ABSTRACT
In 1763, the first British empire reached its zenith. Canada and Florida had been added to the American colonies, which now appeared entirely secure from other European powers. The British Navy had crippled the French and was dominant at sea. British colonists shared in the glory and looked forward to a golden age of prosperity that would allow them to take advantage of enviable economic prospects for growth and expansion. Colonists like George Washington, Patrick Henry, and Benjamin Franklin hoped to obtain riches from the empire’s westward expansion: all three speculated in western lands, and Washington made a fortune doing so. Immigrants from Europe flocked to the colonies seeking land, leading the British government to conduct an investigation on why people were departing the British Isles and its potential impact on the mother country. Members of the British government privately undertook huge speculative land schemes, most notably in Florida, for which they recruited settlers from Sardinia and Greece—these schemes ended disastrously, most of the settlers dying from disease and malnutrition, as little thought had been given to their welfare. Expansion boded ill for native peoples, who faced Europeans pouring through the gaps in the Appalachian Mountains, in disregard of the Proclamation Act of 1763.
