Morristown NHP graduate intern Michel Ciavattone studied the archival manuscripts in the Park collection related to the eighteenth-century prelude to the American Revolution. Specifically, Michel looked at the period beginning with Queen Anne's War up through the French and Indian War. Much like the American Revolution, the conflicts preceding the Revolution were a tangled expression of larger European royal politics. The endless back and forth between England and France provided much of the impetus that fueled the decades of conflict which ultimately ended with American independence in 1783 via the Treaty of Paris.
Throughout Michel's work be found a host a figures from Queen Anne of England to Louis XV of France. Gen. Edward Braddock to Benjamin Franklin. The eighteen-century was the century of conflict between the two dynastic houses of England (Hanover) and France (Bourbon).
1700:
-
July 1701: The War of Spanish Succession begins
with the death of Charles II of Spain.[1]
-
1702: Queen Anne’s War, as the North
American theater of the War of the Spanish Succession is known, breaks out in
the Colonies between Great Britain, France, and Spain.[2]
1710:
-
April 11, 1713: Queen Anne’s War, and the larger War
of the Spanish Succession. ends with the signing of the Treaty of Utrecht.
France cedes control of Acadia, the Hudson Bay, Newfoundland, and Saint Kitts
to the British.[3]
-
Circa 1715: Sir William Johnson, one of the most
successful British agents of Native American diplomacy was born circa 1715 in
Smithtown, County Meath, Kingdom of Ireland.[4]
1720 - 1730s:
-
During a period of extended diplomacy, Britain forges the
Anglo-French Alliance with the Kingdom of France, ending in 1731.[5]
-
The number of enslaved people in the Thirteen Colonies increased
in population from 41,844 people in 1720 to 95,669 people by 1740.[6]
-
Enhancements to the British and French armies and navies
following Queen Anne’s War lead to them becoming two of the most dominant
military powers.
-
Due to the distance between England and America, colonial
governors in the Thirteen Colonies were given more authority as a “hands-off
way” of governing occurred.
-
Circa 1738: William Johnson comes to the
Thirteen Colonies in 1738 to work with his Uncle Peter, quickly establishing
himself as a fur trader on the northern banks of the Mohawk, creating
connections as far as Oquaga.[7]
1740:
-
Early 1740s: Johnson becomes closely allied with
the Mohawk Nation due to his history of trading British goods with them.
-
December 16, 1740: Prussian forces march into Austria’s
province of Silesia, thus starting a series of wars known as the Silesian Wars.[8]
-
December 16, 1740: Following the invasion of Silesia,
the War of the Austrian Succession starts.[9]
-
Circa 1742: William Johnson is adopted as an
honorary sachem of the Mohawk Nation and becomes known as Warraghiyagey,
meaning “A Man who undertakes great Things” among the Haudenosaunee.[10]
-
Circa March, 1744: King George’s War, a theatre of the
War of the Austrian Succession begins in the Colonies.[11]
-
Circa 1744: Sir William Johnson is honored by
the position of “Colonel of the Warriors of the Six Nations” by the British,
which allowed him to supplant the Indian commissioners in Albany.[12]
-
Circa 1746: Johnson is appointed to the position
of Indian agent of New York, which is later changed to Commissioner of New York
for Indian Affairs that same year.[13]
-
April 30, 1748: The Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle ends
the War of Austrian Succession, however, it fails to resolve any territorial
issues.[14]
1750:
-
Circa 1751: Sir William Johnson resigns his post
as Commissioner of New York for Indian Affairs.[15] A few months later, the
Covenant Chain is dismantled by Johnson and Mohawk sachem Hendrick Theyanoguin
since the Crown failed to prevent French Canadian agents from “enticing
factions of the Six Nations” and the encroachment of English settlers on
Iroquois land.[16]
-
Spring 1753: Paul Marin de la Malgue is tasked
with protecting the Ohio Country from the British, leading to the creation of French
forts, thus expanding French territory.[17]
-
April 20, 1753: Alarmed at Malgue’s movements,
Mohawks arrived at Johnson’s home to demand that the British take action to
protect their land from the French.[18]
-
October 31, 1753: George Washington begins his Allegheny
Expedition, assigned to deliver a message from Virginia Lt. Governor Robert
Dinwiddie demanding that the French depart the Allegheny River Valley and cease
their torment of English merchants.[19]
-
May 24, 1754: The British, led by Washington, and
their Native American allies surround the French at Jumonville Glen, defeating
them, thus starting the French and Indian War.[20]
-
May, 1754: After defeating the French,
Washington helps build Fort Necessity.[21]
-
July 3, 1754: The Battle of Fort Necessity is
fought.[22]
-
July 4, 1754: George Washington surrenders Fort
Necessity.[23]
-
July 10, 1754: Seven of the Thirteen Colonies met
in Albany with the hopes of renewing the Covenant Chain with the Six Nations
and to discuss intercolonial cooperation, a rare feat that barely happened. The
recordings of this meeting were drafted by Benjamin Franklin and became known
as the Albany Plan of Union, 1754.[24] At
this meeting, Theyanoguin and his Mohawk brethren worked to have Sir William
Johnson reinstated as the Commissioner of New York for Indian Affairs.
-
Circa 1755: Sir William Johnson is reinstated as
the Indian Commissioner of New York, and the Mohawks take up the Covenant Chain
again.[25]
-
July 13, 1755: General Braddock is killed during
the Battle of the Wilderness, a failed expedition to capture Fort Duquesne and
regain control of the Ohio River Valley.[26]
-
September 8, 1755: Sir William Johnson and Theyanoguin participate in the Battle
of Lake George, where the latter was killed.[27]
-
Spring 1756: As New France expanded into the
Ohio River Valley, it creates a series of conflicts between the British
colonies and those of France.[28]
-
May 20, 1756: Once England declared war on France,
the French and Indian War officially spread to the European continent, and
became known as the Seven Years’ War in Europe.[29]
-
August 1756: The Seven Years’ War in Europe began
when Prussian troops entered the Electorate of Saxony for a third time with
plans to annex Saxony.[30]
-
circa 1756: Sir William Johnson is commissioned
as the sole Superintendent of the Affairs of the Six Nations and other Northern
tribes.[31]
-
July 8, 1758: Battle of Fort Carillon, presently
known as Fort Ticonderoga.[32]
-
July 6-26, 1759: The Battle of Fort Niagara ends in a
British-Iroquois victory led by Brigadier General John Prideaux and Col. Sir
William Johnson.[33]
-
September 13, 1759: French forces stationed in the city
of Quebec fall to British troops led by General James Wolfe during the Battle
of Quebec.[34]
1760:
-
September 8, 1760: After the Battle of Sainte-Foy, the
British seize Montreal and the French surrender New France.[35]
-
April 1762: Even though the British won the
Seven Years’ War, Sir William Johnson offers a wampum belt to the Six Nations
representing the ancient Covenant Chain.[36]
-
February 10, 1763: The Treaty of Paris is signed,
ending the Seven Years’ War; the French relinquish all eastern mainland
territories in North America to Great Britain.[37]
-
April 27, 1763: The Seneca Nation denounce the
Covenant Chain and join Pontiac’s War against the British, only to take up the
Covenant Chain again a year later.[38]
-
October 7, 1763: A royal decree known as The Royal
Proclamation of 1763 comes into effect, stating that the colonists could not
settle west of the Appalachian Mountains.[39]
-
April 5, 1764: The Sugar Act is passed by the
British Parliament to help pay for the debt that accumulated during the Seven
Years’ War.[40]
-
April 19, 1764: The Currency Act is passed by
Parliament.[41]
-
March 22, 1765: The Stamp Act is passed by
Parliament.[42]
-
March 19, 1766: The British Parliament repeals the
Stamp Act.[43]
-
Spring 1766: The British Parliament repeals the
Sugar Act.[44]
-
July 25, 1766: Pontiac’s War ends, leaving growing
tensions between the Native Americans and the British.[45]
-
June 1767 - 1768: The Townshend Acts, a series of
taxes on British imports consisting of glass, lead, paper, and tea are passed.[46]
-
November 5, 1768: The Fort Stanwix Treaty is
established, overturning The Royal Proclamation of 1763.[47]
1770:
-
March 5, 1770: Boston Massacre occurs, killing five
people including Crispus Attucks, a former enslaved man who is widely
considered the first casualty of the American Revolution.[48]
-
May 10, 1773: The Tea Act is passed by
Parliament.[49]
-
December 16, 1773: Protestors dump crates of imported tea
into Boston Harbor as a means of boycotting British goods. This event becomes
known as the Boston Tea Party.[50]
-
March to June, 1774: The Intolerable Acts, a series of
five acts passed by the Parliament as a means of punishing the Colonists for
the Boston Tea Party.[51]
-
July 9, 1774: Sir William Johnson dies while at a
conference with the Six Nations.[52]
-
April 19, 1775: “The shot heard round the world,”
fighting breaks out at Lexington and Concord, officially starting the military
phase of the American Revolution.[53]
-
June 17, 1775: The Battle of
Bunker Hill occurs, leading to a British victory.[54]
-
July 4, 1776: The United States declares
independence from Great Britain with the ratification of the Declaration of
Independence.[55]
1783: - Treaty of Paris recognizing American independence.
Bibliography
“Albany
Plan of Union, 1754,” Office of the Historian, United States Department of
State.
September 7, 2022. https://history.state.gov/milestones/1750-1775/albany-plan
“Battle of Fort Necessity,” National Park Service, November 5, 2020.
https://www.nps.gov/articles/battle.htm
Bell, Raymond E Jr. “Fort Niagara, New York,” On Point. Vol. 23, No. 4,
(Spring 2018), pp. 45-49.
https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2307/26478436
Black, Jeremy. “Britain’s Foreign Alliances in the Eighteenth Century,” Albion: A Quarterly
Journal
Concerned with British Studies, vol.
20, no. 4, (Winter, 1988), pp. 573-602.
https://www.jstor.org/stable/4050198
Bottling, Eileen H. “Women Writing War: Mercy Otis Warren and Hannah Mather Crocker on
the American Revolution,” Massachusetts Historical Review, vol. 18, (2016), pp. 88-118.
https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5224/masshistrevi.18.1.0088
Borneman, Walter R. The French and Indian War: Deciding the Fate of North America. (Harper
Perennial, October 30, 2007) pp. 8-69.
“Britain Begins Taxing the Colonies: The Sugar & Stamp Acts,” National Park Service,
September 17, 2022. https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/sugar-and-stamp-acts.htm
Clark, James T. “Sir William Johnson and Pontiac,” Proceedings of the New York Historical
Association. Vol. 13, (1914), pp. 85-107. https://www.jstor.org/stable/42889452
Draper, Theodore. “The very Foundations of this Kingdom are sinking.” A Struggle for Power:
The American Revolution, 1st ed. p. 290. New York: Vintage
Books, 1997.
Draper, Theodore. “The Winners and the Losers.” A Struggle for Power: The American
Revolution. 1st ed. p. 197. New York: Vintage Books, 1997.
“Fort,” National Park Service, September 5, 2022.
https://www.nps.gov/fone/learn/historyculture/fort.htm
Fowler, William M, Empires at War: The French and Indian War and the Struggle for North
America,
1754-1763. (New York: Walker, 2005) p. 31.
“French and Indian War/Seven Years’ War, 1754-1763,” U.S. Department of State. The Office of
Electronic Information, September 7, 2022.
https://2001-2009.state.gov/r/pa/ho/time/cp/90614.htm
Graymont, Barbara. The Iroquois in the American Revolution, (Syracuse, New York: Syracuse
University Press, 1972), p. 32.
“Great Britain: Parliament” The Currency Act; April 19, 1764. Online. Cambridge: Benthem,
for C. Bathhurst, 1762-1869. Yale Law School:
Lillian Goldman Law Library, The
Avalon Project. https://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/curency_act_1764.asp.
(September 17, 2022).
Griffis, William E. Sir William Johnson and the Six Nations. (Ozymandias Press, January 30,
2018) pp. 276-317.
Hacker, J. D. “From ‘20 and odd’ to 10 million: The growth of the slave population in the United
States,” Slavery Abol,
vol. 41, no. 4, (May 13, 2020).
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7716878/
“Celebrating the Stamp Act’s Repeal, May 19, 1766,” New York Public Library. September 7,
2022.
https://www.nypl.org/blog/2016/05/18/stamp-act-repealed
Humphreys, R.A. “Lord Shelburne and the Proclamation of 1763,” The English Historical
Review,
vol. 49, no. 194, (April 1934), pp.
241-264. https://www.jstor.org/stable/553250
“Incidents leading up to the French and Indian War, 1753-54,” Office of the Historian, United
States Department of State. September 7, 2022.
https://history.state.gov/milestones/1750-1775/incidents
Lesaffer, Randall. “The Peace of Aachen (1748) and the Rise of Multilateral Treaties,” Oxford
Public International Law. 2022. https://opil.ouplaw.com/page/559
Miquelon, D. “Ambiguous Concession: What Diplomatic Archives Reveal about Article 15 of
the Treaty of Utrecht and France’s North American Policy,” The William and Mary
Quarterly, vol. 67, no. 3, (July 2010), pp. 459-486.
https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5309/willmaryquar.67.3.459
O’Toole, Fintan. White Savage: William Johnson and the Invention of America. (New York: State
University of New York, 2009), pp. 19-142.
“Parliamentary taxation of colonies, international trade, and the
American Revolution, 1763-1775,” Office of the Historian,
United States Department of
State. September 17, 2022.
https://history.state.gov/milestones/1750-1775/parliamentary-taxation
The American Yawp. (2022). The American Revolution. Stanford University Press.
http://www.americanyawp.com/text/05-the-american-revolution/#III_The_Causes_of_the
“The Fight for Overseas Empire,” Quebec History, Marianopolis College, 2005.
http://faculty.marianopolis.edu/c.belanger/quebechistory/encyclopedia/TheSevenYearsWa
r-FrenchandIndianWar-DeclarationofWarin1756.htm
“The Paintings of Carl Rakeman,” U.S. Department of Transportation March 30, 2018.
https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/rakeman/1753.htm
Thomson, M. A. “Louis XIV and the Origins of the War of Spanish Succession,” Cambridge
University
Press, vol. 4, (1954), pp. 111- 134.
“Timeline of the Revolution,” National Park Service, September 17, 2022.
https://www.nps.gov/subjects/americanrevolution/timeline.htm
“Treaty of Paris [1763],” Quebec History, Marianopolis
College, 2005,
http://faculty.marianopolis.edu/c.belanger/quebechistory/encyclopedia/TreatyofParis1763
Rich, E. E. “The Hudson’s Bay Company and the Treaty of Utrecht,” The Cambridge Historical
Journal,
vol. 11, no. 2, (1954), pp. 183-203.
https://www.jstor.org/stable/3021076
Ropes, Arthur R. “The Causes of the Seven Years’ War,” Transactions of the Royal Historical
Society, vol. 4, (1889), pp. 143-170. https://www.jstor.org/stable/3678165
Schmidt, Ethan A. Native Americans in the American Revolution: How the War Divided,
Devastated,
and Transformed the Early American Indian World. (Santa Barbara,
California: Praeger, 2014) pp. 33-58.
Shannon, Timothy J. “Dressing for Success on the Mohawk Frontier: Hendrick, William
Johnson, and the Indian Fashion,” The William and Mary Quarterly, vol. 53, no. 1, (January 1996), pp.
13-42. https://www.jstor.org/stable/2946822
Snow, Dean R. “Searching for Hendrick: Correction of a Historic Conflation,” New York
History, vol. 88, no. 3, (2007), pp. 229-253. https://www.jstor.org/stable/23187325
[1] Thomson, M. A. “Louis XIV and the Origins of the War of Spanish Succession,” Cambridge University Press, vol. 4, (1954), p. 111.
[2] Rich,
E. E. “The Hudson’s Bay Company and the Treaty of Utrecht,” The Cambridge Historical Journal, vol.
11, no. 2, (1954), p. 198.
[3] Miquelon, D. “Ambiguous Concession: What Diplomatic
Archives Reveal about Article 15 of the Treaty of Utrecht and France’s North
American Policy,” The William and Mary
Quarterly, vol. 67, no. 3, (July 2010), p. 459.
[4] O’Toole,
Fintan. White Savage: William Johnson and
the Invention of America. (New York: State University of New York, 2009),
19.
[5] Black,
Jeremy. “Britain’s Foreign Alliances in the Eighteenth Century,” Albion: A Quarterly Journal Concerned with
British Studies, vol. 20, no. 4, (Winter, 1988), p. 590.
[6] Hacker, J. D. “From ‘20 and odd’ to 10 million: The growth
of the slave population in the United States,” Slavery Abol, vol. 41, no. 4, (May 13, 2020).
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7716878/
[7] O’Toole,
White Savage, 38.
[8] Borneman, Walter R. The
French and Indian War: Deciding the Fate of North America. (Harper
Perennial, October 30, 2007) p. 28.
[9] Borneman,
The French and Indian War: Deciding the
Fate of North America, p. 28.
[10] O’Toole,
White Savage, p. 69.
[11] Borneman,
The French and Indian War: Deciding the Fate
of North America, p. 28.
[12] O’Toole,
White Savage, 72.
[13] Shannon, Timothy J. “Dressing for Success on the Mohawk
Frontier: Hendrick, William Johnson, and the Indian Fashion,” The William and Mary Quarterly, vol. 53,
no. 1, (Jan, 1996), 32.
[14] Lesaffer, Randall. “The Peace of Aachen (1748) and the Rise
of Multilateral Treaties,” Oxford Public International Law. PubFactory. 2022. https://opil.ouplaw.com/page/559
[15] Snow, Dean R. “Searching for Hendrick: Correction of a
Historic Conflation,” New York History,
vol. 88, no. 3, (2007), p. 247.
[16] Schmidt, Ethan A. Native
Americans in the American Revolution: How the War Divided, Devastated, and
Transformed the Early American Indian World. (Santa Barbara, California:
Praeger, 2014) p. 54.
[17] Fowler, William M. Empires
at War: The French and Indian War and the Struggle for North America,
1754-1763. (New York: Walker, 2005) p. 31.
[18] Fowler, Empires at
War: The French and Indian War and the Struggle for North America, 1754-1763,
31.
[19] “The Paintings of Carl Rakeman” 1753 - Washington Crossing
the Allegheny. U.S. Department of Transportation. March 30, 2018. https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/rakeman/1753.htm
[20] Fowler,
William M. Empires at War: The French and
Indian War and the Struggle for North America, 1754-1763 p. 41.
[21] “Fort,” National Park Service, National Park Service: U.S.
Department of the Interior. September 5, 2022. https://www.nps.gov/fone/learn/historyculture/fort.htm
[22] “Battle of Fort Necessity,” National Park Service, National
Park Service: U.S. Department of the Interior. November 5, 2020.
https://www.nps.gov/articles/battle.htm
[23] “Battle of Fort Necessity,” National Park Service, National
Park Service: U.S. Department of the Interior. November 5, 2020. https://www.nps.gov/articles/battle.htm
[24] “Albany Plan of Union, 1754,” Office of the
Historian, United States Department of State. September 7, 2022. https://history.state.gov/milestones/1750-1775/albany-plan
[25] O’Toole,
White Savage, 142.
[26] “French and Indian War/Seven Years’ War, 1754-1763,” U.S.
Department of State, September 7, 2022.
https://2001-2009.state.gov/r/pa/ho/time/cp/90614.htm
[27] O’Toole, White Savage,
142.
[28] “Incidents leading up to the French and Indian War,
1753-54,” Office of the Historian, United States Department of State. September
7, 2022. https://history.state.gov/milestones/1750-1775/incidents
[29] “The Fight for Overseas Empire,” Quebec History,
Marianopolis College, 2005.
http://faculty.marianopolis.edu/c.belanger/quebechistory/encyclopedia/TheSevenYearsWar-FrenchandIndianWar-DeclarationofWarin1756.htm
[30] Ropes, Arthur R. The
Causes of the Seven Years’ War. (Transactions of the Royal Historical
Society, 1889), p. 145.
[31] Clark, James T. “Sir William Johnson and Pontiac,” Proceedings of the New York Historical
Association. Vol. 13, (1914), p. 95.
[32] Borneman, Walter R. The French and Indian War: Deciding the Fate of North America, p.
8.
[33] Bell, Raymond E Jr. “Fort Niagara, New York,” On Point. Vol. 23, No. 4, (Spring 2018),
p. 45.
[34] Schmidt, Native
Americans in the American Revolution, 58.
[35] “Battle of Sainte-Foy,” The National Battlefields
Commission, Government of Canada, September 17, 2022.
http://bataille.ccbn-nbc.gc.ca/en/bataille-de-sainte-foy/reddition-de-montreal.php
[36] Graymont, Barbara. The
Iroquois in the American Revolution, Syracuse, New York: Syracuse
University Press, 1972, p. 32.
[37] “Treaty of Paris [1763],” Quebec History,
Marianopolis College, 2005. http://faculty.marianopolis.edu/c.belanger/quebechistory/encyclopedia/TreatyofParis1763-QuebecHistory.htm
[38] Schmidt,
Native Americans in the American
Revolution, 33.
[39] Humphreys, R. A. “Lord Shelburne and the Proclamation of
1763,” The English Historical Review, vol.
49, no. 194, (April 1934), p. 241.
[40] “Britain
Begins Taxing the Colonies: The Sugar & Stamp Acts,” National Park Service,
September 17, 2022. https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/sugar-and-stamp-acts.htm
[41] “Great Britain: Parliament” The
Currency Act; April 19, 1764. Online. Cambridge: Benthem, for C. Bathhurst,
1762-1869. Yale Law School: Lillian Goldman Law Library, The Avalon Project. https://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/curency_act_1764.asp. (September 17, 2022).
[42] “Britain Begins Taxing the Colonies: The Sugar & Stamp
Acts,” National Park Service, September 17, 2022. https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/sugar-and-stamp-acts.htm
[43] “Celebrating
the Stamp Act’s Repeal, May 19, 1766,” New York Public Library. September 17,
2022. https://www.nypl.org/blog/2016/05/18/stamp-act-repealed
[44] Draper,
Theodore. “The very Foundations of this Kingdom are sinking.” A Struggle for
Power: The American Revolution, Theodore Draper, p. 290. New York: Vintage
Books.
[45] Draper,
Theodore. “The Winners and the Losers.” A Struggle for Power: The American
Revolution, p. 197.
[46] “Parliamentary taxation of colonies, international trade,
and the American Revolution, 1763-1775,” Office of the Historian, United States
Department of State. September 17, 2022.
https://history.state.gov/milestones/1750-1775/parliamentary-taxation
[47] Griffis,
William E. Sir William Johnson and the
Six Nations, Ozymandias Press, January 30, 2018, p. 276.
[48] The American Yawp. (2022). The American Revolution.
Stanford University Press.
http://www.americanyawp.com/text/05-the-american-revolution/#III_The_Causes_of_the_American_Revolution.
[49] Bottling, Eileen H. “Women Writing War: Mercy Otis Warren
and Hannah Mather Crocker on the American Revolution,” Massachusetts Historical Review, vol. 18, (2016), p. 100.
[50] “Parliamentary taxation of colonies, international trade,
and the American Revolution, 1763-1775,” Office of the Historian, United States
Department of State. September 17, 2022.
https://history.state.gov/milestones/1750-1775/parliamentary-taxation
[51] “Parliamentary
taxation of colonies, international trade, and the American Revolution,
1763-1775,” Office of the Historian, United States Department of State.
September 17, 2022.
https://history.state.gov/milestones/1750-1775/parliamentary-taxation
[52] Griffis,
William E. Sir William Johnson and the
Six Nations, (Ozymandias Press, January 30, 2018), p. 317.
[53] “Timeline
of the Revolution,” National Park Service, September 17, 2022. https://www.nps.gov/subjects/americanrevolution/timeline.htm
[54] “Timeline
of the Revolution,” National Park Service, September 17, 2022.
https://www.nps.gov/subjects/americanrevolution/timeline.htm
[55] “Timeline
of the Revolution,” National Park Service, September 17, 2022.
https://www.nps.gov/subjects/americanrevolution/timeline.htm
No comments:
Post a Comment