The French and Indian War

Competition for North American Colonies

By the mid-1700s, England, France, Spain, and the Netherlands struggled for empire. Britain’s greatest rival was France: Britain controlled numerous colonies on the Atlantic coast, but France controlled the vast territory that extended from the St. Lawrence River to the Gulf of Mexico

The British fought a series of wars between 1689-1748 which took place in Europe, but some spilled into North America

Europeans Compete for American Indian Allies

Britain wanted to drive the French from North America, and to this, they needed to remove French support from most of the American Indians

Indians benefited from their middle position by receiving gifts such as arms and ammunition. If one empire won a total victory, they would receive harsher treatment from their victors

American Indians recognized the importance of preserving a balance of power between the French and British

The British Colonies Grew Stronger

By 1754, 1.5 million British colonists outnumbered the 70,000 French. British then began to treat the Indians harshly and did little to stop settlers from taking their land

French were more restrained than the British, as they treated the Indians with more respect and generosity. Allied French worked with American Indians to resist the British, and the American Indians supported the French.

An Important British Victory

To discourage British colonists from moving onto the Ohio Country (western Pennsylvania), the French built Fort Duquesne. This angered the British governor of Virginia (Robert Dinwiddie) and sent colonial troops to evict the French, which was lead by George Washington. Colonial troops defeated the small French troops, but were eventually defeated by the French counterattack, leading to the French and Indian War, which merged into the Seven Years War

The British Struggle at First

The British were not initially too successful in North America. British and colonial forces were able to overwhelm French forts near Nova Scotia, but suffered defeat when Edward Braddock marched into a French and Indian ambush near Fort Duquesne. Braddock dies, but Washington saves half the army

The war shifts in favor of the British when they managed to cut off French shipping to the Americas, resulting int he Indians deserting the French for the better supplied British.

In 1760, the British captured Montreal and forced the French governor general to surrender the rest of Canada, including forts around the Great Lakes. The British had succeeded

The Treaty of Paris

The Treaty of Paris ended the war triumphantly for the British, they kept Canada, the Great Lakes region, the Ohio River Valley, and Florida. The French had been driven out of America, and the Mississippi River became a boundary between the British and Spanish claims in North America

Pontiac’s Rebellion

The British success was not good news to the Indians - they now could not benefit from the French and British conflict, and the British quickly cut off goods to Indians.

As a result, the Indians began to raid settlements in western Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia, which became known as Pontiac’s Rebellion, named after an Ottawa chief Pontiac who organized an attack on Detroit

Indians eventually ran out of arms, and peace was made. The British promised the Indians to restrain the settlers and attempted to enforce the Proclamation of 1763, which enforced colonial settlers to remain east of the Appalachian Mountains.

However, the British were outnumbered and overpowered by the settlers, and they eventually could not control the expansion of settlers.

Disagreements With the British Colonies

Settlers began to have tensions with the British. Colonists invested blood and money to conquer North America, only to have the British control them. The war had also caused a great debt to the British, and they thought that the colonists should help pay for these costs

The Albany Plan of Union was introduced by Benjamin Franklin to unite under British rule and cooperate with on another in war. An American continental assembly would include delegates from each colony, however this was not accepted as the colonies feared loss of power. The British also did not like the plan unifying the colonies could make them more difficult to manage

In the 1760s, the British imposed new taxes and regulations on colonial trade, angering many colonists who wanted to preserve the original state of the colonies.