EDWARD'S LECTURE NOTES:
More notes at http://tanguay.info/learntracker
C O U R S E
A History of the World since 1300
Jeremy Adelman, Princeton University
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C O U R S E L E C T U R E The Seven Years' War and Colonial Revolutions Notes taken on March 21, 2015 by Edward Tanguay |
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the results of pressures on empires intensified the stakes of global competition
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heightened the cycle of mercantilist wars
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resulted in a cascade of revolutions of many sorts
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the globalization of empires across the world meant the globalization of warfare
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everywhere in the contested zones
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in particular the neo-Europes, the new model colonies
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eventually meant a global fiscal crisis
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the Seven Years' War
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"The French and Indian War"
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as it is known in the United States
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back-country brutality
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was really the first world war
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saw fighting from Manila to Montreal
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the first moment in which empires began to swap colonies and territories as part of a peace process
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1763: end of war
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a series of immediate losers
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France
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New France (Canada) fell to the English
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France passed its Canadian colonies onto what appeared to be the immediate winner of this global contest, Great Britain
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Spain
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occupations of several of its prime colonies including huge naval stations in Havana and Manila
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but Spain and France would wait for their moment to get their revenge on the British
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British victory was Pyrrhic victory
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immediately faced a challenge of funding
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huge debts from fighting
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their now sprawling, global empire
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augmented pressure back home in London to reform along the lines of the Enlightenment
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had to try to get the colonies to pay for themselves
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stop the hemorrhaging of resources from the central government in London
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tax hikes to pay for expenses
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at this point in history, the expenses were largely military, as there were not yet welfare states
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most empires were raising revenues and taxes
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colonies objected to these new taxes
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this was the change for France and Spain to get their revenge for their humiliation during the Seven Years' War
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Spain and France bankrolled what would become the American Revolution
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especially naval assistance especially after 1778 when the fate of the American revolution could have been lost
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American Revolution
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British increasing fear in pressing on with the fight and losing British Northern America threatened loss of colonies elsewhere
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especially India
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what happened in 1776 was the first of its kind
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possessions would break loose, beginning with the American colonies which was, however, relatively small at the time
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the breakaway of the colonies invoked a new, historic model
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it was a defense of the natural rights of free born Englishmen against the caprice of King George III
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against unjust fiscal laws
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result was that the American revolutionaries, without intending it to be this way, had worldwide repercussions
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1. created a new model of self-determination, an idea that people were endowed with rights to determine who governed them
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2. once the old British state ceased trying to constrain encroaching on the wilderness and Indians, the constraints on settler expansion were lifted
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British no longer needed to have formal control over the colonies
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looked at them now as a partner
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they could get the best of commercial interaction without having to pay for fighting in the frontiers which they let the new States in America conduct
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a win win for the British
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3. freedom
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part about nation states and self-government
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the age of revolutions was beginning to spread a language of liberty in directions that people had not really intended or imagined
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personal liberties
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women to choose their husbands
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free will
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idea that slaves could be free from their masters
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slaves would feel their fields as armies moved through
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international context
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James Madison addressing the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia: "Carthage in Rome tore one another to pieces instead of uniting their forces to devour weaker nations of the earth. The houses of Austria and France were hostile as long as they remained the great powers of Europe. England and France have succeeded in the preeminence and to the enmity to the rivalry, and it is to this principle we owe perhaps our liberty."