10.4 ACOLONIAL EMPIRES & THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION

• Col Emp in Latin Am – Port – dominated Brazil– SP – colonies in North America,

Central America & South America• Mestizos – EU & Native Americans • Mullatoes – EU & Africans

– 1 source of wealth – supplies of gold & silver

• Farming – source of prosperity– Large landowners – created immense estates– Native Am – worked on large estates or on

marginal (small) farms

• Trade – another source of profit– # of – natural products were shipped to EU

(sugar, tobacco, diamonds, animal hides)

• Mother countries – supplied colonists with manufactured goods– SP & Port – closely regulated the trade of

American colonies– BR & FR – wanted in Latin American markets

• SP & Port determined to – Christianize the native peoples– Gave – Catholic Church an important role in

the Americas– Missionaries – brought Native Americans

together into villages, converted them, taught them a trade, and encouraged them to grow crops

– Cath Church built – cathedrals, hospitals, orphanages & schools

– Allowed women – enter convents and become nuns

BRITAIN & NORTH AMERICA

• 1707 – England & Scotland were united – BR – refer to both the English & Scots– BR monarch – shared power with Parliament – Parl – gradually gained more power

• Had power – to make laws, levy taxes, pass the budget, influence ministers of the monarch

• 1714 – new dynasty - Hanoverians

• Robert Walpole – head of cabinet (PM) 1721-1742– Pursued – peaceful foreign policy– Wm Pitt the Elder – head of cabinet 1757

• Expanded – British Empire by acquiring Canada & India

– Col supposedly run by – British Board of Trade, the Royal Council, & Parliament

• Actually – ran by local legislatures • Col merchants did not – want British to run their affairs

10-4BAmerican Revolution

• After 7 Years War – British leaders wanted new $ from colonies– Used to – cover war cost, army to defend the

colonies– 1765 – Parliament imposed the Stamp Act on

colonies• Required – printed materials carry a stamp

showing tax had been paid• Opposition – was widespread and often violent

– 1766 – act was repealed

• 1770s – crisis after crisis– Col org – First Continental Congress

• Met – Philadelphia• Urged col 1. take up arms

2. organize militias

– April 1775 – colonist vs British army – Lexington & Concord

– 2nd Cont Congress – met • Formed – army – Continental Army• With – George Washington as commander in chief

• July 4, 1776 – 2nd Cont Congress approved declaration of independence – Written by – Thomas Jefferson– Based on – John Locke’s ideas– Am Rev – has begun– War – with Great Britain was a huge gamble – FR – supplied arms & money to rebels – also

FR soldiers served in Wash. army• 1778 – following a BR defeat FR recognize

American state

• SP & Dutch – also enter war against Great Britain – BR faced – war against much of EU and

America– Yorktown – General Cornwallis surrender to

American & French forces under Washington– BR – decided to end the war– Treaty of Paris 1783 – recognized

independence of the American colonies• Granted Am – control of western territory from

Appalachians to Mississippi River

Birth of a New Nation

• Former col – were now states– Feared – concentrated power

• Little enthusiasm – for creating a united nation with a strong central gov’t

– Articles of Confederation – nation’s first constitution

• Lacked – power to deal with new nation’s problems

• Summer of 1787 – delegates met to revise the Articles– Known as – Constitutional Convention– Decided to – write a plan for an entirely new

national gov’t– The Constitution

• Created – a federal system (share of power between national and state governments)

• Nat’l powers 1. levy taxes2. raise army3. regulate trade & national currency

• Divided into – 3 branches1st – executive branch

Pres – chief executivePower to 1. execute laws

2. veto legislature’s act 3. supervise foreign affairs 4. direct military forces

2nd – legislative branchConsisted of – 2 houses (Senate & House of

Representatives)

3rd – judicial branchCourts would – enforce the Constitution (supreme law of the land)

• Must be ratified – approved by 9 of 13 states

• Bill of Rights – 1789 – Guarantee:- freedom of religion, speech,

press, petition, assembly - right to bear arms - protection against unreasonable searches & arrest- guaranteed trail by jury & due process of law- protection of property rights

• Many derived – rights came from natural rights – Eur intellectuals – saw the American

Revolution as the picture of the Enlightenment’s political dreams