TheodoreOulmanProfessorRamseyHIST1301January24th, 2018 The Albany Plan of Union in 1754 wasa proposal by seven British North American colonies to create a centralizedgovernment.
The seven colonies included were Maryland, Pennsylvania, New York, Connecticut,Rhode Island, Massachusetts and New Hampshire. The original purpose behind theAlbany Congress was to negation terms between the Mohawk Native Americans, partof Iroquois Confederation, and the British colony New York. However, thismeeting sparked a process of meetings and discussions that led to the AlbanyPlan of the Union on July 10, 1754. The colony governments rejected and did notact on their proposal because it would greatly diminish their wealth and powerover the colonies.
The representative for thePennsylvania Colony at this congress was Benjamin Franklin who was a strongsupporter of brining the colonies together under one union. His newspaperpublished a cartoon of a snake cut into separate parts reading, “Join or Die.”Each part of the snake represented a colony, symbolizing that together theywould be stronger. Franklin felt that united under a common interest, thecolonies would be much more protected by Native American enemies and the Frenchand Spanish expansions that were to the North and South respectively. He had aright to make this claim because at the time they were not receiving muchsupport from Great Britain. The British Government was more concerned withhandling relations with Native Americans and maintaining and expandingterritory in North America. Benjamin Franklin was supporting something biggerthan growing a bigger empire. The Albany Plan was something that would changethe political landscape of the colonies completely and was different from therest of the world.
The British government did not care about the individualproblems facing the colonies and this is why it was never accepted. In hindsight, it was good that thisproposition was never accepted because if it had, the colonies may have neverrevolted. If excepted, the colonies would have still been under the sameBritish rule. What sparked the revolution was the lack of independence from theBritish Government and the taxes levied upon them. If the Albany Plan of Union hadbeen accepted, it would have been enough to keep the colonist happy underBritish control. The plan would have given them more freedom which would createenvironment opposite of a revolution. The Albany plan was a step in the rightdirection and had some important components that relate to our moderngovernment.
The plan involved a democratically elected grand council andBritain would appoint a presidential General, very similar to the legislativeand executive branches in United Stated government. While it would not havebeen best if the plan was accepted, the Albany Plan of Union was a crucialstepping stone in uniting the British colonies into the future United States.
