VOCABULARY• Mercantilism: uses a favorable balance of trade between the mother country

and the colony

• Favorable Balance of Trade: revenue of exports is more than imports

• Triangular Trade: trade route between Europe, Africa and the America’s

• Middle Passage: the route on the triangle trade from Africa to the America’s

that included slaves

• Manufacturing: creating goods with machines

• French and Indian War: part of Europe’s 7 Years War between England and

France that was fought in North America in which England won

• Albany Plan of Union: an idea for representative government in the colonies

that was rejected but influenced the US Constitution

• Salutary Neglect: non-enforcement of the laws from Parliament onto the

colonies to help them flourish

• Enlightenment: cultural movement by intellectuals in Europe and North

America to use reason, challenge traditions of faith and promote the use of the

scientific method

ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS:

• What are the political, economic, and social

causes of the American Revolution?

• How did public opinion evolve in regard to

the movement for Independence?

ECONOMIC FACTORS

• Mercantilism: the economic policies of European nations from the 15th century until the Industrial Revolution, based on mercantile (commercial trading) activities and characterized by the acquisition of colonies and the establishment of a favorable balance of trade. The American colonies were established under the mercantile system.

ECONOMIC FACTORS

• Triangular Trade: A trade between the America’s,

Europe and Africa combining European capital (in

the first leg) with African labor (in the second) and

British-colony resources (in the third):

• From Europe - manufactured goods: copper,

textiles, silks imported from Asia, glassware,

ammunition, guns, knives and other finished

products.

• In Africa, sailors unloaded European goods and

filled the ships with indigo and human cargo: men,

women and children.

• The "middle passage" brought the newly

enslaved Africans to the Americas or to

Caribbean islands.

• At least ten percent of the captives died en

route due to unbelievably bad conditions.

When the ships encountered fierce weather,

casualties were higher.

Read more about the Middle passage go to:

https://www.awesomestories.com/asset/view/THE-

MIDDLE-PASSAGE-MYTH-Amazing-Grace

https://www.awesomestories.com/asset/view/MIDD

LE-PASSAGE-REALITY-Amazing-Grace

ECONOMIC FACTORS

• Rise of an influential

business community in

the colonies

• Manufacturing began to

flourish in the colonies

because the British were

lax in enforcing their

mercantile policies.

ECONOMIC FACTORS

• Cost of colonial wars against the French• The French and Indian

War was expensive. In order to protect the new territory taken from the French, the British needed to bring in more money. They did this by taxing the colonists.

POLITICAL FACTORS

• The role of the British

Civil War

• King James II was

overthrown and the

supremacy of

parliament over the

King was established

POLITICAL FACTORS

• Periods of political freedom in the colonies• 75% of adult white males in

the colonies could vote due to widespread land ownership.

• Middle class men were elected to the colonial legislatures due to the lack of nobility.

• Salutary Neglect by England, due to the many wars it was involved in, allowed the colonies the ability to self-govern.

POLITICAL FACTORS

• Impact of the French

and Indian War:

• England ended their “salutary

neglect” in order to keep the

upper hand in the colonies and

make them profitable because

the French and Indian War cost

so much.

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN’S CARTOON URGING THE COLONIES TO UNITE AND FIGHT AS ONE

AGAINST THE FRENCH AND THE INDIANS TO GAIN CONTROL OF THE LAND WEST OF THE

APPALACHIAN MOUNTAINS.

POLITICAL FACTORS:

Albany Plan of Union:

• Purpose: Albany Congress was called to get the

cooperation of the colonies to deal with the growing

French influence in the Ohio Valley and lower Canada

as well as to keep the Iroquois loyal to the British.

• Proposed: a unity for defense with a:

• governing body with a president-general, appointed and paid by the crown

• grand council elected by the colonial assembly

• Result of Proposal: Accepted by the Albany

Congress but turned down by the colonies for not

providing enough independence, and by England for

providing too much colonial independence

• Importance of the Albany Plan of Union:

introduced the concept of a federal plan of

representative government with specific power given to

a central authority. This served as a model for the United

States Constitution.

POLITICAL FACTORS

• Political thought of the

Enlightenment

influenced prominent

colonial leaders:

• Colonists read the

writings of John Locke

and Baron de

Montesquieu.

POLITICAL FACTORS

• John Locke’s ideas

included that people

had natural rights and

also had a right to a

government that

represented them.

POLITICAL FACTORS

• “The natural liberty of man is to be free from any superior power on earth and not to be under the will or legislative authority of man, but to have only the law of nature as his rule.” John Locke, The Second Treatise of Government (1690)

• “We hold these truths to

be self-evident, that all

men are created equal,

that they are endowed

by their Creator with

certain inalienable

rights, that among these

are life, liberty, and the

pursuit of happiness.” Declaration of Independence (1776)

POLITICAL FACTORS

• “The liberty of man in society is to be under no other legislative power but that established in the commonwealth; nor under the dominion of any will or restraint of any law but what that legislative shall enact according to the trust put in it.” John Locke, The Second Treatise of Government (1690)

• “That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers for the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute a new government…” Declaration of Independence (1776)

POLITICAL FACTORS

• Montesquieu

advocated the idea of

separation of powers

within a government

by dividing it into an

executive, a legislative

and a judicial branch.

POLITICAL FACTORS

• “When the [law making] and [law

enforcement] powers are united in

the same person... there can be no

liberty.” Baron de Montesquieu

• “All legislative Powers herein granted shall be

vested in a Congress of the United States, which

shall consist of a Senate and House of

Representatives.” Article 1, Section 1 US

Constitution

• “The executive Power shall be vested in a

President of the United States of America. He

shall hold his Office during the Term of four

Years, and, together with the Vice President,

chosen for the same Term, be elected, as

follows.” Article 2, Section 1 US Constitution

• “The judicial Power of the United States, shall be

vested in one supreme Court, and in such

inferior Courts as the Congress may from time to

time ordain and establish…” Article 3, Section 1

US Constitution

SOCIAL FACTORS

• New social

relationships between

European powers and

the American colonies:

• development of a new

colonial identity of

independence and

possible unity

REVIEW QUESTIONS:

• To the European countries, what was the purpose of

the colonies?

• Draw a triangle and label the continent and products

that are part of each side.

• What was the middle passage?

• What was the impact of the French and Indian War on

the colonies?

• What was the importance of the Albany plan of

Union?

• What political idea did these men provide the

colonist? Baron de Montesquieu and John Locke.