Experience of Empire: Eighteenth-Century America

1
4

• Experience of Empire Eighteenth-Century America
• 1680?1763

2
Experience of Empire Eighteenth-Century America,
1680?1763

• Tensions in the Backcountry
• What difficulties did Native Americans face in
  maintaining their cultural independence on the
  frontiers of English and Spanish settlement?
• The Impact of European Ideas on American Culture
• How did European ideas affect eighteenth-century
  American life?

4.1
4.2
3
Experience of Empire Eighteenth-Century America,
1680?1763

• Religious Revivals in Provincial Societies
• How did the Great Awakening transform the
  religious culture of colonial America?
• Clash of Political Cultures
• Why were eighteenth-century colonial assemblies
  not fully democratic?

4.3
4.4
4
Experience of Empire Eighteenth-Century America,
1680?1763

• Century of Imperial War
• Why did colonial Americans support Great
  Britain's wars against France?

4.5
5
Video SeriesKey Topics in U.S. History

1. Great Britains Empire in North America
   1713?1763
2. Scots-Irish Migration
3. The First Great Awakening
4. Seven Years War

Home
6
Constructing an Anglo-American Identity The
Journal of William Byrd

• Eighteenth-century backcountry
• Many cultures, independent families
• Older Atlantic settlements
• Growing populations
• Many immigrants and slaves arrived
• Less isolated from one another
• Eighteenth-century colonists powerfully attracted
  to Great Britain

Home
7
Tensions in the Backcountry

• Scots-Irish Flee English Oppression
• Germans Search for a Better Life
• Native Americans Stake Out a Middle Ground
• Conquering New Spains Northern Frontier
• Peoples of the Spanish Borderlands

Home
8
Tensions in the Backcountry

• 17001750 - colonial population rose
• From 250,000 to over 2 million
• Backcountry
• Inland area
• Complex society
• Spanish borderlands - multicultural
• Southwest
• California
• Florida

Tensions in the Backcountry
9
Tensions in the Backcountry
10
Scots-Irish Flee English Oppression

• Origins of Scots-Irish
• Lowland Scottish Presbyterians transported to
  northern Ireland
• Emigrated to America
• Concentrated - Pennsylvania frontier
• Welcomed by colonys proprietors, at first
• Barrier between Indians and coastal communities
• Quick to challenge authority

Tensions in the Backcountry
11
Germans Search for a Better Life

• Germans approximately 100,000
• Early migrants - small Protestant sects, similar
  to Quakers
• Later waves - Lutherans
• A third of Pennsylvania population by 1766
• Religious institutions important
• Germans and Scots-Irish push south
• Backcountry of Virginia and the Carolinas

Tensions in the Backcountry
12
Tensions in the Backcountry
13
Native Americans Stake Out a Middle Ground

• Many eastern Indians moved
• Middle Ground - trans-Appalachian region
• Escaped confrontations with Europeans
• Relied on white traders
• Traditions eroded by European contact
• Earliest encounters controlled by Indian leaders
• Middle ground individual Indians bargained for
  themselves
• French and British conflict

Tensions in the Backcountry
14
Conquering New SpainsNorthern Frontier

• Spanish settle north of Rio Grande in late 1500s
• Pueblo Indians resisted in New Mexico
• St. Augustine, Florida - 1565
• 1769 missions in California

Tensions in the Backcountry
15
Peoples of the Spanish Borderlands

• Slow growth in Spanish borderlands
• Mainly males priests, soldiers, and
  administrators
• Few European women
• Influence on Native American culture
• Spanish exploited native labor
• Lowest social class
• Natives resisted conversion to Catholicism
• Retained Spanish culture

Tensions in the Backcountry
16
Discussion Questions

• What difficulties did Native Americans face in
  maintaining their cultural independence on the
  frontier?
• Why was the Spanish empire unable to control its
  northern frontier?

Tensions in the Backcountry
17
The Impact of European Ideas on American Culture

• American Enlightenment
• Benjamin Franklin
• Economic Transformation
• Birth of a Consumer Society

Home
18
The Impact of European Ideas on American Culture

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

The Impact of European Ideas on American Culture
19
American Enlightenment

• Intellectual thought swept Europe
• Basic assumptions of the Enlightenment
• American Enlightenment
• Appeal was practical knowledge
• Applied reason to social and political problems

The Impact of European Ideas on American Culture
20
Benjamin Franklin

• Franklin regarded as Enlightenment thinker by
  Europeans
• Started as printer, then satirist in Boston
• Achieved wealth through printing business
• Made important scientific discoveries and
  inventions
• Promoted reason

The Impact of European Ideas on American Culture
21
The Impact of European Ideas on American Culture
22
Economic Tranformation

• Early eighteenth-century growth
• Population increased eightfold
• Economic success
• Mercantilist restrictions expanded
• Benefited mother country
• Not enforced

The Impact of European Ideas on American Culture
23
The Impact of European Ideas on American Culture
24
Birth of a Consumer Society

• Consumer Revolution
• English exports to colonies increased
• Credit available
• Intercoastal trade
• Movement of goods between regions
• Great Wagon Road
• Change in American culture
• Erosion of local and regional identities
• Frequent contact

The Impact of European Ideas on American Culture
25
The Impact of European Ideas on American Culture
26
Discussion Question

• How did European ideas affect eighteenth-century
  American life?

The Impact of European Ideas on American Culture
27
Religious Revivals in Provincial Societies

• The Great Awakening
• Evangelical Religion

Home
28
Religious Revivals in Provincial Societies

• Great Awakening
• Spontaneous, evangelical revivals
• People began to rethink basic assumptions about
  church and state, institutions, and society

Religious Revivals in Provincial Societies
29
The Great Awakening

• Widespread movement
• Americans looked backward with nostalgia
• Varied times in different regions
• Leaders
• Sparked by Jonathan Edwards
• George Whitefield
• Audience
• All walks of life

Religious Revivals in Provincial Societies
30
Religious Revivals in Provincial Societies
31
Evangelical Religion

• Itinerant Preachers
• Followed Whitefields example
• Split established churches
• Established ministers were suspicious
• Gilbert Tennent
• New Lights formed colleges
• Cultural change
• Active, questioning role
• African Americans

Religious Revivals in Provincial Societies
32
Religious Revivals in Provincial Societies
33
Discussion Question

• How did the Great Awakening transform the
  religious culture of colonial America?

Religious Revivals in Provincial Societies
34
Clash of Political Cultures

• Governing the Colonies The American Experience
• Colonial Assemblies

Home
35
Clash of Political Cultures

• Colonists attempted to emulate British political
  institutions
• Parliament model for American assemblies
• Unwritten constitution English system of checks
  and balances
• Study of British political theory and practice
  led to discovery of how different Americans were
  from English people

Clash of Political Cultures
36
Governing the ColoniesThe American Experience

• Erroneous belief that American governments
  modeled on England
• Royal governors
• Council
• Colonial assemblies
• Participation varied
• When big issues at stake
• Assemblies mostly gentry

Clash of Political Cultures
37
Colonial Assemblies

• Aggressive colonial assemblies
• Felt obligation to preserve colonial liberties
• Assemblies controlled colonys finances
• Conflict with governors
• No incentive for cooperation
• Governors wanted patronage system
• Shaped American culture
• Weekly journal
• Law

Clash of Political Cultures
38
Discussion Question

• Why were the eighteenth-century colonial
  assemblies not fully democratic?

Clash of Political Cultures
39
Century of Imperial War

• The French Threat
• King Georges War and Its Aftermath
• Seven Years War
• Perceptions of War

Home
40
Century of Imperial War

• Britains 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

Century of Imperial War
41
The French Threat

• France - limited New World military
• French army of 100,000, but not sent abroad
• Defense left to companies in fur trade
• English colonists theoretical advantage
• Larger population, but divided
• English and French suspicious
• English being encircled by French
• English seizing French land

Century of Imperial War
42
Table 4.1 A Century of ConflictMajor Wars,
1689?1763
Century of Imperial War
43
King Georges War and Its Aftermath

• King Georges War - 17431748
• In Europe - War of Austrian Succession
• Victory over the French
• French built Fort Duquesne
• English population growing
• Virginia advised to expel French
• British army also unsuccessful
• Albany Plan
• Colonial unity

Century of Imperial War
44
Century of Imperial War
45
Century of Imperial War
46
What Did the Global Seven Years War Mean for
North America?

• How did other colonial claims in North America
  create instability for the thirteen British
  mainland colonies?
• What made this eighteenth-century war a world
  war?
• In what ways did the territorial results of the
  war impact British mainland colonies?

Century of Imperial War
47
Century of Imperial War
48
Seven Years War

• 1756 Seven Years War began
• England declared war on France
• European warfare Frances advantage
• Shifted strategy to focus on North America
• Peace of Paris 1763 - France lost
• British got large piece of North America
• Spanish added Louisiana to their empire
• French kept Caribbean sugar islands

Century of Imperial War
49
Century of Imperial War
50
Century of Imperial War
51
Perceptions of War

• Deep impression on American society
• Colonists had to cooperate
• Closer contact with Britain
• British and Colonial views of each other
• Created trained officer corps
• British felt colonists ungrateful
• Colonists saw themselves as junior partners to
  British

Century of Imperial War
52
Discussion Question

• Why did colonial Americans support Great
  Britains wars against France?

Century of Imperial War
53
Conclusion Rule Britannia?

• 1763 - most Americans bound to Great Britain
• Culture and religion
• Lifestyle
• Politics and war
• Identity
• British had different perception