From Policy to War
What united the colonists
- The imperial struggles of the mid-18th century, as well as new British efforts to collect taxes without direct colonial representation or consent and to assert imperial authority in the colonies, began to unite the colonists against perceived and real constraints on their economic activities and political rights.
- Perceived and real is the CED being precise: some constraints existed, some were feared, and both mobilised people.
- Began to unite is careful too — union was a process, and 2.8 showed how different the regions were.
Select all four grounds for resistance the CED names.
The first is an argument made from inside the empire's own law.
Four grounds for resistance
- Colonial leaders based their calls for resistance to Britain on arguments about the rights of British subjects, the rights of the individual, local traditions of self-rule, and the ideas of the Enlightenment.
- The first ground is the striking one: the rights of British subjects — an argument made from inside the empire's own law.
- 2.7 explained where all four came from, and three of them arrived through Anglicisation.
'Perceived and real constraints' means...
The CED being precise, not vague.
Leaders and popular movements
- The effort for American independence was energised by colonial leaders such as Benjamin Franklin, as well as by popular movements that included the political activism of labourers, artisans, and women.
- The CED names a leader and three groups of ordinary participants in one sentence.
- So an answer built only on famous names has left out half of what the CED credits.
A policy, a ground for resistance, or a form of mobilisation?
Sort each element of the road to war.
Select all three groups of ordinary participants the CED names.
An answer built only on famous names leaves out half the credit.
"Perceived and real" is the CED being precise, not vague. Some constraints on colonial economic activity and political rights existed and some were feared — and both mobilised people, which is why the phrase is worth reproducing rather than trimming.
Select both conditions under which material support was given.
The unglamorous half of a war effort.
Mobilisation was material as well as political
- In the face of economic shortages and the British military occupation of some regions, men and women mobilised in large numbers to provide financial and material support to the Patriot movement.
- Financial and material support is the unglamorous half of a war effort, and the CED insists on it.
- It also names the conditions — shortages and occupation — under which that support was given.
The CED says these efforts ____ to unite the colonists — union was a process.
2.8 showed how different the regions were.
How policies led to war
- The objective is how British colonial policies regarding North America led to the Revolutionary War.
- The chain: taxation without representation and assertions of authority → a shared grievance across regions → arguments justifying resistance → mobilisation by leaders and ordinary people.
- Four links, each supplied by a CED bullet, and stating them in order is the answer.
An argument that begins "as English subjects we are entitled to…" is not a rejection of the empire; it is a demand to be treated by its own rules. It becomes a revolution only when the answer is no.
New British efforts to collect taxes without direct colonial representation or consent and to assert imperial authority... began to unite the colonists against perceived and real constraints on their economic activities and political rights. Resistance was argued from the rights of British subjects, the rights of the individual, local traditions of self-rule, and the ideas of the Enlightenment, and was energised by colonial leaders such as Benjamin Franklin, as well as by popular movements that included the political activism of labourers, artisans, and women, who provided financial and material support.