Standard 10.2.3: Understand the unique character of the American

Revolution, its spread to other parts of the world, and its

continuing significance to other nations.

The Enlightenment and the Road to the

American Revolution

A New Public SphereA variety of changes created the atmosphere of increased

intellectual discourse. New territorial acquisitions by Europeans in North and South

America brought new goods like coffee, sugar, and tea. Coffee houses profited from the sale of these items and

provided a forum for intellectual conversation. The increasing number of postal services and and printing

presses also allowed for cheaper reading materials and swift communication to wider audiences.

Consumption of reading materials from Diderot’s Encyclopedia and works from other philosophes to newspapers and broadsides increased literacy in the 1700s, and the subject matter was no longer strictly religious.

Wealthy women often organized a salon – a forum usually held in their home to discuss recent literature and philosophy.

This all helped create a “public sphere” – a realm for educated political debate and exchange of ideas outside of royal palaces.

Salons like these polularized the ideas of people like Baron de Montesquieu

Also known as the Seven Years’ War, the French and Indian War was named after the two main opponents of the British.This war was precipitated by a

dispute over the control of the fur trade in the Ohio country – the territory between the Great Lakes, the Mississippi, and the Ohio River.

English Protestants also feared a growing presence of French Catholics to their north.

French and Indian War (1753-1763)

The French and Indian War

Treaty of Paris 1763France eventually lost all of its land east of the

Mississippi, but in an effort to appease certain Native American tribes, the British crown issued a Royal Proclamation that forbade settlement west of the Appalachian Mountains.

The British had also put themselves in debt as a result of the war, which they tried to pay for by taxing the colonial subjects.

Consequences of the War

This was the first direct tax place by the British Parliament on American Colonists.

The act required all legal documents, permits, commercial contracts, newspapers, wills, pamphlets, and playing cards in the colonies to carry a tax stamp.

The Stamp Act 1765

Passed in 1767 by Parliament, these acts taxed imported goods like lead, paper, paint, glass, and tea.Furthermore, these acts were enforced

through Writs of Assistance, which gave tax collectors open-ended warrants to search for smuggled goods; the tax collectors were not responsible for any damage sustained during the search.

This eventually lead to the “Boston Tea Party.”

The Townshend Acts

Citing English common law an American Lawyer, James Otis argued against “taxation without representation.”Some colonists continued to smuggle, while others, like Sam

Adams and the Sons of Liberty, boycotted British goods. In September of 1774, representatives from the various

colonies (with the exception of Georgia) met in Pennsylvania to petition the crown for a redress of grievances.

However, the British response was to send more soldiers to the colonies, who were to be provided lodging at the expense of the colonies in accordance with the Quartering Acts of 1765 and 1774. Later, on April 19, 1775 some of these troops exchanged fire with Americans in Lexington, Massachusetts.

In July 1776, a Second Continental Congress approved the Declaration of Independence written by Thomas Jefferson.

Colonial Unrest

Jefferson’s declaration was revolutionary in that it declared that the colonies were no longer bound to the rule of King George, but much of what it said was based on hundreds of years of historical precedent from the Magna Carta and the English Bill of Rights to the writings of Enlightenment philosophers.

Magna Carta: Article 12: No `scutage’ (tax)… is to be levied in our kingdom except by the common counsel of our realm….

English Bill of Rights: “That levying money for or to the use of the Crown by pretence of prerogative, without grant of Parliament… is illegal”

The Declaration of Independence

John Locke 1693:I answer, such revolutions happen not upon every

little mismanagement in public affairs…. But if a long train of abuses, prevarications, and artifices, all tending the same way, make the design visible to the people, and they cannot but feel what they lie under, and see whither they are going, it is not to be wondered that they should then rouse themselves, and endeavor to put the rule into such hands which may secure to them the end for which government was at first erected...

The Declaration of Independence

In the Declaration of Independence, Jefferson wrote:We hold these truths to be self-evident:That all men are created equal; that they are

endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that, to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government.

The Declaration of Independence

Jefferson’s list of complaints reflect the view that colonists were English citizens who should have been granted English rights:

“The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these states. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world.

The Declaration of Independence

He has kept among us, in times of peace, standing armies, without the consent of our legislatures.

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us;For cutting off our trade with all parts of the world;For imposing taxes on us without our consent;For depriving us, in many cases, of the benefits of trial

by jury;For transporting us beyond seas, to be tried for

pretended offenses;In every stage of these oppressions we have petitioned

for redress in the most humble terms; our repeated petitions have been answered only by repeated injury.”