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

4.  Virginia Governor Dinwiddie dispatched a young George Washington in 1753 to deliver a protest to the French. This protest was ignored.  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. Young George Washington (Above) and a recreation of Fort Necessity

5.  In July 1755, the British sent a force from Virginia to attack Fort Duquesne which was located where the current city of Pittsburgh is.  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.  The first two years of the war were characterized by humiliating defeats for the British.

6.  In 1757, William Pitt became the British Prime Minister and vowed to lead the British to victory.  Pitt concentrated on:  expelling the French from North America  buying the cooperation by the colonists by a massive infusion of British currency  buying the support of the Native Americans with promises of fixed territorial boundaries.

7.  A reinforced British military devastated the Cherokee to the South and began capturing strategic French forts and cutting off their supply lines.  The British soon conquered Quebec in 1759 and in 1760 captured Montreal.  In the final years of the war, the British defeated the French Navy and took French colonies in the Caribbean.

8.  In the treaty of Easton, the British promised to stop settlements west of the Alleghenies in exchange for Native American neutrality in the war.  This caused the French to abandon Fort Duquesne.

10.  The Treaty of Paris in 1763 officially ends the French and Indian War.  The French transferred its claims west of the Mississippi to Spain  England receives Canada and French Lands East of the Mississippi  England receives Florida From Spain  Spain Receives Lands West of Mississippi and New Orleans  France allowed to keep Sugar Producing Islands in the Caribbean.

11.  The French and Indian War was fought between the French and Indians against the British.  The British won the French and Indian War  The French and Indian War saw France lose all of the territory it owned in North America east of the Mississippi River  The French and Indian War was an expensive war for the British  Life after The French and Indian War would create tension between the colonies and Great Britain