Professional Documents
Culture Documents
enlightenment
a. The Enlightenment was a European cultural movement that emphasized
the power of human reason to shape the world and challenged the status
quo in science, mathematics, religion, and government. The movement,
which appealed especially to well-educated men and women from
merchant or planter families and to urban artisans, promoted independent
thinking and transformed American intellectual and cultural life.
3. George whitefield
a. A young English evangelist, George Whitefield, transformed local
religious revivals into a "Great Awakening" that spanned the mainland
British American settlements. Using his compelling personal presence to
captivate his listeners, Whitefield preached to huge crowds from Georgia
to Massachusetts.
4. Great awakening
a. The Great Awakening created tension and caused splits in religious
denominations between traditionalists (Old Lights) and supporters of
revivalism (New Lights) who questioned the views of established
churches. These divisions tore into the fabric of society and caused many
settlers to question the status quo, first in religion and then in other areas,
including political life.
a. The last of the wars for empire between England and France began in
America when Virginians moved into the Ohio River Valley, where France
had been active in the fur trade. Within two years the war spread to Europe
and then became worldwide in scope. The Great War for Empire resolved
forever the competition between Great Britain and France to determine
which country would be the dominant European power in North America.
i. To shore up the alliance with the Iroquois Nations that had begun
to unravel, in part because of escalating Anglo-American demand
for Indian lands, the Board of Trade called for an intercolonial
meeting with the Indians at Albany, New York, in June 1754. At
the meeting the American delegates assured the Iroquois that they
had no designs on their lands and asked for their assistance against
the French. To bolster colonial defenses, Benjamin Franklin
proposed a Plan of Union that would include a continental
assembly to manage all western affairs: trade, Indian policy, and
defense. The Plan of Union never materialized because both the
provincial assemblies and the imperial government feared that
colonial collaboration would undermine their authority.
7. Great war
In 1756 the French and Indian War spread to Europe, where the conflict
aligned Britain and Prussia against France, Spain, and Austria. Britain mounted
major offenses in India and West Africa as well as in North America and the West
Indies, transforming the conflict into a war for empire in which Britain was
determined to crush France, its main obstacle to further imperial expansion.
8. Canada
a. William Pitt's imperial strategy in the French and Indian War was to take
control of French strongholds along the St. Lawrence River. The capture
of Quebec opened the way to control of the valley and proved to be the
turning point of the war. When Montreal fell to British arms in 1760, the
British conquest of Canada was complete.
9. Land conflict