Salutary neglect
Salutary neglect was the British policy of avoiding strict enforcement of parliamentary laws, meant to keep the American colonies obedient to Great Britain. Prime Minister Robert Walpole stated that ―If no restrictions were placed on the colonies, they would flourish.‖ This policy, which began in 1607 after the
founding of Jamestown, allowed the colonies to avoid obeying many laws and was lenient on the colonies in enforcing many taxes and laws. Later, the British ended this policy through acts such as the Stamp Act and Sugar Act, causing tensions within the colonies.
The Enlightenment
The Age of Enlightenment is the era in Western philosophy and intellectual, scientific, and cultural life that took place mostly in Europe in the early 1700’s in which reason was advocated as the primary source for legitimacy and authority.
The Enlightenment was less a set of ideas than it was a set of values. At its core was the idea of questioning traditional institutions like government and religion, and a strong belief in rationality and science. Enlightenment philosophers like John Locke, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and Voltaire had a profound influence on America’s founding fathers. Thomas Jefferson, Ben Franklin, and Thomas Paine, for example, all read countless works and were persuaded to push for self-government.
The French and Indian War
The French and Indian War was fought between Great Britain and France in North America from 1754 to
1763. In Canada, it is usually just referred to as the Seven Years' War. The war was fought primarily along the frontiers between the British colonies from Virginia to Nova Scotia, and began with a dispute over the site of present-day Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
The outcome was costly for all involved. France's colonial presence was reduced to just a few small islands, confirming Britain's position as the dominant colonial power in the eastern half of North America. England, however, had spent so much on the war that it began a period of high taxes on America, that would lead to the Revolution.
Proclamation of 1763
The Proclamation of 1763 was issued October 7, 1763, by King George III following Great Britain's acquisition of French territory in North America after the end of the French and Indian War. The purpose of the proclamation was to organize Great Britain's new North American empire and to help relations with Native Americans by forbidding colonists to move west of the Appalachian Mountains.
Sugar Act
The Sugar Act was a revenue-raising act passed by the Parliament of Great Britain on April 5, 1764. The act was meant to ―defray the expenses of defending, protecting, and securing the colonies.‖ The earlier
Molasses Act, which had imposed a tax of six pence per gallon of molasses, had never been effectively
collected due to colonial evasion. By reducing the rate by half and increasing measures to enforce the tax, the British hoped that the tax would actually be collected. These incidents increased the colonists' concerns about the intent of the British Parliament and helped the growing movement that became the American Revolution.
Stamp Act
The Stamp Act of 1765 required all legal documents, permits, commercial contracts, almanacs, newspapers, wills, pamphlets, and playing cards in the American colonies to carry a tax stamp. The act was enacted in order to pay for a portion of the costs of maintaining an army in the territories gained in North America during the French & Indian War. However, colonists protested that a tax laid upon them by a legislature in which they were not represented violated the British constitutional right of no taxation without representation. Colonial resistance to the act led to its repeal on March 18, 1766.
Boston Massacre
The Boston Massacre was an incident that led to the deaths of five civilians at the hands of British troops on March 5, 1770. A heavy British military presence in Boston led to a tense situation that boiled over into brawls between soldiers and civilians and eventually led to troops discharging their muskets after being attacked by a rioting crowd. Three civilians were killed at the scene of the shooting, eleven were injured, and two died after the incident. The outcry over these deaths helped spark the rebellion in some of the American colonies, which culminated in the American Revolutionary War.
Intolerable Acts
The Intolerable Acts were a series of five laws passed by the British Parliament in 1774. The acts triggered outrage and resistance in the Thirteen Colonies and were important developments in the growth of the American Revolution. The acts were issued in direct response to the Boston Tea Party of December 1773; the British Parliament hoped these measures would make an example of Massachusetts and reduce protests. Many colonists viewed the acts as an arbitrary violation of their rights, and in 1774 they organized the First Continental Congress to coordinate a protest. As tensions escalated, the American Revolutionary War broke out the following year.
Boston Tea Party
On December 16, 1773, after officials in Boston refused to return three shiploads of taxed tea to Britain, a group of colonists boarded the ships and destroyed the tea by throwing it into Boston Harbor. The incident remains an iconic event of American history. The Tea Party was the culmination of a resistance movement throughout British America against the Tea Act, which had been passed by the British Parliament in 1773. Colonists objected to the Tea Act for a variety of reasons, especially because they believed that it violated their right to be taxed only by their own elected representatives.
Declaration of Independence
The Declaration of Independence is a statement adopted by the Continental Congress on July 4,
1776, which announced that the 13 American colonies then at war with Great Britain were now
independent states, and thus no longer a part of the British Empire. Written primarily by Thomas
Jefferson, the Declaration is a formal explanation of why Congress had voted on July 2 to declare
independence from Great Britain, more than a year after the outbreak of the American
Revolutionary War. The birthday of the United States of America—Independence Day—is
celebrated on July 4, the day the wording of the Declaration was approved by Congress.
Salutary neglect was the British policy of avoiding strict enforcement of parliamentary laws, meant to keep the American colonies obedient to Great Britain. Prime Minister Robert Walpole stated that ―If no restrictions were placed on the colonies, they would flourish.‖ This policy, which began in 1607 after the
founding of Jamestown, allowed the colonies to avoid obeying many laws and was lenient on the colonies in enforcing many taxes and laws. Later, the British ended this policy through acts such as the Stamp Act and Sugar Act, causing tensions within the colonies.
The Enlightenment
The Age of Enlightenment is the era in Western philosophy and intellectual, scientific, and cultural life that took place mostly in Europe in the early 1700’s in which reason was advocated as the primary source for legitimacy and authority.
The Enlightenment was less a set of ideas than it was a set of values. At its core was the idea of questioning traditional institutions like government and religion, and a strong belief in rationality and science. Enlightenment philosophers like John Locke, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and Voltaire had a profound influence on America’s founding fathers. Thomas Jefferson, Ben Franklin, and Thomas Paine, for example, all read countless works and were persuaded to push for self-government.
The French and Indian War
The French and Indian War was fought between Great Britain and France in North America from 1754 to
1763. In Canada, it is usually just referred to as the Seven Years' War. The war was fought primarily along the frontiers between the British colonies from Virginia to Nova Scotia, and began with a dispute over the site of present-day Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
The outcome was costly for all involved. France's colonial presence was reduced to just a few small islands, confirming Britain's position as the dominant colonial power in the eastern half of North America. England, however, had spent so much on the war that it began a period of high taxes on America, that would lead to the Revolution.
Proclamation of 1763
The Proclamation of 1763 was issued October 7, 1763, by King George III following Great Britain's acquisition of French territory in North America after the end of the French and Indian War. The purpose of the proclamation was to organize Great Britain's new North American empire and to help relations with Native Americans by forbidding colonists to move west of the Appalachian Mountains.
Sugar Act
The Sugar Act was a revenue-raising act passed by the Parliament of Great Britain on April 5, 1764. The act was meant to ―defray the expenses of defending, protecting, and securing the colonies.‖ The earlier
Molasses Act, which had imposed a tax of six pence per gallon of molasses, had never been effectively
collected due to colonial evasion. By reducing the rate by half and increasing measures to enforce the tax, the British hoped that the tax would actually be collected. These incidents increased the colonists' concerns about the intent of the British Parliament and helped the growing movement that became the American Revolution.
Stamp Act
The Stamp Act of 1765 required all legal documents, permits, commercial contracts, almanacs, newspapers, wills, pamphlets, and playing cards in the American colonies to carry a tax stamp. The act was enacted in order to pay for a portion of the costs of maintaining an army in the territories gained in North America during the French & Indian War. However, colonists protested that a tax laid upon them by a legislature in which they were not represented violated the British constitutional right of no taxation without representation. Colonial resistance to the act led to its repeal on March 18, 1766.
Boston Massacre
The Boston Massacre was an incident that led to the deaths of five civilians at the hands of British troops on March 5, 1770. A heavy British military presence in Boston led to a tense situation that boiled over into brawls between soldiers and civilians and eventually led to troops discharging their muskets after being attacked by a rioting crowd. Three civilians were killed at the scene of the shooting, eleven were injured, and two died after the incident. The outcry over these deaths helped spark the rebellion in some of the American colonies, which culminated in the American Revolutionary War.
Intolerable Acts
The Intolerable Acts were a series of five laws passed by the British Parliament in 1774. The acts triggered outrage and resistance in the Thirteen Colonies and were important developments in the growth of the American Revolution. The acts were issued in direct response to the Boston Tea Party of December 1773; the British Parliament hoped these measures would make an example of Massachusetts and reduce protests. Many colonists viewed the acts as an arbitrary violation of their rights, and in 1774 they organized the First Continental Congress to coordinate a protest. As tensions escalated, the American Revolutionary War broke out the following year.
Boston Tea Party
On December 16, 1773, after officials in Boston refused to return three shiploads of taxed tea to Britain, a group of colonists boarded the ships and destroyed the tea by throwing it into Boston Harbor. The incident remains an iconic event of American history. The Tea Party was the culmination of a resistance movement throughout British America against the Tea Act, which had been passed by the British Parliament in 1773. Colonists objected to the Tea Act for a variety of reasons, especially because they believed that it violated their right to be taxed only by their own elected representatives.
Declaration of Independence
The Declaration of Independence is a statement adopted by the Continental Congress on July 4,
1776, which announced that the 13 American colonies then at war with Great Britain were now
independent states, and thus no longer a part of the British Empire. Written primarily by Thomas
Jefferson, the Declaration is a formal explanation of why Congress had voted on July 2 to declare
independence from Great Britain, more than a year after the outbreak of the American
Revolutionary War. The birthday of the United States of America—Independence Day—is
celebrated on July 4, the day the wording of the Declaration was approved by Congress.