29 Dec The Seven Years’ War, the American

HIST553 History of Colonial America

Week 7 Forum

The Seven Years’ War, the American Revolution and the Aftermath

In the required reading for this week, Gipson states

In accounting for the radical change in attitude of many leading colonials between the years 1754 and 1774 respecting the nature of the constitution of the empire, surely among the factors that must be weighed was the truly overwhelming victory achieved in the Great War for the Empire. This victory not only freed colonials for the first time in the history of the English-speaking people in the New World from dread of the French, their Indian allies, and the Spaniards, but, what is of equal significance, opened up to them the prospect, if given freedom of action, of a vast growth of power and wealth with an amazing westward expansion. Indeed, it is abundantly clear that a continued subordination of the colonies to the government of Great Britain was no longer considered an asset in the eyes of many Americans by 1774, as it had been so judged by them to be in 1754, but rather an onerous liability.

What exactly is Gipson stating in this thesis? Like last week, please use your own voice to put this into historical perspective. Please use the reading but also include any other historical terms/events that you may know about this period. An overarching question to guide you is “how did this era change the geography, politics and identity of the specific Colonies?”