French and Indian War Notes

French and Indian War

The French and Indian War was not a conflict between the French and the Indians, but between the British and the French.
The French allied themselves with several groups of American Indians, and so did the British, though their alliances were not as significant.
The war is also known as the Seven Years' War.

The French and Indian War was a smaller conflict within the larger global conflict between the British and the French, known as the Seven Years' War.
The root cause was the encroachment of British American colonists on land in the Ohio River Valley, which the French had claimed.
George Washington, then a lieutenant colonel in the Virginia militia, was sent to warn the French to stop encroaching on British holdings in the Ohio River Valley in 1753.
The French commander rebuffed Washington.
Six months later, the same commander took control of a British post in Pennsylvania called Fort Duquesne.
In 1754, Washington, with help from American Indian allies, led a surprise attack on the fort and regained it.
Two months later, the French launched a larger force and retook Fort Duquesne.
These territorial disputes in the Ohio River Valley led to the beginning of the French and Indian War in 1754.

Even before Washington's defeat at Fort Duquesne, the Albany Congress met to address British colonial defense against the French and Indians.
Delegates from several British colonies discussed a more organized colonial response to frontier defense, trade, and westward expansion.
A delegation from the Iroquois Confederacy was invited, but they were not significantly involved in the discussions.
American Indian groups allied with either side to maintain some control over their lands amidst the conflict between European powers.
They feared that one European nation would gain complete control of North America.
Benjamin Franklin introduced his Albany Plan of Union at the Congress.
The plan proposed a council of representatives from the colonies to decide on frontier defense, trade, and westward expansion.
The plan was rejected, primarily due to taxation concerns.
It was important because it laid the foundation for future revolutionary congresses.

Initially, the French were more successful than the British.
As the Seven Years' War expanded globally, the British implemented policies that were unpopular with the American colonists.
The British increased the forced impressment of American men into the Royal Navy
British troops were quartered in colonial homes, and colonists who resisted were threatened with violence.

The war ended in 1763 with the signing of the Peace of Paris.
Spain ceded Florida to the British.
The French were ousted from the North American continent, and the Spanish gained control over former French lands west of the Mississippi.
All land east of the Mississippi River, including the Ohio River Valley, was granted to the British.

American colonists, eager for more land, began to move westward into the Ohio River Valley, now under British control.
This migration intensified conflicts with Native Americans in the region.
Ottawa Leader Pontiac led raids against the encroaching colonists in Detroit and other military forts in Virginia and Pennsylvania.
To protect the colonists from further violence with the natives, the British parliament established the Proclamation Line of 1763.
The proclamation forbade colonists from migrating west across the Appalachian Mountains and taking land in the Ohio River Valley.
The colonists largely ignored the proclamation, believing that they were entitled to the land after fighting the war. This created resentment.
The British national debt doubled as a result of the war.
The cost of running the colonies increased significantly.
The British parliament decided to raise revenue by increasing taxes on the American colonies to pay for the war and colonial administration.