Colonial America

:For colonies not among the 13 colonies see European colonization of the Americas or British colonization of the Americas.

Unification of the British colonies

Although each of the British colonies was strikingly different from the others, throughout the 17th and 18th centuries several events and trends took place that brought them together in various ways and to various degrees. Some of these sprung from their common roots as part of the British Empire - others served to distance them from Britain and led to the American Revolution.

Related Topics:
17th - 18th - British Empire - American Revolution

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In 1754, these trends were manifested in the Albany Congress, where Benjamin Franklin proposed that the colonies be united by a Grand Council overseeing a common policy for defense, expansion, and Indian affairs. While the plan was thwarted by colonial legislatures and King George II, it was an early indication that the British colonies of North America were headed towards unification.

Related Topics:
1754 - Albany Congress - Benjamin Franklin - King George II

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The Great Awakening

One event that began to unify the religious background of the colonies was the Great Awakening, a Protestant revival movement that took place in the 1730s and 1740s. It began with Jonathan Edwards, a Massachusetts preacher who sought to return to the Pilgrims' strict Calvinist roots and to reawaken the fear of God. "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" is perhaps his most famous sermon. Edwards was a powerful speaker and attracted a large following. The English preacher George Whitefield continued the movement, traveling across the colonies and preaching in a dramatic and emotional style, accepting Christians as his audience.

Related Topics:
Protestant - 1730s - 1740s - Jonathan Edwards - Massachusetts - Calvinist - Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God - George Whitefield - Christians

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Those attracted to his message and that of the itinerant preachers who sprang up across the colonies called themselves the "New Lights," and those who did not were called the "Old Lights." One manifestation of the conflict between the two sides was the establishment of a number of universities, now counted among the Ivy League, including Kings College (now Columbia University) and Princeton University. The Great Awakening was perhaps the first truly "American" event, and as such represented at least a small step towards the unification of the colonies.

Related Topics:
Ivy League - Columbia University - Princeton University

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The Great Awakening may also be interpreted as the last major expression of the religious ideals on which the New England colonies were founded. Religiosity had been declining for decades, in part due to the negative publicity resulting from the Salem witch trials. After the Great Awakening, it subsided again, although later American history abounds with revival movements (most notably the Second Great Awakening). The forces driving the colonies' history for the next eighty years would be overwhelmingly secular, although America would remain (and many parts of the nation remain to this day) a deeply religious nation.

Related Topics:
Salem witch trials - Second Great Awakening - Secular

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The French and Indian War

The French and Indian War (1754-1763) was the American extension of the general European conflict known as the Seven Years' War. It began, however, two years before any fighting broke out in Europe, and lasted for nine years. The war in the European theater was motivated primarily by Austria's desire to reclaim land lost to Prussia in the War of the Austrian Succession (1740-1748). (That earlier conflict also spilled over into the colonies, where it was known as King George's War, in reference to George III of the United Kingdom.)

Related Topics:
French and Indian War - 1754 - 1763 - Seven Years' War - Austria - Prussia - War of the Austrian Succession - 1740 - 1748 - George III of the United Kingdom

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The war is called the French and Indian because the Iroquois confederacy, which had been playing the British and the French against each other successfully for decades, saw that Britain was getting the upper hand and threw itself decisively into the French camp. The move did not succeed, and the French were defeated anyway. In the Treaty of Paris (1763), France surrendered its vast North American empire to Britain.

Related Topics:
Iroquois - Treaty of Paris (1763)

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The French and Indian war took on a new significance for the North American colonists in Britain when William Pitt the elder decided that it was necessary to win the war against France at all costs. For the first time North America was one of the main theatres of what could be termed a "world war". During the war the thirteen colonies's identity as part of the British Empire was made truly apparent, as British military and civilian officials took on an increased presence in the lives of Americans. The war also increased a sense of American unity in other ways. It caused men, who might normally have never left their colonies, to travel across the continent, fighting alongside men from decidedly different, yet still "American," backgrounds. Throughout the course of the war British officers trained American ones (most notably George Washington) for battle, which would later benefit the Revolution to come. Also, state legislatures and officials had to cooperate intensively for what was arguably the same time, participating a continent-wide military effort.

Related Topics:
William Pitt the elder - World war - Thirteen colonies - George Washington

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The British and colonists triumphed jointly over a common foe. The colonies' loyalty to the mother country was stronger than ever before. However, the seeds of trans-Atlantic disunity had been sown. The British Prime Minister of the time (William Pitt the elder) decided to wage the war in the colonies with the use of troops from the colonies and tax funds from Britain itself. This was a successful wartime strategy, but after the war was over, each side believed that it had borne a greater burden than the other. The British populace, the most heavily taxed of any in Europe, pointed out angrily that the colonies paid little to the royal coffers. The colonists replied that their sons had fought and died in a war that served European interests more than their own. The British answered that the colonists' poor discipline made them inferior soldiers anyway. This dispute was to set off the chain of events that brought about the American Revolution.

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Ties to the British Empire

Although the colonies were very different from one another, they were still a part of the British empire in more than just name.

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Socially, the colonial elite of Boston, New York, Charleston, and Philadelphia saw its identity as British. Although many had never been to England, they imitated British styles of dress, dance, and etiquette. This social upper crust built its mansions in the Georgian style, copied the furniture designs of Thomas Chippendale, and participated in the intellectual currents of Europe, such as the Enlightenment. To many of their inhabitants, the seaport cities of colonial America were truly British cities.

Related Topics:
Boston - New York - Charleston - Philadelphia - England - Dress - Dance - Etiquette - Mansion - Georgian style - Thomas Chippendale - Europe - The Enlightenment - Seaport

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Many of the political structures of the colonies drew upon various English political traditions, most notably the Commonwealthmen and the Whig traditions (see also colonial government in America). Many Americans at the time saw the colonies' systems of governance as modeled after the British constitution of the time - with the king corresponding to the governor, the House of Commons to the colonial assembly, and the House of Lords to the Governor's council. The codes of law of the colonies were often drawn directly from British law; British common law survives even in the modern United States. Eventually, it was a dispute over the meaning of some of these political ideals, especially political representation, that led to the American Revolution.

Related Topics:
Commonwealthmen - Whig - Colonial government in America - British constitution - King - Governor - House of Commons - Colonial assembly - House of Lords - Governor's council - Common law - Political representation - American Revolution

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Another point on which the colonies found themselves more similar than different was the booming import British goods. The British economy had begun to grow rapidly at the end of the seventeenth century, and by the mid-eighteenth century, small factories in Britain were producing much more than the island nation could consume. Finding a market for their goods in the British colonies of North America, Britain increased her exports to that region by 360% between 1740 and 1770. Because British merchants offered generous credit to their customers, Americans began buying staggering amounts of English goods. From New England to Georgia, all British subjects bought similar products, creating and Anglicanizing a sort of common identity.

Related Topics:
Import - Seventeenth century - Eighteenth century - 1740 - 1770 - Credit

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