Colonial Unrest Quotes
The simplistic view that the American colonists were patriots and the British were the colonizers against whom the colonists revolted is not really accurate. The American colonists were polarized into patriots and loyalists. The Loyalist Americans ranged from many of those merchants whose business depended upon England, those whose family were still in England, those whose religion made them loyal to the Church of England, slaves who would be free under British law, Americans who had strong cultural and intellectual ties to England and those Americans who were great believers in monarchy and whose honor required that they fulfill the oath that they had taken to the King of England. Some of the worst atrocities of the American Revolution occurred in the battles of these Americans against each other. See {82105} for more on this point.
The President was Woodrow Wilson and the Peace Conference was that at the end of WWI. While the right of self determination is broadly accepted in American society, it was not always so.
The French were carefully watching the events in the American Colonies.
He was acting as French Foreign Secretary at the time.
We are so used to hearing the freedom seeking reasons for the American Revolution that we overlook the more selfish and venal motives. This quotation shows that the large merchants of the colonies had banded together in an illegal conspiracy trust and monopoly and managed to keep many British competitive products out of the colonies. The British, for equally venal reasons, began to enforce the laws in favor of free trade. Many large American merchants were getting huge profits (and American consumers paying more) from their protectionist illegal monopoly. A Revolution would de facto assure that monopoly for many years to come, so they became supporters—patriots—of the American Revolution. As the Revolution drew closer, the Americans made efforts to protect the protectionism and monopoly of some of the richest Americans. See {636861}.
should be His Majesty's policy toward the American colonies.
The Sepoys were Indian natives serving as enlisted men in the British Army in India. Napier had been the Commander of the British Forces in India and resigned over a dispute with the government. This quotation came from his negative report. Not long after he wrote this, the “Sepoy Rebellion” in 1857 almost destroyed English rule in India.
Of the 13 colonies, the 3 Middle Atlantic States, were the least enthusiastic about an armed revolution against England. Jersey—Now New Jersey—was the most recalcitrant then with Benjamin Franklin’s son as Governor. See {634108} for an explanation of why that was.
The did not listen to Pitt or others counseling moderation and ignoring the American acts of protest. Instead, the hawks sent armed troops and war broke out in earnest and the American Revolution reached the point of no return. Lord Chatham was furious at the incompetent handling of the situation by the government and he let them know it—see {641505} .
The crackdown on Boston which was intended to set an example and intimidate all of the other colonies backfired, and the British were told about it by their own officials in America. But they were so rigid and ideological about monarchy, that the stimulated rebellion rather than suppress them.
