Of the People

1. Of the People Chapter 6: Conflict on the Edge of the Empire 1713–1774

2. Common Threads >> What role did the colonies play in imperial conflict? That is, how did they shape that conflict and how were they shaped by it? >> How were Native Americans drawn into imperial conflict? To what extent were they able to shape it for their own purposes? >> What did it mean for the American colonies to be peripheral—literally—to the British Empire? >> How did the colonists adapt the available political theories to their purposes? What in the American experience made those theories attractive to the colonists?

3. Conflict on the Edge of Empire 1713–1774 • Overview • The Victory of the British Empire • Enforcing the Empire • Rejecting the Empire • A Revolution in the Empire

4. Conflict on the Edge of the Empire 1713–1774 • The Victory of the British Empire • New War, Old Pattern • The Local Impact of Global War • The French Empire Crumbles from Within • The Virginians Ignite a War • From Local to Imperial War • Problems with British-Colonial Cooperation • The British Gain the Advantage

5. Conflict on the Edge of the Empire 1713–1774 • Enforcing the Empire • Pontiac’s Rebellion and Its Aftermath • Paying for the Empire: Sugar and Stamps

6. Conflict on the Edge of the Empire 1713-1774 • Rejecting the Empire • An Argument About Rights and Obligations • The Imperial Crisis in Local Context • Contesting the Townshend Duties

7. Conflict on the Edge of the Empire 1713-1774 • A Revolution in the Empire • “Massacre” in Boston • The Empire Comes Apart • The First Continental Congress

8. Conflict on the Edge of the Empire 1713-1774 • Conclusion

9. AMERICAN PORTRAITSusannah Willard Johnson Experiences the Empire • “What to others might look like an imperial struggle, Susannah Johnson experienced as a terrifying assault at dawn that took her from her home and eventually her family.” • What were the opportunities and risks afforded by Johnson’s family in the northern frontier of New England? • How was this incident (in a land populated by the consumer revolution) a function of the imperial struggle between France and England?

10. The Victory of the British Empire “From 1689 to 1763, Britain and France were at war more than half of the time. These wars gave shape to the eighteenth century and created the international context for the American Revolution in several ways.” • New War, Old Pattern • Pattern: what continuously draws these empires into conflict? • War of Jenkins’s Ear (1739–1744) • King George’s War (1744–1748) • The Local Effect of Global War • How did imperial wars impact colonists—especially New Englanders? • The French Empire Crumbles from Within • What factors made the Ohio Valley the focus of imperial conflict in North America? • Who were the actors on this global stage? • The Virginians Ignite a War • How did Virginians ignite a war? • In what way had they “bitten off more than they could chew.”

11. The Victory of the British Empire • From Local to Imperial War • What were the advantages of the French army as revealed in Braddock's campaign, 1775? • Problems with British-Colonial Cooperation • What conflicts emerged between British imperial officials and colonists in their joint effort to defeat the French? • The British Gain the Advantage • William Pitt leads the British to victory • “To a great extent, colonial and imperial objectives coincided. Both Britain and the colonies would benefit from securing the empire’s borders and from expanding British markets. Yet the imperial wars also exposed the growing divergence between the political economy of the colonies and that of the mother country.”

12. Enforcing the Empire “Even before the French and Indian War began, some members of the British government believed that tighter control had to be exercised over the American colonies. What British officials stationed in the colonies saw during the war only reinforced that view.” • Pontiac’s Rebellion and Its Aftermath • Paying for the Empire: Sugar and Stamps • America and the World: Paying for War • “The American Revolution grew out of Britain’s attempts to draw its American colonies more closely into the imperial system….In resisting that policy, the American colonists developed a new and different idea of the purpose of government, one that propelled them to revolution.”

13. Rejecting the Empire “All they wanted, they claimed, were the rights of Englishmen.” • An Argument About Rights and Obligations • How did British officials view its colonies? • Accordingly, how did they view the rights of colonists? • The Imperial Crisis in Local Context • What methods did colonists employ for voicing protest? • What language did they employ? • Contesting the Townshend Duties • How did the new notions of Republicanism shape colonial resistance?

14. A Revolution in the Empire • “The resistance to the Townshend Duties established a pattern that would be repeated again and again in the years before the Revolution…. Economics and politics became inseparable, as two visions of the empire came into conflict.” • “Massacre” in Boston • What is significant about this “massacre” in “Boston”? • The Empire Comes Apart • Explain why “the move that led directly to revolution was more accidental than calculated.” • The First Continental Congress • How did the emergence of this governing body alter the rebellion? • “Britain saw the colonies as a small but integral part of a large empire held together by an increasingly centralized and powerful government.”

15. Conflict on the Edge of the Empire 1713-1774 • Revisiting the Common Threads >> What role did the colonies play in imperial conflict? That is, how did they shape that conflict and how were they shaped by it? >> How were Native Americans drawn into imperial conflict? To what extent were they able to shape it for their own purposes? >> What did it mean for the American colonies to be peripheral— literally— to the British Empire? >> How did the colonists adapt the available political theories to their purposes? What in the American experience made those theories attractive to the colonists?