King George III issued the Proclamation of 1763 to prevent Anglo-American settlement west of the Appalachians. Often portrayed as a part of the new imperial regulations passed to control the colonies, the Proclamation of 1763 was a stopgap measure to deal with some real problems. Victory in the French and Indian War (1754-63) added all of Canada, the area east of the Mississippi, and Florida to the British Empire. Much of this region was unsettled by European Americans and was occupied by NATIVE AMERI
CANS. The British government had to develop a means to govern this area.
The Proclamation of 1763 was the initial step in what was thought to be an ongoing process. The proclamation created three new colonies in North America—Quebec, East Florida, and West Florida—and provided the means to establish representative government based on the model used in the other British colonies. The proclamation also extended the boundary of Georgia. But the most serious problem was preventing conflict between the Native Americans and the European Americans. PONTIAC’S War (1763-64) demonstrated how difficult and expensive a task it would be to protect colonists on the FRONTIER. The simplest thing to do would be to limit contact between European Americans and Native Americans. There was still plenty of unsettled land east of the Appalachians, especially in the colonies of the Floridas. The proclamation, therefore, prevented “all our loving subjects” from settling the area west of the Appalachians. Concerned, too, with the Native Americans who now also became King George’s subjects, the proclamation outlawed any land speculation in the area since previously “great frauds and abuses have been committed in the purchasing lands of the Indians, to the great prejudice of our interest, and to the great dissatisfaction of the said Indians.” The Proclamation of 1763 irritated rich and poor colonists since it curtailed land speculation and prevented settlement. Its provisions remained in force until 1774 when the Quebec Act, sometimes considered one of the COERCIVE ACTS (1774), gave most of the western territory to Quebec.
See also RESISTANCE MOVEMENT.
Further reading: Colin Calloway, The Scratch of a Pen: 1763 and the Transformation of North America (New York: Oxford University Press, 2006).
World History
