Explain the evolving contest between the Native Americans, the French, and the British for supremacy and survival in North America.

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Objectives:

By the end of this session, students will be able to:

· Explain the evolving contest between the Native Americans, the French, and the British for supremacy and survival in North America.

· Describe life in 18th century American rural villages, on the frontier, in cities, and on plantations.

· Explain the relationship between social diversity and political division and instability in 18th century America.

· Explain the impact of the Enlightenment and the Great Awakening in America.

· Describe colonial views England and English views of the colonies in the middle of the 18th century.

Readings:

Read Chapter 4 in American: Past and Present by Robert Divine and view the chapter 4 Power Point.

CH04.PPT

Web site:

The Great Awakening 

Ben Franklin 

Assignments:

A. Read Chapter 4 in American: Past and Present by Robert Divine and answer the following questions.

1. How did the Anglo-American economic relationship change in the 18th century?

2. What were the origins of the Seven Years’ War and its effect on the American colonies?

3. What were the similarities and differences between the Enlightenment and te Great Awakening?

4. What impact did “city life” have on colonial culture?

5. Who were more powerful, colonial governors or colonial assemblies?

B. Read the hyperlinked article and respond to one of the questions.

The Great Awakening 

How significant was the Great Awakening’s influence on the American Revolution?

C. Research Project I Due

This is the online version of the research paper but instead of creating a written account of your research I want you to “show” me. In other words, I want you to create a presentation of your research. Using any presentation software, such as PowerPoint, create a presentation of a historical topic that falls within the parameters of the course (US History to 1865), take a position, and present your findings. The minimum slide requirement is 10, but don’t stop at there. Use as many slides as you see necessary to prove your point.

 For examples in structure (not topic), click here, here, here, and here.

Submit your Research Project as an attachment in the Research Tab.

EXPERIENCE OF EMPIRE: EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA

America: Past and Present

Chapter 4

Growth and Diversity

1700-1750–colonial population rises from 250,000 to over two million

Much growth through natural increase

Large influx of non-English Europeans

Distribution of European and African Immigrants

Ethnic Cultures of the Backcountry

800 miles along Appalachian Range from western Pennsylvania to western Georgia

Already populated by Native Americans and African Americans

Large influx of European immigrants in the eighteenth century

Scotch-Irish Flee English Oppression

Many from Northern Ireland

Concentrate on the Pennsylvania frontier and Shenandoah Valley

Often regarded as a disruptive element

Germans Search for a Better Life

Fled from warfare in Germany

Admired as peaceful, hard-working farmers

Tried to preserve German language, customs

Aroused the prejudice of English neighbors

Convict Settlers

Transportation Act of 1718 allows judges to send convicted felons to American colonies

50,000 convicts to America 1718-1775

some felons were dangerous criminals

most committed minor crimes against property

life difficult for transported convicts

British praise system, colonists deplore it

Native Americans Stake Out a Middle Ground

Many eastern Indians moved into trans-Appalachian region

a “middle ground” where no colonial power was yet established

Remnants of different Indian peoples regrouped, formed new nations

European trade eventually weakened collective resistance to European aggression

Spanish Borderlands of the Eighteenth Century

Spain occupied a large part of America north of Mexico since sixteenth century

Range from Florida Peninsula to California

Indian resistance, lack of interest limited Spanish presence

Never a secure political or military hold on borderlands

Conquering the Northern Frontier

1692—final establishment of Spanish rule in New Mexico after Popé’s revolt (1680)

18th-century St. Augustine a Spanish military outpost unattractive to settlers

1769—belated Spanish mission settlements in California to prevent Russian claims

Peoples of the Spanish Borderlands

Slow growth of Spanish population in borderlands

Spanish influence architecture, language

Spanish influence over Native Americans

Spanish exploit native labor

Indians live in proximity to Spanish as despised lower class

Indians resist conversion to Catholicism

The Spanish Borderlands,
ca. 1770

The Impact of European Ideas on American Culture

• Change in eighteenth-century colonies
• Growth of urban cosmopolitan culture
• Aggressive participation in consumption

Provincial Cities

Urban areas included Boston, Newport, New York, Philadelphia, and Charles Town

Economies were geared to commerce

Inhabitants took lead in adopting new fashions, the latest luxuries

Emulated British architecture

Cities attract colonists seeking opportunity

American Enlightenment

An intellectual movement stressing reasoned investigation of beliefs and institutions

optimistic view of human nature

view cosmos as orderly result of natural laws

belief in perfectibility of the world

search for practical ways of improving life

Mixed reception in America

Benjamin Franklin

Franklin (1706-1790) epitomized provincial, urban culture

Became a writer by emulating British literature

Achieved wealth through printing business

Dedicated to practical uses of reason, science

Economic Transformation

Rising demand for English, West Indian goods

Colonists paid for imports by

exporting tobacco, wheat, and rice

purchasing on credit

Dependence on commerce led to colonial resentment of English regulations

England restricted colonial manufacture or trade of timber, sugar, hats, and iron.

Birth of a Consumer Society

English mass-production of consumer goods stimulated rise in colonial imports

Wealthy Americans began to build up large debts to English merchants

Intercolonial, West Indian trade earn colonists the surplus needed for imports

Inter-colonial commerce gave Americans a chance to learn about one another

The Great Wagon Road

Religious Revivals in Provincial Societies

The Great Awakening was a series of revivals

revival: a phenomenon among Protestant Christians characterized by large meetings where large numbers experience religious conversion in response to gifted preaching

People began to rethink basic assumptions about church and state, institutions and society

The Great Awakening

Awakening occurred among many denominations in different places at different times

New England in the 1730s, Virginia in the 1750s and 1760s

Jonathan Edwards was a prominent minister during this time

His sermons encouraged people to examine their eternal destiny

The Voice of Popular Religion

George Whitefield symbolized the revivals

Whitefield preached outdoor sermons to thousands of people in nearly every colony

Itinerants disrupted established churches

Laypeople, including women and blacks, gain chance to shape their own religious institutions

The Awakening promoted a democratic, evangelical union of national extent

The Voice of Popular
Religion (2)

Most revivalists well-trained ministers

Revivalists found Princeton, Dartmouth, Brown, and Rutgers

Revivalists held optimistic attitudes toward America’s religious role in world history

Fostered American patriotism

Clash of Political Cultures

Colonists attempted to emulate British political institutions

Effort led to discovery of how different they were from the English people

The English Constitution

The British Constitution universally admired

not a written document, but a system of government based on statute and common law

Believed to balance monarchy, aristocracy and democracy

Balance believed to guarantee liberties

The Reality of British Politics

Less than 20% of English males could vote

Members of Parliament notorious for corruption and bribery

“Commonwealthmen” criticized corruption, urged return to truly balanced constitution

Governing the Colonies:
The American Experience

Colonists attempt to model England’s balanced constitution

Royal governors

most incompetent

most bound by instructions from England

possessed little patronage for buying votes

little power to force their will

Governors’ councils steadily lose influence

Colonial Assemblies

Elected officials depended on popular sentiment

Assemblies more interested in pleasing constituents than in obeying the governor

Assemblies controlled all means of raising revenue

Assemblies jealously guarded their rights

Assemblies held more popular support than governor

Colonial Assemblies (2)

Commerce, communication, religion broaden colonists’ horizons by 1754

Colonial law courts increasingly adopt English usage

Growing awareness of ideas, institutions, problems shared with England, each other

Century of Imperial War

British Americans increasingly drawn into European conflict during eighteenth century

Main opponents: France and Spain

British colonies militarily superior to New France but ineffective

North America, 1750

King William’s
and Queen Anne’s Wars

King William’s War (1689-1697): French frontier raids on New York, New England

Queen Anne’s War (1702-1713): French frontier raids on North, Spanish South

Wars settled nothing

France subsequently extended its American empire from Canada into Louisiana

King George’s War and Its Aftermath

Fought 1743-1748

Embroiled colonists more extensively than earlier wars

1745–New England troops captured Fort Louisbourg on Cape Breton Island

1748–Louisbourg returned to France by Treaty of Aix-la-Chappelle

1750s–fresh conflict over Ohio Valley

Albany Congress and Braddock’s Defeat

Albany Congress, 1754–Benjamin Franklin propose plan for a central government

Albany Plan disliked by English and Americans, fails

1755–General Edward Braddock leads force to drive French from Ohio Valley

Braddock’s army ambushed, destroyed

Seven Years’ War

1756–England declares war on France

Prime Minister William Pitt leads English to concentrate on North America

1759–Quebec captured

1763–Peace of Paris cedes to Great Britain all North America east of Mississippi

The Seven Years War,
1756-1763

Perceptions of War

Colonists realize how strong they could be when they worked together

English learn that Americans took forever to organize, easier to command obedience

North America after 1763

7th ed. revisions by Don Whatley, Blinn College

Rule Britannia?

Most Americans bound to England in 1763

Ties included

British culture

British consumer goods

British evangelists

British military victories

Empire seemed bound by affectionate ties