Mind-Munitions

Chapter 17
The American Revolution
From the beginning, the American colonists who debated the
‘unwise, unjust and ruinous policy’ of their British imperial overlords
were only too conscious of the importance of public opinion
and propaganda in supporting their cause. Following their victory
over the French in the Seven Years War, the British had tried to
protect the Indians by controlling colonial expansion west of the
Appalachians and by passing the Quebec Act in 1774, which was
intended to serve as a Magna Carta for French Canadians. Both
actions greatly alarmed the American colonists, who were worried
that they would prevent profitable westward expansion. The cost
of garrisoning troops to implement these measures, and to protect
the Americans themselves from Indian and French attacks, was to
be met from the Stamp Act of 1763. American resentment was
immediate, especially as they were being forced to meet the costs of
measures passed on their behalf but in which they had no say: ‘no
taxation without representation’ began the slogan war that was
backed up by a boycott of British goods. After the repeal of the
Stamp Act in 1766, the British government attempted to raise
money by trade levies but colonial resistance became increasingly
militant. By 1773, the year of the Boston Tea Party, the British
government was less prepared to back down, although, once again,
its insensitivity to the North American situation proved its undoing.
The Quebec Act, combined with the Intolerable and Quartering
Acts of 1774 which attempted to regain control of Massachusetts,
exacerbated tension by turning economic grievances into political
issues; as King George III commented: ‘The die is cast’.
Boston proved to be the Revolution’s propaganda nerve-centre.
It was the scene of the Boston Massacre in 1770, when British