Chapter 4: Provincial America and the Struggle for a Continent

 By the 1700s, colonial expansion began to weaken, while population doubled every 25 years  Depended greatly on Britain for imported goods  Began to build colleges to train professionals and clergy after British universities failed to keep up  Distinct difference between regions of the colonies  Lower South depended on slave trade to create a society of planters  Upper South employed slavery, but encouraged family life and better treatment than Lower South  Mid Atlantic colonies attracted huge numbers of Irish and German immigrants  New England shifted from agriculture to shipbuilding

 Several factors helped the colonies become more British  Printing press: newspapers helped spread the word around the colonies  John Peter Zenger opened the New York Weekly Press after being acquitted of seditious libel in 1735  Benjamin Franklin created the Pennsylvania Gazette  Enlightenment: shift from a belief of religion being the source of all to a more scientific viewpoint  Professionals: trained lawyers and doctors succeeded in spreading Enlightenment ideals  Georgia: founded in 1733as a utopian experimental colony  Land would be given away, not sold  Ban on alcohol and slavery  Plan to produce silk and wine  Failed when land could not produce desired commodities and colonists demanded alcohol and slave labor

 Religious revival of the 1730s and 1740s in the colonies  Swept the Protestant world during the time  Gave rise to Baptists, Presbyterians and Methodists  Emphasis on personal conversion  Women greatly affected  Several new colleges were formed as a result  Princeton University, Brown University, Rutgers University, Columbia University, University of Pennsylvania  Completely transformed religious life and influence in the colonies

 The 1700s saw a renewal of conflict among the colonial powers of Britain, Spain and France  Stono Rebellion, 1739  Slave uprising near Charleston, SC  Spurred by Spanish promise of freedom to any slave that made it to Florida  War of Jenkin’s Ear,  Inconclusive fight over Atlantic supremacy between Britain and Spain  King George’s War,  Britain and colonists fight with France and Spain  War ended in 1748 by the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, with no side gaining anything

 Also known as the French and Indian War  Lasted from , fought in Europe and the North American colonies  With war on the horizon, Benjamin Franklin proposed a plan to protect the colonies in 1754  Known as the Albany Plan of Union  Designed as protection against the Iroquois confederacy  Each colony would send representatives to voice concerns for each colony  Rejected, but became a basis of government during the onset of the War for Independence  Early years of the war were disastrous for the British

 Eventually, major French strongholds in North America were taken by the British  Native Americans realized that the British would probably win the war, so they abandoned their support of the French  Culminated in 1760 after Quebec City was taken by the British  Sporadic fighting continued until 1763, with the Spanish entering the war as well, when the Treaty of Paris was signed  All French holdings in North America were turned over to the British  Lands west of the Mississippi River and New Orleans were given to Spain  Florida became a British colony  France retained Martinique and Guadeloupe  Native Americans not involved in the peace process and were enraged by the results