The paradigm of Anglicization

Résumé du document

Anglicization consists in making something English in quality or characteristics. Historians have described as Anglicization the fact that American colonies in eighteenth century were receptive to British influence. Indeed during this period there seemed to be a restructuring of American societies along lines that would make them more British.
This paradigm of Anglicization of American society during the eighteenth century was proposed by such historians as Jack P Greene, Bernard Baylin and John Murrin. In the eighteenth century several factors contributed (according to these historians) to an Anglicization of American society by making colonists more British.
The paradigm of Anglicization had been used to describe various aspects of colonial life in the eighteenth century, in the decades leading up to the Revolution.

Extraits

[...] Major Problems in American Colonial History. 2nd ed.). Bibliography Harry S. Stout. The New England Soul James A. Henretta, Wealth and social structure in Jack P. Greene and J.R Pole, Colonial British America Karen Kupperman. Major Problems in American Colonial History. 2nd ed Richard Middleton, Colonial America: a History, 1565-1776. [...]

[...] Women also got involved in craft in order to maintain household autonomy. As we have seen it also had for consequence to spread the Primogeniture principle because of the lack of opportunities. From the mid eighteenth century colonists started to fear their dependence towards British merchants. Indeed they were deeply in debt, in dependence in term of supplies as well as credit. They feared that they would control their lives thanks to the accumulation of debts. They saw dependence as a kind of slavery. [...]

[...] It was another aspect of Anglicization. The household was heavily influenced by British customs and practises. British colonists tried to imitate homeland. A consumer society was being built in which people were bound together by a common consumption. They started to heavily buy British products. As a result Colonists became closely tied to England's economy because most of the goods were sold there. It had huge consequences. Households tried to preserve their economic autonomy but it became harder and harder. [...]

[...] In this way it was a limit of Anglicization. Expansion led to a stop and even a reversal in the process of Anglicization. The colonial household of the eighteenth century became the engine of British expansion. Colonial households more and more tended to look like British households. It concerned mainly wealthy families. They adopted British standards, the latest fashions and elegance from London. It became a model to follow, a manifestation of its higher social status. New England elites, England supplied standards of urbanity, sophistication, and broad-mindedness to be emulated for both intellectual and social reasons” (Harry S. [...]

[...] There was a tension between expansion and Anglicization. In the eighteenth century, British American territories largely expanded thanks to several victories especially on French armies. For example in 1713 France had to cede Acadia, Newfoundland and Hudson's Bay to Great Britain. Soon the problem of the defence and the administration of this Empire in expansion occurred. The administration of the empire necessitated more personnel. As a result colonists were more and more likely to be aware of the presence of the British. [...]