The French and Indian Wars 1754 - 1763

The French and Indian Wars, the colonial part of the Seven Years War that ravaged Europe from 1756 to 1763, was the bloodiest American war in the 1700s. It took more lives than the American Revolution, and involved people on two continents, including the

CAUSES OF WAR
The war was the product of a clash between the French and English over colonial territory and wealth. In North America, the war can also be seen as a product of the local rivalry between British and French colonists.

 Tensions between the British and French in America had been getting worse for some time, as each side wanted to gain more land. In the 1740s, both England and France traded for furs with the Native Americans in the Ohio Country. By the 1750s, English colonists, especially

 In 1754, George Washington and a small force of Virginia militiamen marched to the Ohio Country to drive the French out. Washington hoped to capture Fort Duquesne but soon realized the fort was too strong, so he retreated and when

WAR BREAKS OUT

 A combined force of French soldiers and their native allies attacked Fort Necessity on July 3, 1754, marking the start of the French and Indian War in North America. The French allowed Washington and his men to return to Virginia safely, but made them promise they would not build another fort west of the Appalachian Mountains for at least a year. The English and the French would formally declare war in May 1756. Most Native American Indians fought on the side of

 The English sent General Edward Braddock, commander in chief of the British forces, to America to drive the French out of the Ohio Valley. June 1755: Braddock sets out from Virginia with about 1,400 red-coated British troops and a smaller number of blue-coated colonial militias including young

 July, 1755: Native American warriors and French troops ambushed Braddock and his men. The British lost badly loosing nearly 1,000 soldiers. Both the British commander, Edward Braddock, and the French commander were killed. 23 year old George Washington won accolades for rallying the defeated British and preventing the battle from turning into a rout.

 For the first three years of the war, the outnumbered French dominated the battlefield, soundly defeating the English. In 1758, the tide of the war begins to turn in favor of the British because:
William Pitt came to power first as Secretary of State and then as Britains Prime Minister British officers began to make peace with important Indian allies They began adapting their war strategies to fit the territory and landscape of the American frontier.

 William Pitt (The Elder) was an outstanding military commander who knew how to pick skilled commanders and oversaw the war effort from London. To avoid complaints from the colonists Pitt decided to pay for the war. Later, he would raise taxes in the

 The French were also abandoned by many of their Indian allies (Treaty of Easton, 1758) Exhausted by years of battle, outnumbered and outgunned by the British, the French collapsed during the years 1758-59, climaxing with a massive defeat at Quebec in September 1759. In 1760, the British captured Montreal. In the final years of the war, the British defeated the French Navy and took French colonies in the Caribbean. Thus, the French Empire in North America came to

TREATY OF PARIS (1763)

The 1763 Treaty of Paris, which also ended the European Seven Years War, set the terms by which France would capitulate. France was forced to surrender all of her American possessions to the British, including Canada. France is permitted to keep some sugar producing islands in the West Indies.

 The British gained control over the area west of the 13 British colonies all the way to the Mississippi River (east of the river) Since Spain had helped the French, the Spanish were forced to give up Florida to Britain. However, the Spanish still held their territory west of the Mississippi River (the Louisiana territory).

 The continent was now divided between Great Britain and Spain with the Mississippi River marking the boundary. Native Americans still living on the lands were not given a section of it by the European agreement.

 The British victory over the French was a devastating blow to the Native Americans of the Ohio River valley. They had lost their French allies and trading partners. The French held trapping and trade routes in the Ohio Valley. They began to trade with the British but saw them as enemies. The British raised prices of traded goods and, unlike the French, refused to pay Native Americans for the use of their land. To make matters worse, British settlers began

PONTIACS REBELLION
The British continued to fight with the Indians over the issue of land claims. Pontiac's War started shortly after the Treaty of Paris was signed. Pontiac, chief of an Ottawa tribe, recognized that the British settlers threatened the Native American way of life. He forged an unprecedented alliance among the Huron, Chippewa, Potawatomi, Shawnee, and

These lakes, these woods and mountains were left to us by our ancestors. They are our inheritance and we will part with them to no one You ought to know that He, the Great Spirit and Master of Life, has provided food for us in these spacious lakes

It is important that we exterminate from our lands this nation which seeks only to destroy us. You see as well as I do that we can no longer supply our needs, as we have done from our brothers, the French. The English sells us goods twice as dear as the French do, and their goods do not last. When I go to see the English commander and say to him that some of our comrades are dead, instead of bewailing their death, as our French brothers do, he laughs at me and at you. If I ask for anything for our sick, he refuses with the reply that he has no use for us.

 In 1763 the alliance of Native Americans attacked British forts in the Great Lake region and killed 2,000 settlers in western Pennsylvania and Virginia. However, they failed to capture important forts (Fort Niagara, Pitt, and Detroit). 1765: the Native Americans were defeated by the British. In 1766, Pontiac signed a peace treaty and was

 To prevent more fighting King George halted settlers westward expansion. In the Proclamation of 1763 the Appalachian Mountains were the temporary western boundary for the colonies (see map). This created friction between the colonies and Great Britain because the land claims of many colonists who were already living in the area, or who had recently purchased land in the area were