9.2 European Settlement & the American Revolution

Why This Topic Matters on the GED

The official GED blueprint gives European colonization its own content target, USH.e ("European settlement and population of the Americas"), and pairs it in this chapter with USH.b.1 (Revolutionary War) and USH.b.5 (Articles of Confederation). Together these form the bridge between the founding ideas covered in the last section and the founding government covered in the next chapter: how competing European powers settled the continent, why the colonies revolted against Britain, and why their first attempt at self-government nearly failed before the Constitution replaced it.

Competing European Colonization Patterns

Three European powers dominated colonization, and the GED expects you to distinguish their approaches:

English settlement split into three regional colony types, each tested for its distinct economy and culture: the New England colonies (fishing, shipbuilding, small farms, town-meeting democracy), the Middle colonies (New York, Pennsylvania — diverse populations, religious tolerance, the "breadbasket" grain trade), and the Southern colonies (Virginia, the Carolinas — large cash-crop plantations growing tobacco, rice, and indigo, worked first by indentured servants and increasingly by enslaved Africans). Jamestown, Virginia (1607) was the first permanent English colony; Plymouth (1620) followed, as covered in the previous section.

European settlement had catastrophic effects on Native peoples: displacement from ancestral land, devastating epidemic disease (smallpox and other illnesses to which Native populations had no immunity), and recurring armed conflict, such as King Philip's War (1675–76) in New England. Under mercantilism, England treated its colonies as a source of raw materials and a captive market for British finished goods, enforced through laws like the Navigation Acts — a policy that would eventually spark rebellion.

Causes of the American Revolution (USH.b.1)

The Revolutionary War did not begin overnight. After the costly French and Indian War (1754–63), Britain needed revenue and began taxing the colonies directly for the first time — without their consent in Parliament. The escalation ran through a now-familiar sequence:

1. Sugar Act (1764) and Stamp Act (1765) — direct taxes on goods and printed material, sparking the rallying cry "no taxation without representation."
2. Townshend Acts (1767) — taxes on imported goods (glass, tea, paper), followed by the Boston Massacre (1770), where British soldiers killed five colonists during a confrontation.
3. Tea Act (1773) — prompted the Boston Tea Party, in which colonists dumped British tea into Boston Harbor.
4. Intolerable (Coercive) Acts (1774) — Britain's punitive response, closing Boston's port and revoking Massachusetts's self-government.
5. First Continental Congress (1774) — colonies coordinated resistance.
6. Lexington and Concord (April 1775) — "the shot heard round the world," the first armed engagement of the war.

The Second Continental Congress then formed the Continental Army under George Washington (a bridge to the next section). Key turning points included the Battle of Saratoga (1777), which convinced France to formally ally with the Americans, and the Siege of Yorktown (1781), where Lord Cornwallis surrendered with French naval support — effectively ending major fighting. The Treaty of Paris (1783) formally ended the war, with Britain recognizing American independence and ceding territory east to the Mississippi River.

The Articles of Confederation (USH.b.5)

Ratified in 1781, the Articles of Confederation were the young nation's first constitution — and they were deliberately weak, because Americans had just fought a war against a powerful central government and feared recreating one. Under the Articles:

• Congress was unicameral, with each state getting one vote regardless of population.
• There was no president and no national court system.
• Congress could not levy taxes or directly regulate interstate commerce — it could only request funds from the states.
• Amending the Articles required unanimous consent of all thirteen states, making change nearly impossible.

The Articles did produce one lasting achievement: the Northwest Ordinance (1787), which organized the Northwest Territory, established a clear path from territory to statehood, and banned slavery in that territory. But the Articles' central weakness was exposed by Shays' Rebellion (1786–87), an armed uprising of debt-burdened Massachusetts farmers protesting high taxes and aggressive debt collection. The confederal government had no army and no money to respond — a crisis that convinced many leaders a stronger central government was necessary, directly leading to the Constitutional Convention of 1787.

Weaknesses Fixed by the Constitution

Common Traps

• Confusing the Declaration of Independence (1776), the war's end, and the Treaty of Paris (1783). The Declaration announced the break; the war continued for seven more years; the treaty legally recognized independence.
• Mixing up the Continental Congress with Congress under the Constitution. The Continental Congress was a wartime coordinating body with no enforcement power — much like the government it later created under the Articles.
• Underestimating the Articles of Confederation. They were a real, functioning government for eight years (1781–1789), not simply a rough draft of the Constitution.

Key Takeaways

• USH.e tests how Spanish, French, English, and Dutch colonization differed in method and economic goal, plus the three English colonial regions.
• The Revolutionary War's causes were incremental — a chain of taxes and punitive acts, not a single trigger — running from the Stamp Act (1765) to Lexington and Concord (1775).
• The Articles of Confederation deliberately created a weak central government with no taxing power and no executive, exposed by Shays' Rebellion (1786–87).
• The Constitutional Convention of 1787 was a direct response to the Articles' failures, not an unrelated event.