Shaping of the Colonies in 1763 There Essay

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Shaping of the Colonies in 1763

There have been few eras in human history possessed with more of the expectant optimism, and the grim pragmatism, than the century following first contact with the new world of North America. With an expansive landmass, the size of which more than doubled that known to citizens of any European country at the time, brimming with natural resources and lying open for exploration and settlement, many thinkers of the age shared Benjamin Franklin's fateful estimation, made in his tract America as a Land of Opportunity, which claimed "so vast is the Territory of North-America, that it will require many Ages to settle it fully." Penned and published in 1751, Franklin's treatise on the seemingly infinite riches to be reaped by the American colonies failed to fully anticipate man's overwhelming compulsion to compete for the control of land. While America's preeminent philosopher was prescient in his predictions regarding the exponential increase in population, declaring "there are suppos'd to be now upwards of One Million English Souls in North-America, (tho' 'tis thought scarce 80,000 have been brought over Sea) … our People must at least be doubled every 20 Years," the fallacy of immeasurable resources clouded his vision. The bitterly disputed French and Indian War would erupt just three years after Franklin's essay was written, proving that no matter how far flung natural borders may appear to be, frontiers must always meet their end, and when they do people will fiercely defend the soil beneath their feet.

The numerous indigenous tribes which thrived throughout North America before contact with European exploration, from the Inuit of the Canadian North to the Iroquois and Sioux of the American heartland, were the first people to feel the pressure of foreign encroachment onto occupied lands.

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Almost immediately, the English, French and Spanish imposed their sovereign rule on unwitting and unwilling subjects of conquest, driving families from their homes and pushing entire cultures to the brink of ever shrinking borders. At the heart of the conflict between natives and newcomers was a fundamentally different conception of land ownership, property, and the purpose of natural resources. The revered Ottawa chief Pontiac, who would lead ill fated rebellion which bore his mantle in 1763, once famously put forth the stance of his fellow natives in the boldest of terms, pronouncing "these lakes, these woods and mountains were left to us by our ancestors. They are our inheritance; and we will part with them to none." Pontiac's worldview was wholly shaped by his people's religious and cultural values, evidenced in the portion of his incitement to insurrection which plainly stated that "The Master of Life has said … the land on which you live I have made for you and not for others. Why do you suffer the white man to dwell among you?"

In contrast to the native people's almost instinctual reverence for the lands which sustained them, the European mindset emphasized a sort of cruel moral calculus, emulated by Franklin's formulaic justification of aggressive expansion: "America is chiefly occupied by Indians, who subsist mostly by Hunting. But as the Hunter, of all Men, requires the greatest Quantity of Land from whence to draw his Subsistence, (the Husbandman subsisting on much less … and the Manufacturer requiring the least of all), The Europeans….....

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