Ap World History Dbq Research Paper

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In a time when America was debating on a form of government, the new nation was in a critical period. The future of the newly formed nation was in the balance, with pressure on the framers to construct an exemplary Constitution for the nation. Unfortunately the first Constitution, The Articles of Confederation, failed to support the United States. Controversial political decisions were made prior to and after the nation gained independence; a few of which strongly impacted and upset farmers. It was in this context that settlers in the eighteenth-century American backcountry occasionally resorted to violent protest to express their grievances. Unfair political setup most predominantly caused American settlers in the backcountry to resort to …show more content…
At the time, the colonies were still under British rule, although colonists’ resentment toward Britain was growing after the French and Indian War. Britain had won the war and gained new territory. Suddenly, Indians living in this territory, called the Ohio River Valley, found themselves abandoned by their French protectors and threatened by the English colonists. Tension rose to the point where an Indian leader named Pontiac led an attack, part of which was on Pennsylvania frontiersmen. Pontiac’s Rebellion failed, yet it showed the British Army and state militias were incapable of defending the territory from native attacks. The Scots-Irish frontiersmen, or the Paxton Boys, responded to this by leading an attack on December 14,1763. The attack against Conestoga Indians, who were innocent, killed twenty Indians and left only two living members of the nation. The Paxton Boys, although savage killers, were seen as heroes by the colonist. The March of the Paxton Boys happened because of the disproportionate control over the colony’s legislature, and the ineptitude of Britain to provide sufficient defense for the frontier. The British government’s failure to set up a proper defense ultimately resulted in the killing of twenty innocent