Toward American Independence (1750 – 1774)
The Theory of Mercantilism – When all countries are in a competition to acquire wealth.
Resources transferred to England from the Colonies were:
1. Rice
2. Rum
3. Lumber
4. Indigo
5. Tobacco
6. Fur Materials
England would than take some of these raw materials and create manufacture goods to bring back to the colonies.
The colonists would give England the raw materials for a cheap price and the manufactured goods sold back to the colonists were for an expensive price so it was an unfair deal.
The Navigation Acts stated that the only certain raw materials were allowed to only be sold to England and that no other country could trade with the colonies unless the goods were shipped in either English or colonial ships.
Positives of the Navigation Acts were that they had an English army to protect them from the Natives, French, and Spain.
Negative of the Navigation Acts were that colonial manufacturing was limited and the colonists still had to pay high prices for manufactured goods.
Salutary Neglect is the English policy of only lightly enforcing the Navigation Acts and other colonial laws.
George Washington, a young man from Virginia, sent to attack and conquer Fort Duquesne, but he failed and surrendered.
This attack on Fort Duquesne started the French and Indian War in 1754.
Things started to get better for this war when they make William Pitt the new prime minister in 1657.
The biggest victory was in 1759 when the English captured Quebec. After, the English captured Montreal; they would than sign a treaty known as the Treaty of Paris in 1763.
The treaty stated that France would lose all of North America (Canada) and that Spain would lose Florida.
Native Americans joined either the English or the French in the French and Indian War.
In 1763, Pontiac leads the natives on an attack towards the English, this was Pontiac’s Rebellion, and it lasted from 1763 to 1765.
England states that the colonies cost them a lot of money so they declare the Proclamation of 1763 which was a law that stated that the colonists cannot settle west, but stay next to the coast.
George Grenville passes the sugar act in 1764, which is an indirect tax, which meant to lower taxes; the purpose of this act was to bring down English debt and reduce smuggling.
In 1765, the quartering act is created; it says that all colonists must provide shelter or housing for and British soldiers.
The stamp act is a direct tax it was a tax onto anything printed on paper, this was a law in 1765; it is also the first direct tax on the colonies.
Boycott – a punishment or protest against something.
The Sons of Liberty was a group created by Samuel Adams that retaliated against the stamp act.
The Sons of Liberty group would gang up on the local tax collectors to resign in all the colonies and if they would not they would tar and feather the person.
The Townshend acts are an indirect tax against tea, glass, lead, paint, and paper; it also allowed soldiers to search your home with a writ of assistance for smuggled goods. “No taxation without representation.” – John Dickinson/Patrick Henry.
The Liberty incident in June of 1768 was when British officials ceased John Hancock’s ship, The Liberty because they accused him of smuggling goods.
On March 5, 1770, a group of British soldiers near a customs house fire there muskets and kill five men and