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Culturas de los Países de Habla Inglesa
2º Grado en Estudios Ingleses
Facultad de Humanidades
Universidad de Huelva
Reservados todos los derechos.

No se permite la explotación económica ni la transformación de esta obra. Queda permitida la impresión en su totalidad.
Historia y Cultura de los Países de Habla Inglesa. Tema 3
Primer Cuatrimestre. Las Islas Británicas.

3. THE 18TH CENTURY
When we speak of the 18th century we can refer to it as the Enlightment or the Age of Reason.
There is a new emphasis on reason and science. There is a process of secularization: society loses
interest on religion. Politics also move away from the divine, to other different notions, like those
of John Locke. It is also referred to as Georgian Period, because of the kings George I, II, and III.
It is a very conservative century: there are few if any political changes. But there are a lot of
changes in economy, which will have an impact on people later on. Social differences widen: the
rich become richer and the poor become poorer. Aristocracy has not disappeared, though it does
not play a relevant role anymore, they have lost their former functions. It is still a matter of
prestige to have a title or aristocratic roots, but they don’t have money, because land is not the

source of money and wealth, but commerce, trade and the colonies. So there will be an alliance of
merchants and the impoverished aristocracy, usually through marriage. This new social group will
try to control the country, through the elections of Parliament, controlling it.
The electoral system has not changed since the 13 th century, but things have changed a lot since
then. People are leaving the countryside and moving to ports, to places with trade and industry.
Places with the most population don’t have representatives, and other places that used to be
populated, but that are now abandoned, do have them. However there will be no reform up to
1832, because there was a fear for reforms.
There is only one political reform. A new institution is introduced in government: the Cabinet,
which consisted in the Prime Minister and the ministers, that is, the executive power. When the
new dynasty begun, the new king, George, was a German king, that did not speak English, and that
did not know about English politics, so it was necessary to create an institution to intermediate
between kings and Parliament. Kings had always had advisors, but they were close to the king, and
separated from everything else. This Cabinet works at two levels: king and Parliament. At first,
when it was new, it was taken as a kind of joke, and the name of Prime Minister was given (not
seriously) to the most important of the ministers in the Cabinet; but with time it became a tradition.
The Cabinet worked as such for a time, as long some conditions were fulfilled:
- Members had to be Members of Parliament,
- They should have the king’s trust,
- They should have the trust of Parliament.
In one of this three condition was broken, then the Cabinet was dissolved and changed.
A political feature of the 18th century was the problem of the Stuart dynasty. Catholics Stuarts
had been excluded from power, but they did not accept the Hanoverian dynasty, because they
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considered themselves the rightful successors. Every person working for the government or for
some institutions had to take the oath of allegiance, and many people who supported the Stuarts
did not accept that. Stuarts still had a lot of support in some parts of Britain, and they will try to get
the crown back, through two rebellions, in 1715 and 1745-6, known as the Jacobite Rebellions.
The First Rebellion was not properly organised, because they expected everyone to support them,
and that did not happen; nobody really helped them and they had to leave for France. The Second
Rebellion on the contrary was organised very carefully. The leader was James II’s grandson,
Charles, known as Bonnie Prince Charles. He went to Scotland in secret, and started visiting the
Highlands, where there was still a social structure in clans. An army was raised, that took control
of the Highlands easily, but that was later defeated by the English in the Battle of Culloden in
1746. This was the last attempt of the Stuarts, and it is important in Scotland, where it had great
consequences, and where they were hardly punished. (s. John Preble, Culloden, p.25).
In what concerns foreign affairs and the relation of Britain with the rest of the world, the main
enemy in the 18th century is France, which was allied with Spain. Spain will lead France, by means

of private agreements or family compacts. The rivalry between Britain and France will have two
main areas outside Europe:
- India. The British and the French will take over the Dutch and the Portuguese in the
Indian Ocean. Britain will impose itself in the Indian subcontinent (Pakistan, India and
Sri Lanka), and France in the south east of Asia (Vietnam).
- North America. The west part remains unexplored. When there is war in Europe, the
French and English settlers will also confront each other, involving the native tribes. In
1713, England got the territories of Newfoundland and Acadia. Later, the Seven Years’
War (French and Indian War in North America) was the second major war that affected
the situation. French possessions in Canada became English. In 1763, the French
renounced to their possessions in America. They will remain in the south (Mississippi),
but they will eventually renounce to that too.
So when 1763 Britain obtains all those territories, tension with France ends. But it is also the
beginning of more problems for Britain. After the war, Britain was bankrupt. They needed money,
and the Cabinet decided to change the colonies policy, to find new sources of money, to recover
and to organise the new territories. This new policy consisted in getting money from indirect
taxation, that is, imposing taxes for certain products for the colonies. So the older 13 colonies will
have to pay that, to contribute to the expenses they generated. After 1763 several were put on
several products (those they thought that the colonies needed the most): tea, sugar and stamps
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(1765; official documents needed an official stamp of the government; that stamp also had a tax).
People in the colonies resented this. There were problems between them and the government,
about money, power and the relations of the colonies and the metropolis, rights and duties. There
were two positions:
- “No taxation without representation.” People in the colonies thought that if they had to
pay, they should have some control in the national matters.
- In England they did not agree. Representation and taxation had nothing to do.
Everyone should pay taxes, no matter how much represented was the area where they
lived.
Britain didn’t know how to deal with this. At first they cancelled the acts, but they still needed
money and they created new ones, which they also had to cancel because of the protests. Relations
deteriorated rapidly. Finally they entered a revolution (for Britain it was a rebellion). Colonies
came together in 1774 in a congress (the Continental Congress) in Philadelphia. They will act
together against Britain, until 1776, when they declared independence. There started a period of

open war. It became a European conflict: other European powers decide to take the colonies’ side,
and helped them. So the war was not only between Britain and America, but also with France,
Spain and Holland, that supported the colonies; and it was not fought only in America, but also in
any place where they had possessions. In 1777 Americans got their first victory at Saratoga, and in
1781 Britain surrendered at Yorktown. Now they had to negotiate a treaty with the colonies, and
also with the French, the Spanish and the Dutch. In 1783 they signed a treaty, whereby the United
States were recognised.
The war had several consequences:
- Independence was a humiliation for Britain. King George III, involved directly in the
war, became very unpopular. He had been trying to use his power to rule directly, and
that was not acceptable by the English system. The loss of the colonies was a proof for
that.
- As regards the Empire, the loss of these colonies was the end of the first colonial
empire, and the beginning of a new period. The British government reflects on how
they have dealt with the situation, and revise what the relations with the colonies should
be, and what kind of policy they should have. They had to reorganise their remaining
North American colonies, and to consider the impact of the independence on other
colonies, as, for instance, on Ireland, where there was a revolutionary, independentist
movement. They also start to think about moving east, to India and beyond, and to
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expand the empire that way. Cook had discovered a new continent called Australia, and
they thought of settling that. It will become a new penal colony. The first settlement
was founded in 1788, and they sent there an estimate of 200.000 convicts. Most stayed,
and that was how it was colonised.
- India. Until now it had not been ruled professionally. Most affairs related to it were in
hands of a private commercial company, the East India Company, which had many
trading posts there. Now they will focus there and start to pass new legislation. In 1784,
the India Act establishes how it will be ruled for the next hundred years. It established
dual control of the colony: the East India Company will deal with the commercial,
economic matters (in practice, they are administrators) and the British government will
have military control. The stronger their interest is, the more control there will be.
This is not the beginning of a good period. They will be in war for the next 20 years, because of
problems with France. In 1789 the French Revolution starts. It was a complete change; they were
not a kingdom anymore. At first it was seen with interest, as a good thing. It was a positive change,

and poets and intellectuals supported it. But little by little, news keep arriving, and not everything
is positive. Immigrants and refugees started to arrive in England. The opinion changed, and it
turned against the situation in France. Soon after that, they organised and army and invaded
Belgium, so France became a threat. The leader was Napoleon Bonaparte, who was very young.
This is the beginning of the Napoleonic Wars (1793) and the official ending is 1815, with the peace
at the Congress of Vienna.
Britain was not alone, because many other countries considered France a threat. There will be a
coalition with other countries fighting against France. Throughout the 20 years of the conflict there
will be several of these coalitions to stop the advance of France. It was considered invincible on
land. The only battle that Britain won was on sea: the Trafalgar Battle in 1805, by Admiral Nelson.
War will go on until 1812, when Napoleon made a mistake, and tried to invade Russia. Things
started to go bad, and eventually he was defeated, captured and sent away to a little island in the
coast of Naples. The coalition started making the partition of the territories, but in the meanwhile,
Napoleon escaped, went to France and raised a new army. A new war started, until he was once
more defeated in the battle of Waterloo in 1815.
The peace treaty was beneficial for Britain. They enlarged the Empire: Malta, Sri Lanka, Cape
of Good Hope, Trinidad... But it also had a negative impact within Britain: there was poverty,
economic crisis, political tensions, people were afraid of revolutions and there was fear for
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reforms. There was political repression, so that what had happened in France didn’t happen in
Britain.
There was only one reform, regarding slave trade. Slavery has become progressively more and
more important in Britain. There was a triangular trade: from Europe ships went to Africa, where
they stopped until they were filled with slaves, and then they went to the Caribbean or to the south
of the United States. There the ships were filled with several kinds of products, and they went back
to England and there they were sold. This made people extremely rich. Slavery was known as the
black gold. It was a great business, and there were people who wrote about how to make more
profit out of it. (s. pag. 26b).
But then there were people who start reflecting on slavery, and they started to speak against it,

because they thought it is wrong. Abolitionism became very strong at the end of the century. Many
members of Parliament brought the matter to Parliament. The leader of this movement in
Parliament was William Wilberforce. They managed to get enough votes against slave trade, and it
was abolished in Parliament in 1807. But this is not the end of abolitionism, because, though trade
was forbidden, slavery continues to exist.
Social situation.
Population in Britain grew immensely, especially during the second half of the century. Life
was changing, and society was changing too. Previously the average life span has been of 30 years.
Many people died as children or in their adolescence. But this starts to change, and life becomes
longer, for several reasons:
- There will be no more epidemics.
- Sanitary conditions improved. There are advances in the medical sciences.
- Diet also improved, in part as a consequence of the colonial empire. There were many
new products brought from the colonies, and people ate more, and more varied. These
new products will also be grown in Britain, as for instance, potatoes. They also start
using sugar, tea, coffee (important; coffee houses opened to drink coffee; s. pag. 26d).
Differences between the rich and the poor widen. The upper classes start to move to the
countryside and to build country houses, and they will only come to town for the season to
socialize. The country house is a symbol of the power of their class. They were filled with every
luxury: expensive furniture (Chippendale), paintings (by famous painters like Joshua Reynolds;
they were set outdoors, and distribution also changed), and china (Wedgewood, s. pag. 26c). House
also changed. There were no more castles, but open houses with gardens (s. pag. 26d).
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Now people also spent money on education, to access the best education. Cambridge, Oxford,
and also some Scottish universities (Edinburg, Glasgow) became very important. There were two
important fields of study: Philosophy (Hume; Adam Smith in political, economic theory); and the
medical sciences. The upper middle classes also went on a trip throughout Europe (France, Italy)
to complete their education known as the Grand Tour (s. pag. 26e). Once education was complete
they would live of the rents, or enter the professions. They had two favourite professions: the army
and the church. They usually bought a position, or had a recommendation; so the army and the
church became corrupted.
New spiritual movements appeared. The most important was Methodism, founded by John
Wesley. He started to hold religious meetings in Oxford, in the second half of the 18 th century, for
people with religious concerns. Methodists are going to use their faith to promote humanitarian
causes. They became involved, for instance, in the abolitionist movement; they started charity
schools and worked in hospitals or prisons.
Literature.

After the first novel by Aphra Behn, now there will be many more published. The century is
divided in two parts: in the first half we have the Augustan period, with importance given to ideas
of balance and interest for the canonical, and in the second half we have the gothic and the
romanticism, with are the opposite to what there was at the beginning of the century. Some
authors:
 Augustan poetry: Alexander Pope.
 Augustan prose: Swift; Richardson and Fielding (sentimental novel).
 Romantic writers: a first generation with Blake, Coleridge and Wordsworth; a second
generation with Keats, Shelley and Byron.
 Romantic female writer: Charlotte Smith. She became a professional writer to earn money
to support her family, because her husband could not pay all their debts and was often in
prison.
 Women writers: Eliza Haywood; Mary Wollstonecraft; Jane Austen; Francis Burney
(sentimental novels); Ann Radcliffe (gothic); Mary Shelley (late).
 Literary Criticism: Samuel Johnson. This is the age of collecting knowledge in
encyclopaedias and dictionaries. Johnson will do much of this work.
 Newspaper: John Addison.
Economic changes.
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There will be huge economic changes in this period, mainly due to the industrial revolution in
the second half of the century. England is the first country to undergo the industrial revolution. The
changes will take place in three different fields:
1. AGRICULTURE. After 1660 there will be no more epidemics, and the population grew
immensely. They needed food, and suddenly there was a higher demand for food and
farming products. They needed to produce more in the same amount of land, so they
will start experimenting: field rotation, introducing new seeds, combining farming with
cattle breeding. Land owners took a great interest in this, because there was a lot of
money to be made out of it. They had some laws passed by Parliament, the Corn Laws,
that imposed high taxes on the food that was brought from other countries, so that it
was very expensive, and thus they protected the internal production of food. Free trade
will affect all areas of life, but for agriculture.
2. MANUFACTURE of many different products that were needed. The industrial
revolution will affect first the textile industry. It was radical in this sense: it changed the

method of working, but also worker’s lives. In order to make production more efficient,
they created new working places: the factory. They will be located in the outskirts of the
cities, and mainly in the north of England, because this area had the highest production
of coal, which was a source for power. People would have to move to the cities to find
work, and would live near the factories, in poor areas with very bad conditions, called
slums. In these factories new technologies are introduced, machinery. This new
technologies were developed with the money that land owners had earned out of
agriculture. There will be some important inventions, like the spinning machine.
3. TRANSPORTATION. (already in the 19th century). This was important because
products had to be transported to different places to be sold, and this had to be made as
fast and cheap as possible. The developments of the industrial revolution will be applied
to the railway and the steamboat. For this they needed metal, and industries developed
to produce a lot of iron and steel. Roads were dangerous (with road thieves, life Dick
Turpin) and it took long to go from one place to another. They will be made more
secure and comfortable.
Revolution caught people unprepared. By half of the 19th century most of these changes had
taken place, and people asked for legislation, because there was none controlling the new changes,
and there were a lot of abuses. There were riots of workers that blamed the machines of the
problems and that destroyed them; they were the luddites. There was a need for reform.
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3.2The Thirteen Colonies
We can make some generalizations about the colonies: they were situated along the Atlantic coast
(the territories beyond belonged, theoretically, to the Spanish or the French, but some areas were
not civilized); their main mean of transport was boat, either by sea or by river; they all had the
same kind of activities. On the other hand we can divide them in three groups according to their
characteristics:
1. New England (Northern Colonies). It includes New Hampshire, Massachusetts,
Rhode Island, Connecticut, and today also Maine and Vermont, which were founded later.
They have a common weather, which was very hard, with long winters, snow and short
summers. It is an area of woods, with a poor soil for farming. This conditioned the kind of
activities they did. They had craftsmanship. They made furniture, and also ships, so the
main activities where fishing and trading. Farms were small, and usually they were around
urban centers. The main city was Boston. As to their origin, they were founded by Puritans

mostly. Puritans were very intolerant, and had terrible relations with the native groups of
the area. But they were strict about education, and reading the Bible. The first institutions
of higher education in the colonies were Harvard, founded in 1663, which was followed by
Yale, in Connecticut. Boston was an important center for publishing. Most of the early
literature was produced there.
2. Middle Colonies. It includes New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware and New Jersey.
They have some common features with New England, and some differences. Here there
was a predominance of dissenter groups, not necessarily Puritans. There were, for instance,
Quakers. Sir William Penn, who founded Pennsylvania, was a Quaker. They were
egalitarian; women had a lot of participation in society. They were also pacifists. In terms
of climate and economy the situation was like in New England: hard weather, and fishing
and trading as main activities, because of the ship building due to the woods. There was
also a strong emphasis on education, and several universities were founded: Columbia,
Princeton or Rutgers. These universities, together with the ones in New England, are known
as the Ivy League. As they were devoted pacifists, they will have good relations with the
native groups. They were tolerant. As to their origins, they are mixed: Dutch, Scottish,
German and Irish.
3. Southern Colonies. It includes Maryland, Virginia, North and South Carolina, and
Georgia. These were completely different, because the weather and soil were also different.
There they had a milder climate and a good soil, so farming was prosperous: tobacco,
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cotton and rice. These products demanded a huge extension of land, and a lot of workers.
The settlements in this area took distinctive qualities: huge plantations, far away from each
other, and instead of workers, they had slaves. The only main city was the port of
Charleston, in South Carolina. From there everything was sent to Europe, and slave ships
arrived in there. There were no Churches, nor education, because everything was far.
Owners usually had private teachers to educate their children at home. Later they would be
sent to Britain, New England or the Middle Colonies to complete their education in
university if necessary. Class differences were much wider: there are very wealthy
aristocratic minority, which owns the plantations, and no middle class. Then there were the
slaves. The black population would grow.

In the second half of the 17th century colonies become very prosperous. By the 18 th century they
have become an important part of the French and British empires. But the problem is that they
were very close together, and during the 18th century Britain and France are rivals and often at war.
The impact of this war was such in the colonies, that every time there was war in Europe, they
would also be at war. This situation affected the colonies seriously. In the 18th century Britain and
France were at war four times, and so were they in North America. These conflicts had always the
same characteristics:
1. It was fought between the colonists without any help from Europe (none would send
troops).
2. It involved the natives in the area. The French had their own allies among the native
groups, and so did the British. They brought them into the war. Some groups have been
considered to be evil, because they were allied with the French, like the Hurons.
3. Most battles took place in the border are. The zones of contact between French and British
colonists were most affected.
4. The strategy was always the same on both parts. The British tried to invade New France,
and conquer mainly Montreal and Quebec, because they were the most important cities, and
if they could control them, they would control the whole colony. They always failed,
because they were very well defended. The French, on the other hand, tried to keep British
colonies separated from each other, because they knew that if they joined forces, they
would be much stronger.
Two of these wars had lasting effects on the colonies. The first was the War of the Spanish
Succession (1700-1713) that ended with the peace of Utrecht. By this treaty, Britain got Acadia
from the French. From the whole territory known as Acadia, they got exactly a part, a peninsula
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that they named Nova Scotia, which was separated from the rest by the Bay of Fundy, but close to
New England (s. map of the new world, pag. 8). It was full of enemies: Catholic French
population, in good relations with the natives of the area. The British resettled the area with new
people they brought mainly from Scotland (that is why it was renamed Nova Scotia). But they
never managed to get on well with the French population. They refused to take the oath of
allegiance, and the British constantly feared a revolt. They were also surrounded. Eventually they
decided to expel all French Acadian that did not take the oath of allegiance. That was 1755, and
from that date approximately 6000 people were transported away from Nova Scotia. They settled
in other areas, either in other parts of Acadia and in the St. Lawrence River, or they went to the
Mississippi, and settled along it, and to the south, to Louisiana and New Orleans. There is still a
part of the population there that is French, descending from these people, called the Cajun: they
have kept the language, the music, the food… The exodus was immortalized by H. Longfellow in a
long poem called “Evangeline.”
The second conflict that affected the colonies was the war of the Austrian succession, known as the

Seven Years’ War in Europe, or the French and Indian War in North America. Like the War of the
Spanish Succession, it was fought everywhere France and Britain had possessions. It was
significant, because at the end of it France would lose all its possessions in North America. For the
first time Britain managed to conquer the two main cities in the colony of New France. Quebec
was conquered in 1763 in an important battle: the Battle of the Plains of Abraham, in which the
two generals leading the armies died in the battle: General Wolfe (leading the British; Britain sent
troops this time) and General Montcalm (leading the French). The war ended with the Treaty of
Paris, whereby France gave up all his possessions: the area of the St. Lawrence River, the
remaining of Acadia, the territories around the Mississippi River and some parts of Florida. They
will be left with their possessions in the Caribbean, and North America will be now English-
speaking.
3.3. Independence Days.
A big amount of land came into the hands of the British, and they entailed some problems, similar
to the ones they have had in Acadia: they had trouble with dealing with the French population, who
were Catholics. These territories were bigger, so there was much more people. They hated the
British specially, who had been enemies traditionally, and who have conquered them in battle.
There are still rests of this enmity, for example, in Quebec’s motto “Je me souviens” (“I
remember”). Anytime all these people could rebel against the British. At first they hoped that
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people from their other colonies would move to the north to New France, because in the 13
original colonies there was a huge demand of land, and that that would balance out the presence of
the French. But it did not work like that. They were reluctant to go to the North, because it was a
land full of enemies, who were Catholics.
Eventually they came up with a new plan, a new scheme. It was carried out by the first British
governor of New France, Guy Carleton. He understood that this colony worked in a hierarchical
structure, close to feudalism. There was a strong presence of the aristocracy and of the Church. If
he made a pact with them, perhaps he could guarantee the stability of the colony. This made of
Quebec’s a special situation, status that was institutionalized in 1774, by the Quebec Act. It
respected the privilege of the two social groups (aristocracy and church). French population was
allowed to practice their faith freely, and they did not have to take the oath of allegiance. Laws in
practice were also respected, with the exception of criminal laws, and they applied British ones.
Quebec would not have a council either; it would be ruled as it traditionally had been.

This was misunderstood by the other colonies. They thought it was outrageous, and did not
understand the advantageous treatment. It became part of the problems growing in the colonies,
whose relations were becoming difficult and problematic. There were all kinds of problems in the
middle years of the 18th century, what made them think of the idea of grouping together, of a union
between the colonies. They had an idea of who they were, and the difference with Britain. There
was also another group: the Natives, who also were affected by everything going on in the
colonies. The colonists sent representatives to speak with them and learn about them and their way
of government. They were especially interested in the Six Nations that was a group several of
natives tribes that worked together in a federation. One of the representatives from the colonists
was Benjamin Franklin that was later involved in the independent movement. (s. Remarks
Concerning the Savages of North America, pag. 12; Chef Tecumseh, pag. 12b).
The situation had changed from 1763 onwards, dramatically and very quickly. There was a
progressive deterioration of relations between Britain and the colonies, and this year was the
beginning of the tensions that would eventually be the origin of the independence war. In 1763
Britain had to face the control of a huge new territory, and they needed a lot more of money for the
defense and administration of the new colony. They had to send troops, because there was a danger
of rebellion. They were considered the enemy there. They had to set up a new administration to
take over the French one. But they did not know how to get the money. So they thought that the 13
colonies could start contributing to their own expenses. They were advanced and prosperous now,
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and they were making a lot of money, so they could give something back. This was immediately
resented by the colonies, where they did not understand why they had to pay more; there was no
need for defense, now that there were no enemies left. Parliament then got with a scheme to get the
money indirectly: between 1764 and 1770s it imposed indirect taxes on products that the colonies
really needed: sugar (that was produced in the Caribbean); stamps; tea (brought from India); also
the Billeting Act, which established that colonists should give free accommodation and food for
the troops.
There was a lot of resentment and the feeling that they were being maltreated by the government.
The situation was a proof of tyranny. So there were associations, like the “Sons of Liberty” that
started to promote rebellion, challenging the tyranny. The situation deteriorated, and the
antagonism increased. It took a whole decade. Periodically the government imposed a new tax that
was followed by huge protests in the colonies, and then Parliament removed it. This process began
in 1766, when the Stamp Act was repealed. But because they still needed the money, they imposed
new taxes, and again they were repealed. The protests became very violent, and troops had to take

part. A famous incident was the Boston Massacre of 1770, when there was a huge protest, the
troops came and 3 people were killed. British troops were hated, and called the “red coats.” They
were the symbol of oppression.
Soon the problem was not the taxes themselves, but the question of who had the right to impose
the taxes. Colonies had no participation in the decisions of the country, and they started to resent
that. It became a matter of the kind of government. The resentment targeted the British Parliament,
which was considered part of the tyranny, because they decided to impose and repeal the taxes.
Time came when they came to think of Parliament as the one that was exerting the tyrannical rule
on the colonies. They thought of their local government, the assembly, which made real decisions
about the local situation. The Governor was just symbolic. They were not represented in the British
government. They saw themselves accepting the authority of the king, but not of Parliament. Then
the famous slogan started to be heard: “No taxation without representation.” But it made no sense
to Britain, because they did not share the ideas of America. Parliament represented social groups,
not geographical places. They had a different idea of representation that was based on interests.
They thought that the whole Empire was represented.
These 10 years reached a high point in the 1770s, with a new incident in 1773: the Boston Tea
Party. The tax on tea was still working, and people were resenting the high prices. A group of
people decided to make a symbolic act against it. Samuel Adams, a son of liberty, lead a group of
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men disguised as Indians, and boarded a ship in the port of Boston that had brought tea. They took
the cargo of tea and threw it all overboard. It was a huge loss of money for the owner of the ship
(the East India Company) and for the British government. It was considered an aggressive gesture,
and act of defiance. The British Parliament decided to punish Boston (the sons of liberty were
strong in Massachusetts). They also decided to put an end to the rebellious actions by punishing all
the colonies, with the “Coercive” Acts. The most important, was the decision to close down the
port of Boston. This was a severe kind of punishment, for Massachusetts particularly depended on
trade by sea. All traders suffered this. In time this act coincided with the Quebec Act, which
granted a special treatment to the colony of New France. It became a Coercive Act for the people
in the 13 colonies, because they thought that Parliament was the new French Catholic colony much

better than them, the English Protestant original colonies. They decided they had had enough, and
they joined forces against the tyranny of Britain for the first time. 1774 is the turning point, and
after that there was no possibility of restoring the relations. Positions had become radical; there
was no way to make it work again. Colonies decided to have a meeting: a congress in Philadelphia,
with representatives of all the colonies. They wrote down a document explaining their grievances,
the “Articles of Association.” (s. pag. 9). This was considered as another act of defiance in Britain,
and even the king, George III, took a personal approach, because the colonies accepted his
authority, but not the authority of Parliament.
Positions were becoming more and more radicalized. The tone of the document was aggressive;
they were making sure that the boycott was going to be successful. There were people against it,
and two sides began to take shape:
- Loyalists: they were loyal to Britain. They were people working very closely to the British
authorities; anyone holding an office; also the members of the army. Many merchants also
took this side because of their economic interests. There were a few people that were
loyalists because they did not believe in violence, that were pacifists, like the Quakers.
- Patriots: they were educated professionals, like lawyers, doctors; owners of plantations of
the south. They thought that they would do better if they got rid of the tyranny of Britain.
The Articles of Association did not solve anything, but paved the way to war. The first incidents
took place in 1775 in Massachusetts. There were two battles, in Lexington and Concord. The
British troops tried to execute the conditions of the coercive acts. This was the official opening of
the war. In that same year there was a new meeting of the colonies, again in Philadelphia. At this
point, they met to prepare for war. They chose a leader, a general for their militia: George
Washington. At the same time king George III declares that the colonies are in a state of open
- 13 -

rebellion. In their meeting the colonies appointed a committee of five people, led by Thomas
Jefferson and they made the draft of the declaration of independence (pag. 11b).
It became an international war. The patriots received the help of other countries, in
particular France, but also Spain and Holland. They sent troops, officers to train the militia,
resources and weapons. They supported the patriots against the loyalists. After than the patriots
started winning battles; the first important victory was at Saratoga in 1777. Britain’s situation
would get worse and worse until 1781, when they would surrender in the battle of Yorktown. It
took long to reach a peace agreement. It was finally signed in 1783. Britain accepted that the 13
colonies were independent, and it also gave them the rights to the Mississippi area. This meant the
possibility of expanding to the west, and is the origin of the United States as we know them.
3.4. The Aftermath of Independence.
BRITAIN. During the war the patriots had tried to convince New France to join them against the
British. They invaded the colony and tried to conquer Montreal and Quebec, and they thought that

the French population there would join them immediately, because they hated the British as much
as they did. But the French also hated the Americans. Some of them may have felt sympathy for
them, but they felt secure under the British rule. Moreover, the Quebec Act guaranteed some of
their rights; they considered themselves fairly well-treated, and they had not enough reasons for
revolution. Therefore, the invasion failed, and the patriots had to go back to the 13 colonies.
Anyhow, the war affected the remaining British colonies in North America (now called British
North America, instead of New France). They had to decide where the new frontiers were and
whose the territories in the west were. Britain had not wanted any settlers to come there, because
they thought there might have been problems with the native groups.
After the war a peace treaty was signed, which reconsidered the position of the colonies. The
British had to reorganized their possessions in North America, and they would do so by dividing
them in four colonies: (east to west) Nova Scotia, with capital in Halifax; New Brunswick, with
capital in Fredericton; Upper and Lower Canada (today Ontario and Quebec), named so because of
their position along the St Lawrence river, and with capitals in York (nowadays Toronto) and
Quebec. In each province there was a governor General, appointed from London to rule the
colonies. This post still exists nowadays, to take care of the relations with Britain, and to stand
metaphorically for the Queen. They run the province without the assistance of any kind of
assembly. He had advisors, a council, but no assembly, so that they did not make the same mistake
as in the U.S.
- 14 -


THE 13 COLONIES. In the newly independent colonies in the south, the committee responsible
for the boycott was respected, also to punish those that had broken it; that meant that loyalists were
in a lot of trouble. They lost their rights and lands, and they suffered violence and imprisonment.
This affected not only those who had openly supported the British, but also those that had taken no
side at all, like the Quakers, who were pacifists and did not want to participate in the war. They
were all persecuted. A few managed to leave and move to the north during the war. A treaty
established an agreement about those who remained: the British would transport them to British
North America if they wanted to leave. About 400.000 of them did. They were given land in
British territory. Most of them went to Nova Scotia (130.000). The rest went to Upper Canada.
Some of these people (about 3000) were black people, and the majority went also to Nova Scotia.
There were also about 2000 natives.
After independence the 13 colonies needed to transform themselves into a country with shared
institutions. After 1783, there was a process lasting several years during which this happened. Each
of the States drafted and passed a constitution, which were usually very similar, but not identical.

They started with a declaration of rights, and of the essential freedoms (religion, press), and they
established a legislature (a parliament) with two houses. Then there were also certain differences,
for instance: the right of wearing a gun, slavery, which will be a major problem; other minor
disagreements were about whether each state should have their own army, as some did, or a navy,
about navigation rights in those states that shared a river, and about currency, as some of them
coined their own one. Another problem was the colonization of the west. In the treaty of 1783,
Britain had given them all the rights for those territories. But the different states argued about who
should colonize this land. This was the first problem to be solved, by means of an essential
document, the Northwest Ordinance (1787). This piece of legislation established the procedure for
the colonization of the west, and meant the end of the disputes. What it did was to open the
colonization to any individual (not state) who wanted to go to the west, and get some land in that
area. When there were 5000 men (male settlers; that is to say 5000 families), they could choose
their own legislature, with two houses, and would send a representative to Congress, to know what
was going on there. When there were 60.000 inhabitants (this time male or female) it became a
state, and it joined the union as an equal, not depending on anyone else. So when the United Stated
emerged as a whole unified country, there were no first or second-class states; there was equality.
- 15 -


In 1787 there was a new meeting in Philadelphia to draft the American constitution. There they
decided exactly which were the powers of the Federation (the central government). Each state had
its own legislature. The question now was if the Federation should have one too, and how would
the states be represented. So they decided that of the two houses of the legislature of the nation,
one would have representatives of the states depending on their population, while the other would
have the same number of representatives from all states. This was meant to create a balance. The
powers of the Federation were: imposing taxes, establishing frontiers, building roads,
communications (postal service e.g.), relations with the natives, inter-state and international affairs
(war, immigration…). Only the Federation was allowed to have an army and a navy. They also
decided what sort of government they would have:
It was based on John Locke’s ideas. There is a separation of powers into the
legislative, executive and judicial branches. The Legislative power makes the

country’s laws, and the institution in charge is Congress (the most important of all).
It has two houses: the House of Representatives, and the Senate. They are elected by
the people. The Executive power is also elected, and administrates the country. They
main institution is the Presidency. The President chooses the Secretaries (like
ministers). The Vice-President is elected together with the President. The Vice-
President and the Secretaries form more or less what in England is the Cabinet. The
Legislative and Executive powers are completely separate. Unlike in Britain, the
idea from the beginning is that, in order for everything to work properly, the
- 16 -


President, for instance, cannot be a representative, and must be elected in a different
election. The Judicial Power has to interpret the laws and the Constitution. The main
institution is the Supreme Court, which is formed by judges. The judges are
appointed by the President, but he has to submit it proposal to the Senate, so they
give their consent.
They could change the constitution, and this was done by adding what they called an Amendment.
But no new constituion had to be written. For an Amendment to be successful, there were certain
conditions. They had to be proposed by 2/3 of the Congress, or 2/3 of the States. They deliberated
over it and then it had to be passed ¾ of the country (Congress or States). It was a complex

process, but it guaranteed estability and the posibility of change. After the constitution was
approved (it had to be passed in all states; that took about a year), there were elections to the
governement, and the first elected president was George Washington in 1789.
There was still one problem unsolved, slavery, a major problem that will divide the states. It will
stretch many years, and not after the Civil War will it be solved. There will also be tensions
between those in favour of strong states and those in favour of a strong Federation. The main
conflict will arise when writing the Constitution. After that, they took different shapes and became
the two major political parties: the republicans (strong Federation) that were originally the
federalists, and the democrats (strong states) that were at first the anti-federalists. Their main
leaders were Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson respectively.
- 17 -

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