Political and Social Change in the United States

A Brief History, with the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union, the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution of the United States, and the Amendments to the Constitution

Edd Applegate

• Publisher: Academica Press
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781680539554
• Topic: Política y relaciones internacionales
• Subtopic: Política

Through the prism of the U.S. Constitution and other foundational documents, Edd Applegate's Political and Social Changes in the United States will discuss major transformations in American social and political life since the Founding, beginning with England's expansion in North America, the War of Independence, and the early national period. It proceeds through industrialization, the Civil War, economic growth, progressivism, and the emergence of the United States on the world stage. It concludes with considerations of the Cold War and post-Cold War worlds and new threats and challenges to the United States and its institutions.

Chapter 1

Political and Social Change in England from 1660 to 1775

The year 1660 marked a dramatic change in English history.

Termed the year of the Restoration because King Charles II returned from his exile of 17 years, 1660 marked the beginning of what was to become an important age. Between the mid-1600s and the late 1700s, England grew into a neo-classical empire that saw a great influx of immigrants, continued expeditions to other countries, including America and India, and the rise of Parliament as a powerful force in the English political structure. However, this neo-classical age came to an end when

the coming of the industrial world due to industrial invention threw England into a revolution which brought in machinery and factories, changed the face of the landscape, expanded enormously the size of cities, and gave a profound shock to the existing habits of thought and outlook on life.¹

Restored to the throne, Charles II was not without critics. Although many believed his reign would be an exceptional one, within a few years they saw that he was interested more in what the French had to offer primarily because his exile had been in France than in what his English subjects needed.

Charles II, a Catholic, resigned himself to his ministers’ wishes and allowed them control of the government. As a result, the Church of England became more influential than Puritanism, which previously had been influential. After all, Oliver Cromwell, along with other Puritan leaders, had died.

Under Charles II, English citizens, particularly those living in London, experienced several major calamities that changed their lives. For instance, the bubonic plague killed thousands of citizens in 1665. The Great Fire of London, which immediately followed, destroyed thousands of buildings and killed thousands of citizens as well. A war with the Dutch Republic erupted in the mid-1660s, and an anti-Catholic rebellion occurred in the late 1670s. As if these were not grave enough, the King failed to produce an heir to the throne.

When Charles II died in 1685, his brother, James II, succeeded him as King and for three years flaunted his Catholicism. The Duke of Monmouth, who was Charles II’s natural but illegitimate son, attempted to overthrow James II and was subsequently executed. Tensions between persons of different religions mounted until the King issued a Declaration of Indulgence which granted citizens of England the freedom of worship. Protestants had believed that the successor to the throne would be Mary, the King’s daughter as well as an Anglican who had married William of Orange. When they realized that the King’s newborn son, a baptized Catholic, might become King, they immediately rebelled. Consequently, James II lost his throne in 1688 to William and Mary.

Although William and Mary were welcomed to the throne, Parliament exercised its power, and William and Mary had to accept a Bill of Rights. No longer did a King or Queen have power because of his or her heredity. Rather, the power was granted by Parliament. However, the two-party system—Tories and Whigs (Cavaliers and Puritans), which had appeared during Cromwell’s reign—failed to have an impact on English rule until after Mary’s death in 1695 and William’s death in 1702, when Mary’s sister, Anne, became Queen.

During Anne’s reign, a bitter struggle for power between the two parties erupted. Under the leadership of Robert Harley, Earl of Oxford, and Henry St. John, Viscount Bolingbroke, the Tories got control. When Anne died in 1714, the Whigs came to power and drove out the Tories.

When Anne died in 1714, Parliament demanded the next Queen or King be a Protestant. George, who became George I, King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain (England and Scotland had united under Anne’s reign), was the only Protestant heir. George, who was the son of Sophia of Hanover, Germany, the granddaughter of James I, was not particularly interested in political affairs. Thus Parliament had a free hand. When George II succeeded his father to the throne in 1727, he, too, was disenchanted with English government. He was succeeded by his son, George III, in 1760, during the Seven Years’ War (1756-1763) in which England successfully acquired Canada from France. George III tried to be a better King than his father and grandfather, but he failed to realize that England’s colonial philosophy, which affected America, Canada, and India, was creating tensions abroad, especially in America.

* * *

During this period many English citizens contracted one or more diseases probably because of unsanitary conditions and the improper storage of food, not to mention rodents. Furthermore, personal hygiene was not a high priority. As if disease was not terrible enough, thieves, including highwaymen, robbed and even murdered citizens who tried to ride to town. Citizens who lived in London also experienced hardship and tragedy. For the most part, the thousands of buildings that burned in the Great Fire were inferior in construction and maintenance when compared to today’s structures. Citizens, particularly those who lived in rural areas, since they seldom rode to town to hear the latest gossip, were illiterate and backward, socially speaking. Those who lived in London had to walk or ride on dirty streets. If they shopped at stores or visited coffee-houses, they did so during the day. During the night thieves and even murderers roamed the streets searching for victims.

Nonetheless, Britain prospered—first, from a large trade in the import and export of colonial produce; second, from a large trade in the export of agricultural produce such as grain; and third, from the Industrial Revolution. After the Great Fire, the citizenry eventually became enlightened from frequent visits to coffee-houses rebuilt of stone. Although problems such as war with another country plagued the Empire, the Empire survived. Even the internal bickering between Tory and Whig and Parliament and King could not destroy the nation or its people.

Notes:

1. George B. Woods, Homer A. Watt, George K. Anderson, and Earl J. Holzknecht, The Literature of England: An Anthology and History (Chicago: Scott, Foresman and Co., 1958), 812.

References:

Bright, J. Franck. A History of England: Period III: Constitutional Monarchy: William and Mary to William IV: 1689-1837. London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1913.

Hoppit, Julian. A Land of Liberty? England 1689-1727. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000.

Jones, J. R. Britain and the World, 1649-1845. Brighton, Sussex: Havester Press, 1980.

Jones, J. R. The Restored Monarchy, 1660-1688. London: Macmillan, 1979.

Kearney, Hugh. The British Isles: A History of Four Nations. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995.

Morgan, Kenneth O., ed. The Oxford Illustrated History of Britain. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009.

Quinn, David Beers. England and the Discovery of America: 1481-1620. New York: Knopf, 1974.

Schama, Simon. A History of Britain. New York: Hyperion, 2000.

Chapter 2

Political and Social Change in the American Colonies from 1660 to 1783

Although James I of England was responsible for establishing his country’s first colony—Virginia—in North America in 1607, Charles II furthered his country’s interest in North America. Eventually, English colonies occupied the Atlantic coast from Canada to Florida. For instance, Pennsylvania was founded in 1681, and Philadelphia, which was founded a year later, became the greatest river port in the colonies. The Carolinas, which had been settled before Pennsylvania was founded, had numerous plantations that were developed by overseers and farmed by slaves from Africa.¹ The chartered colonies became Crown colonies, and governors appointed by the Crown replaced proprietors or managers. The influx of Puritans and Cavaliers increased the colonies’ population,² and the American Indians were eventually stripped of their land.

The 13 English Colonies

Year Founded	Colony
1607	Virginia (Jamestown)
1620	Massachusetts (Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay Colony)
1626	New York (New Amsterdam, which was annexed by the English)
1633	Maryland
1636	Rhode Island
1636	Connecticut
1638	Delaware (New Sweden, which was annexed by the Dutch and then the English)
1638	New Hampshire
1653	North Carolina
1663	South Carolina
1664	New Jersey
1682	Pennsylvania
1732	Georgia

Other colonies such as Georgia were founded. However, the colonists were hemmed in by the French and the American Indians, and England, although it was the mother country, failed to help the colonists in their struggle to survive. Instead, laws were enacted to prohibit colonists from selling anything other than agricultural goods to England. Yet, colonists in the North caught fish, cut timber, hunted wildlife for furs, and even produced rum and beer, among other goods. Colonists in the South grew cotton, rice, sugar, and tobacco, among other crops. Concurrently, whenever something was purchased it had to come from England. Tariffs were placed on certain imports to keep the colonists from buying those products. Still, laws were passed to limit what could be produced such as iron.

According to colonists, one King or Queen was as evil as the next. Indeed, it made little difference whether James II, William and Mary, Anne, George I, George II, or George III reigned. The colonists’ problems remained the same. Nonetheless, they had to be happy when England won the Seven Years’ War or what is commonly called the French and Indian War in the American colonies. As a result of its victory against France, the British Empire got Canada, among other areas. Subsequently, colonists’ fear of being invaded by France was eliminated.

However, as a result of England’s debt because of the war, the Crown and Parliament restricted expansion as well as limited trade in North America. In addition, they passed various acts to raise revenue. For instance, the Stamp Act, which imposed a tax on all paper documents, was passed in 1765. Other acts, including the Townshend Acts, which taxed products imported to the colonies, followed. The colonists grew angry. They realized England was taxing them for revenue. Yet, as more than one patriot pointed out, they had no representation in Parliament. Eventually, several writers persuaded the colonists to unite and boycott goods from England.

In 1770, after English soldiers fired into a group of angry colonial protestors, killing five of them, Parliament repealed some of the legislation. However, other measures were enacted to serve the same purpose as the acts. Three years later Parliament passed the Tea Act, which was responsible for the rebellious Boston Tea Party. Subsequently, Parliament passed the Intolerable Acts. The colonists had had enough. Indeed, those living in Massachusetts armed themselves for combat.

Delegates from 12 colonies attended the First Continental Congress in Philadelphia in 1774 and pledged to defend Massachusetts. The Congress also made demands on England which the country ignored. When Governor Tho...