US History timeline & concept chart: 16th-18th centuries (to 1754) British-American colonies: Difference between revisions

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 * 1676 Bacon's Rebellion<br><br>
 * 1692 Salem Witchcraft Trials<br><br>
+* 1721 British policy of "Salutary Neglect"
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 === Population growth ===
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 *
 '''DETAILS'''
-* Tobacco
+=== Tobacco economy ===
 ** John Rolfe planted seed from Trinidad in Virginia
 ** 1614 fist tobacco shipment to England
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 ** by Catholic George Calvert, Lord Baltimore; granted by English King Charles I
 ** first ''prioprietary colony'' = owned and governed by an individual
+=== British governance of early colonies ===
+* up until 1763, Britain largely ruled the colonies indirectly
+* events leading up to and after the English Civil War occupied British attentions outside of the colonies
+** English Civil War
+** Glorious Revolution
+** Restoration
+* the primary method of governance was through charters, grants and trade regulations
+==== Royal charters & mercantilism =====
+* colonial reorganization
+** in order to control the colonial possessions, the British government/ King created or reorganized colonial charters
+** most important was reorganization of the various New England and Mid-Atlantic colonial entities into the "Dominion of New England" in 1686
+*** the proprietary colonies of Delaware and Pennsylvania were excepted)
+*** especially targeted the Massachusetts Bay Colony for resisting the Navigation Acts
+*** colonials resented the revocation of their charters and feared that the English King was trying to impose the Church of England
+*** the 1689 ''Boston revolt'' and ''Leisler Rebellion'' (in New York) resisted Dominion rule
+*** the Dominion was dismantled and new charters were granted after the Glorious Revolution under William & Mary
+* '''mercantilism'''
+** European political and economic policy of forcing colonial possessions to trade directly with the home country and not others
+* Navigation Act of 1651
+** required that all trade to/from colonies had to be conducted on English ships
+** designed to force American colonists to trade directly with England
+** was mostly targeted at colonial trade with the Dutch, which the English wanted to halt
+** the Act contributed to the Anglo-Dutch war of 1652-54 (impacted colonial trade but no battles in North America)
+* Navigation Acts of 1651, 1660 & 1696
+** targeted specific goods that were to be transported only on English ships
+*** including: sugar, tobacco, fabric, indigo (dye), ginger
+** required that ships trading with American colonies must first stop at British ports for inspection and taxes
+* the 17th century Navigation Acts were largely unenforced in the American colonies
+==== Salutary neglect ====
+* "salutary" = "producing good effects," usually as result of something unwanted
+* lax British control of the colonies up until 1763 (after the French-Indian War)
+** Britain governed through granting or reorganization of land and colonial charters, taxes on imports into England and occasional enforcement of "Navigation Acts"
+* British fiscal policy 1721 followed the idea of "salutary neglect":
+** Robert Walpole, British Lord Commissioner of the Treasury in 1721:
+*** sought to increase taxes on colonies by reducing them, which would allow for greater economic activity
+*** Walpole wrote: " “if no restrictions were placed on the colonies, they would flourish”
+**** which would lead to an increase in trade with the colonials, and, thus, higher tax receipts on duties on that trade
+* the term "salutary neglect" was coined in 1775 by Edmund Burke, a pro-colonial Irish-British politician
+click EXPAND for excerpt from Burke's speech to Parliament in 1775:
+<div class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed">
+<pre>
+“That I know that the colonies in general owe little or nothing to any care of ours, and that they are not squeezed into this happy form by the constraints of watchful and suspicious government, but that, through a wise and salutary neglect, a generous nature has been suffered to take her own way to perfection; when I reflect upon these effects, when I see how profitable they have been to us, I feel all the pride of power sink, and all presumption in the wisdom of human contrivances melt, and die away within me.”
+</pre>
+<div>
+*
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