Warm Up Please answer the following question: What is the historical significance of the Seven Years’ War?

The Seven Years’ War  Background Info:  1749, white settlers move to Ohio Valley  Conflict with local Indians & French  England was in massive debt from three earlier wars  Officially begins in 1754, with George Washington leading a small force into western PA.  French & Indian forces did well in first two years, however, eventually Britain turned the tide.

A World Transformed Peace of Paris (1763) France ceded Canada to Britain, received in return: sugar islands of Guadeloupe and Martinique Spain ceded Florida to Britain in return for the Philippines and Cuba. Spain also acquired Louisiana from the French. France’s empire in North America was finished.  DOC A!  But attempts to pay for the costs of the war led to events that precipitated the French and the American revolutions.

Give Me Liberty!: An American history, 3rd Edition Copyright © 2011 W.W. Norton & Company Map 4.4 Eastern North America after the Peace of Paris, 1763

Post War Indian Relations  Pontiac’s Rebellion  Indians angry about British land grab  Rebelled against British rule  The Proclamation Line  Quelled rebellion, but wanted peace on the frontier  Prohibited settlement west of Appalachians  This was ignored and exacerbated tensions

Pennsylvania & Natives  Pennsylvania and the Indians  Seven Years’ War massively changed the ALL the colonies; but none more than PA!  Extremely aggressive stance towards Indians during the war.  Paxton Boys Ended William Penn’s “holy experiment”

Give Me Liberty!: An American history, 3rd Edition Copyright © 2011 W.W. Norton & Company Benjamin Franklin produced this famous cartoon in 1754

Colonial Identities Colonists:  Emerged from the war with a greater sense of collective identity.  Before the war the colonies had been isolated from one another.  The Albany Plan of Union (1754) The war mostly intensified American colonists’ sense of themselves as Britons, with all the benefits that came from being British. Soon American colonists would come to believe that they could no longer protect their particularly British liberties within the British empire.