The Mississippi Valley in British politics

Professor Alvord of the University of Illinois here presents a thesis that the origins of the Revolutionary War lie in the northwest as much as in Massachusetts. “… let me … boldly assert that whenever the British ministers soberly and seriously discussed the American problem, the vital phase to them was not the disturbances of the “madding crowd” of Boston and New York but the development of that vast trans-montane region that was acquired in 1763 by the Treaty of Paris”. This is not a history of the American northwest, but rather a history of British politics and policy toward America. Chapter headings are: -Government by Factions -The Treaty of Peace, 1763 -The Beginning of Western Speculation -The Earlier Western Colonial Policy of Great Britain -The Choice of the Man -The Formation of the Policy -Proclamation of October 7, 1763 -The Organization of the Indian Department -The Plans of the Old Whigs -The Chatham Ministry -Indian Management and Western Trade -Lord Shelburne’s Western Policy