Proclamation
of 1763
Issued
on October 2, 1763, the Royal Proclamation of 1763
was intended to regulate the lands west of the Appalachian
Mountains awarded to the British in the Treaty of
Paris. In the proclamation, portions of the newly
acquired land were organized into the large districts
of Quebec, East Florida, West Florida, and Grenada.
In these territories, Parliament encouraged the
issuance of land-grants to veterans of the French
and Indian War.
The
Proclamation also called for conciliatory actions
toward the Indians. Land-Grants were forbidden "beyond
the Heads or Sources of any of the Rivers which
fall into the Atlantic Ocean from the West and North
West." In other words, British settlers were
forbidden to settle west of the Appalachian Mountains.
Those who had already settled in such lands were
forced to relinquish their property. In addition,
private purchases of the land from Indians were prohibited,
and all issues involving land in the western territories
were to be handled by Parliament.
The
Proclamation of 1763 was extremely unpopular with
the colonists and fur traders. Many simply ignored
it. In 1768, Parliament acquired additional lands
from the Iroquois Confederacy in modern-day western
New York, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Kentucky
as part of the Treaty of Fort Stanwix for the purposes
of settlement.
