A Brief History of the Americas15,000 – 30,000 Years Ago – Bering Strait

1400s – 100 million Native Americans – Diverse, Complex Societies

- 10 million in US – 50 Tribes

Brief History Continued1492 – Columbus – begin European colonizationReasons for ColonizationSpain – South America, Central America,

- St. Augustine, FloridaEngland – Jamestown, VA – 1607

- Massachusetts – 1620- Maryland – 1634

France – Quebec – 1608Netherlands – New York – 1625Sweden – Delaware – 1638

By the 1750s:

- Spanish-South America + Southwest US + Florida

- French – Canada + Great Lakes + Fur Trade

- British – Eastern Coast and Population

- Native – 10% Original Population

1754 – 1763 – French and Indian War

• Mercantilism and the Navigation Acts – 1600s

• Salutary Neglect – No enforcement

• 1754-63 – The French and Indian War

• Results: British upset + in debt

• New Policies –

• Proclamation of 1763 – Appalachian Mountains

• Sugar Act – 1764

• Quartering Act – 1765

• Stamp Act 1765 – All all printed materials

Stamp Act Congress- 9 colonies

- “No taxation w/o representation” – Rights

- Boycott all British GoodsSons of Liberty + Resistance

1766 – Stamp Act repealed

- Declaratory Act – “in all cases whatsoever”

1767 – Townshend Acts – glass, lead, paper, paint, tea

Colonial Response:

• Boycott Resumes – Boston, New York, Philadelphia

• Virginia Resolves - Nonimportation Law

British Response:

• House of Burgesses(VA) and MA Legislatures

• BritishTroops

Reaction Continued

March 5, 1770-

Boston Massacre

– 5 Americans killed

– Propaganda + Repeal

- Committees of Correspondence

- 1773 – Tea Act - Boston Tea Party

1774 – Coercive/Intolerable Acts

First Continental Congress – Petition to King, Boycott, Militias

April 1775 – Lexington and Concord – 700 British Troops – Paul Revere – ‘Shot Heard Round the World’

June 1775 –Second Continental Congress

Battle of Bunker Hill

July 1775 – Olive Branch Petition

December 1775 - Prohibitory Act – No Trade

Common Sense by Thomas Paine

“Everything that is right or reasonable pleas for separation. The blood of the slain, the weeping voice of nature cries, ‘tis time to part”

100,000 in 3 months, 500,000 in 6 months

Adopted July 4, 1776

Written by Thomas Jefferson

Four Purposes:

1. Declare Independence

2. Explain Natural Rights – John Locke

3. List the wrongs of King George III

4. Justify Independence to other countries – France and Spain

-Well –equipped and trained army and navy

- Blockade of American coast

- Strong Central Government

- Resources and National Wealth – Hessian Mercenaries

- Native Americans, Slaves, and 50,000 Loyalists

-Fighting on their own land –Guerilla Warfare

- Fighting for Liberty and independence – A Cause

- War was unpopular in England

- Experiences from the French and Indian War

- Able military leaders

- Only had to not lose – War of attrition

Turning Point – Battle of Saratoga – 1778 – - French and Spanish aid

Battle of Yorktown – 1781 – French Navy and George Washington’s troops

1783 – Treaty of Paris

- United States Independent

- New Borders – Mississippi, Great Lakes, Florida

- British Troop removed from the Americas

- Republican Gov’t and Freedoms

- Emancipation - Slavery

- Penn 1778, VT 1779, MA 1780, RI + CT 1784, NY 1799, NJ 1804

- Women’s Rights – Abigail Adams - ‘Remember the Ladies’ - Education - Republican Motherhood

- Disastrous for Native Americans

- Spread Ideas of Natural Rights, Liberty, and Independence – Age of Revolutions

Results of the War