Topic 4 students' lect notes-18th century america-brookdale-4

American Civilization I
Topic 4
Experience of Empire:
Eighteenth-Century
America

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
– Largest group of newcomers were the Scots-Irish
• Many carved out farms on Pennsylvania’s western
frontier
Know for Test 2 that the growth of the total white population of
Britain’s thirteen mainland colonies in America expanded
rapidly between 1700 and 1750 (annual growth rate of 3%)
© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Distribution of European and African
Immigrants in the Thirteen Colonies

Scots-Irish Flee English Oppression
• Largest non-English group
• The Scots fled England for Ireland, then
the Scots-Irish came to North America
• Concentrated on the Pennsylvania frontier
• Quick to challenge authority

Germans Search for a Better Life
• First waves similar to Quakers and sought
religious toleration
• Later waves sought to improve their
material condition
• Admired as peaceful, hard-working
farmers

Germans Search for a Better Life
• Tried to preserve German language and customs
• Aroused the prejudice of English neighbors
• Scots-Irish and Germans spread into Shenandoah Valley
. For Test 1 know one of the two major groups of non-English
European colonists that came to America before the American
Revolution i.e. either the Scots-Irish or the Germans

Convict Settlers
• Transportation Act of 1718 allowed judges to send
convicted felons to American colonies *
• 50,000 convicts to America, 1718–1775
– Some felons were dangerous criminals
– Most had committed minor crimes against property
– Life difficult for transported convicts
• British praised system; colonists deplored it
• Know for Test 2 that the courts of Great Britain sent large numbers of
convicts to America during the 18th century before the American
Revolution

Spanish Borderlands of the
Eighteenth Century
• Spain occupied a large part of America
north of Mexico since sixteenth century
• Ranged from Florida Peninsula to
California
• Multicultural, interdependent society of
Spaniards and Native Americans
• Know for Test 2 that the Spanish empire in North
America was very large and widely dispersed

Conquering the Northern Frontier
• Spanish presence established in late 1500s
• Spanish reestablished control in 1692
• St. Augustine, a Spanish military outpost established by
Spain over concern for French encroachment
– Became first permanent settlement established in what
is now the United States
• 1769—belated Spanish mission settlements in California to
prevent Russian claims
• a major reason for Spain to establish missions in California was
to prevent encroachment from Russia

Peoples of the Spanish Borderlands
• Slow growth of Spanish population in borderlands
– Mainly males (mostly soldiers), priests, and administrators *
– Danger of Indian attacks as well as harsh physical environment
discouraged ordinary colonists
• Spanish influence over Native Americans
– Spanish exploited native labor
– Natives such as the Pueblo from the southwest resisted
conversion to Catholicism
• Spanish influenced region’s architecture and language
• Know for Test 2 that in contrast to the English frontier settlement of
the 18th century, the Spanish outposts in North America grew very
slowly

The Spanish Borderlands, ca. 1770

The Impact of European Ideas
on American Culture
• Rapid change in eighteenth-century
colonies
• Growth of urban cosmopolitan culture
• Aggressive participation in consumption

Provincial Cities
• Only about 5% of population
• Five largest cities: Boston, Newport, New York, Philadelphia,
and Charles Town *
• Economies were geared to commerce, not manufacturing
• Inhabitants emulated English culture, fashion, and
architecture
• Cities were becoming more elegant
• Know 3 of the five largest cities in America during the 18th
century.
• Know that American cities in the colonies during the 18th
century made up only a very small percentage of the
population

Economic Transformation
• Long-term period of economic and population growth
• England added to existing base of mercantilist rules from
1710s–1750s
– Colonial manufacture or trade of timber, sugar, hats, and
iron restricted
– Regulations not enforced
• Trade was mainly with England and West Indies; little with
Africa
• By 1750,more than ½ of American goods produced for export went
to Great Britain. The second largest market for America goods
produced for export went to the West Indies. (27% of all American
exports in 1768). Major export crops included tobacco, wheat, and
rice

Birth of a Consumer Society
• English mass-production of consumer goods stimulated rise in
colonial imports
• Americans built up large debts to English merchants to
finance increased imports
• Trade between colonies increased
– Intercoastal trade
– Great Wagon Road in the backcountry
– During second half of the 1700s, there was a substantial
increase in trade among the colonies e.g., Southern colonies
sending tobacco and rice to Middle Colonies and New England
in exchange for meat and wheat.

Birth of a Consumer Society
• Eroded regional and local identities
• Allowed Americans a chance to learn about one
another
• Expanding trade among the colonies led to
colonists of different backgrounds having more
contact with one another and to eroding regional
identities

The Great Wagon Road

Religious Revivals in
Provincial Societies
• The Great Awakening
– Spontaneous, evangelical revivals
– People began to rethink basic assumptions
about church and state, institutions and
society

The Great Awakening
• Movement occurred among many
denominations in different places at
different times
– New England in the 1730s; Virginia in the
1750s and 1760s

The Great Awakening
• Jonathan Edwards sparked the movement
– Reminded people of omnipotent God and
predestination
– Reaction to ministers going “soft” on population
– Know for Test 2 that the preacher Jonathan Edwards is
most associated with the Great Awakening and his
preaching contributed heavily to this movement. Know
that his preaching centered on predestination and eternal
damnation. This type of preaching by Edwards and others
was called “evangelical preaching”

The Voice of Evangelical Religion
• George Whitefield a dynamic personality and speaker
who sustained the revivals
– Preached outdoor sermons to thousands of people in
nearly every colony
– Skilled entrepreneur and promoter
• Itinerant ministers followed Whitefield’s example
– Split established churches into “new lights” and “old
lights”
• The men and women who came to hear these evangelicals give
sermons during the Great Awakening were called “New Lights”

The Voice of Evangelical Religion
• Gave voice to those traditionally silenced
– Richard Allen and the African Methodist
Episcopal Church
• The Awakening promoted a democratic,
evangelical union of national scope
• Revivalists held optimistic attitudes toward
America’s religious role in world history
• Fostered sense of American unity

Clash of Political Cultures
• Colonists attempted to emulate British
political institutions
• Effort led to discovery of how different they
were from English people

The English Constitution
• The British Constitution universally admired
– Not a written document, but a system of government
based on statute, court decision, and common law
• Believed to balance monarchy (king), aristocracy (House
of Lords), and the people (House of Commons)
• Balance believed to guarantee liberties
• Since the end of the Hundred Years’ War between England and
France, the Parliament of England/Great Britain was growing in
power while the power of the monarch was becoming weaker

The Reality of British Politics
• Less than 20% of English males could vote
• “Rotten” boroughs
• Corrupt members of Parliament
• “Commonwealthmen” spoke against corruption, urged return to
truly balanced constitution
• Know that in the early 1700s, less than 20% of English males
could vote because of property restrictions. Know that in Great
Britain in the 1700s there were some boroughs that had almost
no people living in them and these boroughs were referred to
as ”Rotten boroughs”
•

Governing the Colonies:
The American Experience
• Colonists attempted to model England’s balanced constitution
• Royal governors: mid-level, ambitious bureaucrats
• More powers than king in England
– Veto legislation
– Dismiss judges
– Command provincial military
– initially the American colonies looked at Great Britain as a
model of balanced constitution.
– Know that in reality royal governors in the colonies often
had more power than the king of England within their own
colony

Governing the Colonies:
The American Experience
• Governors’ councils steadily lost influence
• “Middle-class democracies”
• Higher percentage of the population had suffrage than in
Britain, but most did not vote
– Women and non-whites excluded
• Potential to expel officials always part of political system;
checked abuse of power
• in most colonies, adult white males who owned a small amount of
property could vote in countywide elections and therefore there was
a much higher percentage of the population that could vote in the
colonies than could vote in Great Britain.
• Know that women and non-whites could not vote in the colonies.

Colonial Assemblies
• Felt obligation to preserve colonial liberties
• Assemblies controlled colony’s finances
• No incentive for assembly to cooperate
with governors
• Governors relied on local elites

Colonial Assemblies
• Exercised extreme vigilance against the
spread of privileged power
• Similar system of assemblies facing
similar problems laid foundation for a
larger cultural identity

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 ineffective

North America, 1750

King William’s and Queen Anne’s Wars
• Wars fought for control of the Mississippi
River Valley
• France extended its presence from
Canada into Louisiana
• British saw French expansion as
encirclement

• King William’s War (1689–1697)
– French frontier raids on New York and New
England
• Queen Anne’s War (1702–1713)
– Bloody fighting across entire frontier
• European diplomats more concerned with balance
of power in Europe than military situation in North
America
• (During the 1700s in Europe there existed a balance
of power and therefore no country had hegemony)

• Native Americans tried to hold middle
ground
– Iroquois favored British
– Algonquians favored French

King George’s War and Its Aftermath
• Fought 1743–1748
• 1745—New England troops captured Fort Louisbourg on
Cape Breton Island
• 1748—Louisbourg returned to France by Treaty of Aix-la-
Chappelle
• French built Fort Duquesne to keep British from seizing
Ohio River Valley
• This war in Europe is called the War of the Austrian
Succession and is one of the two major wars fought among
European powers during the 18th century

King George’s War and Its Aftermath
• Virginians under George Washington
failed to expel French
– Showed one colony alone could not defeat
French

Albany Congress and Braddock’s
Defeat: Albany Plan
• 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

Braddock’s Defeat
• 1755—General Edward Braddock led
force to drive French from Ohio Valley
• Braddock’s army ambushed, destroyed
• French still in control of Ohio River Valley
• George Washington obtains his first
military experience in this pre-French and
Indian War campaign

Seven Years’ War
• 1756—England declared war on France
• Prime Minister William Pitt shifted strategy to focus on
North America
• By 1758, French cut off from resupply
• Fort Duquesne abandoned, Quebec captured, last
French forces surrendered, 1760
• (Know for the test that the Seven Years’ War was the
second and larger of the two major wars of the 1700s
fought by Europeans)

Seven Years’ War
• Peace of Paris 1763: France lost
– British got all of North America east of the Mississippi
– (Know that the country that lost the most at the end of
the Seven Years’ war was France including losing all
of Canada and all of her territories east of the
Mississippi River)
– Spanish added Louisiana to their empire
– (Know that the biggest winner at the end of the Seven
Years’ War was Great Britain)

The Seven Years’ War, 1756–1763

Perceptions of War
• Expanded horizons of colonists
• Created trained officer corps that knew
British vulnerabilities
• British felt colonists ungrateful and not
willing to bear their fair share of burden
• Colonists saw themselves as “junior
partners” to British

North America After 1763

Rule Britannia?
• Most Americans bound to England in 1763
• Ties included:
– British culture
– British consumer goods
– British evangelists
– British military victories

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