The Consequences of the Seven Years' War.doc

THE CONSEQUENCES OF THE SEVEN YEARS? WAR Wednesday 9/2/09 History 111B THE CONSEQUENCES OF THE SEVEN YEARS? WAR I. The removal of French power (Treaty of Paris, 1763) -French power removed from the North American continent?lost Canada, the Ohio Valley, Louisiana A. Canada becomes a British colony B. Spain gets Louisiana C. Britain faces new administrative responsibilities D. British colonists no longer have French to worry about II. British have huge war debt: How will they fund it? -British have built up a huge war debt; look to colonies for economic relief. -National debt rose from 75 million to 133 million pounds following the war. -New land, that had previously been held by the French, was expensive to monitor and set up troops in. A. Raise taxes at home? Advantages? Disadvantages? Advantages-Easier to collect, cheaper, compact population, more wealth Disadvantages-Visible resentment, heavily taxed already, no appeal to self interest, voting rights/affect representation B. Raise taxes in colonies? Advantages? Disadvantages? Advantages-Resentment far away, less heavily taxed, appeal to self interest, no voting effect Disadvantages-Harder to collect, expensive, dispersed population, less wealth III. Indian dissatisfaction: Pontiac?s Rebellion (1763?1765) A. New trade dynamics 1. No longer able to manipulate the market, selling to both British and French 2. Ceremonial gift-giving abandoned by British -Diplomatic goodwill was created by ceremonial gift giving, elaborate ceremonies of gift giving preceded negotiations, which the British stopped doing 3. British do not circulate among Indians -British would not travel through the woods to the Indians. Indians were inconvenienced by the British to travel to them at their trading posts. -Sold poor quality goods to the Indians 4. British restrict trade in alcohol B. Pan-Indian unity -Pontiac had an incredibly persuasive manner and understood that the Indians needed to unify if they wanted to fight off British expansion. -Resided over numerous secret meetings between different Indian tribes -Among the Delaware Indians, a prophet emerged in which the prophet had a vision where he met the master of life and this master chastised the prophet and the rest of Indians for allowing the whites to conquer the Indians. The master demanded that the prophet and the rest of the Indians take up arms against the British and the whites. -Attacks began in the spring 1763 and continued throughout the summer and ultimately began to fail in the fall. -The Indians thought the French would come to help them against the British, but this aid never came. -Pontiac tried to keep the Indian alliance together, but realized that his alliance had crumpled. C. Michilimackinac lacrosse game -In 1763, groups of Indians in the Northern Michigan region invited British soldiers to come watch the Indians lacrosse game. -The game was a ploy for the Indians to secretly take over the British Fort. -Lacrosse sticks resembled Indian war clubs. -On the day of the game, women Indians were pretending to place bets on the game, but were really concealing weapons under their clothes. -At one point, the ball is thrown into the Fort and the Indians rush in and make it look like it is apart of the game. -The Indians then picked up the weapons from the women and killed nearly all of the British soldiers and took over the Fort. D. Germ warfare at Fort Pitt -Smallpox devastated Fort Pitt soldiers. -The Indians who visited the Fort asked for goodwill gifts and the British gave them two blankets and a handkerchief with smallpox. -Colonel Henry Bouquet wrote a letter to Gen. Amherst stating that he would try to infect the Indians with smallpox via blankets. -General Amherst responded by saying that Bouquet should try to spread the disease via blankets and any other attempt the British soldiers could come up with. IV. Proclamation Line of 1763 A. George III?s intentions -Established boundaries, established a boundary line that ran down the Continental divide of the Appalachian Mountains, established a limit of colonization (anything westward of the Line was illegal). -Indian wars were expensive so by creating a boundary to separate the colonists and the Indians, Britain may be able to save money and not have to risk warfare. B. Colonial reactions -Small VA farmers still crossed the line with no -Gentry land speculators (Washington, Jefferson, Mason, Henry) could not obtain lands west of this line. -Speculators never imagined the line would hold and continued surveying and purchasing land grants. The Treaty of Hard Labor gave the Indians more land, protected Cherokee land claims, and maintained the boundary line of the Proclamation of 1763. Left the VA land speculators very unhappy. The speculators approached the Iroquois to purchase land. The VA speculators petitioned to the British government to obtain the area westward of VA (Kentucky). Land speculation is not typically considered one of the main reasons/causes of the American Revolution, but the Proclamation of 1763 certainly had an effect?exacerbated the colonists relationship with Britain. Characteristics of British Soldiers -Social background: Convicts -Upperclass officers -Ignored Sabbath -Swore frequently -Aggressive punishment -Open to women in camp Characteristics of Provincial Soldiers -Farmers -Officers were slightly more well off farmers elected by other farmers -Honored the Sabbath -Did not swear -Lax punishments -Thought women did not belong in camp