Day 3: February 10, 1763

What Happened:

When I teach this period of American history, I always tell my students that the American Revolutionary period started in the key year of 1763. Not 1776, not the Boston Massacre in 1770 or Tea Party of 1773, not Lexington and Concord. It was the end of an earlier war that accelerated us down our path towards our own war for independence. Between 1688 and 1763, there were four "world" wars between Britain, France and Spain that dealt, in part, with jockeying for Empire around the world. While Britain had control over what we refer to as The Thirteen Colonies along the East Coast, France and Spain technically controlled the majority of territory in North America. With Spain, by the mid-1700s it was mostly in name only, but France had a real foothold in Canada and the interior of what would become the United States. The worldwide British vs. French struggle often spilled over into the New World as well, mainly through guerilla skirmishes between the British colonists and French fur trappers and their Indian allies.

The Seven Years War (it was longer than seven years, and in the colonies it was called the French and Indian War because that is who we were fighting here) was the latest of these "world" (the world consisting of the important countries at this point) wars.

ABOVE: This guy is George Washington. In the New World, British colonists were forever pushing West and expanding into French territory. Pesky Virginians pushed into an area where the French Fort Duquesne was located. George Washington was a young Virginia militia commander who decided to attack the fort. He caught the French off guard and took it. This was the first military action of the French and Indian War and started the real hostilities. As was often the case with Washington, he then promptly got his butt handed to him. The French regrouped, took the fort back, and inexplicably allowed Washington to withdraw instead of killing him.

We focus on what we call the French and Indian War, but it was part of a much larger global war (the largest in history up to that point) being fought in America, Europe, Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific. It involved Britain and Prussia vs. France, Spain, Austria and Russia. The French were spread too thin, and concentrating more on the European theater, so they did not adequately defend North America. The British Army, along with colonial militias, defeated the French in North America and the Treaty of Paris was signed on 2/10/1763. French aspirations in North America are really over at this point, and Britain is the dominant power in North America and the most powerful navy in the world. Everything is hunky dory for the Brits now, right? Well, no. This is a case of winning the war, but losing the long term struggle for North American empire. Things will now be different between the British colonists here and their cousins back "home."

Why it matters to us:

There are many roots to the Revolution, so some background is necessary. It is important to remember that even far along into our Revolutionary War, there was no "us and them." The colonists still saw themselves as British, it was a family struggle for rights until Thomas Paine and other radicals argue that maybe we should fight for more. Britain established these overseas colonies in large part to practice Mercantilism, where wealth = power. At that time, wealth was often measured by the gold and silver in the treasury, so you need to export more than you import. Colonies are key, because they provide raw materials. You can then manufacture goods and sell them, in large part, back to your colonies as a captive market. The colonies exist primarily to make the Mother Country rich. Sure, the colonies benefited from protection and being part of a thriving Empire and market, but the colonies were clearly second class. The mercantile system prior to 1763 was acceptable to the colonists in part because it was not really enforced. Through "salutary neglect," the British government allowed the colonists to do their own thing, didn't really collect many of the taxes supposedly owed, and tolerated a thriving black market where the colonists regularly traded with the French and Spanish "outside" the Empire. Plus, the great distance across the Atlantic made many rules and regulations virtually impossible to enforce effectively anyhow.

It was revolutionary in the first place to even come over here and settle. In Europe, things were accepted as they were. Here, everything was possible and new. So new ideas that might have been seen as radical and fringe in Europe were more easily accepted here, because the people here were more radical and fringe to begin with. There was no aristocratic class here, there was already widespread political involvement on local levels. Republicanism was becoming a popular political ideology. With its roots in Greece and Rome, Republicanism depends on the virtue of the citizens to put the good of society above selfish interests. It is anti-authoritarian, because it depends on citizen involvement in public life. Also back home in England, the Whigs were fighting to check the power of the King and his ministers, and would be a sympathetic power base for colonial complaints throughout the Revolution.

The French and Indian War gave the colonists confidence and crucial military experience. They fought side by side with the British Army, learned their tactics, and crucially learned that the British military was not invincible after all (Braddock's blunders, etc.) Fighting alongside each other, the British and their colonists had clashed. The British commanders showed open contempt for the colonial militia leaders (like Washington). In fact, the British leadership showed open contempt for their colonial cousins generally, as these were people who had "failed" back home and had to come here to start over and make something of themselves. The colonists, of course, saw themselves differently. They saw themselves as entrepreneurs and business leaders willing to take bolder risks. While the colonists wanted accolades for helping to defeat the French, the British authorities started to get pissed off about the thriving Black Market (trading with the enemy). Many colonists refused to fight unless bribed. The French threat was gone, and so the colonists had even less incentive to cling so tightly to Mother Britain for protection. The French, resenting the loss of a big chunk of Empire, stoked colonial resentments against the Mother Country as well.

After The French and Indian War (and the subsequent Indian war, Pontiac's War), the British were convinced that more troops were needed in the colonies to keep order and to stabilize Indian relations. The colonists, on the other hand, felt that fewer troops were needed now that the French were no longer a threat. The British government also, reasonably, felt that since the British military did and continued to protect the colonists, that maybe the colonists should help to foot the bill through taxes. The British had won the war, but were now hemorrhaging with debt. This had been acquired in part to protect the colonies, so the colonists should help to pay it off. (To be fair, even into the Revolution, people back home always paid more in taxes than the colonists did). Also, to avoid further clashes with Indians, the British government issued the Proclamation of 1763, establishing the Appalachian mountains as a natural border between colonial and Indian country. Colonists were not to settle West of the Appalachians. The colonists promptly ignored the Proclamation and continued to flood West. Why the hell did we just defeat the French in the interior if we couldn't take the territory? Did we fight a war just to give the land to Indians?

ABOVE: The Proclamation line of 1763. The colonists were not to settle West of this line. It was an attempt by the British to keep peace between their colonists and the inconvenient Indian tribes who lived in North America. The colonists treated the Proclamation as they treated most laws imposed from across the Atlantic, they ignored it and continued to settle and clash with the Indian tribes in the interior.

I picked this date because the end of the French and Indian War is where the colonial relationship with Mother Britain fundamentally changes, and things quickly unravel and escalate from that point forward, culminating in our war for independence. This is when the Mother Country decided to instill some discipline and obedience in their unruly teenager. But this teenager has grown up used to being able to do as it wishes, and is going to rebel against the sudden imposition of rules and constraints. I believe our Revolutionary period starts here. In order to clamp down, pay debt, protect interests and actually collect taxes owed (want to know where the deep American resentment against taxation comes from?), The King and Parliament impose a series of new laws, The Sugar Act of 1764, Quartering Act of 1765 and Stamp Act of the same year. Colonists push back, Britain clamps down even harder. Colonists start to question why these taxes are needed and why British troops are necessary at all in the New World. This feeling of "we can take care of ourselves" grows. Radicals start to popularize ideas such as "no taxation without representation," why should we pay these taxes when we do not have the same representation in Parliament as do the citizens of London? (British authorities respond with the dubious theory of "virtual representation").

It escalates and escalates, haughty British troops and colonial mob violence result in the Boston "Massacre." Tea Parties are organized in revolt against monopolies granted to the British East India Company, and the British respond to the destruction of property with the Intolerable Acts and closing of Boston Harbor, resulting in colonial unity in solidarity with that radical wasp nest of Boston (if it can happen to Boston, then it can happen to the rest of us too). Colonists from different colonies start to meet and discuss common ground and common complaints and make some reasonable requests of an angry and resentful King, George III, who ignores them. Local militias form in response to actions by British troops...then Lexington and Concord. It all unravels as a result of the state of the colonial world at the end of the French and Indian War in 1763, when Mother Britain was forced to finally pay attention to their unruly colonial teenager. And that teenager had gotten quite used to doing things his own way.