The French and
Indian War
1756 to 1763
Beginning of the French & Indian War

Objectives
– How did the War Start
– What were the causes? Local or Foreign
problems?
– What affect did this conflict have on GW?
3 Background Causes
1.
Previous Conflicts between France and
Britain
2.
Colonies desire to Expand Westward
3.
Natives desire to pit France against
Britain, in hope they destroy each other
and leave the frontier.
1. Previous Conflicts

Britain and France had already had 3
indecisive wars in the previous ½
century.
– King William’s War
– Queen Anne’s War
– King George’s War

Conflicts in Europe that affected New
World.
2. Desire to Expand - New France

France claimed land
– St. Lawrence River
– Mississippi River Valley, named Louisiana

New France population only grew to 80,000.

No desire to build towns or raise families, there
for the Fur Trade

Befriended Natives for Trading Partners
2. Desire to Expand –
British Colonies

Only land is on the Eastern Seaboard

British population had grown to over a
million in the colonies  wanted to
expand westward.
Start of the Conflict – 1754:
Fighting Over the Same Land

French built Fort
Duquesne at start
of the Ohio (now
Pittsburgh)

Virginia had given
same land to a
group of wealthy
planters – Ohio
Valley Company
First Conflict

Virginia militia was sent to order
French to leave

Led by George Washington (22),
established Fort Necessity

GW and men attacked small
group of French soldiers, Natives
with GW killed a French officer

French countered attacking Fort
Necessity

British outnumbered, high losses,
they were forced to surrender
Second Conflict for Ohio Valley Region

July 1755 - General Braddock, sent to recapture Fort Duquesne,
with Washington as a volunteer assistant to the General

"The Indians may be formidable to your raw American militia; upon
the king's regulars and disciplined troops, it is impossible they
should make any impression." ~ Braddock

Washington warned that they may need to fight like the Indians,
Braddock responded - "What! a provincial colonel teach a British
general how to fight!"

British were surrounded in the woods, exactly what Washington had
warned.

British outnumbered by French and Natives = Huge casualties
– Braddock was killed, only 30 Virginians survived, British regulars fled.
– Washington was lucky! "I luckily escaped without a wound, though I
had four bullets through my coat, and two horses shot under me."
British Lose to French and Indians During March to
Duquesne
Read the Article on GW
Declaration of War
Undeclared war continued for 1 and ½ years
 Finally declared war in May 1756.
 For the 1st 3 years of the war, French dominated the battlefield

– Fort Ticonderoga
– Fort Oswego
– Fort William Henry

British not used to the more “guerilla” warfare style.
The Turning of the Tide

King George II selected new
leader to run government in
1757

Lord William Pitt borrowed $$$,
“Spend Now, Pay later”

Assembled largest, bestequipped army ever seen in
N.A. with 50,000 men.

Adapted war strategies to fit the
territory and landscape of the
American frontier.

Became allies with important
Natives, ie. Iroquis
Ben Franklin

Franklin saw the dangers on the
American frontier after Braddock's
1755 defeat

Got PA legislature funds to support
the arming of a line of frontier forts
to defend PA against the
French/Indians, despite much
legislative resistance
“Join or Die”

Colonists were divided on whether to fight the French

Cartoon became a symbol for the need of organized
action against an outside threat

Franklin had proposed the Albany Plan in 1954
– A plan to place the colonies under a more centralized gov.
– His cartoon suggested that such a union was necessary to avoid
destruction
– Although never carried out, it was the first important plan to
conceive of the colonies as a collective whole united under one
government.
End of the War

French were abandoned by many Indian
allies.

Exhausted,outnumbered and outgunned by
the British

French collapsed during the years 1758-59

British surprised and had a massive defeat of
French at Quebec in September 1759.
Treaty of Paris

September 1760, the British controlled all of the
North American frontier

The war was effectively over.

1763 Treaty of Paris, which also ended the
European “Seven Years War”, set the terms for
France to abide by.
– British gains Canada, east of Mississippi
– Spanish given some land west of Mississippi
– Natives given nothing
North America
1763
Pontiac’s War

Natives angered by:
– trade relations with British
– increase settlers past the Appalachian
Mountains

British continued to fight with the Indians
over the issue of land claims.

Captured English forts in Ohio Valley

In return, British officers gave small
pox infected blankets to natives,
disease spread to others

Natives weakened by disease and
fighting, agreed to negotiate treaties by
end of 1765.
Chief Pontiac, led raids of
British settlements
The Proclamation of 1763

To prevent more fighting King George halted
settler’s westward expansion

Set Appalachian Mountains as the temporary
boundary for the colonies

Angered colonists who were:
– already living in the area
– recently purchased land there b/c claims now not
recognized

Created friction between the colonies and Great
Britain
Interesting Fact

The French and Indian War was the
Bloodiest American war in the 1700’s.

More lives lost than the American
Revolution