01:512:205 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Radical Whigs, Navigation Acts, Monarchy Of The United Kingdom

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Chapter 7: The Road to Revolution, 1763-1775
1. Introduction
1. Victory in the Seven Years’ War made Britain the master of an enlarged
imperial domain
2. But victory was painfully costly; the London government therefore
struggled after 1763 to compel the American colonists to shoulder some of
the financial costs of empire
3. This change in British colonial policy reinforced an emerging sense of
American political identity and helped to precipitate the American
Revolution
4. What began as a squabble about economic policies soon exposed
irreconcilable differences between Americans and Britons over cherished
political principles
5. The ensuing clash between the Americans and the Britons gave birth to a
new nation
2. The Deep Roots of Revolution
1. The New World nurtured new ideas about the nature of society, citizen,
and government
1. In the Old World, few people born into such changeless surroundings
dared to question their lowly social status but European immigrants
weren’t easily subdued
2. In the American wilderness, they encountered a world that was theirs
to make
2. Two ideas in particular had taken root in American colonists by the mid-
18th century
1. One was called republicanism; models of the ancient Greek and
Roman republics defined a just society as one in which all citizens
willingly subordinated their private, selfish interests to the common
good (stability of society & authority of government)
2. By its very natures, republicanism was opposed to hierarchical and
authoritarian institutions such as aristocracy and monarchy
3.
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4. A second idea that fundamentally shaped American political through
derived from a group of British political commentators known as
radical Whigs
5. The Whigs feared the threat to liberty posed by the arbitrary power of
the monarchy and his ministers relative to elected representatives in
Parliament (mounted attacks on the use of patronage and bribes by
the king’s ministers)
6. The Whigs warned citizens to be on guard against corruption and to
be eternally vigilant against possible conspiracies to denude them of
their hard-won liberties
3. The circumstances of colonial life had done much to bolster alert attitudes
4. The Americans grew accustomed to running their won affairs; distance
weakens authority and it came as a shock when Britain after 1763 tried to
strengthen grip on the colonists
3. Mercantilism and Colonial Grievances
1. Not one of the original thirteen colonies except Georgia was formally
planted by the British government (trading companies, religious groups, or
land speculators)
2. The British authorities nevertheless embraced a theory, called
mercantilism, that justified their control over the colonies (mercantilists
believed that wealth was power)
1. Mercantilists believed that wealth was power and that a country’s
economic wealth (military and political power) could be measured by
the amount of fold or silver in its treasuryto amount gold/silver, a
country needed to export more than it imported
2. Possessing colonies thus conferred distinct advantages, since the
colonies could both supply raw materials to the mother country and
provide a market for exports
3. The London government looked on the American colonists more or less
as tenants
1. They were expected to furnish products such as tobacco, sugar, and
ships’ masts; to refrain from making for export certain products such
as woolen cloth or beaver hats; to buy imported manufactured goods
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exclusively from Britain; and not to indulge in bothersome dreams of
economic self-sufficiency or, worse, self-government
2. Parliament passed laws to regulate the mercantilist system; the first of
these, the Navigation Law of 1650 was aimed at rival Dutch shippers
trying to elbow their way into the American carrying trade (thereafter
all commerce flowing to and from the colonies could be transported
only in British vessels)
3. Subsequent laws required that European goods destined for American
first had to be landed in Britain, where tariff duties could be collected
and profit be made
4. Other laws stipulated that American merchants must ship certain
enumerated products, notably tobacco, to Britain, even though
prices might be better elsewhere
4. British policy also inflicted a currency shortage on the colonies
1. Since the colonists bought more from Britain than they sold there, the
difference had to made up in hard cash; every year, gold and silver
coins, mostly earned in illicit trade with the West Indies, drained out
the colonies, creating an acute money shortage
2. To facilitate everyday purchases, the colonists resorted to butter,
nails, pitch, and feathers for purposes of exchange (colonies issued
paper money, which depreciated)
3. Parliament prohibited colonial legislatures from printing paper
currency and from passing indulgent bankruptcy lawsAmericans
thought welfare was being sacrificed
5. The British crown also reserved the right to nullify any legislation passed
by the colonial assemblies; although the veto was used sparingly,
colonists fiercely resented its existence
4. The Merits and Menace of Mercantilism
1. Until 1763, various Navigation Laws imposed no intolerable burden
(loosely enforced)
2. Enterprising colonial merchants learned early to disregard or evade
restrictions; some of the first American fortunes, like John Hancock’s,
were amassed by wholesale smuggling
3. Americans also reaped direct benefits from the mercantile system
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Document Summary

American political identity and helped to precipitate the american. 18th century: one was called republicanism; models of the ancient greek and. Britain: the americans were angrily aroused at what they regarded as. The principle of no taxation without representation was supremely important, and the colonists clung to it with tenacious consistency; the. British forced the americans to deny the authority of parliament and to begin to consider their own political independence: parliament forced to repeal the stamp act, the most conspicuous assembled against he hated stamp tax was the. Act: having withdrawn the stamp act, parliament in virtually the same breath provocatively passed the declaratory act, reaffirming. Parliament"s right (cid:1688)to bind(cid:1689) the colonies (cid:1688)in all cases whatsoever(cid:1689); the. Charley(cid:1689) townshend, a man who could deliver brilliant speeches in. Townshend"s tax as another attempt to enchain them; their fears were confirmed when the london government suspended the legislature of.

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