7 October 1763
Royal Proclamation restricts settlement west of the Appalachians
Eastern North America; Indigenous nations
George III’s proclamation of October 7, 1763 restricted colonial grants and settlement on reserved Indigenous lands, ordered settlers there to leave, and barred private purchases of reserved land. It placed authorized purchases under Crown supervision. In 1767, George Washington privately proposed securing western lands while treating the restriction as temporary.
Dates preserve the source’s precision. This entry is part of a selected historical record; its qualifications and sources are retained below.
Context / qualification
The proclamation asserted British sovereignty while protecting Indigenous possession against unauthorized settlement. Its western boundary and purchase rules were not a permanent guarantee of Indigenous independence. Washington’s letter documents one land scheme, not every colonist’s motive or the extent of enforcement.
Sources
- Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States (2014), chapter 4
- Howard Zinn, A People’s History of the United States, chapter 4, p. 60; supplied print pages, edition/year unidentified
- Royal Proclamation, October 7, 1763, land reservation, removal and purchase clauses; Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada transcription from the 1763 printed proclamation ↗
- George Washington to William Crawford, September 17, 1767, western-land scheme and secrecy request; Founders Online, including editorial dating note ↗