British Struggles in North
America: Pre-Revolution
Mercantilism
Navigation Acts & other Trade Regulations
Colonial Governments & Assemblies
Anglo-French Rivalry & French-Indian War
This theory dominated European focus in commerce,
industry and labor
 Objectives of Mercantilism:

◦ Accumulate as much stock in precious metals as possible
(gold, silver); wealth= metals
◦ Protect home industries against foreign competition
◦ Assure supply of necessary raw materials (from colonies)
and low production costs to promote industries abroad

Necessary Components:
◦ Export more than you import
◦ Colonies were essential- sources of raw materials &
markets for finished products
◦ Large population for adequate labor supply,
adequate market & man-power for military
◦ Manufactured goods favored over agricultural;
processing over raw-materials and mother country
over colonies
Mercantilism

Acts of Trade & Navigation (1660-1767)
◦ Navigation Act (1660): no goods or commodities
could be imported into or exported out of English
colonies except in English-built or owned ships
 Sugar & tobacco grown in colonies could be shipped
only to England and English colonies
◦ Navigation Act (1663): Shipment of European
goods to colonies be shipped from England on
English-built ships
◦ Navigation Act (1673): Assessed duties (taxes) on
enumerated items (sugar, tobacco) if shipped from
one plantation to another
 Customs officials appointed to collect duties
◦ Navigation Act (1696): all colonial trade limited to
English-built ships; voided all colonial laws which
were contrary to Navigation Acts
Mercantilism Implemented






Tobacco from Spain frozen out of English market
(positive for Colonial growers)
Colonists could not trade w/ Asia (East India Co. had
the monopoly)
Colonies couldn’t produce anything that would
compete w/ England’s industry (wool for instance)
Hat Act (1732): prohibited exportation of hats from
one colony to another; limited the # of apprentices in
this trade; barred employment of black apprentices
(stiff competition from French in hat production)
Iron Acts (1750, 1757): forbade tilt-hammer forges
and steel furnaces in colonies (protect English
industry)
By 1676: all goods shipped to Europe had to be
shipped first to England
Other Restrictions on Industry
Manufactured Goods
•Furniture
•Clothing
•Colonials had
not factories.
From
England to
Colonies
Enumerated Commodities
•Lumber
•Tobacco
•Rice
To England
•Indigo
•Furs





Divine Right of kings: authority centralized in
Monarch; derived powers directly from God
Virtual Representation: Every Englishman was
represented by Parliament
Limited Suffrage: limited voting to adult males
w/ sufficient property (1 of every 6)
Unwritten Constitution: no formal document
Englishmen could point, but series of documents
and precedents comprised the English
‘Constitution’
Basic English Rights: English colonial charters
had to guaranteed all citizens had basic English
rights
Beliefs Prevalent in English Gov’t

Royal Gov’nor
◦ Chief representative of the crown in royal colonies

Council
◦ Appointed to advise Royal Gov’nor
◦ Assisted in determining laws of colony

Assembly
◦ Limited representative gov’t
◦ Assemblies had local control; ran affairs of towns
◦ Distance between colonies & London provided
colonists valuable experience in running themselves
◦ Colonists were English and citizens of England- over
100 years of experiences in self-gov’t changed their
relationship w/ British policies
Components of Colonial Gov’t

Rivalry over Fisheries (1497-1604)
◦ French were fishing waters in Newfoundland coast
since 1504
◦ Portuguese & Spanish entered waters in 1560
◦ Until 1578- England remained dependent upon
Iceland fisheries
◦ English fisherman introduced ‘dry fishing’ in
Newfoundland area- English then looked for land
bases along sea board

Fur Trade (1534-1599)
◦ Following Cartier’s discoveries- France developed
first contacts w/ Indians
◦ France set up land bases along St. Lawrence & fur
trade developed by 1580
Anglo-French Colonial Rivalry
•French goals were not
to take over the land
and colonize as were
the British
Fur trade
developed
along St.
Lawrence
•They set trading posts
for the fur trade
•Developed working
relationships with the
Indian tribes unlike the
British
•Challenged Iroquois
control of St. Lawrence
•Other Indian groups
promised French steady
supply of pelts (in order
to weaken Iroquois)
•English attacked
French outpostscaptured Quebec in
1629
•Treaty of St. Germainen-Laye returned St.
Lawrence to France
(1632)






Like England, France was late in coming to
New World
1608: Colony established at Quebec by
Samuel de Champlain
Establish the fur trade----beaver pelts
Friendly relations with Hurons
French joined Hurons in battle against
Iroquois Federation, who in future
hampered French settlement/allies of British
Government of New France under direct
control of king, no democracy
French Foothold in Canada
1688-1763: 4 world
wars with England,
France, Spain, all
involving American
colonists

1st two wars: King
William’s War and
Queen Anne’s War:
◦ French, Indians, later
Spain vs. England
(colonials, no reg.
troops on either side)

1713: Treaty of Utrecht
showed English victory
◦ England given Nova
Scotia,
Newfoundland,
Hudson Bay

Generation of peace
followed, more salutary
neglect

1739: War of Jenkins’s
Ear, England vs. Spain
◦ Merged into larger
King George’s War
(Austrian Succession)
◦ France allied with
Spain

New England colonials
capture Louisbourg fort

1748: Peace treaty gives
Louisbourg back to
French
◦ Colonials mad at Old
World diplomats

Clash of Empires

Causes:
◦ French-English rivalry- erupted into world war
◦ Land disputes in the Ohio Valley
◦ Brits wanted % of fur trade and trading posts
French-Indian War or 7 Years War






English slowly migrated into Ohio
Valley (French territory)
Ohio Valley traders from PA, led
by George Crogan & Conrad
Weiser had friendly relations w/
Indians & English land speculators
The relationship between English
land speculators and Indians
frustrated the French who already
claimed the territory
The French sent Celoron de
Bienville into Ohio Valleystrengthened forts at Detroit &
Toronto
1752: French attacked English
trading posts thruout Valley
Virginia gov’t sends George
Washington to protest the attacks
& determine French intentions
The Ohio Valley
•British concerned about French forts in
Virginia territory
•Send Washington, a major in the Virginia
militia, to the Allegheny River Valley
•Washington leads 300 men against the
French at Fort Duquesne and kills over a
100 French
•Along the way, Washington builds Fort
Necessity. The fort falls to the French in
a skirmish that will lead to the French
and Indian War
•A British statesman later wrote about
Washington’s first skirmish: “The volley
fired by a young Virginian in the
backwoods of America set the world on
fire.”
George Washington
1755 : Britain Decides to Eliminate Fr. Presence in North
America
Gen. Edward Braddock : evict the
French from the OH Valley & Canada
(Newfoundland & Nova Scotia)
Attacks
OH Valley, Mohawk Valley,
& Acadia.
Killed 10 mi. from Ft. Duquesneby 1500 French and Indian forces.
General Braddock’s
gravesite; Great
Meadows, PA
Colonials
British
Methods of Fighting
Indian-style guerilla
tactics
March in formation;
bayonet charges
Military Organization
Militias served under
own captains
British officers
wanted control of
Colonials
Discipline
No military deference
or protocols observed
Drills and tough
discipline
Finances
Resistance to rising
taxes
Colonists should pay
for their own defense
Demeanor
Casual; non
professionals
British officers had
servants and tea
settings
British & Colonial Fashion of War
He understood colonial concerns & spoke on
behalf of colonial interests
 Offered Brits a compromise:

◦ col. loyalty & mil. cooperation-->Br.
would reimburse col. assemblies for
their costs.
◦ Lord Loudoun would be removed

Result: Increased Colonial morale and resolve
by 1758
William Pitt as Foreign Minister (1757)
Spain became ally of
France by 1761

France:
◦ lost her Canadian possessions
◦ most of her land in India lost
◦ claims to lands east of Mississippi River

Spain:
◦ Got all French lands west of Mississippi
◦ New Orleans
◦ lost Florida to England

England:
◦ Got all French lands in Canada
◦ exclusive slave trade rights in Caribbean
◦ commercial dominance in India
Treaty of Paris (1763)
North America in 1763

Britain:
◦ It increased her colonial
empire in the Americas
◦ It greatly enlarged
England’s debt
◦ Britain’s contempt for the
colonials created bitter
feelings
Therefore, England felt that a
major reorganization of her
American Empire was
necessary!

American Colonies:
◦ It united them against a
common enemy for the
first time
◦ It created bitter feelings
towards the British that
would only intensify
The bitterness will become
evident in the Colonial
responses to British
measures of rule shortly
after the Seven Years War
Effects of the Seven Years War





Explain the theory of Mercantilism
Explain the purpose of the Navigation Acts
Explain the significance of the Ohio Valley
to both British, Colonists and French
What did the French make their money in
in North America?
List two ramifications of the French-Indian
War