Atlantic Wars and Revolutions

Richard Ustick

Chapter 13 – PiracyO In the late 1600’s, British Empire turned against piracy that it had once used during the late

1500’s to the early 1600’s to attack the superior Spanish empire.

O By 1700’s, pirates had become a liability to the empire.

O Piracy had its own counterculture and offered the ability for sailors to strike back against merchant ships, who had harsh discipline policies and very low pay.

O Pirate crews boarded ships and asked the crew for their opinions on the captain. If he was in good favor, he was left alone. If not, he could be whipped or executed.

O Each Pirate crew had a written code that all members signed, and they equally shared the rewards. Pirates gave wounded and crippled men extra compensation. The crews operated as democracies.

O Between 1702 and 1713, the War of the Spanish Succession suspended the suppression of pirates, as officials needed every sailor for naval or privateer duty against the French and Spanish.

O After the war, the suppression resumed, and between 1716 and 1726, the British convicted and executed between 400 and 600 pirates. By 1730, the campaign had exterminated the pirates.

Chapter 15 – EstablishmentsO Myths insist that English colonists during the 1600’s fled from

religious persecution to a land of religious freedom. This myth omits economic considerations and simplifies the diverse religious motives for emigration.

O Not all colonists felt persecuted and few wanted to live in a society that tolerated many religions.

O Some English dissenters sought religious freedom, many more emigrants wanted their own denomination to be the leading religion.

O By the end of the 1600’s, most colonies offered less religions toleration than did England.

O New English towns enforced a Sabbath that restricted activity to home and church, and arrested or fined people who worked, played, or traveled on Sunday.

Chapter 17 – Horses and GunsO The association of Great Plains Indians with the horse is relatively recent and

depended upon the colonial intrusion.

O Horses had evolved in North America and spread to Asia and Europe, but then became extinct in North America. The horse returned to North America with the Hispanic colonists.

O It was not for another hundred years that the Pueblo and Apache tribes would acquire horses from the New Mexicans, through trade and raids.

O After the Pueblo revolt of 1680, the Hispanics fled New Mexico and left behind hundreds of horses. They were common among southern Indians by 1720.

O Horses enabled farther, faster travel and was a beast of burden. In an emergency it was a food source.

O During the 1700’s, as horses were obtained, guns were also acquired. They were used to defend villages and raid enemies but were too impractical for hunting on horseback.

O The prevalence of epidemics promoted a fatalism about early death and a desire to prove courage before killed by disease.

Chapter 17 – Comanche and Apache

O 1700’s – Natives competed to exploit buffalo and to steal horses and women.

O If a people captured a territory rich with buffalo, their advantages compounded. Victors grew in population, horses, and firearms, while the losers shrank in all three.

O Early 1700’s on the southern plains, Comanche steadily acquired horses as they moved southeast. By trading for or stealing horses, the Comanche increased their movement southeast and gained larger hunting areas for trading and food.

O Expansion granted the Comanche with surplus horse, buffalo hides, and human captives to trade for French guns and ammo. Apache fled as a result of blocked trade from the French and retreated farther south and west, eventually becoming the Navajo tribe.

O After numerous Indian attacks, in 1777, the governor reported that the Indian raids had reduced New Mexico “to the most deplorable state and greatest poverty”.

Chapter 18 – The Seven Years War

O 1749, British established a fortified town and navy base at Halifax to counter Loisbourg. French escalated and built two new forts at the head of the Bay of Fundy, which the British resented as an intrusion on their colony.

O The war for North America started in 1754 when the British governor of Virginia tried to evict the French from the Ohio river to sell to settlers. The governor sent a small regiment of colonial troops commanded by George Washington, to evict the French.

O Washington attacked and destroyed a small French patrol. French counter-attacked Washington’s camp during a storm, which was built in a swamp surrounded by high ground. French commander allowed Washington and his men to return to Virginia.

O In 1755, British sent large numbers of troops to the mainland colonies to take control of the land from the French. British general marched troops against a French fort and were caught in an ambush as the French and Indians exploited the forest for cover and concealment, causing nearly a thousand British causalities to 40 French and Indian causalities.

Chapter 18 – The Seven Years War pt 2

O By 1765, raiders had pushed the frontier back as survivors abandoned their farms and fled eastward.

O Bad harvests of 1757 and 1758 damaged the French efforts and damaged the Canadian economy.

O 1758 – British forces capture French Fort Duquesne area and build Fort Pitt over it. French attempt a cliff-scaling assault, but failed. British won with sheer numbers and supplies.

O 1759, British reaffirmed naval supremacy by crippling Spanish and French fleets.

O 1763, Treaty of Paris. French conceded Canada and all claims east of the Mississippi. British return major French islands and restored French access to fishing off Newfoundland.

Chapter 18 – Empire of Liberty

O Until the Revolutionary War in 1775, few colonists aspired to national independence. They felt pride in the Empire, derived economic benefits, and dreaded the death and destruction of a civil war.

O When the war started, the Northern colonies remained loyal because they depended upon British protection and markets. Southern colonies felt too reliant upon the British market for sugar.

O Atlantic seaboard colonists felt confidence in growing numbers.

O British underestimated colonial resolve and fortitude.

O Thomas Jefferson declared the United States an “Empire of Liberty”

Chapter 19 – IslandsO Pacific – distant, only accessible by the Straight of Magellan. So

large that mariners got lost due to lack of accurate techniques for determining longitude.

O Colony established at Manila in the Philippines, and shortly after they initiated a trade across the Pacific to Mexico.

O Spanish kept Pacific information secret, and unwittingly hurt their own later mariners, who repeated the mistakes and discoveries of forgotten predecessors.

O During the 1760’s, the British and French governments became serious about probing the pacific ocean. They denounced the Spanish secrecy and protectiveness.

O National pride and fear as much as national interest, drove both the British and French in a race to explore the Pacific.

Chapter 19 - NootkaO Captain Cook closed the cartographic gap between Spanish costal probes of

California and the Russian investigation of Alaska, which ended the myth of the Northwest Passage.

O Cook discovered native cultures in the Pacific Northwest.

O Natives worked hardest in the spring for the salmon swam upriver to lay their eggs. They caught and prepared enough to last through the winter months.

O The well-fed natives had time to compete violently for prestige, and at least a fifth of the natives in the pacific northwest were slaves.

O Nootka was an inlet on the west coast of Vancouver island. The Moachatregarded their rights to property as superior to those of the Europeans, and would steal anything they could from the ships when allowed on. Captain Cook acted with restraint to the lost items, in contrast to his hard line stance in Hawaii.