Historical Thinking Skills: Chronological Reasoning

• Historical causation: Historical thinking involves the ability to identify, analyze, and evaluate multiple cause-and-effect relationships in a historical context, distinguishing between the long-term and proximate.

French North America

• New France (Canada)– Population of only 60,000 in 1750– French concentrated on wealthy

Caribbean possessions (sugar and rum)– Beaver fur trading– Catholic missionaries (Jesuits)

1754

Anglo-French Conflicts

• Early conflicts with France and Spain– King William’s War (1689-1697)– Queen Anne’s War (1702-1713)

• British win Nova Scotia and Newfoundland– War of Jenkins’ Ear (1739-1742)

French and Indian War

French and Indian War

• 1754 - 1763• Started in North America• Became a worldwide conflict known

as the Seven Years’ War• Britain and Prussia vs. France, Spain,

Austria and Russia• Why called French “and Indian” War?

French and Indian War

• Albany Congress (1754)– Seven colonies sent delegates– Iroquois Indians– Albany Plan of Union

• Read the proposed plan. What is the purpose of the Albany Plan of Union?

• Why do you think the plan was not ratified by colonial legislatures?

• Describe Franklin political cartoon as a response.

French and Indian War

• War ends in 1763 with the Treaty of Paris

Impact of War

• Optimism and self-confidence on the part of Americans– European enemies, fear of French or

Spanish attack eliminated– Pride in British military might– More cheap land! Western lands now

opened for settlement by British colonists

– Colonists gain valuable wartime experience, confidence in ability to provide for own defense

– Revolutionary War military and political leaders get their start.

Impact of War

• Americans’ attitudes about British– Colonial soldiers serve alongside British

“regulars”– British officers would not recognize

colonists’ rank above Captain.

– Read Massachusetts soldier’s diary entry. What does it say about the ways that American soldiers were treated by British military officers? What do you learn about the relationship between British officers and British “regulars”?

Impact of War

• Americans’ attitudes about British– Colonists complain

about mistreatment by British officers – feel like “second-class English citizens”

– Colonists appalled at deference demanded by British commanders. Americans not used to such pronounced social hierarchy.

“The regulars are but little better than slaves to their officers.” – Mass. Soldier’s diary

“In general the dirtiest, most contemptible, cowardly dogs that you can conceive.” – British General Wolfe

Impact of War

• Americans’ attitudes about British– Colonists appalled at

brutality of punishment meted out by British leaders on regular infantrymen.

Daily “shrieks and cries” of whipped soldiers. “There was a man whipped to death belonging to the Light Infantry. They say he had twenty-five lashes after he was dead.”

– American soldier’s diary

Impact of War

• Americans’ self-image– Read Washington’s

letter to Robert Orme. What attitudes does Washington reveal about his allegiance to the British crown?

Impact of War

• Americans’ self-image– Still strong loyalty

among most to British crown

– Many begin to view themselves as different from British (recall Crevecoeur) but not yet strong cohesion between colonists (failure of Albany Plan of Union)

Impact of War

• Colonists’ relationship with Native Americans– Indians in the interior lose French and

Spanish allies, vulnerable, have to negotiate only with British now.

– Conflict between British colonists and Native Americans increases as whites move into former French territory.

Pontiac’s War

(1763-1769)

“I am French, and I want to die French.”—Chief Pontiac

End of Salutary Neglect

• New imperial program initiated by King George III (1760) and Prime Minister George Greenville (1763)

• British need to recover cost of war, maintain a standing army in the colonies to protect against Indians along the frontier.

Proclamation of 1763

British government wanted to protect valuable fur trade.

But colonists didn’t want to be told where not to live!

End of Salutary Neglect

End of Salutary Neglect

• Permanent standing army– British navy and army regulars

permanently stationed in colonies to defend the frontier.

– But English Declaration of Rights (1689) prohibited “standing armies”!

End of Salutary Neglect

• New rules for searches and seizures– “Writs of assistance” used to enforce

navigation and trade laws more strictly (e.g. by allowing British customs officials to search for smuggled goods anywhere without a warrant)

– But searches without warrants were supposed to be prohibited by English law and custom!

End of Salutary Neglect

• Sugar Act or Revenue Act (1764) – Duties (import taxes) on sugar and other

goods.– First time that taxes used to raise

revenue for Britain and not just to regulate trade.

– Smugglers would be tried in vice-admiralty courts by crown-appointed judges, not by a jury of their peers.

– But trial by jury was one of the rights of English citizens!

End of Salutary Neglect

• Currency Act (1764) – Colonists not allowed to print paper

money– Had to pay debts to British merchants

and bankers in specie (gold/silver)– Made the price of existing paper money

depreciate.– Exacerbated chronic shortage of money

in the colonies.

End of Salutary Neglect

• Quartering Act (1765)– Colonial governments required to

provide food and living quarters (in unoccupied shelters) for British soldiers.

– New York legislature suspended for six months by Governor for resisting to enforce the law.

End of Salutary Neglect

• Stamp Act (1765)– First direct

(“internal”) tax imposed by Britain on colonies

– Tax on most printed documents: newspapers, almanacs, pamphlets, deeds, wills, licenses.

Opposition to New Policies

• Why opposition to stricter British imperial program?– Impact on

availability of currency (gold, silver) in colonies

– Impact on merchants and other elites

– Danger to colonists’ rights as English citizens

Samuel Adamsnotorious Boston

smuggler

Opposition to New Policies

• Anti- Stamp Act resolution passed by House of Burgesses in Virginia (May 1765)– What does the

resolution say? Why do you think the last three resolutions rescinded or not considered? How do those sections change the tenor of the text?

Patrick Henry

Opposition to New Policies

• Stamp Act Congress, NYC (October 1765)– Nine colonies send delegates– Issue “Declaration of Rights”– Read Declaration of Rights. Why are

these colonial leaders opposed to the Stamp Act? What attitude do they demonstrate with respect to English authorities and England in general? How does it compare with the Virginia resolutions?

Opposition to New Policies

• Benjamin Franklin testifies in the British Parliament– What does Franklin say

are the rights that Parliament does have over the colonies? What powers should be prohibited to Parliament with respect to the colonies? How does Franklin say the colonists’ general attitude toward the mother country has changed?

Opposition to New Policies

• Benjamin Franklin testifies in the British Parliament

• Working with the system, like many colonial elites back home.

“I am a BRITON.”

Opposition to New Policies

• Mob actions– “Sons of Liberty” secret groups formed,

harass, humiliate, tar and feather stamp collectors

– Civil unrest, esp. in cities during summer of 1765

– Largest in Boston, including mob attack on Lieutenant Governor Thomas Hutchinson’s home

– Attacks on symbols of British authority and colonial wealth.

Opposition to New Policies

• Boycotts– Sons of Liberty intimidate colonists

reluctant to participate in boycotts.– Generates pressure on Parliament from

English merchants with falling profits– Probably most effective tactic

• Tories = royalists

• Does this depiction of a Stamp Act riot favor the “Patriots” or the royal official?

Opposition to New Policies

• Parliament repeals Stamp Act on March 1766 but passes Declaratory Act on same day– What does the Act state?

Cartoon Analysis

• List the objects or people you see in the cartoon. Describe the action taking place.

• Which of the objects or people you see in the cartoon are symbols? What do you think the symbols mean?

• Summarize the text in your own words.• What is the point of view of the cartoon

and the accompanying text?• What is the message of the cartoon and

the accompanying text?