War for Independence and First Constitution
1800 - 1850s: Jacksonian
Democracy; Social Movements,
Manifest Destiny and Expansion
King George III, and
Debts
assumed the throne in 1760 (he ruled until 1820). The ruling sentiment was that the colonies should be obliged to pay for their own expenses, rather than depending on the mother county (England).
the Proclamation Act of 1763, forbidding colonists from settling west of Appalachians and forcing them to stop buying land from Indians. The logic behind the Proclamation Act - as long as the colonists stayed in the colonies and had nothing to do with Indians, there should be peace.
Tension Grows
Farmers needed land to grow valuable crops of tobacco, corn, rice, indigo, and wheat, but the Proclamation Act confined them to the land they already had in the colonies- was detrimental to their growth.
The first true crisis began around 1763 when Parliament allocated money to maintain a standing army in the colonies. More than 1500 ships began to patrol American waters.
9 major causes of the Revolutionary War, also called
the "American Revolution":
(1) Colonists were accustomed to much independence and self-determination, and British efforts (led by the Tory political party in England) to regulate and tax were bitterly opposed by the colonies (and by the Whig political party in England; the conservative Edmund Burke was a British politician who sided with the American colonists).
(2)British burdens hurt nearly all the colonists in all walks of life.
(3)Taxes hit at a bad time: postwar depression.
(4)Legally, colonies disagreed with "virtual representation."
(5)Religious reasons: many colonists disliked Anglicans (and Catholics), and feared England would install an Anglican bishop.
(6)Colonists disliked English class distinctions.
(7)1/3 of colonists were not even English, and thus felt no attachment to the British.
(8) Colonists accepted John Locke's philosophy of natural rights and a social contract, which conflicted with rule by a monarchy.
(9) Colonists saw a bright prospect for their future.
Violence Begins
December 16, 1773
a group of colonists led by Samuel Adams disguised themselves as Indians;
Result - the Coercive Acts or the Intolerable Acts. These laws revoked Massachusetts' charter, closed Boston Harbor, installed a British general as governor, and repealed liberties like the right to hold town meetings.
In Boston today, there is still no tax on tea as a tribute to the Boston Tea Party.
The Revolutionary War
First Continental Congress, in 1774. The colonies agreed to end all trade with Britain in a final effort to have her alter her policies. All of these plans were carried out.
Parliament officially declared that Massachusetts was in rebellion.
Patrick Henry “give me liberty or give me death!"
On July 4, 1776, the Declaration of Independence was formally announced.
The Turning Point
At Saratoga in upstate New York in October 1777, 6,000 British soldiers surrendered; the French then ended its neutrality and entered on American side.
Benjamin Franklin was instrumental in obtaining French backing for the American cause and forging the Franco-American Alliance in 1778 (+Franklin stove for heating, and starting the first library).
The Outcome
May 1781, Yorktown, Virginia.
February 1783, the Treaty of Paris. In it the British gave up their claim to land east of the Mississippi, from Canada to Florida. The Americans promised to treat fairly the Loyalists and English creditors.
State Constitutions
Soon after the end of the Revolution, all but two of the states adopted new constitutions. Rhode Island and Connecticut continued to use their charters, after removing all references to Britain.
opposition to concentrating power in one person was reflected in the states' constitutions by concentrating power – where? Governers’ positions? state courts?
The Articles of Confederation
The Articles provided for a unicameral (one body) Congress to govern the states. There was no ___? Just to imagine!
a very weak national government: why?
The federal government under the Articles did not have enough power to operate effectively in its foreign policy .
more than 35 million dollars in debt
There were no national taxes, and requests for money from the states were ignored.