Question

what problems did the British government face after the Seven Years war (both at home and in the colonies) and what solutions did it propose, specifically relating to the colonies?> how reasonable were parliaments solutions, and in what ways did the colonists view them as an attack on their liberty?

Answer 1

The Seven Years’ War

The Seven Years’ War was a global military war between 1756 and 1763, involving most of the great powers of the time and affecting Europe, North America, Central America, the West African coast, India, and the Philippines. In some countries, the war is alternatively named after combats in the respective theatres: the French and Indian War (North America, 1754–63), Pomeranian War (Sweden and Prussia, 1757–62), Third Carnatic War (Indian subcontinent, 1757–63), and Third Silesian War (Prussia and Austria, 1756–63).

The French and Indian War (1754–1763) is the name for the North American theatre of the Seven Years’ War. The war was fought primarily between the colonies of Great Britain and New France, with both sides supported by forces from Europe as well as American Indian allies. In 1756, the war erupted into a worldwide conflict between Britain and France. The primary targets of the British colonists were the royal French forces and the various American Indian forces allied with them.

Background to the War

The Ohio Country

The war was fought primarily along the frontiers separating New France from the British colonies from Virginia to Nova Scotia. The Ohio Country (sometimes called the Ohio Territory or Ohio Valley by the French) was the name used in the 18th century for the regions of North America west of the Appalachian Mountains and in the region of the upper Ohio River south of Lake Erie. The territory encompassed roughly the present-day states of Ohio, eastern Indiana, western Pennsylvania, and northwestern West Virginia. The issue of settlement in the region is considered to have been a primary cause of the French and Indian War and a later contributing factor to the American Revolutionary War.

the 17th century, the area north of the Ohio River had been occupied by the Algonquian-speaking Shawnee. Around 1660, during a conflict known as the Beaver Wars, the Iroquois seized control of the Ohio Country, driving out the Shawnee and conquering and absorbing the Erie tribe. The Ohio Country remained largely uninhabited for decades and was used primarily for hunting by the Iroquois.

In the 1720s, a number of American Indian groups began to migrate to the Ohio Country. By 1724, Delaware Indians had established the village of Kittanning on the Allegheny River in present-day western Pennsylvania. The Delawares were migrating because of the expansion of European colonial settlement in eastern Pennsylvania. With them came those Shawnee who had settled in the east. Other bands of the scattered Shawnee tribe also began to return to the Ohio Country in the decades that followed. A number of Senecas and other Iroquois also migrated to the Ohio Country, moving away from the French and British imperial rivalries south of Lake Ontario.

Territorial Dispute

With the invasion of the Europeans, the region was claimed by Great Britain and France, both of which sent merchants into the area to trade with the Ohio Country Indians. The area was considered central to both countries’ ambitions of further expansion and development in North America

The Outbreak of War

The war began in May 1754 because of these competing claims between Britain and France. Twenty-two-year-old George Washington, a Virginian surveyor whose family helped to found the Ohio Company, gave the command to fire on French soldiers near present-day Uniontown, Pennsylvania. This incident on the Pennsylvania frontier proved to be a decisive event that led to imperial war. For the next decade, fighting took place along the frontier of New France and British America from Virginia to Maine. The war also spread to Europe as France and Britain looked to gain supremacy in the Atlantic World.

Treaty of Paris

Most of the fighting between France and Britain in continental North America ended in 1760; however, the fighting in Europe continued. The war in North America officially ended with the signing of the Treaty of Paris on February 10, 1763, and war in the European theatre of the Seven Years’ War was settled by the Treaty of Hubertusburg on February 15, 1763. France ceded French Louisiana west of the Mississippi River to its ally Spain, in compensation for Spain’s loss of Florida to Britain (which Spain had given to Britain in exchange for the return of Havana, Cuba). France’s colonial presence north of the Caribbean was reduced to the islands of Saint Pierre and Miquelon, confirming Britain’s position as the dominant colonial power in the eastern half of North America.

A New Dynamic

For France, the military defeat and the financial burden of the war weakened the monarchy and contributed to the advent of the French Revolution in 1789. For many American Indian populations, the elimination of French power in North America meant the disappearance of a strong ally and counterweight to British expansion, which over the following decades would lead to their ultimate dispossession. Although the Spanish takeover of the Louisiana territory (which was not completed until 1769) had only modest repercussions, the British takeover of Spanish Florida resulted in the westward migration of tribes that did not want to do business with the British and a rise in tensions between the Choctaw and the Creek, historic enemies whose divisions the British at times exploited. The change of control in Florida also prompted most of its Spanish Catholic population to leave.

Aftermath of the Seven Years' War. Britain was attempting to both balance its finances and control the newly acquired parts of its empire, through asserting sovereignty. These actions were complicated by British prejudice against the Americans.

The Need for Defense

During the Seven Years' War, Britain won a string of major victories and expelled France from North America, as well as parts of Africa, India, and the West Indies. New France, the name of France’s North American holdings, was now British, but a newly conquered population could cause problems. Few people in Britain were naïve enough to believe that these former French colonists would suddenly and wholeheartedly embrace British rule with no danger of rebellion, and Britain believed troops would be needed to preserve order. In addition, the war had revealed that the existing colonies needed defense against Britain’s enemies, and Britain believed that defense would be best provided by a fully trained regular army, not just colonial militias. To this end, the post-war government of Britain, with a major lead taken by King George III, decided to permanently station units of the British army in America. Keeping this army, however, would require money.

The Need for Taxation

The Seven Years' War had seen Britain spend prodigious amounts, both on its own army and on subsidies for its allies. The British national debt had doubled in that short time, and extra taxes had been levied in Britain to cover it. The last one, the Cider Tax, had proved highly unpopular and many people were agitating to have it removed. Britain was also running short of credit with banks. Under huge pressure to curb spending, the British king and government believed that any further attempts to tax the homeland would fail. They thus seized upon other sources of income, one of which was taxing the American colonists in order to pay for the army protecting them.

Unchallenged Assumptions

British minds first turned to the idea of taxing the colonists in 1763. Unfortunately for King George III and his government, their attempt to transform the colonies politically and economically into a safe, stable and revenue-producing—or at least revenue-balancing—part of their new empire would flounder, because the British failed to understand either the post-war nature of the Americas, the experience of war for the colonists, or how they would respond to tax demands. The colonies had been founded under crown/government authority, in the name of the monarch, and there had never been any exploration of what this really meant, and what power the crown had in America. While the colonies had become almost self-governing, many in Britain assumed that because the colonies largely followed British law, that the British state had rights over the Americans.

The Issue of Sovereignty

Britain responded to these new, but false, assumptions about the colonies by trying to expand British control and sovereignty over America, and these demands contributed another aspect to the British desire to levy taxes. In Britain, it was felt that the colonists were outside the responsibilities which every Briton had to bear and that the colonies were too far removed from the core of British experience to be left alone. By extending the duties of the average Briton to the United States—including the duty to pay taxes—the whole unit would be better off.

The Sugar Act

The first post-war attempt to change the financial relationship between Britain and the colonies was the American Duties Act of 1764, commonly known as the Sugar Act for its treatment of molasses. This was voted in by a large majority of British MPs, and had three main effects: there were laws to make customs collection more efficient; to add new charges on consumables in the United States, partly to push the colonists into buying imports from within the British empire; and to change existing costs, in particular, the importing costs of molasses. The duty on molasses from the French West Indies actually went down, and an across the board 3 pence a ton was instituted.

The Stamp Tax

In February 1765, after only minor complaints from the colonists, the British government imposed the Stamp Tax. For British readers, it was just a slight increase in the process of balancing expenses and regulating the colonies. There was some opposition in the British parliament, including from Lieutenant Colonel Isaac Barré, whose off the cuff speech made him a star in the colonies and gave them a rallying cry as the “Sons of Liberty,” but not enough to overcome the government vote.

The Stamp Tax was a charge applied on every piece of paper used in the legal system and in the media. Every newspaper, every bill or court paper, had to be stamped, and this was charged for, as were dice and playing cards. The aim was to start small and allow the charge to grow as the colonies grew, and was initially set at two-thirds of the British stamp tax. The tax would be important, not just for the income, but also for the precedent it would set: Britain would start with a small tax, and maybe one day levy enough to pay for the colonies’ whole defense. The money raised was to be kept in the colonies and spent there.

America Reacts

George Grenville’s Stamp Tax was designed to be subtle, but things didn't play out exactly as he had expected. The opposition was initially confused but consolidated around the five Resolutions given by Patrick Henry in the Virginia House of Burgesses, which were reprinted and popularized by newspapers.

Britain Seeks a Solution

Grenville lost his position as developments in America were reported to Britain, and his successor, the Duke of Cumberland, decided to enforce British sovereignty by force. However, he suffered a heart attack before he could order this, and his successor resolved to find a way to repeal the Stamp Tax but keep sovereignty intact. The government followed a twofold tactic: to verbally (not physically or militarily) assert sovereignty, and then cite the economic effects of the boycott to repeal the tax.

Consequences

The result of British taxation was the development of a new voice and consciousness among the American colonies. This had been emerging during the French-Indian War, but now issues of representation, taxation, and liberty began to take center stage

Core historical themes

Competition between European powers: After tobacco prices started to remain stagnant, plantation owners in Virginia wanted to move west into the Ohio River Valley to produce more tobacco and hopefully drive prices of that cash crop up. However, both Britain and France claimed ownership of the lands in the Ohio River Valley. The conflict between the two lead to the start of the Seven Years’ War.

Cooperation with Natives: Both the French and the British cooperated with Native Americans to use their forces in the Seven Years’ War. The French allied with the Hurons, whereas the British allied with the Iroquois. These alliances caused tension after the war in which the British began siding with Native Americans who were against colonial interest to move westward.

Migration after the war: When the Seven Years’ War ended, the British won all of France’s land holdings in colonial America. Colonists wanted to expand westward into these new lands in order to gain more land, but fearing conflicts with Native Americans, Britain passed the Proclamation of 1763. The proclamation prohibited movement west of the Appalachian Mountains, upsetting many colonists who wanted the land to increase their wealth. Thousands of colonists defied the law, moving west to claim land for themselves.

War is expensive, even in the 18th Century. The money expended worldwide by Britain in the war had nearly bled the folks at home white. Since the initial conflict had been on the Virginia frontier, and there was a signed document stating that a Major Washington had murdered an innocent French diplomat, who was actually in command of a military unit at the time, it seemed reasonable that the colonies should pay their share of the cost of the war.

Besides, France wasn't quite beaten yet.

The colonists had only been taxed by their colonial assemblies for things needed in the colonies. They hadn't been taxed by the Parliament at Westminster before. That they chose to tax every kind of paper used in the colonies, in the Stamp act, seemed extremely shortsighted. After all, who is using all these documents, but lawyers and printers. Its a bit like losing your pocketwatch in a pile of gunpowder, and lighting a match to try and find it.