Native nations sided with Britain because Crown policy restrained white westward expansion

Evidence

The leaders of the tribal nations, and subgroups within them, that supported Great Britain were choosing the devil they knew. Although English settlers had often taken advantage of Native people with dire effect, the British government exercised greater control over the actions of its subjects than American statesmen seemed inclined to do. This was in large part an economic, not a humanitarian, calculation. During the colonial era, the colonists’ constant westward settlement financially strained the Crown, which was called upon to protect these incursions into Native territory with troops and forts. In 1763, King George III issued a royal proclamation asserting authority to oversee trade with Native Americans and forbidding the expansion of white settlement west of the Appalachian Mountains. Although there was no enforcement arm for this provision, its existence created a legal barrier that colonists resented, and Native leaders lauded. — Nikole Hannah-Jones et al., The 1619 Project, 462

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the reading goal of the Revolutionary-War-cause dispute: reframes the Revolution as partly an imperial/land grab rather than only a liberty struggle.