Salutary Neglect and the American Colonies' Path to Independence
Classified in History
Written at on 
English with a size of 2.5 KB.
How Were the Colonies Impacted by Salutary Neglect?
Salutary neglect was the British policy of not enforcing parliamentary laws on the American Colonies. Basically, it made the American colonies feel more independent and become more used to this feeling of independence. They had their own legislatures, created their own laws, and met minimal British oversight.
What Factors Led to the Unification of the Colonies?
The Declaration of Independence unified the colonists against the British Throne. It did this by stating good reasons for the colonies to separate from Britain. It also stated that each man has unalienable rights and that it was up to the governed (the people) to overthrow or abolish any destructive form of government. The colonies felt unified in the sense that they needed to take charge of their future.
Pressures Faced by Colonists and Their Responses
The French and Indian War ended in 1763, and Britain made France sign a treaty stating that Britain took victory in the war and kept all of North America (which upset France because they owned Canada) except for Louisiana.
Britain had rules for America after the war. "You cannot move west because we don't have the money or resources to protect you from Indians, and we will raise taxes because we have to pay back our war debt."
This ticked off the colonists, and after a couple of years, Thomas Paine wrote Common Sense, a brochure describing to others why we must break away from Britain:
- It's too small geographically to rule a giant continent.
- Also, it's too far away!
- Lastly, Britain calls itself a mother country, but do mothers treat their children poorly?
This gave people the idea to break up with Britain, thus happened the writing of the Declaration of Independence. In short, it was a breakup letter to the king saying, "We don't want to be with you for these reasons..." (This greatly ticked off the king).
The main reason we broke away from Britain is that the colonists had enough sense to know, "Hey! The king treats us like garbage! We want to be our own nation!" We had allies in Europe thanks to Ben Franklin, who gave soldiers to General Lafayette, and General George Washington, who gave them a Prussian general who taught them how to use a bayonet properly.
The war ended in 1783, and Britain had to sign a treaty saying, "America is an official nation."