Page 344 - Powerful Social Studies for Elementary Students 4th Edition

316 Appendix B
in America grew from a few isolated settlements to 13 large and populous collections of communities that became the original 13 states. Also, ties with England gradually weakened as the colonists devel- oped identities as Americans.
2. Although they were located in America, the colo- nies were governed by England through governors and other officials appointed by the king.
3. Colonists were considered British subjects, so they enjoyed British protection but also were governed by British laws. They elected their own leaders and made some of their own laws at the local com- munity level, but unlike British citizens living in England, they did not vote in Parliamentary elec- tions. Thus, they were unable to send representatives to Parliament to specifically represent their interests. Yet, they were subject to British laws and regulations.
4. Like other colonial powers of the time (most notably France, Spain, and the Netherlands), England had built up an empire by claiming lands in other parts of the world, defending them militarily, and sending people to colonize and govern them. Colonies served as sources of raw materials for the mother country’s factories as well as markets for its manufactured exports.
5. Through a system of laws and taxes, England pres- sured the colonies to trade only with or through England. The colonists were supposed to buy things only from England (even if they could get them cheaper from somewhere else) and sell their crops or raw materials only to England (even though they might have sold them elsewhere per- haps at greater profit).
Tensions Build After 1763
1. England fought wars against France and other European nations that competed with them in their efforts to build empires around the world. British conflict with the French over land in North America (what we call the French and Indian War or the Seven Years’ War) was part of this competition. Between 1740 and 1763, the British were too busy fighting these wars to enforce their economic restric- tions on the colonies, and colonists began to trade more freely than the British wanted them to.
2. However, the Treaty of Paris in 1763 established peace for awhile, so England began to pay closer attention to the colonies. It also needed money to pay off war debts, including debts accumulated fighting the French and their Indian allies in North America. Between 1763 and 1770, England
imposed a series of taxes on the colonies, viewing this as a way to get the colonists to pay a reason- able share of the war debts. (After all, British-paid soldiers had fought the French and Indian War partly on their behalf and were continuing to pro- tect their borders.) However, the colonists resented these taxes, not only because of the financial bur- den but because they were imposed by a Parlia- ment in which they were not represented. This was expressed in the phrase “no taxation without representation,” which became a rallying cry against British policies. The British position was that members of Parliament represented not just the people who voted them into office but all British citizens everywhere, including in the colonies, but many American colonists did not accept this
3. Besides imposing taxes, the British did several other things that angered the colonists: trying colo- nists accused of certain crimes in British courts (thus depriving them of the right to a trial by a jury of their peers), forbidding them to settle west of the Appalachian Mountains (in an attempt to keep the colonists separated from the Indians, and thus to reduce the need for soldiers to prevent frontier conflicts), forbidding them to print their own money, and where necessary, requiring them to provide living quarters for British troops.
Resistance and Punishment, 1770–1774
1. Anger and political protests built up as the British kept imposing new taxes and restrictions, sometimes leading to attacks on tax collectors or other govern- ment officials. Tensions were greatest in Boston, where England sent troops in 1768 to protect govern- ment officials. Local citizens sometimes harassed the troops by yelling and throwing things at them. One such incident in 1770 got out of hand and became known (to the colonists) as the “Boston Massacre.”
2. Following the Boston Massacre, England sought to reduce tensions by removing the troops to an island in Boston Harbor and by repealing all taxes except the tax on tea. Much of the anger dissipated and things settled down between 1770 and 1772.
3. However, the tea tax stood as a symbol of imposed British restrictions, and many colonists continued to oppose the notion of taxation without represen- tation. Tensions flared up again in 1773 when the British East India Company was given a monopoly over the tea trade in the colonies. Colonists resisted this by refusing entry of “monopoly” ships into colonial ports, and they destroyed the cargo of
Copyright 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.