Both the financial matters and governmental issues were very different between Massachusetts and Virginia in the vicinity of 1607 and 1750. The distinctions in the level of classes were extremely large and their whole economic structure contrasted from each other. Virginia had more hazardous culture and economics where-as Massachusetts had a more steady economy. The wealth of Virginia was construct only with respect to the creation of tobacco.
It doubled the taxes on foreign goods that were reshipped from England to the colonies. It also prevented the import of foreign rum and French wines. The English Parliament also passed a law to reorganize the American
1. Nathaniel Bacon was a wealthy Cambridge educated English aristocrat who arrived in Virginia in 1674 after a scandal in England. His family sent him to Virginia where he received a substantial land grant and a seat on the council by his cousin by marriage Governor Sir William Berkeley. Bacon became angry when Berkeley refused him a commission to lead a campaign against the Indians.
Settling in the New World provided both the American settlers and the British government with many opportunities. For the colonists, North America provided an opportunity to improve their lives and escape religious persecution. For the British, settlers in North America provided access to raw materials and new markets in which to sell finished goods. This mercantilist relationship continued for several years, until the colonists began to question Parliament’s right to treat them differently than other British citizens. Taxes were imposed on the colonists as a means of helping to pay the debt Britain had incurred fighting the French.
The British men gathered full control of the trading center present in the Americas, and created the Navigation Acts to help aid them in their tactics to take control over all trade within the Americas. The Navigation Acts were passed under a mercantilist system, and was used to regulate trade in a way that only benefitted the British economy. These acts restricted trade between England and its colonies to English or colonial ships, required certain colonial goods to pass through England before export, provided subsidies for the production of certain raw goods in the colonies, and banned colonial competition in large-scale manufacturing. This lowered the competition in the trading world for the British and caused the British to have a major surge in power, that greatly attributed to the growth of their rising empire. The British’s ambitious motives in the trading world help portray a way that the British took control of an important piece in the economy of all of the other nations present in the colonies in the time period, and shows another leading factor in the growth of the British empire.
At the dawn of the 1770s, American colonial resentment of the British Parliament in London had been steadily increasing for some time. Retaliating in 1766, Parliament issued the Declaratory Act which repealed most taxes except issued a reinforcement of Parliament’s supremacy. In a fascinating exchange, we see that the Parliament identifies and responds to the colonists main claim; Parliament had no right to directly tax colonists who had no representation in Parliament itself. By asserting Parliamentary supremacy while simultaneously repealing the Stamp Act and scaling back the Sugar Act, Parliament essentially established the hill it would die on, that being its legitimacy. With the stage set for colonial conflict in the 1770s, all but one
Legal discrepancies started when England declared war on France. They also passed the embargo and Flour Act, but the “British courts continued to uphold French property rights,” and “direct trade continued” (5). An example was “licenses [used] to export tobacco from Britain to France were authorized almost immediately after the declaration of war” (5, 6). Not only did colonial merchants profit, but “British bankers, financiers […and] Irish provisioners” did as well (202). Smuggling led to many of the Royal ships “interdicting and seizing vessels they suspected of doing business with the enemy” rather than fighting (204).
Both New England and the Chesapeake region were colonized by people of English origin, however despite this they developed into two very distinct societies. This difference in development can be rooted back to the geographic features of the respective areas as well as the aspirations of the settlers. New England was primarily devoted to practicing Puritanism while the Chesapeake region was focused on financial gain from gold and, more significantly, tobacco. New England was mostly settled by people who were subjected to religious persecution for practicing English Reformed Protestantism, or more commonly known as Puritanism, in Catholic Europe. These such people, who boarded the Weymouth for example, included families and their servants
Bacon’s Rebellion is well known to students of colonial America, although no-one has succeeded in writing a convincing account of it. The first question historians asked was who was responsible for the widespread anarchy that followed the breakdown of government authority in the colony between 1676 and 1677. One historian attributes the rebellion to Nathaniel Bacon, and describes Governor Berkeley as a man doing his best to implement sensible policies. Another sees the Rebellion as prefiguring the American Revolution, with Bacon as an early George Washington, already defying British authority.
Virginia tobacco planters were always in need of more land because tobacco robbed the nutrients in soil and the most convenient land being controlled by the French and Indians. This war between the French and British ended with the successful British profoundly in debt and the British’s resolution was to attain wealth from the colonies. Britain’s attempt to attain this revenue from the colonies was enforce heightened taxes. The frustration towards the British rule’s controversial mandate ultimately induced the
During the Colonial Era (1492-1763), colonists were justified in waging war against Great Britain; due to the inequitable Stamp Act, the insufferable British oppression, and the perceived tyranny of King George III, the king of Great Britain, however, the colonists were unjustified in some of their actions. In Colonial America, colonists were justified in waging war against Great Britain, because the Stamp Act was unfair and viewed as punishment. Because of the war, Britain had no other choice but to tax the colonists to pay for the debt. For example, according to document 2, the author states that the act was not only for trade but for “the single purpose of levying money.”
The influence of the enlightenment on the American Revolution In 1607, Great Britain established their first colony on today’s Virginia. Great Britain continuously increased number of North America colonies; in 1754, number of colonies was as much as 13. To increase number of colonies, Great Britain fought numerous wars, won most of the wars and became one of the most powerful nations in the world at that time. How dare only 13 colonies could stand up to unfair treatment and various kinds of taxes payment?
The French and Indian War left England with a debt of £130,000,000. To help pay off the debt Britain set up taxes, to collect money, on frequently used products by the colonists. The Molasses Act put a six pence tax on every gallon of molasses. The colonists thought this was a lot of money to pay so they did everything to avoid it. This act was not really enforced and the colonists did not really obey this act.
The French and Indian War can be argued to have the most effect on altering the relations between Britain and the Colonies. The relationship between these two power houses began very subtle, as England followed through with a policy of salutary neglect toward the Colonies. The consequence of the war caused the Political and the Economic state of Britain to changed dramatically, causing them to act differently towards the Colonies. This made the Ideologies of the colonies change greatly. Becoming a winner of a mass of land was great to reward to Britain, but this caused them to change the way that they were going to govern, especially in North America.
The development of slavery and self-government in the Americas from the colonial to the revolutionary period presents two main contradictions which are important not in setting the stage for the American Revolution but also help to establish division between the colonies after the Revolution leading into the Civil War. While one contradiction applies exclusively to the Northern colonies, the other applies to all the colonies and is a key factor leading up to the American Revolution. For the New England colonies, the contradiction between the development of slavery and self-government lies behind the reason these colonies were developed. Around 1608, the Separatists, beginning to receive more hostility from the Anglican Church and government