France Finds a Foothold in Canada

• France was late in the race for the colonies

• The Edict of Nantes (1598) allowed for limited toleration to the French Huguenots

• King Louis XIV took an interest in overseas colonies and in 1608, France established Quebec

• Samuel de Champlain became known as the “Father of New France” and entered into friendly relations with Huron Indians and helped them defeat the Iroquois

• French colonists didn’t immigrate to North America in hordes as the peasants were too poor with the Huguenots not being allowed to leave

New France Fans Out

• Canada’s (New France) one valuable resource was the beaver

  • French voyageurs recruited to hunt for beavers as well but Indians were eradicated due to white man’s diseases

• French Catholic missionaries tried to convert Indians

• Lousinia was founded in 1682 to stop Spanish expansion into the area near the Gulf of Mexico

• The fertile land of the Illinois country, became the garden of France’s North American Empire

The Clash of Empires

• In King William’s War and Queen Anee’s War, the english colonists fought the French courerus de bois and their Indian allies and both sides didn’t consider American important enough to waste troops on

• The Peace Deal in Utrecht in 1712 gave Acadia, Newfoundland, and Hudson Bay to England and gave Britain limited trading rights with Spanish America

• King George’s War merged with the War of Austrian Succession with peace terms of the war giving Louisburg, which had been captured by New England, back to France

George Washington Inaugurates War with France

• Ohio Valley became a battleground amongst the Spanishs, British, and French due to it being a fertile and good land

• Governor of Virginia sent George Washington to the Ohio territory in 1754, in command of 150 virginia minutemen

• Washington and his troops were surrounded and forced to surrender after 10-hour siege

• Washington was permitted to march his men away with full honors of war

Global War and Colonial Disunity

• The French and Indian War, also known as the Seven Years’ War began with Washington’s battle with the French

• In Germany (Prussia), Fredrick the Great won the title of “Great” by repelling French, Austrian, and Russian armies despite being badly outnumbered

• Many Americans wanted the colonies to unite with 7 of the 13 colonies meeting for an intercolonial congress held in New York in 1754, known as the Albany Congress

• Franklin helped unite the colonists in Albany

• The Albany plan failed as the states were reluctant to give up their sovereignty/power

Braddock’s Blundering and Its Aftermath

• At first, the British sent Edward Braddock to lead inexperienced soldiers with slow, heavy artillery

• In battle with the French, the British were ambushed

• In the battle, Washington reportedly had two horses shot from under him and four bullets go through his coat, but never through him

• While the British tried to attack several strategic wilderness posts, their defeats kept stacking up

Pitt’s Palms of Victory

• William Pitt, the “Great Commoner,” took the lead

  • In 1757, Pitt became a foremost leader in the London government and later earned the title of “Organizer of Victory”

• Pitt concentrated on quebec Montreal, replaced old, cautious officers, with younger, and daring ones

• Louisburg fell in 1758

• In a battle in which James Wolfe and French commander Marquis de Montcalm both died the French were defeated and the city of Quebec surrendered

• The last time French flags would fly on American soil was when Montreal fell in 1760

• In the Peace Treaty at Paris in 1763, France was kicked out of North America and the British received Canada and the land all the way to the Mississippi River

• The final blow for France was when they gave Louisiana to Spain in order to compensate for Spain’s losses in the war

• Great Britain became the leading naval power in the world and a great power in North America

Restless Colonists

• The myth of British invincibility had shattered

• The British refused to recognize any American officers above the rank of captain

  • Hardworking Americans believed that they were equals with the Redcoats

• During the French and Indian War Americans from different parts of the colonies found that they had a lot in common such as languages, traditions, and ideals which led to barriers of disunity beginning to fall

War’s Fateful Aftermath

• Colonists could roam freely and were less dependent upon Great Britain due to the defeat of the French

• French controlled themselves by saying that if they had lost such a a a great empire, maybe one day, the British would lose theirs too

• Americans could now settle west of the Appalachians

• In 1763, Parliament issued the Proclamation of 1763 which prohibited any settlement in the area beyond the Appalachians

• Colonists saw the Proclamation of 1763 as another form of oppression from a far away country.

Makers of America: The French

• The Acadians were the first French to leave Canada

  • The British had demanded that all residents either swear allegiance to Britain or leave with the residents forcefully expelled in 1755

• Acadians fled far south to the French colony of Louisiana

• A second group of French settlers began to leave Quebec in 1763 with them hoping to return to Canada someday