British Colonial Government

Examples of British Colonial Government in the following topics:

• Government in the English Colonies

  • The way the British government was run in the colonies inspired what the Americans would write in their Constitution.
  • By the 1720s, all but two of the colonies had a locally elected legislature and a British appointed governor.
  • The variety of taxes imposed led to American disdain for the British system of government.
  • American distaste for British government would lead to revolution.
  • Explain the reasons for the tension between the British empire and its American colonies

• The Rise of the Assemblies

  • Prior to 1776 there were three forms of colonial government: provincial, proprietary, and charter.
  • They were all subordinate to the British monarch, with no explicitly defined relationship to the British Parliament.
  • Despite Benjamin Franklin's efforts at the Albany Congress to unite the thirteen colonies under a single system of colonial governance, the British North American colonies remained independent of each other until the eve of the American Revolution.
  • Colonial government represented an extension of the English government.
  • As the only electable body in the colonial political system, the colonial assemblies were also responsible for approving new local taxes and colonial government budgets.

• Conclusion: The Consequences of the British Parliamentary Acts

  • An increasing tide of unrest rose in the British American colonies from 1763–1774 as the British government imposed a series of imperial reform measures.
  • The British hoped not only to gain greater control over colonial trade and frontier settlement, but also to reduce the administrative cost of the colonies and the enormous debt left by the French and Indian War.
  • The delegates also recommended that the colonies raise militias, lest the British respond to the Congress’s proposed boycott of British goods with force.
  • While the colonists still considered themselves British subjects, they were slowly retreating from British authority, creating their own de facto government via the First Continental Congress.
  • (Credit (a): modification of work by the United Kingdom Government; Credit (b): modification of work by the United Kingdom Government)

• An Emerging Colonial System

  • Each colony developed its own system of self-government.
  • England's policies aimed to keep the colonies as captive markets for British industry in order to enrich the mother country.
  • Before independence, the original thirteen were part of a larger set of colonies in British America.
  • This territorial map includes The British Province of Quebec and the British thirteen colonies on the Atlantic coast.
  • The Albany Congress of 1754 was an attempt to unite the British North American colonies and establish a central system of government.

• British Taxes and Colonial Grievances

  • The expenses from the French and Indian War caused the British to impose taxes on the American colonies.
  • In 1765, Parliament passed the Quartering Act, which required the colonies to provide room and board for British soldiers stationed in North America.
  • The act faced vehement opposition throughout the colonies.
  • Parliament eventually agreed to repeal much of the Townshend legislation, but they refused to remove the tax on tea, maintaining that the British government retained the authority to tax the colonies.
  • Discuss the nature of the grievances over the British empire's taxes on the colonies

• Unifying Experiences among the Colonies

  • British culture, styles, commerce, and society forged ties between residents of the different colonies.
  • Socially, the colonial elite of Boston, New York, Charleston, and Philadelphia saw their identity as British.
  • To many of their inhabitants, the seaport cities of colonial America were truly British cities.
  • Many Americans saw the colonies' systems of governance as modeled after the British constitution of the time, with the king corresponding to the colonial governor, the House of Commons to the colonial assembly, and the House of Lords to the governor's council.
  • British Prime Minister William Pitt the Elder had decided to wage the war in the colonies with the use of troops from the colonies and tax funds from Britain itself.

• English Administration of the Colonies

  • Britain's 13 North American colonies reflected different structures of government: provincial, proprietary, and charter.
  • These governments were all subordinate to the king in London and had no explicit relationship with the British Parliament.
  • Beginning late in the 17th century, the administration of all British colonies was overseen by the Board of Trade, a committee of the Privy Council.
  • Proprietary colonies were governed much as provincial colonies except that Lords Proprietors, rather than the king, appointed the governor.
  • In a charter colony, Britain granted a charter to the colonial government establishing the rules under which the colony was to be governed.

• The Habit of Self-Government

  • In a self-governing colony such as Plymouth, elected rulers make most decisions without referring to the imperial power that nominally controls the colony.
  • This type of government was seen in Plymouth Colony between 1630 and 1684.
  • The Mayflower Compact was the first governing document of Plymouth Colony.
  • The idea of self-government was encouraged by the Glorious Revolution and the 1689 Bill of Rights which established that the British Parliament—and not the king—had the ultimate authority in government.
  • Slowly, as interference from the Crown increased, the colonists felt more and more resentful about British control over the colonies.

• The Demographics of the Middle Colonies

  • The Middle Colonies were more ethnically diverse than elsewhere in British North America and were somewhat more socially tolerant.
  • In New York's Hudson Valley, however, the Dutch established the patroon system, which resembled a feudal aristocracy governing vast land grants.
  • American Indian tribes had long occupied the area that was conquered as the British Middle Colonies.
  • Once colonization had begun, the Middle Colonies were more ethnically diverse than the other British colonial regions in North America and tended to be more socially tolerant.
  • When the colony fell to the British, the Company freed all of its slaves, establishing early on a nucleus of free Africans in the Northeast.

• Colonialism and Neocolonialism

  • India is an example of a British colony that did not achieve independence until the mid-20th century, remaining mired by foreign debts and lack of capital for decades after.
  • India is an example of a British colony that did not achieve independence until the mid-20th century and that remained mired by foreign debts and lack of capital for decades after.
  • It is a process whereby the metropole, or parent state, claims sovereignty over the colony, and the social structure, government, and economy of the colony are changed by colonizers from the metropole.
  • The 17th century saw the creation of the French colonial empire, the Dutch Empire, and the English colonial empire, which later became the British Empire.
  • In ideal cases, decolonized colonies were granted sovereignty, or the right to self-govern, becoming independent countries.