Ms. McEwan
U.S. History 2111
19 September 2016
French and Indian War (Political, Economic, and Social Effects) The French and Indian War had a big impact on why the colonies became more unified as Americans and more driven away from Britain due to different political, economic and social factors after the war. The war affected them politically because throughout it the colonists were trying to head west to escape British control. Colonists realized that they needed their own central authority. They were affected economically right after the war whenever Britain started imposing taxes on the colonies due to their staggering war debt. Lastly, the war affected the colonists socially because the colonists realized they could …show more content…
English colonies moved toward the upper Ohio Valley after the French surrendered. The British government was scared that any fighting between them and the colonists would interfere with Western trade, so they came up with the Proclamation of 1763. The Proclamation of 1763, “forbade settlers to advance beyond the Appalachian Mountains” (Brinkley 92). Most Indian tribes gave in and were okay with the Proclamation but the Cherokee didn’t share the same opinion. The Cherokee Indians continued to go past the Appalachian Mountains and wanted to put an end to the Proclamation. There wasn’t much that the English could do, so the Proclamation turned out to be ineffective. Due to Britain’s great debt after the war and all of the taxes on goods that they felt the colonists owed them, the American colonies realized how unfair it was. It made them realize that they needed a central authority of their own. At this time parliament did not represent the whole nation. The American colonies were thousands of miles away and were represented by Parliament in London. The colonists considered this to be “virtual” representation. They thought it was ridiculous that they were being represented by somebody that wasn’t even there. The representative would be way too behind on everything and not up to date with what was going on currently in the colonies. The colonists wanted an “actual” representative. …show more content…
Before the war there was hardly any common ground, and the colonies had no reliance on each other. The American colonists realized that they work better together. They realized that when they cooperate as a whole, they could achieve great things. They saw that when they are united, they could be powerful. “The war had an equally profound effect on the American colonies. It was an experience that forced them for the first time, to act in concert against a common foe” (Brinkley 90). Americans then learned to resent British rule and sought out independence. The British had always tried to control everything. They wanted to be the most powerful, but from the French and Indian War they learned that the colonists needed their own central government. By 1775, Britain and America viewed each other as two separate societies. The French and Indian War affected both the colonists and Britain in very different ways. They grew knowledge about each other and about themselves. The colonists learned that they wanted their own sovereign government, and Great Britain learned that they couldn’t completely control the colonies anymore. They saw that they didn’t work well together as a union. Without the war, this may have gone unnoticed, and we would never have become separate