The American War of Independence
During the Age of Discovery, adventurous seafarers
explored the so-called New World and discovered new trade routes with royal
support. This ensured better connectivity and profits.
Though Spain and Portugal took the lead in
exploring the new places, establishing trade centres first and later colonies,
it was Britain which established colonies all over the world and successfully
controlled them over a long period of time. Though the English were the first
to settle in North America, in due course of time, the Germans, the Swedes, the
French, the Italians and the Dutch too went to the America and settled there.
The colonisation of the New World absorbed the growing population of Europe at
a time of rapid economic and demographic growth.
King James I sent an expedition to Virginia where a
colony was established in 1607 and named Jamestown. Then the pilgrims from
Britain sailed in a ship called Mayflower
and set up a colony at Plymouth in Massachusetts. Slowly other colonies were
established. The Dutch set up a colony, in 1624, near the mouth of the River
Hudson and named it New Amsterdam. Later, the English acquired it from the
Dutch and renamed it New York. In the early 1700s enslaved Africans made up a
growing percentage of the colonial population. By 1770, more than 2 million
people lived and worked in Great Britain's 13 North American colonies.
In 1587, Sir Walter Raleigh set up
the first colony at Roanoke Island in North Carolina and named it Virginia
after the Virgin Queen Elizabeth I. However, due to the stiff resistance put up
by the native Indians some of the early settlers returned to England. The
Roanoke Island became a lost colony as there was no trace of it when the
British sailors reached the island some years later.
The colonies varied much in character and the
manner in which they had been acquired. They were divided into south and north.
In the southern part, endowed with fertile land, agriculture was the primary
means of subsistence. The slaves brought from Africa worked in the farm-lands
which mainly grew cotton, wheat and tobacco. The Northern states, on the other
hand, were devoid of agricultural farmlands. They created mills for cutting
timber, ship-building and milling the grains. Iron and textiles were also
manufactured. The harbours promoted sea-borne trade.
The transatlantic slave trade is a blot in the history of humanity. The Portuguese began the African slave trade at the opening of seventeenth century. The other nations of Christian Europe followed immediately. The first slaves to be brought to America came in a Dutch ship in 1619. The first English man who realised that lots of money could be made by seizing “unsuspecting negroes” in Africa and selling them to work on plantations in the New World (America) was John Hawkins. He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth for “his prosperous success and much gain.” It is estimated that more than 11 million Africans reached the Americas as slaves.
Fed up with the unsettled living conditions in Europe,
people came to live in these colonies mainly to lead a free life. They also
wanted to experience religious freedom and to practice the religion of their
choice (for example the Puritans).The colonies were ruled by the British
representatives called Governors appointed by the British monarch. The
Governors had an assembly similar to a parliament. Women had no voting rights.
Among the men, those who paid taxes and owned land alone could vote. Initially
they built a cordial relationship with the indigenous people of America, known
as American Indians and Native Americans. (They were then referred to
pejoratively as ‘Red Indians’) However, in due course of time, they were
dispossessed of their land or liquidated.
By the time Christopher Columbus
reached the Caribbean in 1492, there were 10 million indigenous people living
in U.S. territory. But by 1900, the number had reduced to less than 300,000.
Spreading disease was one of the strategies adopted by the Europeans to exterminate
the native population. In 1763, a serious uprising threatened British garrisons
in Pennsylvania. Worried about limited resources, and provoked by the violence
of some Native Americans, Sir Jeffrey Amherst, commander-in-chief of British
forces in North America, wrote to Colonel Henry Bouquet at Fort Pitt,
Pennsylvania:“You will do well to try to inoculate the Indians
[with smallpox] by means of blankets, as well as to try every other method,
that can serve to extirpate this execrable race.” Consequently, small pox was spread to the Native
Americans by distributing blankets previously used by infected patients.
Colonists in search of gold (1848) staged violent ambushes on tribal villages.
Several wars broke out between tribes and American settlers which led to large
scale deaths, land dispossession, oppression and blatant racism.
England considered the colonies as parts of its
country and governed them for their own benefit neglecting the interests of the
colonies. England passed laws known as Navigation Acts,
which mandated that colonial produce should be
exported only in British ships. There were also laws restricting or prohibiting
the manufacture of certain articles in the colonies, such as cloth.
The revolt of colonies against England was a direct
consequence of England’s intervention in the Seven Years’ War. During the War
the colonial assemblies did not co-operate with the mother country in the way
expected of them. They voted inadequate supplies and resisted the moves of
England to impose certain duties on articles used by the Americans. The English
conquest of Canada and removal of all danger from the French made the British
government to feel secure. This in turn made the colonies jittery and less
disposed than ever to submit to the dictates of England.
In order to solve the financial crisis arising out
of constant wars with other European powers, the British imposed new taxes on
the colonies. The first tax imposed was on sugar and molasses, a by-product of
sugar, in 1764. All the colonies in North America were forced to pay this tax
and the settlers protested against this by raising the slogan ‘no taxation
without representation’.
In 1765, a new tax was introduced on the stamps.
The settlers were forced to use stamps on all legal documents and pay the tax
for the use of stamps. The settlers refused to buy them and the British traders
forced the colonial government to repeal the act.
Though the Stamp Act was abolished in 1766, in the
very next year, an Act was passed that imposed taxes on certain goods imported
from Britain. Townshend, who was the Chancellor of Exchequer in Britain,
brought this act into force and hence came to be called Townshend Act.
In 1770, Lord North, the new prime minister of
England, abolished taxes on products except tea. This was retained to assert
that the British Parliament had a right to tax the colonies directly as well as
indirectly. When the British forces marched on the streets of Boston, Americans
criticised the British. This angered the British forces who fired against the
people. This Boston Massacre brought to light the aggressive and autocratic
nature of the British government.
In the wake of the Boston Massacre, around 100
activists dressed like Native Americans, boarded the three ships carrying tea
and threw 342 boxes into sea at Boston. This incident came to be called the
Boston Tea Party.
The British Parliament retaliated with severity.
General Gage was appointed Governor of Massachusetts and troops were dispatched
with instructions to bring the colony to heel.
Angered by the Boston Tea Party, the British
parliament passed the Boston Port Bill. The Boston harbour was closed until the
colonists paid for all the tea thrown into sea. Then the Parliament passed the
Massachusetts Government Act, replacing the elective local council, and
enhancing the powers of the military governor Gage. The third measure, the
Administration of Justice Act allowed British officials charged with capital
offenses to be tried in another colony or in England. The fourth intolerable
Act, a replica of the Quartering Act, which was abolished, permitted the
requisition of unoccupied buildings to house British troops. The Intolerable
Acts (1774), also known as Coercive Acts, evoked a wave of outrage in colonies.
The Quebec Act passed by the British government in
1774 awarded the territory between the Ohio and Mississippi rivers to the
province of Quebec. The colonial governments of New York, Pennsylvania and
Virginia were angered by the unilateral assignment of the Ohio lands to Quebec,
which had been granted to them in their royal charters. By permitting French
Civil Law and the Roman Catholic religion in the newly carved out area, Britain
also provoked the protestant colonies.
The Intolerable Acts of 1774 became the justification
for convening the First Continental Congress at Philadelphia. The
representatives of all the colonies, except that of Georgia, demanded the
repeal of the Intolerable Acts. The Congress decided to boycott the British
goods until then. They sent a representation with an olive branch (peace
proposal) to the British King George III. This was known as the Olive Branch
Petition. The king however refused to buy peace.
In the meantime, in 1775, at Lexington in
Massachusetts, the farmers fought the British and then marched on Boston to
besiege the British garrison at Bunker Hill. On 4 July 1776, all the thirteen
colonies declared independence from Britain. The declaration of independence
was essentially the work of Thomas Jefferson which marked the beginning of the
history of an independent country called the United States of America.
It was Richard Lee who proposed that
the colonies should be independent states. A draft committee was formed to
draft the declaration of independence whose members included Thomas Jefferson,
Benjamin Franklin, and John Adams.
The British army was led by William Howe while the
American forces were led by George Washington. Though in the initial phases
Howe made a few successful attempts by defeating Washington at Brooklyn, New
York and New Jersey, Washington, through his planned military tactics inflicted
defeat on the British army. In 1777, at the Battle of Saratoga, the British
General Burgoyne was forced to surrender. Finally, the British forces
surrendered to the American forces in 1781 at York Town. With this victory the
northern colonies became free. However, Howe retained New York almost till the
end of the war.
During the American war of independence, the
European powers that were not on friendly terms with the British decided to
support the American colonies. The countries in Northern Europe including
Prussia, Sweden and Denmark formed the ‘Armed neutrality’ against Great
Britain. Britain was in turmoil as it had to face hostility from its enemies as
well as neutral powers.
The French, followed by the Spanish and the Dutch,
helped the American colonies in this war of independence. France lent support
to the Americans as vengeance against the loss of Canada. The French volunteers
who crossed the Atlantic to fight for the colonists returned with ideas of
individual liberty which made them intolerant of the restrictions of the
Bourbon monarchy.
Thomas Paine, an Englishman, wrote
the pamphlet titled Common Sense
(1776). In this pamphlet Paine sought to provide arguments to justify the
demands of the colonists. He picked up libertarian ideas from Hobbes, Locke,
Voltaire and Rousseau and presented them in ways the common people could
understand. The pamphlet sold over 150,000 copies and had an astounding impact
of people.
Many of the wealthy merchants and large landowners
remained loyal to the British monarchy and influenced a large section of the
population especially in New York and Pennsylvania. The colonists split into
two divisions: the Patriots who wanted freedom and the Loyalists who wanted to
remain loyal to the British crown. The Loyalists, called Tories, wanted the
British to rule as they belonged to the Anglican Church. So a civil war in the
midst of the revolution became inevitable.
In 1783, the British Parliament decided
that it was pointless to carry on the war. Lord North resigned as Prime
Minister. King George lost control over the House of Commons. The new Prime
Minister Lord Rockingham started the peace talks. A peace treaty was
signed between the Great Britain and America in 1783 at Paris.
George Washington (1732–1799) became the first
president of the United States of America. One of the founding fathers of
America, he played a significant role in the American Revolution first as a
military officer and later as an astute politician.
·
Britain recognised the freedom of 13 colonies and
the formation of a new country called the United States of America.
·
The area bordered by Mississippi River on the west
and the 31st parallel in the south went to USA.
·
France gained certain British territories in West
Indies, India and Africa.
·
Spain obtained Florida from Great Britain
·
Holland and England maintained the status quo that
prevailed before the war.
·
The American Revolution opened up many avenues in
the history of the world.
·
The concepts of democracy and republic became
widespread.
·
The political and social changes were on the lines
of democracy and equality.
·
USA became a land of opportunities and freedom for
all settlers.
·
Education gained prominence.
·
The principle of federalism became widespread.
·
The American Revolution was a setback for
colonialism. The demand of the colonies for independence against their colonial
masters became widespread in many parts of the world.
·
It paved the way for a free society where every
individual was given the freedom of speech, freedom of religion and equal
opportunities.
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