Chapter 3: Timeline of Events

1681 William Penn Founds Pennsylvania

In 1681, Charles II paid off a debt to the Penn family by granting the vast lands west of New

York to William Penn. Penn instituted a radical form of government in his Frame of Government, allowing all settlers free simple ownership of the land, a voice in public affairs, and freedom of worship. Though he initially wanted the colony to be a refuge for Quakers, it became a magnet for other Protestants from England, Holland, and Germany. Eventually the colony attracted a mixed racial, ethnic, and religious population who lived in relative peace and prospered through Penn’s liberal social and economic policies.
1686 - 1689 Dominion of New England
James II and his supporters, who wanted to enforce royal authority in the colonies, revoked charters in Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, and New Jersey and established one large

colony known as the Dominion of New England. Colonists protested vigorously and soon joined with James’s enemies in England to support his overthrow and exile.

Protestant monarchy. In return for being named King and Queen, they gave up claims to divine right and agreed to rule as constitutional monarchs, accepting the premise of "mixed

government" that divided power among three social orders – the monarchy represented by the king, the aristocracy represented in the House of Lords, and the people represented by the House of Commons. This reduction of royal power would weaken government control over the colonies and allow the power of colonial merchants to increase.
Revolts in the Dominion of New England
When colonists heard of the Glorious Revolution they rebelled against the oppressive systems at home. In Massachusetts, colonists expelled the governor, broke up the Dominion of New England, and sought a return to the original charter. In New York, both Dutch residents and English settlers ousted the lieutenant-governor and replaced him with Jacob Leisler. Though initially popular among all groups, Leisler quickly lost the support of the wealthy elite, who removed him from power and then had him executed. Government by representative assembly was restored, but ethnic and class conflict between English merchants and Dutch residents continued for decades.
1689 - 1713 England, France, and Spain at War
England’s rising power and its renewed commitment to Protestantism drew it into a series
of wars with France and Spain that would continue intermittently until the late
eighteenth century. In North America, the expanding borders of the English colonies, as well as efforts by both sides to draw the Indians into alliances, dramatically increased tensions that quickly escalated into wars. The first of these was King William’s War (known as the War of the League of Augsburg in Europe), fought between the English and the French and their respective Indian allies to clarify the border between New England and New France.
In 1702, the English fought along their colonial borders against the French in the north and the Spanish in the south in a war with no formal name. In the most active year of this war, 1704, an expedition of English allied with Indians pillaged Spanish missions across northern Florida, burned St. Augustine, and attacked Pensacola. That same year, a group of Iroquois Indians allied with the French attacked Deerfield, Massachusetts, killing 48 and taking 112 into captivity. The Spanish attacked Charlestown.
Queen Anne’s War (known as the War of the Spanish Succession in Europe), like King William’s War, had both a European and a colonial front. It ended with the Treaty of Utrecht. Britain acquired Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, and the region around Hudson Bay from France, giving them access to the western fur trade. It also received Gibraltar, an island at the entrance to the Mediterranean Sea, and trading rights in central and South America from Spain. The Treaty of Utrecht increased Britain’s power in Europe and provided Britain with the opportunity to reform its thriving colonial empire. For political reasons, its leaders would not pursue that opportunity.

1696 Board of Trade Created

In an effort to establish a uniform system of control over the American colonies,

1705 Full Legal Slavery Enacted in Virginia

In 1705 the Virginia House of Burgesses completed a legal process they had been engaged in for thirty years. A statute of that year declared that virtually all Africans brought into Virginia, by reason both of their race and their religion, were slaves. The decision to establish slavery as the labor system of Virginia was complete.

1714 - 1750 The Rise of American Assemblies
The Peace of Utrecht and a thriving commercial empire encouraged British officials
during the reigns of George I and George II to focus on encouraging trade and maintaining the defense of the colonies, rather than directly supervising them. Meanwhile, the Americans for the most part governed themselves though increasingly powerful colonial assemblies.

1718 Spanish Establish Missions and Garrisons in Texas

By the early 1700s, the Spanish began to feel threatened by the presence of the French

to their north and east in Louisiana. To solidify their hold on the northern stretches of New Spain, the Spanish established Franciscan missions and military garrisons in Texas, with the first at San Antonio in 1718.
1720 - 1742 Sir Robert Walpole Chief Minister
Robert Walpole, a Whig, developed a cooperative relationship between Parliament and the King by creating a strong court party in Parliament. His did this primarily through patronage. Walpole extended his patronage system to the American colonies. He filled colonial offices with mediocre "placemen" more interested in their salary than in developing a policy. As a result, he weakened royal bureaucracy in the colonies and fostered a low-key policy of "salutary neglect." The policy brought prosperity, but it also encouraged the rise of colonial assemblies and undermined British authority in America.
1720 - 1750 African-American Community Forms
By the second quarter of the eighteenth century, African slaves in America began to fuse their tribal cultures with those of others slaves to create a new African-American culture. For example, in South Carolina, this fusion resulted in Gullah, a language combining African and English words and structures. The development of composite culture was supported and reinforced by natural population increase, which caused the development of families and kin networks. Over time, the number of slaves born in the American colonies steadily increased.
Expansion of Seaport Cities
Access to the South Atlantic began to dramatically affect the pace of economic development and growth in the American colonies after 1720. Seaport cities grew rapidly as farmers in the Middle Colonies and New England responded to the increased demand from the British West Indies for rice, tobacco, grain, livestock, and supplies. In both north and south, the South Atlantic system empowered elite groups who supported the rise of colonial assemblies and shaped the American response to any efforts by British to increase supervision of the empire.

1732 Georgia Chartered

To provide a buffer to protect the Carolinas and the Chesapeake colonies from attacks by the Spanish and their Indian allies in Florida, King George II accepted James Ogelthrope’s petition to form a reform colony south of the Carolinas in the 1730s. The Spanish were outraged by this British expansion into territory they had claimed for nearly two centuries.

Hat Act
One in a larger set of restrictive Navigation Acts, the Hat Act prohibited the export of
colonial hats for inter-colonial or British sale. Many similar acts were passed for other
goods.

1733 Molasses Act

When American colonists from the Middle Colonies produced more grain and livestock than the British West Indies needed, they began selling grain and livestock to the French West Indies. In doing so, they helped the French reduce sugar production costs, allowing the French to cut into the British share of a waning international market for sugar. To protect that market, Parliament allowed supply of the French islands to continue, but slapped a high tariff on French molasses imported into the colonies. Though the Americans protested and smuggled French molasses into the colonies, a resurgence in the sugar market brought back strong profits for both French and British producers, making the issue moot. Consequently, the Act was not enforced.

1739 War With Spain in the Caribbean (War of Jenkin’s Ear)
Outraged at the founding of Georgia on land claimed by Spain, the Spanish governor of Florida plotted against the nascent English colony by enticing slaves to run away to Florida in return for freedom and land. When the Spanish assaulted a British sailor on a captured ship, war broke out between the Spanish and British. Both sides launched attacks on the other, neither having much effect. While Oglethorpe organized an attack on Florida, seventy-five slaves, responding to the Governor of Florida’s call, rose in rebellion and marched towards the border. The colonial militia suppressed the rebellion. The war continued for several years, resulting in no territorial gains, but establishing the security of Georgia and gaining further British trade access to the Spanish empire.

1740 Veto of Massachusetts Land Bank

To assure an adequate supply of money, colonies often printed their own paper currency. After accepting this practice for some time in different colonies, in 1740 British officials refused to allow Massachusetts to issue currency. This action is considered an early sign of the increasing view of some British officials that more control over the colonies was needed.

1750 Iron Act

Following their policy of prohibiting the same of colonial-made goods that competed with British manufacturers, the Iron Act added plows, axes, skillets and other iron products to the list of restricted items. As the American economies matured, artisans and manufactures would increasingly protest these restrictions on economic development.

1751 Currency Act

To protect the interest of British creditors, who complained about colonials trying to pay debts with worthless colonial currency, the British restricted more and more land banks, prohibited the issue of colonial currency, and banned the use of bills to pay debts.

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