American Colonies and England

Chapter 3 Section 2

• Explore how English traditions influenced the development of colonial governments.

• Analyze the economic relationship between England and its colonies.

• Describe the influence of the Enlightenment and the Great Awakening on the 13 colonies.

Objectives

Tradition of Self-Government.

Magna

CartaParliamentGlorious

Revolution

In 1215, English nobles made King John accept a limitation to his taxation and guaranteed the right to a trial.

two-house legislature composed of the House of Lords, an inherited position, and the House of Commons, elected by men with property.

The English overthrew King James and installed William and Mary, who granted the English Bill of Rights.

The colonists believed that the English Bill of Rights applied to them, even though they lived in the colonies.

Under England’s policy of salutary neglect, the colonies enjoyed a long period of self-government and individual liberties.

Colonists were English subjects and self-ruling.

The English laws successfully regulated colonial trade to create great wealth and power for England in the 1600s.

The English Parliament passed trade laws called the Navigation Acts.

In exchange, the colonies bought manufactured goods from England.

Under the policy of mercantilism, the English colonies exported raw materials only to England.

•The Enlightenment

• Enlightenment thinkers stressed scientific reasoning and natural laws. They believed that human reason could be applied to society and government.

• Colonial leader Benjamin Franklin was inspired by the Enlightenment.

Colonial democracy was influenced by:

• the English parliamentary tradition

• the colonies having a long period of self-rule

• the new ideas of the European Enlightenment

• the Judeo-Christian religious influence on colonial people

Role of Religion

• Many colonists had immigrated for religious reasons.

• Churches played a social role in colonial life.

• Churches served as public places for reading government proclamations, holding elections, and posting new laws.

Preachers such as George Whitefield helped launch a new religious movement called the Great Awakening.

• Preachers traveled through the colonies and preached powerful, emotion-packed sermons.

• Many people left their old established churches to join the movement and start new churches.

•Participants in the Great Awakening came to realize that if they could select their own religion, they could also select their own government.

The Great Awakening gave rise to a changing political awareness.