AMERICA:
1763-1776
The British on the
Frontier
Summary
Britain's need for revenue continued even
after France was ejected from North America, primarily because of continuing
struggles with the Native Americans. The conflict between the French and
British had kept each side trying to gain the Indians' loyalty through gifts
and concessions. However, once France left North America the British stopped
giving these gifts to the tribes, and squatters from the colonies began to
settle on Indian lands. The Native Americans, in turn, feared the British would
support these movements. Tensions rose and both sides prepared for a long
battle.
An Indian prophet from the Delaware tribe,
named Neolin, attracted a large following among the natives, calling for a
complete rejection of all things European, including culture and alliances.
Pontiac, an Ottawa Indian, was another proponent of anti-British action. During
the summer of 1763, he led the Ottawas in attacks against British forts around
the great lakes, eight of which they successfully sacked. His efforts
continued, but over the coming years conditions declined. The Ottawas
experienced shortages of food and ammunition, and a smallpox epidemic broke out
after the British deliberately distributed infected blankets as a peace
offering. Finally, the hobbled Indians made peace with the British in 1766.
In efforts to conciliate the Indians, the
British government issued the Proclamation of 1763 on October 7, 1763. The
proclamation declared that all land transactions made to the west of the
Appalachian crest would be governed by the British government rather than by
the colonies. The British vowed to respect Native American land rights and
stringently control colonial expansion.
As a result of the increased tension in North
America, especially between the Native Americans and the British, the British
government decided that rather than recall its entire army, 10,000 troops would
remain behind to protect the empire's interests in the newly acquired
territory. The British troops intimidated Indians, the remaining French, and
the Spanish, all of which challenged Britain in certain areas of the continent.
As it turned out, the troops also intimidated the colonists, some of whom
reacted negatively to the decision to leave troops in North America. The
expense for maintaining North American operations, including payment and
supplies for troops, and the establishment of civil governments in Canada and
Florida, totaled about six percent of Britain's peacetime budget. The British
thought it was reasonable for the colonists to share in this expense, and began
to deliberate on how best to tax the colonies. Most colonists, on the other
hand, considered the payment of soldiers in North America and the establishment
of colonial governments to be none of their responsibility.
Commentary
The history of the colonization of North
America is also the history of forced western migration for the continent's
Native Americans. Constantly at odds with the settlers on the continent, the
tribes had relied on their ability to play the major powers of France and Britain
against each other to maintain their land claims west of the Appalachians.
However, once France no longer occupied a large geographical area, this option
disappeared. They feared that with all land east of the Mississippi in British
hands, the British colonists along the east coast would rapidly move westward,
and drive them further from their land. When colonial squatters did start to
move into the western lands, the Indians saw no option but to react strongly.
However, the lack of communication between tribes and the resulting lack in
coordinated action made them easy prey for the British soldiers.
The Proclamation of 1763 was an attempt by the
British government to restore order to colonial expansion, which until then had
been left to the colonies themselves to regulate. The Proclamation was intended
to assuage the fears of the Indian tribes by recognizing all existing Indian
land titles everywhere west of the "proclamation line" until tribal
governments agreed to cede the lands through treaties. The wording of the
proclamation made it clear that the British expected the tribes to cede their
lands at some point in the future, and that the British government intended to
regulate, not stop, westward expansion. Though the proclamation calmed the
Indians' fears to an extent, the colonists saw it as an unjust invasion of
their rights, and decried its slowing effect on expansion. After the British
became the controlling power in North America, many colonists had grown excited
about the prospects of settling in the west, and expansion was universally
considered to be the path to prosperity. The Proclamation of 1763 was added to
the growing litany of British impositions, which the colonists complained
restricted their freedoms.
Another British imposition on the colonies was
the maintenance of British armed forces in North America after the close of the
war. These troops appeared to many colonists as evidence of a British desire to
install a standing army in the American colonies for the purpose of controlling
the traditionally somewhat independent Americans. The troops seemed the
manifestation of a British desire to have a stronger hand in the affairs of the
colonies, especially in their role as enforcers of the Proclamation of 1763,
which they undertook with vigor.
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