The end of the French and Indian War:
- French won several victories until turning point
- William Pitt captured French colonial possessions around the world - Montreal fell in 1760, completing British conquest of Canada
- War officially ended between Britain and France with Treaty of Paris 1763
- The war made Britain the dominant power in North America
- France was no longer a power in North America
- France gave its ally, Spain, Louisiana as compensation for their loss of Spanish Florida
- The French and Indian War planted the seeds for later divisions:
- British thought colonists could have done more to help war effort
- Colonists resented British condescension directed toward them, disliked brutal and authoritarian British behavior
The British need money→more tensions between colonists and Britain
- The war was expensive
- King George III, prime ministers = George Grenville, Lord Rockingham, Charles Townshend, Lord North
- Currency Act (1764) - prohibited colonists from issuing their own paper money
- Sugar Act - lowered duties on molasses
- Stamp Act (1775) - direct tax on colonies, repealed in 1766
- Americans reacted with fury -
- Sons of Liberty (Samuel Adams, Patrick Henry)
- Stamp Act Congress
- Quartering Act - required colonies house and feed British troops stations in America
- Declaratory Act - asserted Parliament's right to legislate for the colonies
- Townshend Acts - placed new duties on lead, paper, glass, and tea, all goods the colonists bought from British merchants
- Opposition - Samuel Adams, Circular Letter
- Boston Massacre - Conflict between British soldiers and Boston civilians on March 5, 1770. After civilians threw rocks and snowballs at the Redcoats, the soldiers opened fire, killing five and wounding six
- Tea
- Lord North left tax on tea to show colonists who's boss
- Americans boycotted British tea→hurt British East India→
- Tea Act (1773)→
- Boston Tea Party (1773), disguised Americans throw tea into harbor→
- Intolerable Acts/Coercive Acts (1774), designed to punish Massachusetts for Boston Tea Party
- First Continental Congress
- Declaration of Rights and Grievances - Parliament could regulate the trade of the colonies, but could not tax the colonies without representation
- Suffolk Resolves - refused to recognize changes British had made to government, imposed boycott of British goods
- May 10, 1775 - date for the Second Continental Congress
- Congress drew up petition to George III requesting repeal of the Intolerable Acts
American Revolution:
Lexington and Concord:
- Massachusetts assembly created militia separate from British General Thomas Gage
- February 1775 - British government declared Massachusetts to be in a state of rebellion
- April 18-19 - Gage sent force to destroy militia at Concord
- Word leaked to the Americans, Paul Revere and William Dawes spread word that Redcoats were coming
- April 19 - Lexington - Redcoats encounter American militia and fire shots, advanced to Concord
- Concord - American militia was waiting for the British, they drove them away
Second Continental Congress:
- Created Continental Army - George Washington as commander
- Congress made a last effort at peace - sent the "Olive Branch Petition" to George III
Thomas Paine's Common Sense:
- Published in January 1776, the pamphlet argued the colonies would prosper once freed from the political and economic shackles, Paine attacked the institution of monarchy.
- Played an important role in persuading Americans of the necessary of independence
Declaration of Independence:
- A committee including Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson appointed to draft the declaration of Independence
- Jefferson evoked the natural rights theory of Enlightenment philosopher John Locke, asserting men have "certain unalienable rights." and "among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness"
- List of wrongs colonies suffered under British, attributing to George III
- July 4, 1776 - Congress announces decision for independence
The Revolutionary War:
- Reactions to Independence
- Loyalists doubted sense of challenging Great Britain's power
- African Americans saw the Declaration of Independence as a challenge to slavery
- Native Americans did not see anything with Dec. of Ind. Many supported British because feared the land hunger of the new nation
- Great Britain had military advantage over colonies
- British regulars + German Hessians + American Loyalists
- Americans had no navy, Continental Army was poorly paid and supplied by Congress, had inexperienced militia
- American advantage
- British forces long way from home, difficult for communication
- America was vast, a lot of wilderness
Battles:
- Bunker Hill - Americans shot down almost 1,000 British soldiers, gave impression that American citizen soldiers could easily defeat British Regulars
- British forced out of Boston when cannon from Ticonderoga threatened their ships
- British evacuated New Jersey - famous Washington crossing Delaware River on Christmas Day (Washington captured Hessians at Trenton)→increased American morale
- British surrender at Saratoga→British army is eliminated, this American victory convinced the French to declare war on Great Britain in 1778
- Valley Forge - (winter of 1777-1778) a small town in Pennsylvania where the American army spent the winter. It was a rough winter. During that time, Generals Washington and Lafayette worked out a major change in strategy for the American Revolution
- Yorktown - Washington began siege, trapped General Cornwallis→Cornwallis surrendered (October 19, 1781), last major battle of the war, British realized they lost America
Treaty of Paris:
- Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and John Jay represented the United States in peace negotiations in Paris 1782
- Great Britain recognized independence of United States
- British retained Canada but ceded the U.S. lands between Appalachian Mountains and Mississippi River
- America won fishing rights off Newfoundland
The New Nation:
Articles of Confederation:
- Articles of Confederation - gave federal government few powers: they could not regulate trade or interstate commerce or impose taxes; it remained financially dependent upon financial contributions from states (fear of King George III's tyrannical rule)
- Unicameral legilature
- Each state had one vote
- To ratify the Articles, all 13 state legislatures would have to vote affirmatively
- Financial problems - inflation, unable to pay war debts tariffs failed, Congress never paid many soldiers who served in the Continental Army
- The only good thing that came out of the Articles of Confederation were the Northwest Ordinances (1784, 1785, 1787)
- Bills that authorized sale of lands in Northwest Territory to raise money for the federal governement
- Became foundation for government's policy toward all western lands that it acquired in the future
- Prohibited slavery, making the Ohio River a dividing line between eventual slave and free states
- Shay's Rebellion - Daniel Shay, a veteran of the Continental Army, experienced financial hardships→highlighted the need for a stronger central government
The Constitution:
- Great Compromise (Connecticut Proposal) - each state would have 2 members in the upper house of legislature (Senate), members of the lower house would be chosen through proportional representation (House of Representatives)...combination of the two plans:
- Virginia Plan
- James Madison, "Father of the Constitution"
- 3 branches: legislative, executive, judicial
- Bicameral congress chosen through proportional representation
- New Jersey Plan
- Congress = unicameral, each state gets 1 vote
- President elected by an Electoral College
- Checks and Balances
- Slavery - to ensure southern support for the Constitution:
- Three-Fifths Compromise - 3/5's of state's slave population would count for HoR
- Bill of Rights accepted by Federalists (increase strength of federal government) to satisfy the Anti-Federalists (no stronger federal government), established the basic freedoms that Americans cherish today
- The Federalist Papers
- Articles and essays promoting the ratification of the United States Constitution. They were written by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay (under the pseudonym Publius), between October 1787 and August 1788.
- Washington elected as president
- Party system
- Alexander Hamilton (Federalist)
- Wanted U.S. to become great commercial and manufacturing power
- Mercantilist policies to support American trade
- Public credit & national bank and tariffs
- Did not support French Revolution
- "Loose" interpretation of Constitution
- Thomas Jefferson (Democratic-Republican)
- Favored agrarian America
- Supported free trade, laissez-faire economic principles
- Supported French Revolution
- "Strict" interpretation of Constitution
- James Madison joined Jefferson against Hamilton
Washington's Neutrality:
- French Revolution started in 1789 and eventually involved many European countries. It began peacefully but entered a violent phase when France declared war on Austria in 1792. Things got worse when King Louis XVI was beheaded in 1793, the church was attacked, and the Reign of Terror begun
- Washington issued the Neutrality Proclamation of 1793 stating the country's neutrality from helping the French in their war against Britain
- Jay's Treaty
- Britain retained frontier posts on U.S. soil in defiance of the peace treaty of 1783
- In last attempt to avoid war, Washington sent Chief Justice John Jay to London in 1794 to negotiate.
- British refused to acknowledge freedom of seas, insisted on America removing French products from their ships
- British agree to withdraw military posts
- Jay's Treaty caused Spain, which feared Anglo-American alliance, to strike deal with U.S.
- Pinckney's Treaty (1795) - Spain granted Americans free navigation of Mississippi River and disputed territory north of Florida
- Washington's Farewell Address:
- Warned against the dangers of political parties
- Urged the U.S. to avoid "foreign entanglements" and alliances with other nations
The Presidency of John Adams:
- In election of 1796, ran against Democratic-Republican Thomas Jefferson as a Federalist
- Became the 2nd president of the U.S.
- Crisis with France
- Jay's Treaty angered French (so the U.S. is friends with the British now??)
- French captured American ships
- X,Y,Z, French agents required bribe from American diplomat to talk
- 1798-1800 - French and Americans engaged in Quasi Wars, undeclared naval war
- By 1800, Napoleon Bonaparte had taken control of France, and diplomacy continued
- The Alien and Sedition Acts→Adams attacks the Democratic Republicans
- The Alien Act gave the president the authority to imprison or deport any alien who was thought to be "dangerous to the peace and safety of the United States"
- The Sedition Act enabled the president to prosecute persons who publishes "malicious" criticisms of his administration
- →Democratic Republicans (Jefferson and Madison) pass the Kentucky and Virginia Resolves which maintained that state had no obligation to respect unconstitutional laws (foreshadowing to nullification)
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