Advanced Placement United States History

British Colonial Policy: a Tradition of Neglect

• How do you feel about the colonies becoming self-governing?


• Why do you think Salutary Neglect was the correct policy for dealing with the colonies?


• How has England’s recent interest in the colonies affected the colonies and their government?


• How much did the debt motivate you to suddenly take an interest in the colonies?


• Why did Walpole believe that the colonies would flourish without English intervention?


• Why does England believe the colonies owe England financial support when England did not give the colonies financial support previously?


• Why doesn’t Parliament or the Crown give more power to royal governors if local governments are becoming so overpowering?


• Why would England not allow the colonies to be independence if the colonies agreed to give England exclusive trading rights?


• Do you see colonial self-government as a major problem?


• Would you consider the problems between the colonies and England to be due to lack of communication or an unwillingness on the colonists’ part to bow to authority?


• Although a lot of benefit has been seen from the policy of Salutary Neglect, in what ways has it hurt the colonies?


• Why were these colonies not set up like other English colonies around the world in order to gain more money for the Mother Country?


• Why wouldn’t England move its power to a colonial section that was not posing so much opposition?


• Did all of England have problems with the “new thinking” of the colonies – social mobility, self government, etc.?


• Why didn’t the English create a strong government body that would govern the colonies and be stronger than the Board of Trade?


• Why were some colonial sections allowed to gain so much power even though it caused problems?


• Why are so few people from England interested in the colonies when the colonies bring in raw materials and seem to be economically important?


• Why did the English government assume that the colonies could be ignored and didn’t need help from the Mother Country?


• Why wasn’t more effort made to set up relationships between England and colonists other than merchants?

• Why are you objecting to paying taxes when people in Britain are paying so much more than you already?


• To what extent is your objection to taxes financial vs. philosophical/political?


• Don’t you think you should have to pay some of the debt caused by the French & Indian War since you benefited from the war?


• How has Salutary Neglect changed your views of England?


• How has taxation affected local government?


• Why didn’t more colonies set themselves to be more independent on England like the Middle Colonies (between Albany and Baltimore)?


• What is the colonial reaction to the statement, “Colonies are only a source of raw material to serve the Mother Country and a safety valve for unwanted populations” (Rossiter).


• Why were the New England colonies the hotbed of independence?


• How do you think the lack of agricultural productivity of New England affected its relationship with England?

posted by Jeffrey @ Monday, January 09, 2006