CHAPTER 4Experience of an Empire

Eighteenth-Century America

Distribution of European and African Immigrants in the Thirteen Colonies

Growth and Diversity

• 1700-1750—colonial population rose from 250,000 to over two million

• Much growth through natural increase • Large influx of non-English Europeans

– Scots-Irish Flee English Oppression– Germans Search for a Better Life– Convict Settlers

Native Americans Stake Out a Middle Ground

Disease and European settled agricultural practices made it difficult for Europeans and Natives to coexist

Many eastern Indians moved into trans-Appalachian region (Middle Ground)

Native Americans continued to trade with Europeans for metal goods and weapons Play English and French against each other

The Spanish Borderlands, ca. 1770

Economic Transformation

• Long-term period of economic and population growth• Economies were geared to commerce, not

manufacturing• Trade was mainly with England and West Indies (West

Indies provided merchants with profits that offset their British debts)

• English mass-production of consumer goods stimulated rise in colonial imports – Inhabitants emulated English culture

• Trade between colonies increased

The Great Wagon Road

American Enlightenment• Intellectual movement that swept Europe with new,

radical ideas– Age of Reason– Searching for useful, practical knowledge

• The Enlightenment’s basic assumptions – Optimistic view of human nature– God set up the universe and human society to operate by

natural laws• Mixed reception in America

Religious Revivals• The Great Awakening

– Spontaneous, evangelical revivals that weakened old colonial religions (old lights vs new lights)

– To rededicate themselves to God, join organized churches, founded colleges, and question authority • Jonathan Edwards emphasized the Calvinistic teachings

of the Puritans and of an omnipotent God and predestination

• George Whitefield sustained the revivals – The Awakening promoted a democratic, religious union of

national scope

Clash of Political Cultures• Colonists attempted to emulate British political

institutions • Effort led to discovery of how different they were

from English people• Example: Royal governors

– More powers than King in England– Veto legislation– Dismiss judges– Command provincial military– Could NOT tax

Colonial Assemblies/Legislatures• “Middle-class democracies”• Primary function was to prevent the encroachments on the

people’s rights• Assemblies controlled colony’s finances• No incentive for assembly to cooperate with governors

(sometimes even hostile toward them)• Exercised extreme vigilance against the spread of privileged

power• These assemblies brought Americans a greater awareness of

each other

North America, 1750

A Century of Conflict: Major Wars, 1689–1763

Century of Imperial War

Britain’s conflicts with continental rivals like France spilled over to colonies

Security threats from these conflicts forced colonists into more military and political cooperation

British colonies overwhelmingly militarily superior to New France but yet were often ineffective

Albany Congress

• Albany Congress, 1754• Benjamin Franklin’s idea of

central colonial government – Elected representatives

decide on matters of defense, western expansion, and relations with Native Americans

– Could levy taxes to support its operations

• Albany Plan failed, disliked by English and Americans

Seven Years’ War/French and Indian War

• Wars fought for control of the Mississippi River and Ohio River Valley

• Minister William Pitt shifted strategy to focus on North America (reason for victory)

• Peace of Paris 1763: France lost– British got all North America east of Mississippi– French retained two Caribbean Islands

• This particular war had the greatest impact on the colonies politically and economically

Seven Years’ War, 1756–1763

Perceptions of War

• Made colonists aware of their land• Created trained officer corps that knew British

vulnerabilities• Colonists saw themselves as “junior partners”

to British• British felt colonists ungrateful and not willing

to bear their fair share of burden

North America after 1763