POLITICAL STRUCTURE AND CONFLICTSOn the road to revolution 1755-1774

COLONIAL GOVERNMENTS: TOWN, COUNTY, COLONY AROUND 1750S (SEE PP 90-92)

Colonial governments were influenced by political changes in England.

Each government was given power, from King and Parliament, by a charter (p 54 & Glossary).

Governor, app. by King, assisted by Advisory council

Some colonies had elected representatives. The town meeting was the center of New

England political life.

Colonial Courts used in most other colonies due to less population density than N.E.

CHANGES IN ENGLISH GOVERNMENT, 1640S-1689 1642-1649 English

Civil War Parliament executes

King, est. British Commonwealth 1649

1649-1660 Oliver Cromwell as Lord Protector, Puritans led gov’t.

1660 Cromwell dies—Restoration of Charles II as King.

Monarchy restored in 1660s, King James II sought greater control over colonies in 1680s

United northern colonies under one government were called the Dominion of New England in 1686.

Parliament replaced the unpopular King James II and passed the English Bill of Rights in 1689.

WAR FOR EMPIRE: NATIVE AMERICANS IN MIDDLE GROUND BETWEEN ENGLAND AND FRANCE, 1675-1763

The Western Frontier, 1763

Native American Allies

• Some Native Americans allied with the colonists in King Philip’s War 1675-1676.

• The French traded and allied with the Algonquian and Huron.

• The English allied with the Iroquois League.

War Erupts

• France and Britain struggled for control of North America in the late 1600s.

• The French and Indian War started in 1754.

• The turning point came when the British captured Quebec in 1759.

Treaty of Paris, 1763

• It gave Canada and all French lands east of the Mississippi River to Britain.

Colonial settlers, or pioneers, began to move west after the war.

Native Americans led by Chief Pontiac rebelled against new British settlements in 1763.

To avoid conflict, King George III issued the Proclamation of 1763, which banned settlement west of the Appalachian Mountains.

BRITISH EFFORTS TO RAISE TAXES ON COLONISTS SPARKED PROTEST. (SEE PP 98-103)

Parliament passed Sugar Act in 1764, taxing colonists to help pay costs—colonists believed there should be no taxes without representation; Parliament asserted colonists’ virtual representation

Samuel Adams set up the Committees of Correspondence to protest the Stamp Act, 1765 and Townshend Acts, 1767

Boston Massacre, 1770: Redcoats fire on an angry mob of Bostonians throwing snowballs and rocks

Parliament passed the Tea Act in 1773 to allow the British East India Company a monopoly over the tea trade w/ colonies.

Colonial merchants and smugglers were opposed to this.

On December 16, 1773, colonists disguised as Indians attacked British tea ships and threw the tea overboard (Boston Tea Party).

Coercive Acts (Intolerable acts) passed by Parliament, 1774