Ch 4 Review Map Draw the Colonies Broder From the Proclamation of 1763

The Declaration Line of 1763 was a British-produced boundary marked in the Appalachian Mountains at the Eastern Continental Divide. Decreed on October 7, 1763, the Proclamation Line prohibited Anglo-American colonists from settling on lands acquired from the French following the French and Indian State of war. This mensurate avant-garde British governmental efforts to discourage west expansion in the decade earlier the American Revolution, an objective motivated by a number of sociopolitical and economic factors. Officials in London feared that an increased Anglo-American presence in the western territory would encourage Native American violence that, when paired with resistance from French settlers in the region, would incite some other expensive conflict for the empire. In add-on, the British government viewed west expansion as a threat to their mercantile economic system, expressing business organization that opening up the westward to farming families would provide the colonies with opportunities to gain economical independence through commercial agriculture. While Britain intended for the boundary line to alleviate tensions between Anglo settlers and ethnic peoples, eager colonists largely ignored the proclamation and settled beyond the purlieus with few consequences from the government.

The Royal Declaration was more than successful in its ability to restrict the aims of individual, Virginia-based country companies and their investors who sought to capitalize on the sale of lands in the Ohio Valley. Equally a member of the Virginia gentry, a patron of numerous land companies, and an established surveyor, the boundary line greatly afflicted George Washington. Washington deemed the Royal Proclamation's controls on trade and migration discriminatory against colonials seeking to alleviate personal debts through profitable landholdings, particularly veterans of the French and Indian State of war. As many of Washington'south counterparts shared these views, the Annunciation Line of 1763 was significant in that it marked the outset of a clear ideological pause with the mother country. The divergent social, political, and economic perspectives that emerged among Virginia's wealthy elite ultimately aided in pushing the colony to rebellion in the following decade.

The end of the French and Indian War brought great geographic and political changes to North America. The Treaty of Paris, signed on February 10, 1763, finer removed France from the continent, forcing her to cede all territory east of the Mississippi River to the victor, Great Great britain. In gaining these land holdings, the British declared their American colonies to be consummate and secure from external threats. Withal, this post-war agreement produced numerous internal challenges that together induced the Crown to establish the Declaration Line. Immediately following the Treaty of Paris, inhabitants from the empire's Atlantic colonies assumed these newly acquired lands were gratis and open for settlement and many moved west of the Appalachian Mountains. Triggered by settler encroachment and angered over Britain's suppressive diplomatic policies, a loose confederacy of Indians from the Ohio Valley and Bully Lakes regions attacked a number of British forts and settlements in an effort to defend their lands and preserve their political autonomy and traditional ways of life. This uprising, known equally Pontiac'southward Rebellion, quickly spread, reaching the Illinois Country and Virginia by the summer of 1763. As Native American war parties destroyed dozens of British forts and killed hundreds of civilians, retaliatory assailment from Americans illuminated the demand to segregate both groups. Though the British regime assured its American citizens that the Proclamation Line was enacted for their protection, many interpreted the act every bit a pro-Indian measure. In restricting Anglo-American settlement beyond the Appalachians and prohibiting governors from transferring Native American lands to private companies or individuals unless previously caused past U.k. through an official treaty, the Crown formally acknowledged that Native Americans possessed certain country rights, evoking widespread colonial discontent and frustration.

Britain's desire to maintain their mercantile economic system also encouraged the creation of the Announcement Line. Within the British mercantile world, colonies were to produce raw materials for export to the mother land, where they would be produced into manufactured appurtenances and sold to consumers within the empire. To go along her wealth internalized, Groovy Uk enacted a number of regulations throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, such as the Navigation Acts, prohibiting her colonies from trading with foreign markets. Following the French and Indian State of war, Britain feared that westward expansion would lead to a growth in commercial agriculture, allowing farmers to turn a profit by smuggling backlog crops to external Atlantic markets. Instead, the government sought to protect mercantilism by encouraging colonial growth to the north and south in an effort to populate the newly caused provinces of Quebec, E Florida, and West Florida. This would not only limit the institution of commercially profitable farms on newly acquired western lands, but would also go on settlers within close range of Britain's economic and political influence. Consequently, many colonials of varying socioeconomic backgrounds viewed the Proclamation Line and its restrictions equally repressive measures put in place by the Crown to secure increased control over affairs in their Northward American colonies.

While the Proclamation Line generally failed to restrict the migration of individual settlers, it adversely impacted Virginia's landed gentry through the mid-1760s. These men had been investing and speculating in land since the 1740s, preliminarily granting millions of acres of western territory to firms, such as the Ohio Company, for future sale. However, the French and Indian War and subsequent Indian treaties interrupted these land companies' designs, during which time their preliminary grants lapsed. The restrictions accompanying the Royal Proclamation of 1763 prevented investors from gaining the necessary titles to secure their land claims. These constraints particularly affected George Washington, who had dedicated much of his life to state speculation in an effort to reach economical independence and stardom amongst Virginia's privileged form. Washington opposed United kingdom of great britain and northern ireland'south desire to restrict the growth of commercial agronomics, and viewed west expansion as inevitable; in his view, the Proclamation Line was a temporary measure out, put in place to calm Native Americans in the wake of French removal from the continent. This opinion prompted Washington to petition the Virginia authorities to release tracts of land that had been promised to French and Indian State of war veterans, while joining with other Virginia speculators in lobbying the Crown to push the border farther west. Washington'due south ventures proved successful with the 1768 Treaties of Fort Stanwix and Hard Labour, and again in 1770 with the Treaty of Lochaber.

Legacies of the proclamation were social, political and ideological. Though scholars contend the level to which the proclamation really recognized Native American autonomy, many Indigenous peoples, particularly in Canada, cite the certificate as Britain's showtime formal acknowledgement of Indian land rights and self-determination. Historians also disagree over the extent to which the proclamation contributed to the outbreak of the American Revolution, with nearly asserting that the boundary dispute did non directly instigate the conflict. Many, yet, allege that the ideological consequences of the declaration were more meaning than the existence of the boundary itself. Resentment for the British Empire and her interference in colonial affairs bonded Americans of varying socioeconomic backgrounds on a philosophical level. The ideological break with the mother country promulgated past the Proclamation Line of 1763, particularly for governmental leaders and Virginia'south landed gentry, served to push the colonies into rebellion in the following decade.

Jennifer Monroe McCutchen
Texas Christian Academy

Bibliography:

Bailyn, Bernard. The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution . Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1967.

Calloway, Colin. The Scratch of a Pen: 1763 and the Transformation of Due north America . New York, NY: Oxford University Printing, 2006.

Curtis, Thomas D. "Riches, Real Estate, and Resistance: How and Speculation, Debt, and Merchandise Monopolies Led to the American Revolution." The American Journal of Economics and Folklore 73, no. 3 (July 3, 2014): 424-626.

Del Papa, Eugene Thou. "The Royal Announcement of 1763: Its Effect Upon Virginia Land Companies." The Virginia Mag of History and Biography 83, no. 4 (October 1975): 406-11.

Holton, Woody. Forced Founders: Indians, Debtors, Slaves, and the Making of the  American Revolution in Virginia . Chapel Loma, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1999.

Longmore, Paul K. The Invention of George Washington . Charlottesville, VA: The Academy Press of Virginia, 1999.

Nellis, Eric Guest. An Empire of Regions: A Cursory History of Colonial British  America. Toronto: University of Toronto Printing, 2010.

Schecter, Barnet. George Washington'due south America: A Biography Through His Maps . New York, NY: Walker and Co., 2010.

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Source: https://www.mountvernon.org/library/digitalhistory/digital-encyclopedia/article/proclamation-line-of-1763/

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