Britain gained a great deal of territory in North America after the Seven Years’ War. Governing the new territory was a difficult task. British officials tried to balance the interests of colonists and those of American Indian people. But there were many conflicts. Colonists became more and more unhappy with British rule. This was one of the causes of the American Revolution.
Claims on western land
The Treaty of Paris of 1763 ended the Seven Years’ War. It gave Great Britain control of Canada and territory east of present-day Mississippi. British-American colonists traveled across the Appalachian Mountains after the war. They hoped to find new lands to colonize. Many of these settlers had no official claim to the land. The American Indian people who lived there hadn't ceded it. They already lived on and used the land. Often, the land was claimed by private land companies like the Transylvania Company in North Carolina. Wealthy Virginians, in particular, had invested in these companies. The colony of Virginia claimed the entire Ohio Valley as its territory. The colonial government granted land west of the Appalachians to companies that speculated in the land. Speculating meant buying the land in advance and then selling it to settlers a few years later. This process of buying and selling brought companies profit. Many of the men who controlled Virginia's government had invested in those companies. That’s also why they supported the British lowering tensions in the west.
White colonists moving west of the Appalachians created problems. It worsened tensions between them and the American Indian people who already lived there. British military officials attempted to stop settlement. But eager settlers and land speculators ignored them. The military wasn't willing to remove these settlers by force.
British officials made the situation worse. They alienated, or cut off, American Indian nations who had supported France during the Seven Years’ War. During the war, the French government had spent a great deal of money on gifts to their American Indian allies. Gifts were a standard part of American Indian diplomacy. They were a way to open discussions on a friendly and equal basis. After the war, British forces took over former French forts and stopped the practice of gift-giving. This antagonized American Indian leaders.
The Proclamation of 1763
Pontiac was the leader of the Ottawa tribe. He wanted to respond to western settlement and Britain’s taking of his tribe’s land. So, Pontiac began coordinating an attack on British forts. Other tribal leaders supported this idea. He created a system to distribute the message about his plan. The news was encoded in wampum belts. Pontiac's message reached communities as far as the present-day Midwest. The attacks caught British settlers and soldiers by surprise. The British called this war “Pontiac’s Rebellion.” They lost all their western forts except for Fort Pitt and Detroit. British military officials at these forts had been warned ahead of the attack.
News of the rebellion reached London. The government decided to reserve western lands for American Indian nations like the Ottawa. The Royal Proclamation of 1763 banned settlement beyond the line of the Appalachian Mountains. Land west of the Appalachians and south of the Ohio River became an American Indian reserve, or protected lands. This includes all of present-day Kentucky and Tennessee. The act also created the area of Quebec, West Florida, and East Florida. But there was no way to enforce the proclamation. It did not stop settlement. The proclamation only angered the groups that had speculated in western land. These were the settlers and political elite.
The Quebec Act
A treaty with Pontiac did not end British troubles in the west. The British government would continue to anger white settlers and speculators. This happened even after the Proclamation of 1763. In 1774, Parliament passed the Quebec Act. The act intended to keep French Canadians happy. It restored French civil law and allowed Catholics to hold office. The Quebec Act also brought Quebec under direct control of the British king. It also extended Quebec’s borders south to the Ohio River.
The Quebec Act angered the Virginia elite. They had already “claimed” the western lands. After this act, this land officially became part of Quebec or the American Indian reserve. This act was passed at the same time that the Massachusetts' charter was repealed. As a result, tensions between Britain and the colonies continued to escalate. Calvinist New Englanders also saw the Quebec Act as encouraging Catholicism, which they did not support. They saw the act as supporting autocratic power. This meant putting absolute power in the hands of the king. Furthermore, Calvinists in New England saw the act as part of a British conspiracy. They thought Britain was trying to destroy colonists' freedom.
Toward the Revolution
The American Revolution also included conflicts between white settlers and American Indian nations. The Continental Congress tried to make alliances with many different nations. Very few were successful. Many different American Indian nations fought against settler encroachments on their land. Nations like the Shawnee and Cherokee fought for many years to protect lands that they used. Most American Indian nations saw the British military as the better ally in this conflict. Only the Oneida and Tuscarora Nations sided with the colonists. These two tribes belonged to the Haudenosaunee (pronounced ho-den-o-sho-nee) nation (also known as the Six Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy).
Frontiersmen, Virginia land speculators, and New Englanders joined forces against unpopular British policies. Alliances grew with other colonists who were also angered by British taxation. Together, they opposed British rule. The groups would eventually declare their independence.
