location of Eastern Continental Divide (roughly...), marking boundary where trade would go
towards Atlantic Coast ports vs. New Orleans at mouth of Mississippi River
Source: National Atlas
The expected shift of population to the west had substantial political ramifications. The French claimed the Ohio River watershed, and Native American land claims on the western boundaries of the colonies would have to be extinguished or finessed. The French and Indian War eliminated the French, but in 1763 the Native Americans led by Pontiac captured all the British forts west of the Ohio except Detroit and Fort Pitt. It was clear to the English politicians in London that after the cost of winning the Seven Years War (known as the French and Indiann War in North America), the taxes in England would have to stay high to subsidize the military occupation of the acquired land.
To the dismay of the colonial leaders, who expected the defeat of France to increase access to the lands in the Ohio River valley, George III issued the the Royal Proclamation of 1763. The decree blocked westward settlement by prohibiting colonial governors from authorizing surveys or issuing land grants beyond a Proclamation Line drawn at the crest of the Alleghenies. The objective was to minimize conflicts with the tribes (one chief, Pontiac, agreed to peace terms only in 1766), and thus reduce the costs to the English government of defending the frontier.
The Proclamation created four new colonies from the lands ceded by the French in the 1763 peace treaty. In addition, the king set aside for the Indians all of the Appalachians. The area blocked to colonial settlement was defined by the watershed boundary of "all the Lands and Territories lying to the Westward of the Sources of the Rivers which fall into the Sea from the West." From the Proclamation of 1763:
Land speculators in the colonies hoped to obtain title to vast stretches of western lands at little or no cost from the colonial government, holding land for a generation or even two before selling it as population moved westward. The land hungry gentry in Virginia controlled the colonial government, and through the Ohio Company, the Loyal Land Company, and other grants the speculating Virginia gentry had acquired claims to hundreds of thousands of acres "lying to the Westward of the Sources of the Rivers which fall into the Sea from the West and North West."
However, the gentry could not control the government in London. With the stroke of a pen, George III dramatically undercut the economic dreams of most of the political leaders in Virginia.
| Find the watersheds with headwaters in the west and waters flowing eastward to the Atlantic Ocean vs. watersheds of rivers that flowed westward |
George III's Proclamation Line may have been consistent with modern "smart growth" principles where development is concentrated within urban growth boundaries - but the political leaders in Virginia placed a higher priority on increasing their personal wealth, rather than reducing the overall cost of government. Virginia's leaders agitated constantly to open up the western frontier, and evaded the official limits on settlement whenever possible.
Finally, a dozen years after George III issued his proclamation, those Virginia gentry led a revolution in America that completely eliminated the London officials from having any voice in the settlement of the west.
