THE

AMERICAN
REVOLUTION
 OVERVIEW

gislatures and democratic town meetings. They also enjoyed such rights as local judiciaries and trial
ng to comply with the new rules found themselves facing a British judge without jury. Americans we
 The 13 Colonies
New England Middle Southern
Colonies Colonies Colonies
Rhode Island Delaware Maryland

Connecticut Pennsylvania Virginia

Massachusetts New York North Carolina

New Hampshire New Jersey South Carolina

Georgia
ØThe New England Colonies were largely farming and fishing 
communities. 
The people made their own clothes and shoes. They grew much of 
their own food. Crops like corn and wheat grew in large numbers, 
and much was shipped to England. Foods that didn't grow in America 
were shipped from England. Boston was the major New England port.

ØThe Middle Colonies were part agriculture, part industrial. Wheat 
and other grains grew on farms in Pennsylvania and New York. 
Factories in Maryland produced iron, and factories in Pennsylvania 
produced paper and textiles. Trade with England was plentiful in 
these colonies as well.

ØThe Southern Colonies were almost entirely agricultural. The 
main feature was the plantation, a large plot of land that contained a 
great many acres of farmland and buildings in which lived the people 
who owned the land and the people who worked the land. (A large 
part of the workforce was African slaves, who first arrived in 1619.)
Southern plantations grew tobacco, rice, and indigo, which they sold 
to buyers in England and elsewhere in America.
 Europe’s View of The Colonies

Europeans viewed the colonies as their property. They existed in order to serve their
home nation. The colonies produced crops and goods that could then be shipped back to their
mother country in order to enrich those who lived there. The colonies also existed, in their view,
as a place where goods could be sold. The colonies were expected to remain loyal to their mother
country, and submit to any decisions made on their behalf by their mother country.

Colonies were controlled by governors which were appointed by the crown. These
governors had a great deal of authority within the regions they were responsible for. In this way,
the crown maintained their authority in a colony. The governor appointed all judges, and other
officials within the colony.
Many colonies also had a legislator which was made up of elected officials. These legislatures
made recommendations to the governor, but had no real power.
 Colonies’ View of Europe
Many of the inhabitants of the colonies had come to the Americas in order to escape
persecution, for their religious or extreme political views. As a result, there was a higher
concentration of radical thinkers in the Americas than there were in Europe.
Many of the colonists had been born in the Americas, and had never visited Europe. As a result,
they considered themselves Americans, and not Europeans. Increasingly their loyalty was to the
colony, and not to the distant mother country.

Colonies began to tire of the restrictions placed on them by their mother countries.
These restrictions favored their parent nations, but made life more difficult for the colonies.
Some of these restrictions did not allow them to trade with any nations, making it more difficult
for them to sell their goods.
Increasingly these colonies viewed themselves as independent states, separate from their mother
country.
 

 Points to Note


ep Canada and several other possessions in the New World.

ia and led the fight for the adoption of the Bill of Rights.

d. The Second Continental Congress met in 1775, when the Revolutionary war had started. Things were going b
 Basic causes of the
American Revolution
Ø Colonists felt humiliated and disrespected by the British. Eg. Illegal searches of
property by British customs agents, denial of trial by jury etc
Ø Imposition of taxes on the colonies that directly affected profits from trading eg.
Revenue, Currency, Stamp, Townshend Duties
Ø The colonists had access to literature which inspired them to oppose the nature of
the British
Ø American colonies made their own legislation for years so it seemed unreasonable
for Britain to insist supremacy. “No taxation without representation”
Ø Assemblies argued that the taxes were not for the benefit of theAmericans, but
for Britain’s own benefit.
Ø The colonists were upset that they were being taxed unreasonably for the presence
of British troops in the colonies
Ø Persons active in government rarely visited America and the voyage across the
Atlantic took at least four weeks, ergo a lack of communication and the
presence of “virtual misrepresentation” created mistrust.
Ø
Ø
Ø
Ø
 The Enlightenment 
 Many of the revolutionary leaders had
studied major writings of the
Enlightenment including those of
Francois Marie-Arouet, John Locke,
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and the Baron
de Montesquieu. From these writings,
the founders gleaned the concepts of
the social contract,
freedom of the press, and 
separation of powers.

Name Date Provisions Georgia's reaction

Revenue Act of 1764 April 5, 1764 Revised duties on sugar, tea, coffee, Protests about taxation; Georgia especially
(Sugar Act) wine; expanded jurisdiction of some concerned because of lumber trade with
courts. sugar-producing Carribean countries.
Stamp Act March 22, 1765 thru March 18, Documents must contain a revenue All deeds, wills, marriage licenses, even
1766 stamp to be legal. newspapers affected. Georgia's stamp
master serves a single day in January,
1766.
Quartering Act March 24, 1765 British troops must be given housing on New York Assembly is punished for not
demand from colonists. complying. The king could not house
troops in subjects homes in England, but
permitted to do so in the colonies.
Declaratory Act March 18, 1766 Parliment declares sovereignty over Enacted on the same day that Parliment
colonies in all cases. repealed the Stamp Act, this was merely
positioning so that England would not lose
face for giving in to the colonies.
Townshend Acts June 26, 29, July 2, 1767; Includes duties on new items including Georgia begin to import goods directly
repealed April 12, 1770 (some tea, glass and other goods available in from nearby Western Hemisphere trading
texts list a March date. This is the Western Hemisphere partners rather than buy from England.
wrong) except for tax on tea. Georgia House dissolved in dispute over
this act.
Tea Act May 10, 1773 East India Tea Company granted sole Tea was a popular drink not only in
right to sell tea directly to Americans; Georgia but throughout the colonies.
some duties on tea reduced Since 1770, tensions had fallen between
the countries, but the Tea Act indicated
resumption. Nearest Tea Party in
Charleston, SC because Savannah has no
Intolerable Acts (Coercive March-June, 1774 Closes Boston Harbor; eliminates current Convening
tea assigned.of first Continental Congress
Acts) government of Massachusetts; restricts (September, 1774)
many other government meetings.
Prohibitory Act December 22, 1775 Tries to force Americans into submission Final blow for many Georgians, although
with direct attacks on liberties granted all a majority may have been loyalists. War
Englishmen. was already 8 months old.
 COLONIAL RESISTANCE

Facing heavy costs of supporting a

standing army in the North American
colonies , Britain hoped to shift some of
the fiscal burden on to the colonists by
imposing a series of taxes without
consulting colonial governments . The
colonies resisted , claiming that there
should be " no taxation without
representation " . The British government
prepared to quash what they perceived as
an open revolt , and the colonists
prepared for war.
The 13 English Growing Early Clashes
Colonies Discontent

Part of British
 French and Indian Boston Massacre


global trade War drained British 

 treasury. Boston Tea Party

Mercantilist
 

policies Britain passed and Punitive laws

 enforced new tax passed by British
Navigation Acts:
 law on the to punish colonists
regulated colonial colonists 

trade  Continental

“No taxation Congress with

Colonists felt
 without representatives
entitled to the representation.” from all 13
rights of English  colonies
citizens
 The Boston Massacre
 The Boston Massacre was the killing of
five colonists by British regulars on
March 5, 1770.
 It was the culmination of tensions in the
American colonies that had been growing
since Royal troops first appeared in
Massachusetts in October 1768 to enforce
the heavy tax burden imposed by the
Townshend Acts.
 BOSTON
TEA
PARTY

Parliament, guided by the new Prime Minister, Lord Frederick North, repealed the
Townshend Acts in 1770 but retained the tax on tea to assert its right to tax the
colonies. In order to rescue the British East India Company from bankruptcy,
Parliament passed the Tea Act in 1773, reducing the tax on tea shipped to the
colonies so that the company could sell it in America at a price lower than that of
smuggled tea. The colonists, however, refused to buy the English tea. They
viewed the Tea Act as another violation of their constitutional right not to be
taxed without representation. Colonial merchants also feared that the act would
allow the East India Company to monopolize the tea trade and put them out of
business. In Philadelphia and New York the colonists would not permit British
ships to unload tea. In Boston, in the so-called Boston Tea Party, a group of
citizens, many disguised as Native Americans, swarmed over British ships in the
harbour and dumped the cargoes of tea into the water.
 First
Casualtie
s
at
Out to destroy colonial Lexington
stores of
( shot heard around the
gunpowder , about 800 British soldiers
world )
under General Thomas Gage set out for
Concord , Massachusetts , on April 19 ,
1775 . They met a force of about 70
well - trained minutemen in Lexington . It
is unknown which side fired the first
shot , but the 8 colonists who died were
the first casualties of the American
War of Independence .
 Benedict Arnold
 Early in the summer of 1780, he thought up a plan to turn over the important
post at West Point, New York, to the English for the sum of ten thousand
pounds. He persuaded Washington to place him in command there in
order to carry out this scheme. However, Arnold's plan fell through when
his contact, the British spy Major John André (1750–1780), was captured
on September 21, 1780, with documents that showed Arnold was a traitor.
André was hanged and Arnold fled to the British lines.

 Arnold spent the rest of the war in a British uniform fighting his own
countrymen. He went to London in 1781 and died there twenty years later
on June 14, 1801, forgotten in England and despised in America. To this
day, calling someone a "Benedict Arnold" in America is a way of saying
that person has betrayed his or her side.

 Washington at Valley Forge

The Continental Army ’ s encampment at Valley Forge in

Pennsylvania during the winter of 1777 - 1778 was the bleakest
time of the American struggle for independence . Hunger and
disease compounded the problems of inadequate shelter and
lack of adequate winter clothing . Over 2 , 000 men died of
typhus , typhoid , dysentery , and pneumonia . Washington made
repeated appeals for aid and supplies , but the Congress was
unable to move the states to provide them .
 TREATY OF PARIS
Yorktown marked the end of serious hostilities in North
America , although peace negotiations dragged on until the
Treaty of Paris was signed on September 3 , 1783 . Great
Britain recognized the independence of the former colonies as
the United States of America and acknowledged its boundaries
as extending west to the Mississippi , north to Canada ( with
fishing rights in Newfoundland ), and south to the Florida's .

Washington , to whose decisiveness and determination the

victory was due , took leave of his officers in New York on
December 4 , 1783 , surrendered his commission to Congress
at Annapolis on December 23 , and , in words that were somewhat
less than prophetic , took leave “ of all the employments of
public life”.
 GEORGE WASHINGTON

SIEGE OF YORKTOWN
On August 14 Washington received word that de Grasse
was bringing the French fleet to Chesapeake Bay . He
immediately decided to attack Cornwallis at Yorktown ,
Virginia . The troops of Washington and Rochambeau
marched south , leaving a containing force to watch
Clinton in New York . De Grasse's fleet arrived at the
Chesapeake capes on August 30 , drove off a British
fleet under Admiral Thomas Graves , and established a
tight blockade of Cornwallis's army . Some 16 , 000
American and French troops and Virginia militia , under
Washington's command , laid siege to Yorktown .
Cornwallis made several attempts to break through
allied lines , but on October 19 , 1781 , he was obliged
to surrender . This put an end to the war . The British
king had to admit the independence of colonies .
 Declaration of Independence

 Drafted by Thomas Jefferson

 People had the right to “alter
or abolish unjust
governments.”
 Popular sovereignty
 All government power comes
from the people
 King had trampled the peoples’
natural rights.
 Colonists now had the right to
rebel

 DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE

The idea of independence gained overwhelming popular

support following the publication of the pamphlet
Common Sense , by Thomas Paine , in January 1776 . His
pamphlet , published anonymously , attacked George III ,
calling him “ the Royal Brute ”, and denounced monarchy
as a form of government . Paine's arguments dissolved
any lingering attachment to Great Britain and removed
the last psychological barrier to independence . On July
4 , 1776 , the Continental Congress adopted a Declaration
of Independence declaring that the colonies “ are and of
right ought to be free and independent States ”.
Thereafter the Americans considered themselves not as
rebellious British subjects , but as citizens of a
sovereign nation repelling invasion by a foreign power .
  Paine’s 1776 pamphlet
Common Sense was  “I have heard it
invaluably influential for asserted by some, that as
the American Revolution America has flourished
in that it encouraged under her former
secession: connexion is necessary

towards her future
happiness, and will always

have the same effect.
 Nothing can be more
fallacious than this kind of
argument. We may as well
assert that because a child
has thrived upon milk,
that it is never to have
meat, or that the first
twenty years of our lives
is to become a precedent
for the next twenty. But
even this is admitting
more than is true, for I
answer roundly, that
America would have
flourished as much, and
probably much more, had
no European power had
anything to do with her.”


 *Published in the same

year as the Dec of Ind.

Rights of Man
 Published in 1791 upon
his return to France
after the American
Revolution
 Essentially a narrative for
what Paine thought
were the most
important
Enlightenment ideals
 Also denounced the
French monarchy:
 “I do not believe that
monarchy and
aristocracy will
continue seven
years longer in any
of the enlightened
countries of
Europe.”
 Often interpreted as a
defense of the French
 SIGNIFICANCE OF REVOLUTION
1. American revolution had profound influence on the
developments in the other parts of the world.

2. It inspired French revolution.Many French men who

had fought fought on the side of the colonies became
heroes of the French revolution.

3. It inspired revolutionaries in many other European

countries to overthrow the autocratic rule in their
countries.

4. It encouraged many Spanish and Portugal colonies

in America to rebel against their mother countries and
become independent.
 Sample essay
 To what extent did European
enlightenment influence the course of
the American Revolution?