The document summarizes the transition of Britain's North American colonies from decentralized colonies to a more centralized imperial system under greater British control in the late 18th century. It describes how France's colonial empire in New France and the Iroquois Confederacy contributed to Anglo-French conflicts over the continent. The French and Indian War resulted in British victory but also a growing debt that Parliament sought to address through new taxes, which met resistance in the colonies and led to the beginnings of the Revolutionary movement in the colonies.

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4: The Empire in Transition
Alan Brinkley, The Unfinished Nation, 8th Edition

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Loosening Ties
• A Decentralized Empire
– Decentralized colonial administration
– Assertive colonial assemblies

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Loosening Ties (Continued)
• The Colonies Divided
– Albany Plan

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The Struggle for the Continent
• New France and the Iroquois Nation
– France’s colonial empire
– The Iroquois Confederacy

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The Struggle for the Continent
(Continued)
• Anglo-French Conflicts
– King William’s War
– King George’s War
– Fort Necessity

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The Struggle for the Continent
(Continued, 2)
• The Great War for the Empire
– French and Indian War
– Seven Years’ War
– William Pitt
• Impressment
– Peace of Paris
– Effects of the conflict
– Consequences for Native Americans

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The New Imperialism
• Burdens of Empire
– Britain’s staggering war debt
– George III
– George Grenville

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The New Imperialism (Continued)
• The British and the Tribes
– Proclamation of 1763

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The Thirteen Colonies in 1763
This map shows the thirteen colonies at the end of the Seven Years' War. It shows the line of
settlement established by the Proclamation of 1763 (the red line), as well as the extent of
actual settlement in that year (the blue line).

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The New Imperialism (Continued, 2)
• Battles over Trade and Taxes
– Mutiny Act
– Sugar and Currency Acts
– Paxton Boys and Regulators
– Persistent colonial grievances

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Stirrings of Revolt
• The Stamp Act Crisis
– The Stamp Act
– “Virginia Resolves”
– Stamp Act repealed

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Stirrings of Revolt (Continued)
• Internal Rebellions
– Ethan Allen
• The Townshend Program
– Townshend Duties
– Nonimportation agreement

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Stirrings of Revolt (Continued, 2)
• The Boston Massacre
– Rebellious Boston
– The Boston Massacre in popular culture
– “Committee of correspondence”

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The Boston Massacre (1770), by Paul Revere
This sensationalized engraving of the conflict between British troops and Boston laborers is one
of many important propaganda documents, by Revere and others, for the Patriot cause in the
1770s. Among the victims of the massacre listed by Revere was Crispus Attucks, probably the
first black man to die in the struggle for American independence.
The Library of Congress

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Stirrings of Revolt (Continued, 3)
• The Philosophy of Revolt
– Sources of Revolutionary ideology
– “No taxation without representation”
– “Virtual” and “actual” representation
– Sovereignty debated

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Stirrings of Revolt (Continued, 4)
• Sites of Resistance
– Political importance of colonial taverns
– Gaspée incident
• The Tea Excitement
– The Tea Act
– Daughters of Liberty
– The Boston “tea party”
– Consequences of the Coercive Acts

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Cooperation and War
• New Sources of Authority
– Committees of correspondence
– The First Continental Congress

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Cooperation and War (Continued)
• Lexington and Concord
– “Minutemen”
– General Thomas Gage
– The war begins

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The Battles of Lexington and Concord, 1775
This map shows the fabled series of events that led to the first battle of the American
Revolution.

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America in the World
• The First Global War

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Consider the Source
• Benjamin Franklin,
Testimony against the Stamp Act (1766)

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Patterns of Popular Culture
• Taverns in Revolutionary Massachusetts
© Granger, NYC—All Rights Reserved

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The Unfinished Nation, 8th Edition
Next: Chapter 5
The American Revolution