What happened in 1776?

What happened in 1776? In 1776, The Declaration of Independence occurred for the Americans. It is a great day especially an independence day for all the Americans and the people who nationally live in the United States of America.
In this year, the Americans were officially released and independent from France. It was done by the sacrifices of many people including many political leaders.

Helmets of Soldiers

What actually happened in 1776?

By issuing the Declaration of Independence, adopted by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776. They got this by the 13 American colonies severed their political connections to Great Britain. This Declaration totally summarized and explained the motive of the colonists for independence. By declaring themselves an independent nation, the American assistance officially confronted their alliance to the Government of France and obtain French assistance in the war against Great Britain.

Throughout the 1760s and early 1770s, the North American colonists were curious. They found themselves increasingly at odds with British imperial policies regarding taxation and frontier policy. The repetition of the processes by the Americans failed to affect Brtish. Instead, it resulted in the closing of the port of Boston and the declaration of martial law in Massachusetts, the colonial governments sent delegates to a Continental Congress to coordinate a colonial boycott of British goods.

When fighting broke out between American colonists and British forces in Massachusetts. The Continental Congress worked with local groups. It was originally intended to enforce the boycott as it was to coordinate resistance against the British. British officials throughout the colonies increasingly found their authority challenged by informal local governments, although they knew that the British locals were stronger.

Despite these changes, colonial leaders hoped to reconcile with the British Government, and all but the most radical members of Congress were unwilling to declare independence. However, in late 1775, Benjamin Franklin did a very good deed. He was a member of the Secret Committee of Correspondence, hinted to French agents and other European sympathizers that the colonies were increasingly leaning towards seeking independence. While perhaps true, Franklin also hoped to convince the French to supply the colonists with aid. Independence would be necessary, however, before French officials would consider the possibility of an alliance.

Remaining Progresses :point_down:

:writing_hand: Throughout the winter of 1775–1776, the members of the Continental Congress came to view reconciliation with Britain as unlikely, and independence the only course of action available to them. When on December 22, 1775, the British Parliament prohibited trade with the colonies, Congress responded in April of 1776 by opening colonial ports this was a major step towards severing ties with Britain.

The colonists were aided by the January publication of Thomas Paine’s pamphlet Common Sense, which advocated the colonies’ independence and was widely distributed throughout the colonies. By February of 1776, colonial leaders were discussing the possibility of forming foreign alliances and began to draft the Model Treaty that would serve as a basis for the 1778 alliance with France.

Leaders for the cause of independence wanted to make certain that they had sufficient congressional support before they would bring the issue to the vote. On June 7, 1776, Richard Henry Lee introduced a motion in Congress to declare independence. Other members of Congress were amenable but thought some colonies not quite ready. However, Congress did form a committee to draft a declaration of independence and assigned this duty to Thomas Jefferson.

What happened with the draft? :book:

Benjamin Franklin and John Adams reviewed Jefferson’s draft. They preserved its original form but struck passages likely to meet with controversy or skepticism, most notably passages blaming King George III for the transatlantic slave trade and those blaming the British people rather than their government. The committee presented the final draft before Congress on June 28, 1776, and Congress adopted the final text of the Declaration of Independence on July 4.

The British Government did its best to dismiss the Declaration as a trivial document issued by disgruntled colonists. British officials commissioned propagandists to highlight the declaration’s flaws and to rebut the colonists’ complaints. The Declaration divided British domestic opposition, as some American sympathizers thought the Declaration had gone too far, but in British-ruled Ireland it had many supporters.

The Declaration’s most important diplomatic effect was to allow for recognition of the United States by friendly foreign governments. The Sultan of Morocco mentioned American ships in a consular document in 1777, but Congress had to wait until the 1778 Treaty of Alliance with France for formal recognition of U.S. independence. The Netherlands acknowledged U.S. independence in 1782. Although Spain joined the war against Great Britain in 1779, it did not recognize U.S. independence until the 1783 Treaty of Paris. Under the terms of the treaty, which ended the War of the American Revolution, Great Britain officially acknowledged the United States as a sovereign and independent nation.

old books

What happened after the Independence of America in 1776? :thinking:

Both in Area and character the Empire that grew into the Commonwealth is completely different from the one we left 170 years ago which was greatly influenced. It can be called a brand new one but not quite so. Their Revolution weakened the first Empire but did not destroy it. Thirteen American colonies revolted which led to a very big conflict. But fortunately, only seventeen of them remained loyal. Most of these were the West Indian Islands. The others included Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, and Quebec, while in the remote north the Hudson’s Bay Company had its fur trading stations.

Outside America, the old Empire consisted of two main slave-trading posts or points in West Africa. They were; a spice buyers’ depo in Sumatra, following with ports of call at St. Helena and the Falkland Islands and the naval base at Gibraltar. There was all some territory that was under the strong control of East India Company. This catalog of colonies was not impressive. Their Revolution had reduced the Empire’s white population from 2,000,000 to about 170,000. Collectively, including a half, these were French Canadians. Therefore, there were also some curious Britons who felt that they were used and there was nothing left in this game.

It was a very notorious moment because spending to defend and to make the countries strong even though they were able to break away is not so normal. Other local colonies always wanted to follow the examples which were set by the ungrateful thirteen. Take an apple, for instance, they drop down when they are fully grown like when kids move out when they are grown up. This value of the concerning doubt of an empire influenced British policies and multiples for almost a century which is a very long period time. It is 100% true that the British did not abandon the empire-building, but yes they the hope of ruling it.

World trade was a hot topic at that time which attracted the British towards itself but for a long period of time, their colonies provided only a small fraction of that particular commerce. Until the latter part of the nineteenth-century debates on colonial questions were pointless and listless. It was said that any Political party can lose a colony instead of gaining votes in the House of Commons. None of the large sums of money were provided for development overseas. Though the post of the secretary of state for the colonies was one of the least and ignored attractive cabinet offices.

The Rule of the New British Empire

When they drove out those colonists who remained loyal to England during the Revolution, over 30,000 of them made their homes in Nova Scotia or in the new colony of New Brunswick which was next door to Maine. About 6,000 others were well settled among the French Canadians in Quebec or in the great wilderness of Upperside of Canada which is now the province of Ontario. The latter was the muscular backwoodsmen who belonged from upstate New York. They knew how to create farms out of the forest lands that were given to them because of their expertise and experience. Then they wrote to their friends back home in the United States to come and join them.

The invitation was eagerly accepted by thousands who were more interested in the quality and truly in the low price of the land underfoot than in the pattern on the flag overhead. By 1812 this great migration had given the Upper side of Canada a great population of 80,000 people. Yet when they tried to capture and to get Canada under their control in the War of 1812, there was little fifth-column help up there. British North America had become strong enough, with help of aid from Britain, to preserve their best qualities and give out the rough ones which led to a strong creation of a dominion that eventually stretched from the Atlantic to the Pacific.

Their Revolution had another influenced effect on the British Empire. British judges had for a long time been sentencing minor offenders some bad “transportation” to some overseas colony which was totally against their laws. When the Revolution stopped these shipments to their shores. A new destination was about to be found. Some wise men remembered that in 1770 the great British explorer, Captain Cook, had officially discovered fertile land on the east coasts of the Australian region.

When a batch of convicts and their guards landed there in 1788 to find some workers, Australia got its first settlers which gave a sign of success. Soon after that, fast grazing lands full of sheep were being discovered which led to a very big trading market of wool. Free settlers went out to supplement and then supplant the “transportees.” By 1850, Australia officially had become the fastest and largest wool producer around the continent which obviously led to a very huge and probably the largest market of cotton and its trade.

crown of old times

Spoils of the Napoleonic Wars

While they actually stimulated these two developments, the French provided the third one. From 1793 to 1815 France had been kept between a gigantic struggle. At that time, Napoleon virtually had all Continental Europe under his reign or on his side to defend him. For reasons of their own, they teamed up with him in 1812. Yet British sea power, backed by a strong home front, wrecked Napoleon’s dreams of world dominion. His fleet was smashed by Nelson at Trafalgar and a British army gave him the final knockout ■■■■ at Waterloo.

Britain had been so powerful after the struggle that they could easily capture French, Spanish, Dutch, and Danish colonies and make them under their control and reign. But Britain had not planned to create such large-scale empire building. They had only been interested in the Naval bases and ports of call. It kept strategically placed Singapore and Malta, and the Dutch colonies of Ceylon, Guiana, and the Cape of Good Hope, and returned the rich spice islands. Out of the French possessions, it had only retained Mauritius and three West Indian islands. In this way, Britain further fortified the sea lanes along which its merchantmen must travel to its own colonies or to foreign markets and increased its ability to protect those colonies and ships against any naval power that might challenge it in the future.

Enterprise and expansion

In such a type of World, the British could easily be laid down along the three moving lines, which were as an empire of settlement, of trading posts or areas, and of naval bases or ports of call. Force played its vital role at some major points as they did their own westward movement which was about to take place at the same time. British School of History has a large variety of books that have information about noteworthy colonial wars, chiefly in India and Africa.

Hence the use of military force for spreading political control over new areas was a little less important than was the energy with which explorers, missionaries, traders, settlers, shipowners, miners, and railroad builders swarmed to the frontiers, and there went about their self-chosen tasks. However, sometimes the trade and settlements completely followed the flag. Frequently flag also did follow the settler and the trader, mainly because they asked for their expansion and protection or because they even clamored for its support in their desire to expand their field of operations.

All of this energy at the point was formed by abounding vigor at the center. Eventually, in Britain, there was a vast quantity and a good increasing point in the population. It discovered multiple new ideas for releasing articles and an increasing demand occurred for the articles as their quantity eventually got rose up. It was to build the ships to take them out safely. It was precisely developing and establishing the banks and trading centers to handle the business and associations. It was to save money to invest abroad and to earn great margins and profits. And it was firmly ready to build whatever food or raw material the colonists or anybody else cared to send to British port for good trading firms.

It was externally a private enterprise and an alliance of men at the hub and eventually on the rim rather than any of the plans of the London government and rule which were for most of the time authentic towards imperial affairs which were one of the reasons behind the growth of the gigantic empire.

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There were the main two types of Empires which were the best trading and selling points.

:heavy_check_mark: The empire of settlement

Settlement successfully went ahead in Canada and Australia. After 1815, South Africa began to attract a few British settlers with its profit. Some of the Afrikaners (Dutch South Africans) did not like them, Their rulers and the community moved into another interior. New Zealand began to attract settlers after 1840 after the establishment of successful trading points. The story in these four is very much like our own, except that we could move overland while the British colonists had to make a long jump overseas before they began to swarm over the new land.

At that time, none of the areas were so rich as the United States was at that time in comparison to the resources, and progress over there was much slower and smaller. Gold discoveries, the building of railroads and their stations, the imports of capital, the rose in the table of manufacturing, the arrival of the steamship, relaxed times, and lean peaceful years all played their part. Staple commodities lumber, wheat, wool, and metals, and later dairy produce, meats, fruit, and other perishables were produced in a vast variety and exported, chiefly to Britain.

In all areas, the government came close to the shoes of the frontiers if even it was not there first. Since the colonists wanted or asked to have a share in making laws and administration, the issues of self-government and democracy starting spreading badly. Africa, including Australasia, covers the area of about 9,000,000 square miles. In it, about 24,000,000 of the people are from the European region, about 12,000,000 belongs to Canada and popularity of about 9,000,000 in Australasia. Britain virtually supplied all the settlers of Australia and New Zealand.

Canada began with the French and American people. After that, the Chief Immigrants were the British till the year 1800. There has been a large influx since then in the United States and Continental Europe. Hence, from then a third of Canada’s big population is still French following with half of British and the reminder has officially been drawn from the United States or Continental Europe. Still, in South Africa half of the 2,000,000 white people are of Dutch stock, half of British. There are currently 7,000,000 natives and nearly about 1,000,000 people whose ancestors were from Asia or were Asiatic.

:heavy_check_mark: The empire of commerce

The huge empire of trading posts started growing rapidly in the nineteenth century. British always had a successful output of completely manufactured goods and to sell them to earn sustainable profits and hence, they could buy far more of the produces of the Asia and Africa. The Jute from supplied all the way from India to make sacks and bags. Their black tea enlisted green China tea in popularity. Their indigo became a growing demand and it had got a surplus of cotton and wheat for expertise.

In return, India became a market for British factory-made cotton goods, hardware, machines, and railroad equipment. It grew to be the largest single customer for British manufactures. The development of its resources and railroads was a fertile field for British investments of capital. And its exports of bulky commodities provided freight for a great part of the British merchant marine.

Chaos and anarchy forced the East India Company to pass from trading to ruling. That passage was long. When it ended, about 1,000,000 square miles had become “provinces” ruled by British officials. The remaining 600,000 square miles were left in the hands of hundreds of native princes, who were bound by treaty to let the British supervise their relations with other princes in order to put an end to wars with neighbors. In return, they were guaranteed possession of their states and thrones. The job of ruling such an India was too large a responsibility for a trading company. The task therefore passed by stages into the hands of the British government, and in 1858 London took complete control of Indian affairs.

Elsewhere in Asia trading outposts were secured. Hong Kong, a pirates’ rocky nest, was taken from China in 1842 to serve as a base for trade with that country. Singapore grew to be the gateway to the Far East.

When the Suez Canal was opened in 1869 a new problem had to be faced, since that canal offered a shortcut to India, Australasia, and the Far East. Britain, therefore, bought nearly half the shares of the canal company, obtained possession of Cyprus to guard the approach from the Mediterranean, gained control of affairs in bankrupt Egypt, and established a protectorate over a bit of Somaliland at the exit from the Red Sea.

In West Africa, the slave-trading posts lost their importance when slavery was abolished in the United States, but by that time West Africa and the tropics generally were becoming valuable as sources of supply of a number of newly needed materials. Palm oil was being used in making soap, candles, and cooking fats. Cocoa was becoming a popular drink or ingredient in candy. Peanuts yielded cattle feed and the oil that went into margarine. Rubber was wanted for tires, and so on down a long list.

The new imperialism

At the very moment that this demand for tropical products grew strong, about 1870, a number of countries France, Germany, Italy, Russia, Japan, and the United States in a smaller way began to develop an acute desire to build empires and acquire colonies. It was not a desire for empires of settlement, since the tropics were too unhealthy for white men. It was rather a search for raw materials, markets, fields where capital could be invested, and for strategically valuable outposts.

The thirty years before World War I, therefore, were swept by a wave of “new imperialism.” Africa was partitioned, mostly by peaceful bargaining. France took Indo-China. Britain rounded out its possession of Burma. We took control of Cuba, annexed Hawaii, the Philippines, and Puerto Rico, and divided the unclaimed islands of the Pacific with Britain, France, and Germany. Various nations got footholds on the coast of China.

The British government at first took little interest in this new scramble, for it felt that more colonies would mean more expenditure on defense, more taxes, and more colonial or diplomatic headaches. It had to be pushed hard by the Australian colonies and by impending German expansion before it consented to take southeastern New Guinea, even after Germany had acquired the northeast part. It resisted many attempts by Cape Colony politicians to expand northward, though Germany had set foot on the southwest coast of Africa.

When an East African sultan invited a British company to take charge of his coastline in order to prevent it from being seized by Egypt, the British Foreign Office refused to approve the deal. Even when an area had been recognized as a British sphere, no elaborate government was set up. The early development was left to be carried out by chartered companies which resembled those of Hudson’s Bay and East India, except that they did not get a monopoly of their trading area.

Such companies undertook the development of Nigeria, Uganda, Kenya, Northern and Southern Rhodesia in Africa, and North Borneo in the East Indies. They had to fight the slave traders, negotiate treaties with native chiefs, try to bring peace and order, meet the rivalry of French and German companies, make roads and build railroads, wrestle with a tropical disease, face the constant criticism of missionaries and humanitarians who sought to protect the natives from being exploited, and meanwhile try to organize production or trade in the hope of making a profit on their capital.

statues from old times of British rule

What was “Old Joe” Chamberlain?

The double task, political and economic, was often too large, too costly, and usually too meager in profit for the tropics do not abound in easy riches. Yet it was not till 1895 that any important British statesman felt that there was merit in the companies’ work or value in the areas they were trying to develop.

In that year Joseph Chamberlain, one of the top men in the Conservative party, surprised his colleagues by asking for the post of colonial secretary. With him, the policy of imperial indifference ended. The government of the company areas was taken over by the Colonial Office, and a policy that sought to combine the development of resources with the welfare of the natives took shape.

The new imperialism had its effect in strengthening the network of imperial trade routes and strategic bases. When Germany and others began to acquire footholds along the ocean routes or near British colonies, or when new navies appeared on the oceans, the British had to meet the changing strategic situation.

What were the Man Dates?

The latest chapter in the building of the Empire came with the first World War. German colonies in the Southwest Pacific were quickly captured by Australia and New Zealand, while South Africa soon had German Southwest Africa in hand. Since Turkey was an ally of Germany, her empire around the eastern Mediterranean was overthrown by British and Anzac armies with Arab support.

At the peace settlement, no one wished to return these lands to their former rulers. Yet someone had to look after them till they could stand alone.

The United States declined to take on any part of the job, and Italy was not regarded as suitable. Hence the former enemy colonies were entrusted as “mandates” to the British, French, Belgians, and Japanese. Each mandatory power was to regard its task as a trust, put the welfare of the natives first and foremost, ban any traffic in slaves, ■■■■■■, or arms, and be responsible to the League of Nations as a faithful steward. Where possible, self-government was to be granted as soon as any area was ready for it.

On these terms, the British Commonwealth received the greater part of the mandates. Britain was given control of Palestine, Trans-Jordan, and Iraq, but in 1932 Iraq became independent. It also received ex-German East Africa, which lay between two British colonies. South Africa kept the German territory it had captured next door. Australia retained ex-German New Guinea, which lay alongside her territory of Papua; and New Zealand obtained Samoa.

sculptures

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

:one: Why was 1776 a turning point?

The year 1776 was an official turning point because this year came to a revolutionary change in the History of the United States. This Year, the American war finally came to a conclusion. This concluded the independence of 13 North American countries or nations/colonies. It is also known as the Birth of the United States and is celebrated all over the U.S.

:two: What happened during the Revolutionary War in 1776?

The American revolution of which is also known as the U.S War of independence was the resurrected war fought between the years 1775 and 1783. This great war included13 Great Britain’s colonies which threw off British rule to establish the sovereign United States of America, founded with the Declaration of Independence in 1776.

:three: Who was president in 1776?

General George Washington was the president of the United States at that time. He was also the very first president of the United States of America. Under the leadership skills of General George Washington, the Continental Army and Navy successfully defeated the British military securing the independence of the thirteen colonies.

:four: What war was in 1776?

The Revolutionary war occurred in the year 1776 which made a great change in the history of the nation and a new state was found which is now known as The United States of America. George Washington had begun to create an army and tried to force the British army in Boston to evacuate that city in March 1776.

:five: Why was 1776 so important?

The Year 1776 was so important because of the declaration of the United States of America throughout the whole year. It was adopted by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776. The following 13 American colonies severed their political connections to Great Britain. The declaration summarized the motivations of the colonists.

Conclusion

Summing this article up in a few lines would be that the Year 1776 was a great revolution in the history of the united states as it was also the independence of the great Nation. The Declaration of the colonist’s motivated and stood up against the British empire to have their own right and a well-established nation named after them. The declaration had affected the nation with a great cause

It was adopted by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, that the 13 widespread American nations or colonies will get their own severe connections with the British. The Declaration then specifically summarized the review and the point of view of the colonists.

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