MERCANTILISM & THE CAUSES OF THE

AMERICAN REVOLUTIONAmerica’s History Ch. 5

- AUTHOR- PLACE & TIME

- PRIOR KNOWLEDGE- AUDIENCE- REASON- THE MAIN IDEA- SIGNIFICANCE

• I. Mercantilism – a nation’s power depends on its wealth• More exports than imports• Colonies produce agricultural goods & raw materials &

buy manufactures• GB pursued policies that subsidized (funding) & charters

to stimulate manufacturing & foreign trade• Ex: East India Tea Company; Royal African Company

• Lords of Trade (1621) created to promote colonial trade & plantations• 1624, makes Virginia a Royal Colony• 1686, approves the Dominion of New England

• II. Navigation Acts• 1651 –Prevented French & Dutch from using

American Ports• Ships had to be owned by GB or American

colonial merchants• 1660 –Colonists export sugar & molasses

only to GB• 1663 –All imports to the colonies must pass

through GB first• Vice-Admiralty Courts established to punish

violators• Seldom enforced in the colonies

• Naval Warfare • Attacked Dutch ships & forts in West Africa• 1664 –drove Dutch out of New Amsterdam

• Rise of Merchant Shipping• The amount of tonnage shipped b/w the

colonies & GB double b/w 1640 - 1690

AP PARTS• By the rude bridge that arched the flood,Their flag to April's breeze unfurled,Here once the embattled farmers stood,And fired the shot heard round the world.

• The foe long since in silence slept;Alike the conqueror silent sleeps;And Time the ruined bridge has sweptDown the dark stream which seaward creeps.

• On this green bank, by this soft stream,We set to-day a votive stone;That memory may their deed redeem,When, like our sires, our sons are gone.

• Spirit, that made those heroes dareTo die, and leave their children free,Bid Time and Nature gently spareThe shaft we raise to them and thee.

EFFECTS OF THE F&I WAR

• IV. Salutary Neglect ends -1763• replaced by imperial administration• More than 10,000 troops left in the colonies after

F&I war• ‘To secure the dependence of the colonies on

GB’• GB comes to terms with the fact that Royal

governors often had less power than colonial assemblies • many assemblies paid the governor’s salary• Assemblies often decided whether or not to call

out the militia• Bureaucracy doubles (to administer new empire)• GB debt climbs from 75 million to 133 million

• Debt is 60% of national budget

V. Legislation• Revenue Act, 1762 –enforces trade

duties• Currency Act, 1764• Paper money no longer legal tender;

only gold or silver accepted• Sugar Act, 1764• Customs duty added to French

molasses• Custom enforcement tightened • Vice-admiralty courts in the colonies

for smugglers –no jury trials

VI. COLONIAL REACTION TO UNJUST AUTHORITY (SCOTS-IRISH)

• Regulator Movement, 1766-1771• NC farmers in debt due to falling

Tobacco prices • Merchants & other creditors used

courts to confiscate property• Mobs of farmers attacked judges,

closed courts• Asked for lower property taxes• Gov. Tryon refused; Used eastern

NC militia & British soldiers to defeat Regulators

• Paxton Boys,1763• Non-Quakers want Natives

expelled, Quaker controlled gov’t refuses• Western PA farmers attack

peaceful Conestoga tribe & march towards Philadelphia declaring to burn it• Ben Franklin negotiates

truce• Failed to be brought to

justice due to lack of witness

• VII. Political Factions• Tories –Typically members of the House of Lords• Pro-Empire; expansion of government

• Whigs –Typically members of the House of Commons• Republican ideals; sympathy

w/Commonwealth, Puritan gov’t (Oliver Cromwell)• Anti-empire (too expensive)• *Typically the faction out of power

THE BEGINNING OF THE END

• VIII. Stamp Act , 1765 -tax on printed items (documents, newspapers, cards)• Purpose

• To raise $ to support the army in the Americas

• Similar to one in England• Lack of Success

• The Mob; urban resistance• Boycott –Sons & Daughters of Liberty• Stamp Act Congress, NYC, 1765

• Letter of grievances• Eventually Repealed

• IX. ‘No taxation, without representation’• Declaratory Act, 1766 –Parliament has the authority to pass any

law of regulation on trade on the colonies• Townshend Acts, 1766

• Tax paper, paint, tea, glass• Restraining Act –limited colonial legislatures

• Purpose• Pay the salaries of royal officials in the colonies (governors, no longer

controlled by colonial legislatures• Resistance

• Raised revenue, instead of regulated trade• Colonists argued that taxing to raise revenue, should only be done if the

people are represented in the decision• Boycott hurt British merchants

• Boston Massacre, 1770• –repealed in 1770, except tea tax

• X. From Englishmen to Americans (1770 – 1775)• Committees of Correspondence, 1772

• ‘to state the rights of English men’• Organizer Samuel Adams (Boston chapter, led to 80 more in MA w/in a year –

spread to SC within a year)• Attack of the Gaspee, 1772 – British Customs ship destroyed off the coast

of RI• Tea Act, 1773

• East India Tea Co. gets a monopoly of tea • Lowers prices –makes ‘English’ tea cheap, even w/ new tax

• Boston Tea Party, 1773• Coercive (Intolerable) Acts, 1774

• Boston Port Bill• Quartering Act • Justice Act• Quebec Act* Catholicism allowed in former French territory

• 1st Continental Congress, 1774• 12 colonies • Asked for redress & removal of Coercive Acts

• King George III unresponsive

• Battle of Lexington & Concord, April 1775• Rural farmers come to support the

cause later• Begin hiding guns, powder from

British troops• Train ‘minutemen’

• 2nd Continental Congress• Olive Branch Petition, Summer

1775• Attempt to make peace after the

hostilities• George III refuses to read

document• By July 1776 produces the

Declaration of Independence