious Revolution and the English Empire

4.3 An Empire of Slavery and the Consumer Revolution

4.4 Great Awakening and Enlightenment

4.5 Wars for Empire

The eighteenth century witnessed the birth of Great Britain (after the union of England and Scotland in 1707) and the expansion of the British Empire. By the mid-1700s, Great Britain had developed into a commercial and military powerhouse; its economic sway ranged from India, where the British East India Company had gained control over both trade and territory, to the West African coast, where British slave traders predominated, and to the British West Indies, whose lucrative sugar plantations, especially in Barbados and Jamaica, provided windfall profits for British planters. Meanwhile, the population rose dramatically in Britain’s North American colonies. In the early 1700s the population in the colonies had reached 250,000. By 1750, however, over a million British migrants and enslaved Africans had established a near-continuous zone of settlement on the Atlantic coast from Maine to Georgia.

During this period, the ties between Great Britain and the American colonies only grew stronger. Anglo-American colonists considered themselves part of the British Empire in all ways: politically, militarily, religiously (as Protestants), intellectually, and racially. The portrait of the Royall family (Figure 4.1) exemplifies the colonial American gentry of the eighteenth century. Successful and well-to-do, they display fashions, hairstyles, and furnishings that all speak to their identity as proud and loyal British subjects.

Chapter Outline

5.1 Confronting the National Debt: The Aftermath of the French and Indian War

5.2 The Stamp Act and the Sons and Daughters of Liberty

5.3 The Townshend Acts and Colonial Protest

5.4 The Destruction of the Tea and the Coercive Acts

5.5 Disaffection: The First Continental Congress and American Identity

The Bostonians Paying the Excise-man, or Tarring and Feathering (Figure 5.1), shows five Patriots tarring and feathering the Commissioner of Customs, John Malcolm, a sea captain, army officer, and staunch Loyalist. The print shows the Boston Tea Party, a protest against the Tea Act of 1773, and the Liberty Tree, an elm tree near Boston Common that became a rallying point against the Stamp Act of 1765. When the crowd threatened to hang Malcolm if he did not renounce his position as a royal customs officer, he reluctantly agreed and the protestors allowed him to go home. The scene represents the animosity toward those who supported royal authority and illustrates the high tide of unrest in the colonies after the British government imposed a series of imperial reform measures during the years 1763–1774.

The government’s formerly lax oversight of the colonies ended as the architects of the British Empire put these new reforms in place. The British hoped to gain greater control over colonial trade and frontier settlement as well as to reduce the administrative cost of the colonies and the enormous debt left by the French and Indian War. Each step the British took, however, generated a backlash. Over time, imperial reforms pushed many colonists toward separation from the British Empire.