Notes

THE UNEASY CONNECTION: BRITISH COLONIAL THEORY AND
PRACTICE IN NORTH AMERICA BEFORE THE REVOLUTION
I. Introduction
A. Here, we will examine the imperial relationship between the colonies and Great Britain in the century from 1660 to 1760 so
that we might better understand the preconditions of the American Revolution.
B. One might think that the Revolution happened very suddenly - that is that the relationship between Britain and her colonies
prior to the Stamp Act Crisis (1765-66) was basically satisfactory to both sides,but that with that act everything changed.
Scholars who have taken this view have focused primarily on one question: why in a little more than a dozen years after 1763
did the colonists became so estranged from Britain to take up arms against her and declare independence.
C. Preoccupation with the period 1763-1776 has left a more important question unanswered: what was the imperial relationship
like in the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries and what changed in the 1750s and 1760s to alter that relationship and
open the way for independence.
D. When one looks closely at the relationship between Britain and the colonies during the century from 1660 to 1760, one
discovers that it was in many respects an uneasy connection. The British theoriezed about their colonial system one way: it was
to be centralized in the Crown-in-Parliament in London. However, the colonial practice was quite different: in practice the
colonies were “pockets of approximate independece” - they were handling a substantial portion of their internal affairs and
ruling themselves without London’s interference.
E. When the Great War for the Empire ended with the close of the French and Indian War in 1763, the British sought to
exercise their central power to raise revenue in the colonies, while the colonies that had been ruling themselves sought to keep
power in their locality.
F. So, here we will look at the British colonial theory, the colonial practice in North America, and the Great War for the
Empire, which brought the discrepancy between the theory and practice into the open: these are the preconditions of the
American Revolution.
II. Theory
A. The British Colonial Theory held that the system should be absolutely centralized. All power should reside in London with the
British Crown-in-Parliament.
B. The question we will concern ourselves with here is: why did the British have this conception of the Empire.
C. Five main reasons for centralized theory.