The French and Indian War

Competing European Claims In the middle of the 18th century, France and England had competing claims for land in North America. The French held trapping and trade routes in the Ohio Valley. The English colonies were encroaching on French territory as the population grew. They also competed over trade issues with the Native Americans in the disputed region.

Competing European Claims

The Battle of Fort Necessity The French set up forts along the Ohio River to protect their fur trading interests. Some of these forts conflicted with English claims. Virginia Governor Dinwiddie dispatched a young George Washington in 1753 to deliver a protest to the French. This protest was ignored. The British sent a party to construct a fort on the site of modern Pittsburg. Young George Washington

The Battle of Fort Necessity A recreation of Ft. Necessity. The force was driven off by the French who, in turn, constructed Fort Duquesne on the site. The next year, Dinwiddie turned to Washington to expel the French from the site. Washington was quickly overwhelmed by superior French and Native American numbers. Washington had to retreat to the hastily constructed Fort Necessity, which he had to surrender shortly there after. This incident was a prelude to the French and Indian War.

The Albany Congress Representatives from colonies meet with Iroquois leaders in western NY Iroquois agreed to remain neutral in conflict Colonists wanted one supreme commander of British troops in colonies Benjamin Franklin helped create the Albany Plan of Union – colonies would unite to form a federal government (Though plan failed – why is it significant?)

“A popular legend at the time said that a snake could put itself back together and live if it did so before sunset.” What was Benjamin Franklin’s message in this cartoon? How was this similar to the Albany Congress?

Braddock’s Defeat 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. The British commander, Braddock, was 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.

The Seven Years War in Europe The French and Indian War was essentially the North American theatre of a larger conflict, the Seven Years War. British and French forces fought in eastern Europe as well as India. The European phase of the war lasted from 1757 to 1763.

Fortunes Reverse In 1757, expansion advocate William Pitt (Pittsburg) became the British Prime Minister and vowed to lead country to victory. 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.

Fortunes Reverse The greatly fortified force devastated the Cherokee to the South and began capturing strategic French forts and cutting off their supply lines. The British conquered Quebec in 1759. In 1760, they captured Montreal. In the final years of the war, the British defeated the French Navy and took French colonies in the Caribbean. The French Empire in North America came to an end.

Treaty of Paris The 1763 Treaty of Paris 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.

Pontiac's Rebellion Native Americans quickly grew disenchanted with the British. The British exhibited little cultural sensitivity, traded unfairly, and failed to stop encroachments on Indian land. This unrest culminated in a rebellion by Pontiac, a Native American leader who united various tribes with the goal of expelling the British. The uprising lasted from 1763 to 1766. Massacres and atrocities occurred on both sides— most notably, British General Jeffrey Amherst gave the Native Americans blankets infested with smallpox.

Chief Pontiac: Address to Ottawa, Huron, and Pottawatomie Indians (May 5, 1763) “It is important … that we exterminate from our lands this nation which seeks only to destroy us. You see as well as I do that we can no longer supply our needs, as we have done from our brothers, the French. The English sells us goods twice as dear as the French do, and their goods do not last. … When I go to see the English commander and say to him that some of our comrades are dead, instead of bewailing their death, as our French brothers do, he laughs at me and at you. If I ask for anything for our sick, he refuses with the reply that he has no use for us. … Are we not men like them? … What do we fear? It is time.”