Declaration of Independence 24.04. №3

· Protestantism and individuality

· Pioneer society (they have built everything on their own) /frontier; far away from their home town

· Hyper individualists

· 1636-1769 “Ivy League” Seven of the nine colonial colleges are part of the Ivy League athletic conference: Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Penn, Columbia, Brown, and Dartmouth. (The eighth member of the Ivy League,Cornell University, was founded in 1865.)

Social hierarchies, less rigid:

· Elite

· middle class -> urban craftsmen, small independent farmers

· Lower-class-> farm labourers; Slaves à south

· Patriarchal society (traditional male occupations) ->Married women were not allowed to work. Though the women had probably more power over the men than it was in England at that time

· Polity:

· King of GB: claimed ultimate authority over the colonies

· Colonies had to have their own government (they were too far away)

· But to protect power was difficult

· Meaning of geography: centre London geographically separated from the colonies

· Construction of American identity

· First: British subjects (подчинить; покорить) then developed their own identity

· From the King’s view: British empire with all its colonies forms a total system à one economy (perception of economies self-interest)

· Mercantilism: wages, prices, = interest trades= controlled by the crown

· à balance of trade: not buying more than you can sell

· European Colonies = one economic unit to be controlled from London

· Navigation Act: integrate the colonies into the imperial system

· France - major England’s geopolitical rival. Gobal Conflict b/w Eng & France

· Force pushing the colonists into independence: identity, economic self-interests, France

· English Colonists saw the French as a threat

· 7-years war 1756-63: English and French – catalyst for independance

· 1760: French in North America defeated

· Debt: wars are expensive!!!

· GB->Huge amount of debts à needed to make more money à colonies = source of labor & waelth

· Extractive institution vs inclusive institution

· à more and more repressive economic laws on colonists

· 1764: Sugar Act (paying higher costs on imports/exports)

· 1765: Stamp Act (in their colonies every time you receive a stamp with an official letter you have to pay a tax)

· 1765: Quartering Act (colonists had to pay for British soldiers)

· Colonists have no representatives in the parliament ->“No taxation without representation”

· March 5, 1770s: protests against repressive economic decision à British troops were sent to Boston à fire on protestors à more protests à “Boston Massacre”

· Monopoly only company allowed to sell tea in North America

· Dec 16, 1773: Boston Tea Party, the Sons of Liberty

· Sep.1774 the First Continental Congress (to debate the relationship with the GB): Result: to boycott British goods + to prepare a military conflict with the British army

· Most people still saw themselves as British/with the Queen

· Goes back to 1688 “Glorious Revolution”

· à certain things that the King cannot do for the Collonies

àsome power got the government

· Colonists used the same arguments to support their resistance

· John Locke (1690) Two treatises (трактат)on Civil Government

natural (rights) theory(entitlemens)

à natural: the rights attached to you independent of any historical decision

à being born as a human

àyou have rights because of being a human à God: architect of nature à implanted rightsà

à Secure right;

· Basis of consensus ( единогласное согласование); government can’t exist without it.

· Government’s function: protect rights of humans

· Information Circulation ideas à get enough people to resist the British (newspapers, sermons (поучение), pamphlets)

· Soldiers tried to control illegal newspapers à stop information (could visit private homes to check if there are arms or illigal papers)

· à circle of violence continues

· Single event that makes the revolution a war: April 1775: Bunker Hill: Gun fire: British troops against local colonists

· January 1776: Thomas Paine: Pamphlet “Common sense “à call for revolution à incredibly successful, most effective to unify people = movement for independence

· Continental congress: form a continental army; leader: George Washington (most military competent) +

+ Working in Declaration of Independence à July 4, 1776

Date: 2015-01-29; view: 725