Proclamation of 1763

Proclamation of 1763. The Royal Proclamation of 7 October 1763 is best known for establishing a boundary along the crest of the Appalachian Mountains, separating European and Indian settlement. (This decree also created governments for three colonies newly acquired by Great Britain in the aftermath of the Seven Years' War: East Florida, West Florida, and Canada, which the British now called Quebec.)

The fear of native hostilities—underscored by the uprising known as Pontiac's Rebellion (1763–1765)—encouraged the British to draw this line. It was, however, hardly permanent. The English acknowledged certain Indian claims east of the mountains, while pressure from settlers and speculators forced Indians to concede large tracts to the west. Negotiations with the Iroquois, concluded at the Treaty of Fort Stanwix (1768), pushed the boundary of European settlement into present‐day West Virginia and Kentucky, and dealings with the Cherokees, Creeks, Choctaws, and Chickasaws led to other modifications. Quarrels among native groups, and among colonists with conflicting claims, helped shape these treaties.

Although squatters ignored the proclamation and colonial leaders such as George Washington believed it would never be enforced, the decree was nevertheless a grievance for the Americans. It led the British to keep a standing army in the colonies to make certain that this border was respected and it symbolized the clash between a British government determined to guide colonial development and the boisterous, expansion‐minded colonists.
See also Colonial Era; Imperial Wars; Indian History and Culture: From 1500 to 1800; Iroquois Confederacy; Pontiac; Revolutionary War.

Bibliography

Jack M. Sosin ,Whitehall and the Wilderness: The Middle West in British Colonial Policy, 1760–1775, 1961.

Marc Egnal