AMERICAN REVOLUTION

1763-1815

Introduction

• “The Revolution was effected before the war commenced. The Revolution was in the minds and hearts of the people; a change in their religious sentiments of their duties and obligations. This radical change in the principles, opinions, sentiments, and affections of the people, was the real American Revolution.”

• Radicalization of American Colonists

Causes of the American Revolution

1. End of the French Threat• Immediate Response to the victory in the French and

Indian Wars

• Long-term response to this victory. Common enemy was gone. Factors that divided replaced factors that united.

2. Impact of the Great Awakening. Moralistic thinking replaced political thinking

Causes of the American Revolution-cont.

3. Constitutional Issues divide English leaders & American colonists

• Was the English Empire to be a Federal empire or a unitary one?

• Concepts of Sovereignty and Republicanism

4. Issues centering on economic contribution of American colonies to English empire: Drain or gain?

Causes of the American Revolution-cont.

• English leaders’ position: Colonies were a drain. Colonists were NOT paying their fair share of costs

• American colonial leaders responded: Wrong, wrong, wrong!!-Trade drained wealth to England. It kind of balanced out.

– Importance of Specie (gold/silver coin)

Causes of the American Revolution-cont.

5. American colonies have a different ethno-colonial mix

• Puritan element in American culture dominant

• Many colonists non-EnglishWhat is England? British Isles include Scotland, Wales,

Ireland

Non-British strain, esp. Dutch, German, and African

Causes of the American Revolution-cont.

6. Emergence of new values in American rooted in an Anglo-American identity

• Most important value is equality. Meaning of equality: English & American the same

• Importance of this to American leaders: Benjamin Franklin as an example

Road to Revolution:1763-1776

1. Stamp Act Crisis: 1765-66• Events serve to inflame relations between colonists and English

leadersStamp Act and its analysisProtest: the Virginia ResolvesProtest: Violence in Massachusetts

Complex factors: local politics and resistance to England combine explosively

Protest: Stamp Act CongressProtest: Economic Warfare

• Repealing the Stamp Act & the Declaratory Act

Road to Revolution:1763-1776 (cont.)2. Townsend Duties Crisis: 1767-1770

• Townsend Acts & related actions by Parliament• Circular Letter initiated in Massachusetts

• Caution of colonial radicals. Role of Sam Adams• Overreaction in London whips up radicals

• Boston as center of resistance• Arrival of the Board of Customs Commissioners: Imperail

Bureaucracy & the response of Boston• Violent résistance to the acts of the Board• Dispatch of two regiments of the Royal Army to Boston.

Commander is Thomas Gage• March 6, 1770: Boston Massacre

Road to Revolution:1763-1776 (cont.)• Resistance: Economic Warfare

3. Tea Act Crisis & Aftermath: 1773-1776• Tea Act: Bailout for the British East India Company. How it

affected the colonies

• Resistance & the Boston Tea Party (Dec. 1773)

• London’s response: the Intolerable (or Coercive) Acts• Boston Port Act

• Massachusetts Government Act

• Massachusetts Judiciary Act

• Quartering Act

• Resistance—First Continental Congress-Sept. 1774Continental Association: Economic warfare becoming a

revolutionary government

Road to Revolution:1763-1776 (cont.)

• Road to Independence– Outbreak of war and what to do next

– Significance of Thomas Paine’s Common Sense

– July 1776: Proclaiming Independence

War for Independence

• Strategies– Strategy of the American Revolutionary Army

• Force England to withdraw from its American colonies and grant those colonies independence. This means forcing England to withdraw its military forces.

• Continental Army provided weak opposition to the English military machine. Its General, George Washington, focused on preserving the Army, avoiding regular battles, and launching raids against English outposts and isolated units

• Playing to political opposition in England against its government’s war policy. Build pressure to force government to change its war policy, withdraw the military, and grant independence

• It worked! A weak army defeated Europe’s strongest military machine

• Strategy pursued by the English military machine.

• England possessed both powerful, well-trained and well-equipped army and navy, probably the best military machine in Europe

• Leaders of the government believed that it faced in America a small group of trouble makers who refused to see themselves as subordinate to England

• England intended to use its military machine to crush the trouble makers by using overwhelming military might

• Political and military leaders did not appreciate the widespread nature of the rebellion

• Capturing strategic points was important goal, although there were no strategic points in America

War for Independence—Cont.

• War in New England: 1775-1776– April 19, 1775: Battle of Lexington-Concord– May 1775: Formation of the Continental Army– June 17, 1775: Battle of Bunker Hill– Siege of Boston. Engish withdrawal in late

March 1776• May 1775: Importance of a minor skirmish at Fort

Ticonderoga in wilderness of New York

War for Independence—Cont.

• War in the Middle Colonies: 1776-1777– August-November 1776. Battle for New York City

– December 26, 1776: Continental Army & Raid on Trenton

– General William Howe & the Capture of Philadelphia• Howe’s reliance on the Royal Navy

• September 1777: Battle of Brandywine Creek opened road to Philadelphia

– Saratoga Campaign: July-October 1777

War for Independence—Cont

– Saratoga Campaign: July-October 1777• General John Burgoyne’s campaign to win the war: Complex

plan, based on unrealistic geography and fantasy

• Burgoyne’s march to disaster– Philip Schuyler: Skilled in war of harassment, taking full

advantage of geography in northern New York

– Setbacks: Failure in Mohawk Valley & Battle of Bennington

– Two Battles of Freeman’s Farm: Sept. 19 & Oct.7

• Burgoyne’s surrender to General Horatio Gates: Oct 19

• Meaning of this surrender makes this victory a turning point

War for Independence—Cont• War in the South: 1778-1781

– England faced a new world war with France and Spain entering the war

– England’s “Southern Strategy”. Conquer the South—establish a base

– First Phases• Georgia easily conquered

• South Carolina: English victories at Charleston & Camden. Revolutionary fervor abating

– Battle of King’s Mountain & General Nathanael Greene: Turning points

War for Independence—Cont– Greene’s strategy: “Winning by losing”

• January 1781: General Dan Morgan’s victory at Cowpens

• Greene vs. Cornwallis. What does Greene do to destroy the effectiveness of a much stronger army?

– March 1781: Battle of Guilford Courthouse

• Cornwallis’s retreat to Yorktown

– October 1781: Cornwallis’s world turned upside down at Yorktown

– England’s abandonment of its war policy

War for Independence—Cont

• 1783:Paris Peace Treaty– England recognized independence of the United

States– England agreed to recognize the Mississippi

River as the western boundary of the United States

– England agreed to withdraw its military forces from within the boundary of the United States

Thomas Jefferson & the Revolution1. Introduction: Making a real revolution2. Eliminating aristocratic elements in property

law. No entail. No primogeniture3. Liberty of Conscience, including legal

recognition of right to freedom of religion4. Emphasis on the West as key to American

growth• Ordinance of 1785• Northwest Ordinance of 1787

Making of a New Constitution & Its Aftermath

• Coming of the 1787 Constitutional Convention– Shays Rebellion

• Constitutional Convention: May-Sept. 1787– James Madison and the Virginia Plan

– Great Compromise

– 3/5 Compromise

– Other provisions

• Ratification. – Hamilton, Madison, and Jay and The Federalist Papers

Implementing a new government

1. The New Government• Bill of Rights. First 10 Amendments to the

Constitution

• Alexander Hamilton’s Financial Policies & the Birth of the first party system: Republicans vs. Federalists

• Hamilton, as first Treasury Secretary. His three reports trigger debates with Madison & Jefferson in opposition

• Funding the national debt & creating a national bank

• More profound than partisan debate. Federalists, more or less, respected the English model of

government as a successful model Republicans rejected this model. To them, the American

Revolution met rejecting England as a model

Implementing a new government (cont.)

2. Impact of a Revolution in France:1789-1799• Initial response in United States was highly favorable

• As French Revolution became more radical, it became an emotional force polarizing the Federalists & Republicans Federalist paranoia of Republicans as pro-French

subversives and terrorists Republican paranoia of a pro-English monocracy (monarchy

+ aristocracy)

Implementing a new government (cont.)• Revolution triggers new war between England &

France. U.S. tries to stay neutral, but the war kept getting caught up in United States politics– U.S. tried to avoid war, but there is a French military

alliance– 1793: Neutrality Proclamation– 1794: L’affaire de Citoyen Genet– 1795: Jay Treaty– 1796: Presidential Election– 1797: XYZ Affair and the Quasi War with France– 1798: Alien and Sedition Acts– 1800: Convention of 1800 terminated the French alliance– 1801: Jefferson & the Republicans gain control of U.S.

government

Republicans in power

1. Marbury v Madison. John Marshall empowering the Supreme Court

2. 1803-Louisiana Purchase. Doubling the territory of the U.S. Western boundary now the crest of the Rocky Mountains

3. War of 1812. 1812-1815• Peace of Ghent (1814). Ended war on basis of status

quo ante

• Battle of New Orleans. January 1815