North America The Road to Revolution

COLONIZATION AND ECONOMIC EXPANSION HIST 1301 | History North America: The Road to Revolution Sometimes Europeans were victims of their own success; this happened when economic imperialism unintentionally produced civilizations powerful enough to declare their independence from their parent country. Thirteen former colonies united to establish a nation that surpassed the previous empire in power and riches in at least one instance. In the early 1600s, the British colonies in North America were nothing more than faltering trade outposts; yet, by the mid-1700s, they were home to over two million people who exercised most of their own self-government and profited from a robust commercial economy. On the other hand, North American economic growth was endangered by British mercantilist policies. England issued a number of Navigation Acts in the second half of the seventeenth century in an attempt to maximise profit from its colonies, deny other European countries access to their resources, and crack down on attempts to smuggle goods under trade restrictions. Goods manufactured in the colonies that could only be sold in England or to its colonial territories were enumerated under the Navigation Act of 1660. American colonists were therefore paid by English merchants what they valued their commodities at; colonists were not allowed to sell to Dutch, French, Spanish, or other merchants who might be prepared to pay more. Furs, tobacco, and sugar were among these things, items that Europe as a whole desired for. Added to the list were rice, ginger, cotton, indigo, and other plant dyemaking materials. In order to safeguard their interests, English textile producers need cotton and dyestuffs, and the Exportation Act of 1660 forbade the export of English wool. Additionally, only England could get naval stores needed for the construction and upkeep of ships for commerce and conflict. These included pine tree pitch, which sealed and made ships waterproof, masts, hemp (used to produce rope), and pine tree sap (used to make turpentine). These colonial goods were highly taxed once they reached England, and the English government received the money rather than the colonies that had created them. The Navigation Act of 1663 required that all commodities leaving the British Empire and headed for the colonies first be sent to England and subject to taxes before continuing on to their final destination in order to increase revenue for the government. Because foreign merchants passed on the expense of the English taxes to the colonists, this clause increased the price of non-English products to them. To stop colonists from undercutting English merchants, Parliament started to forbid them from producing several commodities that were also made in England towards the end of the seventeenth century. Before the middle of the eighteenth century, colonists were unable to export beaver caps and were prohibited from selling products made of iron or wool, either inside England or to other English colonies. The English colonies were major players in the fur trade, and beaver hats were a fashionable item in Europe. Parliament restricted the amount of money that the residents in the English colonies might amass by permitting the colonists to export only the unfinished furs rather than the finished hats, for which they could have paid greater rates. Following the French and Indian War, British colonists in North America met various measures taken by the British Parliament that they felt unjustly limited their economic prospects with animosity. For example, a lot of people have long yearned to relocate west of the Appalachian Mountains to start farms in the fertile Ohio Valley. Large families were common in New England, and parents struggled to give their kids enough land with every generation. Due to the needs of tobacco production, new, rich land was continually in demand in the southern colonies. The region west of the Appalachians was claimed by several colonies, but it was really occupied by the French and their numerous Native American allies. The colonists eagerly anticipated taking possession of their newfound wealth following the British triumph against the French and their Indigenous allies. To the dismay and ire of many colonists who had fought alongside British troops in the recently concluded conflict, the British government, however, quickly prohibited settlement west of the Appalachians, hoping to avoid upsetting the tribes of the Ohio Valley and costly new wars. In addition, the British maintained troops in North America who guarded the frontier, controlled colonial commerce, and collected taxes because they were committed to maintaining harmony with Native Americans and paying off war debts. Attempts were made to levy additional taxes on the colonists or to enforce the collection of already-existing levies more strictly in order to pay for the upkeep of the army. Smuggling was one way the colonists sought to get around trade limitations, but regulations requiring smugglers to be prosecuted in admiralty courts—which did not have juries—thwarted their attempts. Many colonists believed that this practice went against the English Bill of Rights' guarantees of protection. The majority of British colonists were Protestant, and they were incensed by Parliament's 1774 decision to give the newly acquired French province of Quebec control over the Ohio Valley, to maintain French civil law governance over the province, and to allow religious toleration for the province's Roman Catholic population. Concurrent with this decision that disrupted the 150-year-old custom of colonial self-governance, a growing number of colonists began to view Britain as antagonistic towards their concerns. Growing discontent with British control culminated in violence in 1775, followed by a proclamation of independence in 1776.