Year 11 - Matu 1 - The American Revolution

Lesson 5 - Thirteen Colonies and the Seven Years' War

Thirteen colonies
 
The English continued to set up more colonies, until by 1760 there were thirteen in all. In 1760 there were two and a half million people living in the thirteen colonies. About two million of the settlers had emigrated from Europe, most of them from Britain and Ireland. They went for various reasons. Some wanted to escape from religious persecution. Others hoped to make their fortunes in a new world where land was cheap and work plentiful. About half a million Americans had no such hopes. They were the slaves. They had been captured in Africa and sold as slaves to white Americans who needed labourers to grow cotton, sugar and tobacco in the hot southern colonies. They and their children and their children's children could never hope to enjoy the freedom of the new world.

​​How Britain ruled its American colonies

The thirteen colonies were part of the British Empire. In 1760 its king was George III. George ruled his Empire with the advice of his parliament, which was made up of wealthy landowners. George appointed a governor to rule each colony in his name. Each colony also had an elected Assembly which advised the governor about what the colonists wanted. For many years this system worked well. The colonists had a great deal of freedom. They could raise their own taxes and decide how to spend most of the money. But the governor kept them in touch with what the king wanted.

The Seven Years' War

The Seven Years' War was a global conflict fought between 1756 and 1763. It involved every European great power of the time and spanned five continents, affecting Europe, the Americas, West Africa, India, and the Philippines. The conflict split Europe into two coalitions, led by the Kingdom of Great Britain (including Prussia, Portugal, Hanover, and other small German states) on one side and the Kingdom of France (including the Austrian-led Holy Roman Empire, the Russian Empire, Bourbon Spain, and Sweden) on the other. The war was successful for Great Britain, which gained the bulk of New France in North America, Spanish Florida, some individual Caribbean islands in the West Indies, the colony of Senegal on the West African coast, and superiority over the French trading outposts on the Indian subcontinent.

Watch the film on the Seven Years' War and answer the questions below. 

As far as this unit is concerned, the Seven Years' War was significant for two reasons. Firstly, for the French the cost of the war and the territorial losses incurred, seriously weakened the monarchy. This financial debt and the later cost of military support against the British became a central cause of the French Revolution (see Matu 2). Secondly, for the British, the cost of defending their colonies had been enormous. The British Government decided to make the colonialists help pay towards the cost of the war by raising their taxes.  The colonists protested at this. They said it was not right that a parliament in England, elected by people who lived over 3,000 miles away could tax them. They felt that they should only pay taxes imposed by an Assembly (parliament) they had elected themselves. The British ignored their protests. In 1765 the London Parliament introduced the Stamp Act. It put a tax on documents like contracts and wills. News of the Stamp Act caused outrage in the American colonies. Groups of men known as the 'Sons of Liberty' organised resistance to it. Their slogan was 'No taxation without representation'.