crossroadclarence

10-4...Maybe Carlsisle knows...It's his territory.

Josef_K

It's probably worth pointing out that, as far as the Revolution is concerned, the Quebec Act of 1774 was far more damaging to Anglo-American relations than the imposition of the 1763 Proclamation Line.

Americans had complained veraciously about the 1763 edict prohibiting settlement to the west of the Appalachians but in practice it was universally ignored by settlers and land speculators who continued to pour westwards.

The Quebec Act, which was passed by the North Ministry in July 1774 ostensibly as a piece of legislation designed to conciliate the French population of Lower Canada, mortally offended colonial sensibilities. The Act not only represented official acceptance of Roman Catholicism, French law and rule without a representative assembly, it also sought to massively extend the borders to the province - and thus the area of the American continent ruled directly from London.

To the colonists this appeared to be little more than a deliberate policy of encirclement.

Belisarius

It should be noted that the 1763 Procamation was never designed to be the westrn limit of colonial expansion, this is a fallacy. The Procamation was intended to control any further colonial expansion avoiding unnecessary wars with the natives and was intended to be a gradual affair depending on circumstances.

tjadams

Good write up Josef.

tjadams

Here's the text of the Proc. of 63
Proclamation of 1763

Richard Stanbery

And the Transylvania Purchase was a particularly disturbing picture of the lack of understanding (or care) about the legality of the matters involved.

Transylvania (colony) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

And so, it was truly a law without any teeth, even in circles where there was a little bit of care regarding the legality of buying and selling of lands West of the demarcation line.

I get the feeling that it was a paper tiger that Parliament passed just to mollify the Indians, but had no real intent to enforce.

I dont think it was taken seriously, even in the halls of Parliament.

pikeshot1600

There was no way to enforce such a proclamation when virtually the entire political class of Virginia were involved in land speculation in the west. Washington I think wrote that the proclamation was a bone to the Indians.

redFusilier

it was all about who controlled of the ohio valley. The original proclamation line was not that important and was extended in 1768 with new treaties, and agitators like George Washington got the land they had been promised. Josef_K is right that the quebec act was more important because it granted most of the Ohio region to the province of Quebec, which then put it under direct control of the British government and french law.

pikeshot1600

A good point about the Ohio as that was the way to the interior of the continent south of Canada.

However, in regard to western lands being "under direct control of the British government," that had little meaning since the movement of whites could not be controlled as there was no one here to control it.

The "agitators," like Geo Washington and others, were going to do what was in their interests. It needs to be said that the people who moved west down the Ohio benefitted as well. Land that was available was the only wealth most of them were ever going to have.

tjadams

Here are views of the region
QUEBEC ACT 1774

PROCLAMATION OF 1763