Beginning of French and the Indians…

By: Shauntel Jones, Tranija Colley, Trey Rodriguez, Brendon Clark

Why did many people want independence from Great Britain? The majority of Scots favour breaking away from the rest of the UK and embracing independence,

according to a poll on the eve of the 300th anniversary of the Act of Union between Scotland and England. The ICM poll showed support for Scottish independence running at 51 per cent, the first time since 1998, the year before devolution, that support for separation has passed the 50 per cent mark. Only 39 per cent of Scots are for the status quo, and 10 per cent said that they did not know whether they wanted independence, according to the poll of 1,000 voters north of the Border.

The survey for The Scotsman newspaper, six months before Scottish Parliament elections, will make Scottish Labour nervous, especially since it confirms recent polls showing the Scottish Nationalists making gains from Labour. If the Nationalists win power, they say that they will hold a referendum on independence within four years.

Next May also marks the 300th anniversary of the Act of Union. A pair of Acts of Parliament, passed in 1706 and 1707 and taking effect on May 1, 1707, created Great Britain. The sovereign parliaments were dissolved, with a new Parliament of Great Britain set up and based in Westminster.

Scottish voters will have two votes — one for a first-past-the-post constituency MSP and a second for the party they favour on a proportional representation list system. On the first the poll shows a resurgent SNP enjoying 32 per cent support to Labour’s 30 per cent. On the second both parties are level on 28 per cent.

This would not give the SNP an outright majority, but it would open the door to a ruling coalition of SNP and Lib Dems (already in power with Labour), supported by a handful of Green MSPs. The question then would be whether the Lib Dems would agree to the independence referendum proposed by the SNP and the Greens.

Privately, senior Labour figures in Scotland say that Tony Blair’s apparent intention to remain as Prime Minister until after the Scottish election is hurting the party north of the Border. “A lot of people in the party just want the change-over to Brown to happen sooner rather than when it’s too late to have an impact up here,” a Labour MSP said.

Others fear that voters are disillusioned with devolution. “We’re getting the blame because a lot of Scots reckon devolution hasn’t delivered,” a Scottish Labour source said. While Labour pointed to the polling gap between those who support independence and say they will vote for the SNP, and how historically that support has risen only to dissipate later, there was only predictable glee from the Nationalists.

What Ship Sailed Off In Great Britain?

Great Britain… Great Britain is the largest island of the

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Politically, Great Britain also refers to England, Scotland and Wales in combination, and therefore also includes a number of outlying islands such as the Isle of Wight, Anglesey, the Isles of Scilly, the Hebrides, and the island groups of Orkney and Shetland. It does not include the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands which are not part of the United Kingdom, instead being self-governing dependent territories of that state with their own legislative and taxation systems.

The union of the kingdoms of England and Scotland began with the 1603 Union of Crowns, a personal union under James VI of Scotland, I of England. The political union that joined the two countries happened in 1707, with the Acts of Union merging the parliaments of each nation, and forming the Kingdom of Great Britain, which covered the entire island.

In 1801, an Act of Union between Great Britain and Ireland created the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (UK). This in turn became the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in 1922, following the partition of Ireland and the creation of the Irish Free State.

Where did the Indians come from? Since the Native Indians -- except the Aztecs, Incas, and Mayans -- had no written

language, the written history goes back to the arrival of the white man in 1790. The newcomers were welcomed and trade flourished between the two camps until mid-1800, when the newly established United States began to exterminate the "Red Indians" and take over their land.

Within a generation, the Native Indians were killed off by whole-scale massacres, starvation, and epidemics brought in by the white settlers, and by the 1840s, the Indian population shrank to fewer than one tenth the population before the Caucasians arrived.

In 1848, the U.S. Congress established the Oregon Territory of Washington, Oregon, Idaho and parts of Montana and Wyoming. In 1855, the Snoqualmie tribe signed a treaty with the Big White Chief that effectively handed over their ancestral land to the white man.

White settlers forced Indians off their land -- supposedly protected by the Big White Chief, and the Indians were forced to move to barren scrublands. Finally, the Indians had had enough and took up arms to drive away the white invaders. Thus, the Puget Sound Indian War began in mid-September 1855 when Charles H. Mason, acting governor of the territory, Lt. William A. Slaughter and his men journeyed to Naches Pass to investigate a murder case. This act in turn roused the Indians into a rampage.

The last battle of the war was fought in March 1856 near Seattle. Lt. Gilmore Hays led a force of 100 men against about 150 Indian braves. The battle lasted all day and the poorly armed and led Indians were defeated, and the last armed resistance by the Native Indians was crushed. White settlers lynched Indians and the few survivors fled to the mountains. Today, only a handful pure-blood Indians survive.

An Indian man!

The Boston Tea Party...

What happen during the Boston tea party? The Boston Tea Party was not a party but a raid that

happened in the Boston harbor. The reason the Boston Tea Party happened was because the British government called, "The Parliament" put duties or taxes on some imported items (tea, for one) in America. The colonist had two fears about this. One: The local merchants that sold tea would be put out of business due to the tax on their tea, but the East India Company (a British trading company) would be able to sell theirs at a low price. Two: If they paid the tax on tea the British would enforce more taxes on other things. Because of their fears, the colonists planned a raid on the British ships carrying tea. On the night of December 16, 1773, almost 100 patriots dressed up as Native Americans and threw the taxed tea into the Boston harbor.

The fight during the French and the Indians… he French and Indian War, also known as the War of the

Conquest (French: Guerre de la Conquête) or referred as part of the larger conflict known as the Seven Years' War, was a war fought in North America between 1754 and 1763. The name French and Indian War refers to the two main enemies of the British: the royal French forces and the various Native American forces allied with them. The conflict, the fourth such colonial war between the nations of France and Great Britain, resulted in the British conquest of Canada. The outcome was one of the most significant developments in a century of Anglo-French conflict. To compensate its ally, Spain, for its loss of Florida to the British, France ceded its control of French Louisiana west of the Mississippi. France's colonial presence north of the Caribbean was reduced to the tiny islands of Saint Pierre and Miquelon, confirming Britain's position as the dominant colonial power in North America.

The map of the French and Indian…

Where did the British come from? The British (also known as Britons, informally Brits, or archaically

Britishers) are citizens of the United Kingdom, of the Isle of Man, one of the Channel Islands, or of one of the British overseas territories, and their descendants. In a historical context, the term refers to the ancient Britons, the indigenous inhabitants of Great Britain south of the Forth. British nationality law governs modern British citizenship and nationality, which are acquired, for instance, by birth in the UK or by descent from British nationals.

Although early assertions of being British date from the Late Middle Ages, a developed British national identity emerged following the creation of the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The notion of Brutishness—initially closely linked with Protestantism—was forged during the Napoleonic Wars between Britain and the First French Empire, and developed further during the Victorian era. The complex history of the formation of the United Kingdom created a "particular sense of nationhood and belonging" in Britain; Brutishness came to be "superimposed on to much older identities", and the English, Scottish and Welsh "remain in many ways distinct peoples in cultural terms", giving rise to resistance to British identity. Because of longstanding ethno-sectarian divisions, British identity in Northern Ireland is controversial, but it is held with strong conviction by unionists.

Queen Victoria as Empress of Indian

Indians… Since the Native Indians -- except the Aztecs, Incas, and Mayans -- had no written

language, the written history goes back to the arrival of the white man in 1790. The newcomers were welcomed and trade flourished between the two camps until mid-1800, when the newly established United States began to exterminate the "Red Indians" and take over their land.

Within a generation, the Native Indians were killed off by whole-scale massacres, starvation, and epidemics brought in by the white settlers, and by the 1840s, the Indian population shrank to fewer than one tenth the population before the Caucasians arrived.

In 1848, the U.S. Congress established the Oregon Territory of Washington, Oregon, Idaho and parts of Montana and Wyoming. In 1855, the Snoqualmie tribe signed a treaty with the Big White Chief that effectively handed over their ancestral land to the white man.

White settlers forced Indians off their land -- supposedly protected by the Big White Chief, and the Indians were forced to move to barren scrublands. Finally, the Indians had had enough and took up arms to drive away the white invaders. Thus, the Puget Sound Indian War began in mid-September 1855 when Charles H. Mason, acting governor of the territory, Lt. William A. Slaughter and his men journeyed to Naches Pass to investigate a murder case. This act in turn roused the Indians into a rampage.

British… Firstly, they were not "American Colonies" at the time. They were bush and

wilderness. Nobody laid claim to the land. The first settlers were religious fundamentalists, who left Great Britain to be able

to practice their own oddball form of religion, called Puritanism. They could be compared to the current crop of religious right wingers in the USA. They had little practical knowledge of how to survive in North America, and if it were not for the Aboriginals, they would have died of starvation during the first winter. What is now called " Thanksgiving" should really be called " we were really lucky to survive the first winter here".

The Puritans made a number of huge errors as they tried to re-create England in North America, in both the way they tried to farm the land and how they built their homes. They were too stubborn to adopt the proven methods of the Aboriginals when it came to living here. It is a wonder they survived at all.

Later they came to make money from plantations. EXPANDED ANSWER: In 1587 the first settlers came to Roanoke Island in what is

now North Carolina. They were not religious fundamentalists. The colony failed and the survivors left the island. It is not known where they went or what happened to them although there is a strong case that at least some of them went to the Chesapeake Bay area (in Virginia, where they were supposed to go in the first place) and were later massacred by Powhatan. There is also some speculation that at least seven escaped and were later enslaved by a local tribal group.

The Declaration of Independence

Who signed Declaration of Independence? The remaining 55 (see individual articles on each) are those of

Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton, Samuel Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry, Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery, Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott, William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris, Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark, Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross, Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean, Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton, George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton, William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn, Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton, Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, and George Walton.