1. The French and Indian War

2. Competing European Claims
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 expanding onto French territory as the population grew.
They also competed over trade issues with the Native Americans in the region.

3. Competing European Claims

4. The Battle of Fort Necessity
The French set up forts 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 troop to construct a fort on the site of modern Pittsburgh, PA.
Young George Washington

5. 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 the beginning of the French and Indian War.

6. The Hurons
Indigenous people of North America, who were Native allies to the French during the War.
One of the most famous things the Hurons were known for is their involvement in the fur trade. Samuel de Champlain, founder of New France, developed a close relationship with the Hurons and they became trading partners.

7. 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.
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.

8. The Seven Years War in Europe
The French and Indian War was just the North American action due to a larger conflict, the Seven Years War, in Europe.
Britain, Prussia, and Hanover fought against an alliance of France, Austria, Saxony, Russia, Sweden and Spain.
The European phase of the war lasted from 1757 to 1763.

9. Fortunes Reverse
In 1757, William Pitt became the British Prime Minister and vowed to lead the country to victory.
Pitt concentrated on:
expelling the French from North America
buying the cooperation of the colonists by putting money into their economy.
buying the support of the Native Americans with promises of fixed territorial boundaries.

10. Fortunes Reverse
British forces 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.

11. The 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.