The French and Indian War “England and France compete in North America”

French and English Collide The “French and Indian War”, the colonial part of the “(16) Seven Years War” that ravaged Europe from 1756 to 1763, was the bloodiest American war in the 1700’s. It took more lives than the American Revolution, involved people on three continents, including the Caribbean. (2) British Colonies (3) Canada and West of the thirteen colonies (1) Alaskan Coast

The war was the product of a clash between the (17) French and English over colonial territory and wealth. In North America, the war can also be seen as a product of the local rivalry between British and French colonists.

Tensions between the British and French in America had been getting worse for some time, as each side wanted to gain more land. In the 1740s, both England and France traded for furs with the Native Americans in the (18) Ohio Valley. By the 1750s, British colonists, especially the investors in the Ohio Company, also hoped to convert the wilderness into good farmland. Each side tried to keep the other out of the Ohio Country. In the early 1750s, French soldiers captured several English trading posts and built Fort Duquense (now called Pittsburgh) to defend their territory from English incursions. British and French Relations

Relations with Indians (19) France was more successful at forming good relations with Indians. Therefore, most Native Americans allied themselves with the French. However, the powerful Iroqouis League joined forces with(20) Britain.

George Washington By the time he was 20, he was commissioned in the Virginia militia. When he was appointed to lieutenant colonel he found out that his standing as a non-British-born officer afforded less pay than his fellow British officers of equal rank. It was his first glimpse of British treatment of Americans and a lesson he would not soon forget. Nonetheless, he carried the British flag into battle against the French and native Americans in what we in America call The French and Indian War

What is now considered the “French and Indian War” (though at the time the war was undeclared), began in 1753, when a young Virginian, Major (21) George Washington, and a number of men headed out into the Ohio region to deliver a message demanding that French troops leave the territory. The demand was rejected by the French and Washington ordered the attack. Young George Washington Prelude to War

The Battle of Fort Necessity (22) Washington then ordered his men to construct a fort on the site of modern Pittsburg and hastily they constructed Fort Necessity. The force was driven off by the French who, in turn, constructed Fort Duquesne on the site.

Albany Plan of Union In 1754, war was inevitable. The colonies sent delegates to Albany to discuss strategy for common defense. They approved a document written by (23) Benjamin Franklin promoting a substructure of government below British authority to govern the colonies. (24) The council would be comprised of elected representatives from each colony and headed by a President- General appointed by the crown. The colonies were not ready for political union and it is unlikely that the British government would have supported the plan.

9. That the assent of the President- General be requisite to all acts of the Grand Council, and that it be his office and duty to cause them to be carried into execution. 10. That the President-General, with the advice of the Grand Council, hold or direct all Indian treaties… and make peace or declare war with Indian nations. 11. That they make such laws as they judge necessary for regulating all Indian trade. … 15. That they raise and pay soldiers and build forts for the defence of any of the Colonies… 16. That for these purposes they have power to make laws, and lay and levy such general duties, imposts, or taxes… “[the President]…he shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed…” “[the President]…shall have power, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, to make treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur…” “[Congress will] regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes…” “[Congress will] raise and support Armies…To provide and maintain a Navy…” “The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises…” From the Albany Plan of Union (1754) From the Constitution (1787)

British officials realized that, if adopted, the plan could create a very powerful government that His Majesty's Government might not be able to control. The plan was rejected by the Crown and by the legislatures in several of the colonies.

General Edward Braddock In July 1755, the British sent a force from Virginia to attack Fort Duquesne. The heavy force was defeated by the smaller French force and their Native American allies. Both the British commander, Braddock, and the French commander Beaujeu, were killed. 23 year old George Washington won accolades for rallying the defeated British and preventing the battle from turning into a rout. The first two years of fighting were characterized by humiliating defeats for the British.

After a year and a half of undeclared war, the French and the English formally declared war in (25) May For the first three years of the war, the outnumbered French dominated the battlefield. Perhaps the most notorious battle of the war was the French victory at Fort William Henry, which ended in a massacre of British soldiers by Indians allied with the French.

Fortunes Reverse (26) Losing the war, in 1757, William Pitt, Britain’s Prime Minister, sent the British army to America. Pitt concentrated on: expelling the French from North America buying the cooperation by the colonists by stimulating the North American economy with a massive infusion of British currency buying the support of the Native Americans with promises of fixed territorial boundaries.

In a heroic battle British General James Wolfe defeated French (27) general Marquis de Montcalm that almost ended French occupation of Canada. Quebec was a natural fortress, with steep cliffs on either side of the city. During the night, thousands of troops slipped up the path and past the French guards to the Plains of Abraham. The French surrender on September 12, Both Wolfe and Montcalm died soon after from injuries sustained in the battle. Battle of Quebec

French Defeat: Treaty of Easton The Treaty of Easton, signed in 1758, essentially sealed France’s fate. In the treaty, the British promised the Six Iroquois Nations to stop settlements west of the Alleghenies in exchange for their neutrality in the war. This caused the French to abandon Fort Duquesne and, by 1760, Detroit and Montreal, the last two French strongholds in North America, had fallen. This was the end of major fighting in North America.

The Treaty of Paris The (28) Treaty of Paris of 1763 ended the French and Indian War. The French transferred its claims west of the Mississippi to Spain and ceded its territory east of the Mississippi to the British. The Treaties of Easton and Paris limited colonization to the Eastern seaboard.

North America 1763: