Week 2: The American Revolution Flashcards
1
Q
British presence in colonial America before the Revolution
A
- officially: ruled the colonies through a local governor
- in reality: largely self-governed
- relied on British army for defence
2
Q
What is a revolution?
A
A change in the way a country is governed, usually to a different political system and often using violence or war.
3
Q
What were the key issues of the American Revolution?
A
- loyalty vs. autonomy
- sovereignty vs. representative self-government
- mercantilism vs. free trade
- british miscalculation vs american initiative
- outmoded imperial structure vs. modern nation-state
4
Q
Seven Years’ war
A
- 1756-1763
- French navy destroyed by Quiberon Bay (Britain became the biggest naval power)
- treaty of Paris 1763: ended France’s presence in North America
- very expensive: Britain needed money
5
Q
Proclamation line
A
- 1763
- King George
- Appalachian mountains
- creation of an Indian Reserve
- colonists no longer allowed to settle there
- frustration among the colonists
6
Q
British Acts of Parliament
A
- 1764-1768
- injust for the English that they sould alone bear all the cost of an imperial organisation from which the Americans profited
- Sugar Act (1764)
- Stamp Act (1765)
- Townshend Acts (1767-1768)
7
Q
Sugar Act
A
- 1764
- tax on sugar imports from the West Indies
8
Q
Stamp Act
A
- 1765
- direct tax on legal documents, newspapers, playing cards, almanacs, …
9
Q
Townshends Acts
A
- 1767-1768
- further taxes on glass, lead, paper
10
Q
Stamp Act Congress
A
- 1765
- meeting of representatives from several colonies to debate measures against the Stamp Act
- first of its kind
11
Q
Protest against Stamp Act
A
- Sons of Liberty: revolutionary organisation formed by Samuel Adams to fight against the Stamp Act
- destroyed the house of Thomas Hutchinson, Governor of Massachusetts
–> became symbol of Anglo-American imperialism - rebellion quickly spread to other colonies
- the Act was repealed on 18 March 1766
- Declaratory Act passed
12
Q
Declaratory Act
A
- states that nothing had changed,
- states that Parliament had an absolute right and power to do what it liked with the colonies
–> reasserted British sovereignty
13
Q
Boston Massacre
A
- 1770
- attack on Commissioner’s Houses in Boston (1768)
- British Army sent to restore order
- seen as a sign of tyranny
- troups constantly harassed by mobs
- guards of the Customs House forced by a mob to fire in self-defence (5 March)
- 5 Bostonians killed
- used at evidence that the British would stop at nothing
14
Q
Boston Tea Party
A
- 1773
- generate revenue for the East India Company
- Tea Act: lifter export restriction on tea
- prospect of cheaper tea would trump the Americans’ resistance to taxation without representation (miscalculated by the British)
- December 16th: 3 tea ships boarded by a group of men disguised as Indians: tea poured into water
- roused and united patriots through the colonies
15
Q
The “Intolerable Acts”
A
- 1774
- response to the Boston Tea Party
- punitive laws
- took away Massachusetts’ charter
- September: First Continental Congress to coordinate a protest
