The Road to Revolution Part 1 Rivalry in North America

Competing Land Claims in North America By the mid 1700’s Europe’s great powers were competing for trade and colonies around the world. This competition came to North America as well. The three major competitors were: Spain, France, and Britain.

3 Great Competitors Spain claimed most of Central America, the Caribbean, and the Southwest. France claimed the St. Lawrence River area of Canada, the Great Lakes region, and a huge region drained by the Mississippi. England claimed upper portions of Canada, as well as the 13 colonies along the Atlantic coast.

Conflict in the Ohio River Valley At first most English settlers were content along the coast. Then many began to push across the APPALACHIANS in search of furs. The French were determined to keep the English out. They especially wanted to protect the Ohio River because it was a vital link between Canada and the Mississippi River.

By the mid 1700s, American settlers were pushing across the Appalachians.

The Allegheny River on the left, and the Monongahela River on the right, meet to form the Ohio River.

Native Americans Choose Sides “You and the French are like the two edges of a pair of shears. And we are the cloth which is to be cut to pieces between them.” *A Native American protesting to an English trader.

Competing for Allies France believed many Indians would side with them because they were trappers and traders. Many had also married native women. France did gain Algonquin and Huron support. English settlers did tend to clear forests for farm land, and they built towns and villages. To gain support, the English started charging less for their goods. They gained support of the powerful Iroquois nations.

The Algonquins The Hurons

The Iroquois There were 5 major tribes that made up the original Iroquois League.

Trading for European Goods

Beginnings of Conflict Three times between 1689 and 1748, Britain and France had fought for power in both Europe and North America. Each time the war had ended in an uneasy peace. By the 1750’s war was about to break out again.

The Lieutenant Governor of Virginia, Robert Dinwiddie, was concerned about the French expansion into the Ohio Country.

During the winter of , he sent a small party of men, to warn the French not to intrude into land that Virginia claimed. This small force of men, was led by a young man, not quite 22 years old. That young man was George Washington.

Major George Washington Washington had grown up on a plantation in Virginia. At age 15, he began work as a surveyor where he went to frontier lands in the western part of Virginia. When the lieutenant governor of Virginia wanted a warning message delivered to the French, Washington volunteered to deliver it.

The Young Major Washington

Later in 1754, Washington led a much larger group into the wilderness, to build a road to the Monongahela River. Some Virginians had already built a small stockade where the Ohio River begins, but were driven out by the French. The French built a much larger fortification on the site, known as Fort Duquesne.

Despite the French having built the fort, Washington and the approximately 400 men he led did not retreat. Washington and his men surprised and scattered a French scouting party in the woods. Knowing that the French were going to counterattack, he and his men quickly built a fort called Fort Necessity.

Replica of Fort Necessity

Unfortunately for them, a large force of about 600 French and 100 Indians arrived, and fighting took place on July 3, The situation was bleak, and Washington’s forces had to surrender. Soon after, Washington was released to go back to Virginia. The French and Indian War had begun.