Why america separated from england

Just three years earlier at Great Alamance Creek, 2, Tar Heel farmers called Regulators had led an uprising, the largest armed rebellion in any English colony to that time. They wanted to "regulate" the governor's corrupt local officials, who were charging huge fees and seizing property. The royal governor, William Tryon , and his militia crushed the rebellion at the Battle of Alamance. Another problem beneath the surface calm lay with the large African and American Indian populations.

Many in these two groups hated their low positions in a society dominated by powerful whites. Some white colonists believed that if a war with England broke out, these other Tar Heels would support the king in hopes of gaining more control over their own lives. Finally, Tar Heels knew that other colonies were continuing to resist English control. In , colonists in Boston, Massachusetts, had thrown shipments of tea into the harbor rather than pay Parliament's taxes on the tea.

The Boston Tea Party aroused all the colonies against Parliament, which was continuing to show its scorn for the colonists' welfare. In June , the Massachusetts legislature issued a call for all of the colonies to meet at Philadelphia to consider these problems. But Royal Governor Josiah Martin refused to call a meeting of North Carolina's legislature in time to select delegates to go to Philadelphia. So the colony's Whigs those who favored independence formed a provincial congress that sent representatives to the Continental Congress in Philadelphia in September.

The movement against English rule spread rapidly. In April British soldiers, called lobsterbacks because of their red coats, and minutemen—the colonists' militia—exchanged gunfire at Lexington and Concord in Massachusetts. Described as "the shot heard round the world," it signaled the start of the American Revolution and led to the creation of a new nation.

North Carolina joined the war the following month. Eight days later, Governor Martin became the first royal governor in the colonies to flee office. In July he had to leave the fort and fled to the safety of a British ship anchored offshore. For eight years the Old North State was the scene of suffering caused by the war for independence. There were deaths and injuries, terrible shortages of food and warm clothing, destruction and loss of property, and constant fear.

While soldiers fought the war on the field, North Carolina's public leaders fought for independence, too. In April North Carolina's provincial congress met at Halifax and decided to send a message to the Continental Congress.

The group called for all the colonies to proclaim their independence from Great Britain. These Halifax Resolves were the first official action by any colony calling for a united drive for independence.

Now there was no turning back. Once the members of the Continental Congress signed the Declaration of Independence, only the spilling of much blood would settle the matter. But North Carolinians were greatly divided. There was bitter combat between the Whigs and Tories those loyal to England , each trying to force the other to their views or at least to stop them from helping the other side. John Adams, who became the second president of the United States, said that in the Revolution one third of the people were Whigs, one third Tories, and one third did not take either side.

This was not exactly true for all colonies, of course, and perhaps North Carolina had more Whigs than Tories. In the midst of war, and with a divided population, North Carolina began trying to create a new government. The king's governor had fled. If the king were no longer the sovereign, the center of authority and order, then who would be?

Where would the government come from? All the colonies faced this problem. They knew about English law and understood about governors, legislators, and judges. The new "twist" in was the practice of placing the power of government in the people rather than in a monarch.

The questions of how this popular sovereignty would be expressed through elections, and how often, and who would be eligible to vote, would become areas of considerable debate.

In November the provincial congress at Halifax met to draft a bill of rights and a constitution and to create a new government for the state. First, the Declaration of Rights was adopted, and on the following day the new constitution was accepted. The Declaration of Rights guaranteed personal freedoms—the right to choose one's form of religious worship, to write and say what one believed, and to hold peaceful public meetings, among others.

The constitution provided for a form of government with three equal branches: an executive to run the state government, a legislative to make the laws, and a judicial to enforce the laws. For reasons of our own we teamed up with him in His fleet was smashed by Nelson at Trafalgar and a British army gave him the final knockout blow at Waterloo.

Britain emerged from the struggle so powerful that it could have kept all the French, Spanish, Dutch, and Danish colonies it had captured. But Britain had no enthusiasm for large-scale empire building. Its only interest was in naval bases and ports of call. It kept strategically placed Singapore and Malta, and the Dutch colonies of Ceylon, Guiana, and the Cape of Good Hope, but returned the rich spice islands.

Of the French possessions it retained only Mauritius and three West Indian islands. In this way Britain further fortified the sea lanes along which its merchantmen must travel to its own colonies or to foreign markets and increased its ability to protect those colonies and ships against any naval power that might challenge it in the future.

No such power did challenge it for nearly a century, until Germany, having become a large industrial nation, resolved to be a great naval and imperial power as well. For just under a hundred years, —, the world at large enjoyed a period of peace. In such a world the British Empire could move easily along the three lines already laid down, as an empire of settlement, of trading posts or areas, and of naval bases or ports of call.

Force played its part at some points, as it did in our own westward movement which was taking place at the same time. British school history books list about a score of noteworthy colonial wars, chiefly in India and Africa. Yet the use of military force for spreading political control over new areas was less important than was the energy with which explorers, missionaries, traders, settlers, shipowners, miners, and railroad builders swarmed to the frontiers and there went about their self-chosen tasks.

Sometimes settlement and trade followed the flag. Quite as frequently, however, the flag followed the settler and the trader, either because they cried out for its protection or because they clamored for its support in their desire to expand their field of operations. All this energy at the circumference was matched by abounding vigor at the center. For in Britain there was a rapidly increasing population which was discovering new methods of manufacturing vast quantities of good cheap articles.

It was building the ships to take them out. It was developing the banks and trading firms to handle the business. It was saving money to invest abroad.

And it was ready, willing, and able to absorb whatever foods or raw materials the colonists—or anybody else—cared to send to British ports. It was this private enterprise of men at the hub and on the rim, rather than the plans of London governments—which for much of the time were apathetic toward imperial affairs—that made the Empire grow as it did.

Settlement went ahead in Canada and Australia. After South Africa began to attract a few British settlers.

Some Afrikanders Dutch South Africans did not like them, their rulers, or their opposition to slavery, and moved into the interior. New Zealand began to attract settlers after The story in these four regions is very much like our own, except that we could move overland while the British colonists had to make a long jump overseas before they began to swarm over the new land.

None of the areas was so rich in resources as was the United States, and progress was therefore much slower as well as smaller. Gold discoveries, the building of railroads, the importation of capital, the rise of manufactures, the coming of the steamship, good times and lean years all played their part.

Staple commodities—lumber, wheat, wool, and metals, and later dairy produce, meats, fruit, and other perishables—were produced and exported, chiefly to Britain. In all areas government came close on the heels of the frontiersmen, if it was not there first. Since the colonists insisted on having a share in making or administering the laws, self-government and democratic institutions spread.

Today the empire of settlement in North America, Africa, and Australasia covers about 9,, square miles. It contains about 24,, people of European origin, of whom 12,, are in Canada and 9,, in Australasia. Canada started with Frenchmen and Americans. Then the British were the chief immigrants till about Since then there has been a large influx from the United States and from Continental Europe. In South Africa half the 2,, white people are of Dutch stock, half of British.

There are 7,, natives, and nearly 1,, people whose ancestors were Asiatic. The empire of trading posts or areas grew during the nineteenth century. The British had an expanding output of manufactured goods to sell and hence could buy far more of the produce of Asia and Africa.

India supplied the jute needed for sacks and bags. Its black tea displaced green China tea in popularity. Its indigo was in growing demand, and it had a surplus of cotton and wheat for expert. In return India became a market for British factory-made cotton goods, hardware, machines, and railroad equipment.

It grew to be the largest single customer for British manufactures. The development of its resources and railroads was a fertile field for British investments of capital.

And its exports of bulky commodities provided freight for a great part of the British merchant marine. Chaos and anarchy forced the East India Company to pass from trading to ruling. That passage was long. An unexpected error has occurred with your sign up.

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