Student Question
How did England's experience in Ireland influence its colonial policy in the Americas?
Quick answer:
England's experience in Ireland shaped its colonial policy in the Americas by fostering a harsh approach to governance and suppression of dissent. In Ireland, England employed brutal tactics, including military force and legal measures, to control the population and extract resources, setting a precedent for its colonial practices. This history influenced England's response to American colonial protests, leading to severe measures like the Declaratory and Coercive Acts, which fueled tensions and eventually led to armed conflict.
The English had a long history of colonial policy making in relation to Ireland. Years and years of bloodshed and dissent had made the English so sensitive to popular protest that when the American colonies began their own protest movement it was met with what may have been overly harsh measures by the British government.
For generations Ireland had been harshly managed by the British government as a sub-standard colony. Violence, imprisonment and several quashed rebellions had resulted in a tense relationship between the two islands, but English colonial policy had undergone a transformation. There was little tolerence for disruptive or disobdient behavoir. British policies and acts of law were expected to be obeyed, regardless of what may or may not be fair in the eyes of British subjects.
After the French and Indian War when the British began taxing the American colonists there was much anger in parliment over...
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what was, for the most part, a non-vilolent protest movement by the colonists. What the British saw instead was a total lack of respect for the authority of the British crown. They passed the Declaritory Act fairly soon after, stating the total control of the British government in making policy decisions for the colonies. This was not well recieved by the colonists in America because the same law had been used to crush a similar protest movement in Ireland several years before, and suddenly whispers of "tyranny" became louder and louder.
The Americans also worried about miltary force when the Coersive Acts were passed and Boston harbor was shut down. When similar acts in Ireland had occured, mass jailings and bloodshed was close behind. As a result, the American colonists began arming themselves for self-defense, and act that eventually led to the battles of Lexington and Concord and the outbreak of war.
How did colonizing Ireland influence English colonization in America?
The English re-conquest of Ireland began under King Henry VIII, a Tudor and the first Protestant king, in the 1530s. Henry took over the government of Ireland by only allowing Irish lords into the Parliament who had recognized him as their leader. Further monarchs, including Elizabeth, spread their rule over Ireland through often brutal means, including creating a famine in the county of Munster when the native people resisted the imposition of English rule.
The English tried to convert the Irish from Catholicism to Protestantism, often through violent methods, but they were unsuccessful. Instead, the British set up plantations in Ulster and other counties in Ireland that involved sending Scots and English people to colonize Ireland. When Ulster resisted English rule, the revolt was crushed in the early 1600s. The land of Catholic leaders was confiscated and given to Scots. The Scots were commonly Presbyterian, while the English colonists were Anglican. In the late 1600s and early 1700s, English laws made it illegal for Irish people to hold positions of power, including holding public office, serving as lawyers, or being soldiers. The native Irish population became disenfranchised and devastatingly poor. What the English learned from this experience was to use brutality to crush native populations and to use the land to the English advantage to drain natural resources.
When the English began to colonize America, they used brutality to control native populations, whom they generally considered inferior. They took away the land of native people and did not allow them any access to power. For example, the government of the colonies was entirely in the hands of English people. The English carried out military actions against natives, such as the Powhatan around Jamestown, Virginia, to take away their lands. The English were interested in dominating the land and extracting materials to export to England, leaving the natives to live in poverty.