1. Prelude to the Conflict: 1762-1763
Early attempt to unify the colonies
Mercantilism
Navigation Acts
French and Indian War
Pontiac’s Rebellion
Proclamation of 1763
Seeds of revolution

2. Why is the snake split into 8 segments?
On May 9, 1754, Join, or Die, considered the first American political cartoon, was printed in The Pennsylvania Gazette. The message for the cartoon, written Benjamin Franklin, was concern about increasing French pressure along the western frontier of the colonies.
Why is the snake split into 8 segments?
Who is being asked to join? What should they join?

3. Mercantilism
The 17th and 18th Century economic system practiced by European nations.
Regulating manufacturing, trade, production within a country and its colonies.
Great Britain, would purchase raw materials for a low price they determined. North American colonies would have to then purchase finished materials for a high price set by Great Britain.
The North American colonies were only allowed to trade within the British empire.
How do you think the colonists reacted to this? Why?

4. How mercantilism worked
Raw materials
Finished products
Colonies
Mother country

5. The Navigation Acts
Britain responded to illegal colonial trade by passing a series of enforcement laws known as the Navigation Acts. Beginning in 1651, these acts restricted colonial trade in various ways, including:
All goods traded to and from the North American colonies had to be shipped in either colonial or British ships
All crews of these ships had to be at least 75% British or colonial
Certain products (tobacco, sugar, rice, molasses, and furs) could only be sold from the colonies to Britain
Goods traded between colonies and Europe had to be unloaded at a British port
The British government recognized that selling of goods to other countries by the colonies posed a serious economic problem. In order to eliminate this, Parliament passed a series of acts officially called the “Acts of Trade and Navigation”, or more commonly known, the “Navigation Acts”.
The purpose of the laws was simply to restrict the flow of wealth from Britain to other countries.
The laws restricted trade in several ways. In one law, Parliament mandated that all goods traded to the colonies or to the mother country had to be shipped in either colonial or British ships. A full three-quarters of the crews of these ships had to be either British or colonial.
Another law restricted trade of certain protected goods to either the colonies or Britain alone. These goods could not be sold to any other nation. In addition, all goods traded from the colonies to European ports. In addition to providing jobs to British longshoremen, this law also provided a way that British customs agents could levy import taxes on those goods.
While it may have appeared on their face value that the Navigation Acts were unfair to colonial merchants, there were several benefits for them. Limiting the transporting of goods to British or colonial ships encouraged the growth of both the colonial and British shipbuilding industries. Also, because the demand for nearly all goods increased in the mother country, all colonial industries flourished.

6. The French and Indian War 1756-1763
WHO? The British, the French, colonists from both sides, and Native American allies
WHAT? Conflict to decide whether Britain or France would become the stronger power regarding North American land.
HOW? Each side relying on its colonists and Indian allies to fight.
WHERE? French explorers had been the first Europeans in the areas around the Great Lakes and the Ohio and Mississippi rivers.
WHY? The French set up trade posts and commonly used the area for fur trapping. The English would also send traders to this area, claiming the land was in their control.

7. Impact of the French and Indian War 1756-1763
France lost most of its overseas empire.
The size of British holdings in North America doubled with the acquisition of Canada and territory east of the Mississippi River.
The British treasury went deep into debt to pay for the war.
Britain tried taxing the colonies.
What do you think the colonial reaction was to the attempted taxation?
While the British encountered difficulty in managing such a large territorial area.
Britain became the dominant world power at that time.

9. Pontiac’s Rebellion, 1763
Pontiac: Ottawa Indian Chieftain from the Detroit area who formed a confederacy of various tribes in the region to protect their lands from encroaching British settlements.
British General Jeffrey Amherst violated a treaty agreement.
Pontiac and his confederacy attacked various forts on the western frontier of the British colonies.
Why would Pontiac and the Confederacy be upset?

11. The Rebellion ended
The British responded with two separate military campaigns, taking back forts in Pennsylvania seized by Pontiac.
Most of his confederacy surrendered, but Pontiac resisted, and only surrendered in 1766.

12. What do you think was the purpose of the Proclamation?
Proclamation of 1763
King George III issued the Proclamation of 1763, because of his difficulty in protecting his “New World” Empire.
WHAT? Restricted settlement to the east of a line drawn at the Appalachian Mountains.
The Proclamation also sought to stop the exploitative sale of Indian land.
What do you think was the purpose of the Proclamation?
On the map, the red line signified the western boundary for British Colonial settlement.
The purpose of the Proclamation was to prevent further Indian frontier warfare after Pontiac’s Rebellion

13. The “Seeds of Revolution”
By 1763, the British Empire was the world’s “superpower”
Paying a substantial price of war and foreign affairs put the British economy on shaky ground.
The British Crown found itself looking for ways to charge taxes on its’ citizens, both at home and in its North American colonies.
Colonists felt entitled to the same rights of representation as their fellow citizens in the mother country. WHY?????
Colonists began to feel that they were being taken advantage of by Parliament since they were denied meaningful representation.
After defeating France, England’s power stretched around the world, allowing them to be in a position of dominance
William Pitt, the British Secretary of State, as sole controller had led Britain into an unfortunate economic position
What is Parliament? Legislative body, ultimate power over English government

14. Enlightenment ideas? At its core was a critical questioning of traditional institutions, customs, and morals. The Enlightenment is held to be the source of critical ideas, such as the centrality of freedom, democracy, and reason as primary values of society.
The Great Awakening: Focus on religion