Salutary Neglect Analysis

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Salutary Neglect • Prime Minister Robert Walpole had this policy towards the American colonies that basically tried to avoid any strict enforcement of laws and he thought that with this, the colonies would be obedient since they had some freedom • The colonists became used to governing themselves and many times disregarded the English Parliamentary • Ex. Despite the Navigation Acts, which were created to restrict foreign trade of the colonies to just Great Britain, the colonists had to depend on themselves for many things so they started to trade with other nations • In 1763 however, the new Prime Minister George Grenville decided to enforce laws on the colonists. To make matters worse for the colonists, King George III was completely for this since he’d been wanting to grasp more control over the colonies American Pride The mindset of the colonists at the time were of course different than the British governments: • Geographically, it only made sense that there would be a sense of independence and individualism among the colonies. • The fact that there were colonial legislatures indicated that politically, the colonists were independent from the crown. The colonists had begun to levy taxes and pass laws so this just further deepened their thought that these were their rights • Many mindsets were also created from literature and works from the Enlightenment thinkers like Hobbes, Montesquieu, Locke, Rousseau which emphasized a limited government, the separation of powers and a social contract. Major Acts & Effects The colonies weren’t close to accepting the attitude and policies that Great Britain was throwing at them. They felt that they too were Englishmen and should have all the rights any Englishman would have. • The Proclam... ... middle of paper ... ...Many rights that Massachusetts had were taken away like how they had to have restrictions on town meetings. Last Plead • The smell of war was inevitable now that there was so much tension and hatred between the colonists and its mother country, Great Britain • There were substantial amount of people who despised the actions undertaken by the British government • While the colonies ( 12 out of 13) had created a First Continental Congress that wanted the colonies to unite and get their militias ready , many still remained loyal to King George III and the English crown. • With the Olive Branch Petition, the Continental Congress hoped to avoid a full blown war at all costs by making a declaration to King George that they were still on his side and they wanted to stop these tensions. However King George refused to accept this and the colonies had a war ahead of them.

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