The French and Indian War (1756-1763) was first, last and always about land, its

control and the power and prestige it gave to nations during that time. As it
turned out, the French lost the war and most of the land they controlled in the
New World; but during the first two years it seemed as if they might win. Had they
won, it is likely that everyone in the United States west of Pittsburgh, as well
as the entire country of Canada, would today be speaking French.

The French instigated the war when they began sending professional soldiers into
the Ohio Valley. Up until the early 1700s, French and English settlers and
trappers got along well enough, each involved in the lucrative fur trade and
profitable relations with the Indian tribes in the area. When the French began to
worry about over trapping and needed more moderate climes and a wider variety of
furs, they made clear their intentions to take over the entire Ohio valley and
began expelling English speaking traders and settlers. There were other reasons
for French expansion, but control of the land, influence among the Indians, and
checking English colonial expansion were the main French goals.

The first line of resistance to French expansion was the Royal Lieutenant Governor
of Virginia, Robert Dinwiddie. Hearing of French incursions and fort construction
in the northwest region of Virginia (now Pennsylvania),
Dinwiddie dispatched a 21-year-old George Washington and a small contingent of
troops with a note to the French commander informing the French that they were
trespassing on Virginia territory, and would they please dismantle their fort.

After a long and arduous journey, George Washington was politely received by the
French, but told that the French were going nowhere and that they intended to
control the entire Ohio Valley. George Washington would return with a larger
force, build his own Fort Necessity, but would be overwhelmed by superior French
forces and sent packing again. The first shots of the French and Indian War were
fired by Washington's troops on July 3, 1754, but war would not be formally
declared until two years later.

In the meantime, Washington had dispatched a description of French intentions in

the New World that ended up in London and encouraged the British government to
redirect their attention to their possessions in the New World. It was British
Secretary of State William Pitt (the Elder) who viewed the defeat the French in
the New World as an ideal means for crippling France's efforts elsewhere. In this
respect, the French and Indian War became a new front in what would be a global
war between England and France that extended from India to Africa to the Caribbean
up to Canada.

Modern-day Pittsburg was named after the aforementioned William Pitt, who
dispatched a British army under the command of Major General Edward Braddock.
Braddock appointed young George Washington as his aide. However, Braddock would do
no better than Washington against the French and would die in an ambush trying to
take Fort Duquesne. French successes would continue with the capture of British
forts at Lake George and Ticonderoga in upstate New York and elsewhere, but
British fortunes would turn as they recognized the strategic value of cutting off
French supply lines from its Canadian sources. French defeats at Lake George in
New York, Louisburg and in Canada culminating with the loss of Montreal (and the
death of another famous British General Sir William Howe) would result in British
dominance of all of Canada south to all the land east of the Mississippi.

Spain would get the port city of New Orleans and control of most of the land west
of the Mississippi, but would turn over Florida to British control.

All wars make refugees, and the British would be especially hard on the French-
speaking residents of eastern Canada, the Acadians. Thousands would be forced to
move back to France, while some hid or migrated south to present-day Louisiana.
Their descendants would be known as Cajuns.

One outcome of this struggle for land, ultimately won by Great Britain, also
affected the prospects of American colonial settlers, who were eager to migrate
and settle lands west of the Alleghenies. By treaty, the British promised the
Indian nations that, in return for Indian support of the British military, no
white settlers would be allowed past the Allegheny Mountains. This order was
formalized in the Decree of 1763, and the American Colonists were
outraged.Americans who fought for Britain remembered the savagery of their Indian
foes during the French and Indian War and deeply resented being ordered away from
the western landsThe outrage against the British prohibition against further
westward settlement would fester and compound into a toxic brew of grievances and
resentments, followed by resistance and British oppression.The Revolution that
came just 13 years later would kick the British out of their North American
lands.So, the French and Indian War was all about territorial expansion, which is
always a zero-sum phenomenon. When someone wins, someone loses. Ironically, the
name of the war (French and Indian) also identifies the two biggest losers. The
French, having lost vast possessions in the New World, would ultimately seek their
revenge on the British by helping the American colonists to rebel. America's
original inhabitants would be even bigger losers as the overwhelming tide of land-
hungry settlers, miners and gold-crazed whites overwhelmed Indian ancestral lands
in a relentless westward expansion.For further reading on the history of the
French and Indian War see also:

The Philadelphia Print Shop, Ltd., ""A Brief History of The French and Indian
War"":http://www.philaprintsho p.com/frchintx.html#History
Ohio History Central, ""French and Indian War"":http://www.ohiohistoryce
ntral.org/entry.php?rec=498