I have about a half-dozen posts in various stages of completion and they all have one thing in common: each of them has a lengthy diatribe about US history and politics. This is because many of my readers are either overseas (and thus would not have studied US history and governmental structure as thoroughly as used to be taught here) or don’t seem to have paid attention in school (not uncommon). Since about half of the things that set me off these days come down to “Cthulhu’s Tendrils, have they not read the Constitution? It’s four freaking pages!” or “…seriously, do they not bother to use Google to check out the crap they’re being fed?” I’ve decided to make a reference series that gives a good overview of American history from ancient times to the modern era with an emphasis on how our government actually works as opposed to how people wish it would work or believe it works.
So, let’s get started, shall we?
Roughly 10,000 years ago, the first immigrants arrived via a peninsula that connected Asia and Alaska in what is now the Bering Strait. These immigrants moved southward until their descendants pretty much covered most of North and South America. These people gave rise to the various American empires: the Incas, the Mayans, the Aztecs, the Sioux, the Ute, the Anasazi, the Cherokee, the Choctaw, the Cree, the Seminole, the Algonquians, and the Iroquois among them. The different tribes traded and warred over territory throughout their history and just generally lived their lives with the Atlantic and Pacific keeping them from knowing anything about the interconnected continents of Asia, Europe, and Africa. Only the aborigines in Australia were more isolated than the American empires. During the early 1000s, Leif Erikson, son of Erik the Red, was the first European to set foot in North America. Nearly five centuries later, Christopher Columbus would land in North America during his voyage to find a shorter (and less heavily taxed) route to India, thus opening North and South America (as well as the islands in the Atlantic and Caribbean) up to European exploration and settlement.
Skipping ahead a bit, in time, Great Britain came to be the most predominant colonial force in North America. France and Spain, yes, had their colonies but Great Britain had much greater influence in North America. The colonists living in the original thirteen colonies considered themselves to be British subjects. Indeed, many of the colonies had governors who had been appointed by the Crown. However, these colonies also — by and large — had locally elected government officials and councils. Great Britain was at some distance and the colonists had a level of autonomy from the English Parliament and the Crown and self-rule that wasn’t found outside of the British isles. Though there had been rumblings of breaking away, for the most part, people in the British North American colonies were content with their situation. Some of our Founding Fathers, namely George Washington, proudly fought for the British during the Seven Years’ War (what we call the French and Indian War when referring to the parts that took place in North America). However, once the French and Indian War was over, relations between British North America and Great Britain took a decided turn south.
The Revolutionary Era in North America began in 1763 when, following the conclusion of the French and Indian War, the British government decided that the North American colonists needed to contribute more towards helping to maintain the Empire, the British government levied direct taxes on the colonies. To say that this upset many of the North American colonists is like saying that the Great Wall of China is long. It wasn’t the taxes, the items taxed, or the amount of the tax itself that bothered the colonists so much. It was the fact that the colonists had no elected representation in the English Parliament and thus, no vote on taxation and other matters that might impact their interests. It was a facet of English law and custom that those who were taxed deserved some voice in the government. So, the colonists felt that their rights as Englishmen were being trampled upon. The taxes that so vexed the colonists were the Sugar Act, the Stamp Act (1765), the Currency Act, and the Quartering Acts.
Benjamin Franklin spoke before Parliament (he had been sent to London to try to settle matters between the local populace and the Penn heirs over who had control of Pennsylvania) and convinced them to drop the taxes in 1766. However, Parliament passed the Declaratory Act which stated that they did have the power to make laws for the colonies in all cases.
The next year, 1767, Parliament passed the Townshend Acts which taxed things like paper, tea, and glass. Again, the colonists were enraged because these taxes were levied without them having a voice in Parliament. Protests grew more common and, on March 5, 1770, the protests resulted in five colonists being killed by British forces in Boston (the Boston Massacre). Parliament withdrew the taxes in the Townshend Acts on everything except tea later in 1770 in response to the protests and to the boycotting of British goods. Benjamin Franklin continued to advocate an accommodationist stance between Britain and the colonies until the publications of letters between the governor of Massachusetts, Thomas Hutchinson, and Andrew Oliver, the lieutenant-governor, that called for the abridging of colonial rights and the direct pay (by Parliament) of the officials in order to free them from the local councils (who had been the ones paying the officials, thus granting the locals some measure of control over them). After being humiliated by the British Solicitor-General in front of the Privy Council, Benjamin Franklin returned to Pennsylvania in 1775 and became an effective voice for revolution.
The Intolerable Acts (the Massachusetts Government Act, the Administration of Justice Act, the Boston Port Act, and the Quartering Act of 1774) were passed in 1774 and revolutionary fervor hit a fever pitch. With a fell swoop, the English Parliament had restructured the Massachusetts government to take power away from the local councils and restricted town meetings. Crimes committed by British soldiers would be tried only back in London, not locally. The Boston Harbor was closed until Britain had been compensated for the losses during the Boston Tea Party. And finally, British troops could be quartered in any colonists’ homes without permission of the owner. There was also the Quebec Act of 1774 which placed Quebec’s border at the Ohio River, cutting off colonial claims to that territory but, by the time it was passed, the colonists had already begun forming their own shadow governments and training their own militias in secret. The first shots of the revolution were fired at Lexington and Concord in April 1775 and by July 1776, patriots (those who advocated for revolution) had control of all thirteen of the American colonies and had driven out the British governors. New state constitutions were written and the colonies united under the provisional Continental Congress as the American Revolution kicked into high gear.
The American Revolution could be a series in and of itself and this is a good stopping place for now. Check back tomorrow for an explanation of the Declaration of Independence — another document a lot of people haven’t bothered to read for all that it’s fairly short. The Declaration of Independence is very important in understanding both why the colonists rebelled and broke away from Britain and in understanding the philosophies and political thinking that influenced the later American government and still has deep meaning for Americans to this day over two centuries after it and the Constitution were written.
— G.K.
Note on References: Anything that wasn’t drawn from memory came from Wikipedia’s entry on the American Revolution. Yes, people, G.K. paid attention in school and can actually remember almost all of this.
Thank you for that ! I look forward to reading the next ones !
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