Placard 1A
Global Competition
By the mid-1700s, the major powers of Europe were locked in a worldwide struggle for
empire. England, France, Spain, and the Netherlands competed for trade and colonies in far-flung
corners of the globe. The English colonies in North America soon became caught up in the contest.
Britain and France had been competing for wealth for centuries. By 1700 they were two of
the strongest powers in Europe. Their long rivalry aroused bitter feelings between British and
French colonists in North America.
When France and England declared war on each other in Europe in 1689, French and
English colonists in America also began to fight. With their Native American allies, they attacked
each other’s settlements and forts. During the 1700s, two more wars between France and England
fueled wars in their colonies. Neither side won a clear victory in these wars. A final war, the French
and Indian War (1754-1763), decided which nation would control the northern and eastern parts of
North America.
Source: Prentice Hall: The American Nation; Glencoe: The American Republic; McDougal Littel: Creating America
Mary Frank 2007-2008
Placard 1B
Ohio River Valley Fur Trade
Iroquois Confederacy
The English competed with the French for furs. Also, different Native American groups
competed to supply furs to the Europeans. The fur trade created economic and military alliances
between the Europeans and their Native American trading partners. The Huron and Algonquin
peoples of the Great Lakes region were allied with the French. The Iroquois of upper New York
often were allied with the English. Alliances between Europeans and Native Americans led to their
involvement in each other’s wars.
The most powerful group of Native Americans in the east was the Iroquois Confederacy,
based in New York. When the confederacy was first formed in about 1570, it included five nations –
the Mohawk, Seneca, Cayuga, Onondaga, and Oneida. Other groups later joined or were
conquered by the Iroquois.
The Iroquois managed to remain independent by trading with both the British and the
French. By skillfully playing the British and French against each other, the Iroquois dominated the
area around the Great Lakes. By the mid – 1700s, however, the Iroquois came under greater
pressure as the British moved into the Ohio Valley. Eventually the leaders of the confederacy gave
certain trading rights to the British and reluctantly became their allies.
Source: Prentice Hall: The American Nation; Glencoe: The American Republic; McDougal Littel: Creating America
Mary Frank 2007-2008
Placard 1C
British Troop Build-up
in the Ohio River Valley
The seeds for the French and Indian War were planted when British fur
traders began moving into the Ohio River valley in the 1750s. British land companies
were also planning to settle colonists there. The French and their Native American
allies became alarmed. To keep the British out of the valley, a French officer named
Charles de Langlade destroyed the village of Pickawillany and its British trading post.
The British traders left, and the French built forts to protect the region linking
Canada and the Louisiana Territory. In 1753, the lieutenant governor of Virginia sent
a small group of soldiers to tell the French to leave. The governor then sent British
troops to build forts to protect their claimed land.
Source: Prentice Hall: The American Nation; Glencoe: The American Republic; McDougal Littel: Creating America
Mary Frank 2007-2008
Placard 2
The French and Indian War
Just the Facts
The French and Indian War was a war that pitted the British against the
French and their Native American allies. The conflict, fought from 1754 to 1763,
started when the British decided that they wanted to capitalize on the fur trade in the
Ohio River Valley. France had already claimed the land and built forts to defend their
claims. When the British started to build forts on the land, the French were not
pleased and attacked.
Although the British government sent troops from England to fight, much of
the war was fought by the colonists who lived in the area. They fought with the hopes
that any land gained in the struggle, would be theirs to claim and live one.
The French and Indian War ended with a British victory and the signing of the
Treaty of Paris of 1763. France lost all of its previous claims to the North American
continent. The British Empire more than doubled its holdings in North America.
Source: Prentice Hall: The American Nation; Glencoe: The American Republic; McDougal Littel: Creating America
Mary Frank 2007-2008
Placard 3A
The Young George Washington
George Washington was only 21 years old in 1754. He had grown u p on a plantation in
Virginia, the son of wealthy parents. Gifted at mathematics, he began working as a land surveyor
at the age of 15. His job took him to frontier lands in western Virginia.
In the spring on 1754, Governor Dinwiddie of Virginia made Washington a
lieutenant colonel and sent him to the Ohio country with a militia – a group of civilians trained to
fight in emergencies – of 150 men. They militia had instructions to build a fort where the Allegheny
and Monongahela Rivers meet to form the Ohio river. When Washington arrived, he found that the
French were already building Fort Duquesne on that spot.
Determined to carry out his orders, Washington hurried on. Indian allies revealed
that French scouts were camped in the woods ahead. Marching quietly through the night,
Washington launched a surprise attack and scattered the French. His success was brief, however.
Hearing that the French were about to counterattack, Washington and his men quickly threw up a
makeshift stockade. They named it Fort Necessity. A force of 700 French and Indians surrounded
the fort. Badly outnumbered, the Washington and his militia surrendered. The French then
released Washington, and he returned home. This battle is known to be the first shots of a world
wide conflict known as the Seven Years War in Europe, and the French and Indian War in
America.
Source: Prentice Hall: The American Nation; Glencoe: The American Republic; McDougal Littel: Creating America
Mary Frank 2007-2008
Placard 3B
The Albany Plan of Union
In July of 1754, representatives from the British colonies and the Iroquois
nation met at Albany, New York. The colonists wanted the Iroquois to fight with them
against the French. The Iroquois did not commit to this alliance.
Benjamin Franklin, who admired the union of the six Iroquois nations,
suggested that the colonies band together for defense. His Albany Plan of Union
was the first formal proposal to unite the colonies. The plan called for each colony to
send representatives to a Grand Council. This council would be able to collect taxes,
raise armies, make treaties, and start new settlements. The leaders in Albany
supported Franklin’s plan, but the colonial legislatures later defeated it because they
did not want to give up control of their own affairs.
Source: Prentice Hall: The American Nation; Glencoe: The American Republic; McDougal Littel: Creating America
Mary Frank 2007-2008
Placard 4A
The Treaty of Paris, 1763
Although Spain came into the war on the side of the French in 1761, their
help was too late. When the Seven Years’ War in Europe ended in 1763, Britain had
won. By the Treaty of Paris, Britain claimed all of North America east of the
Mississippi River. To reward Spain for its help, France gave it New Orleans and
Louisiana, the French territory west of the Mississippi River. Britain, which had
seized Cuba and the Philippines from Spain, gave them back in exchange for
Florida. The treaty ended French power in North America.
Source: Prentice Hall: The American Nation; Glencoe: The American Republic; McDougal Littel: Creating America
Mary Frank 2007-2008
Placard 4B
The Proclamation of 1763
During the French and Indian War, Britain and the colonies fought side by side. Americans
took great pride in being partners in the victory over the French. However, when the war ended,
problems arose. Britain wanted to govern its 13 colonies and the territories gained in the war in a
uniform way. So, the British Parliament in London imposed new laws and restrictions. Previously,
the colonies had been allowed to develop largely on their own. This practice is called Salutary
Neglect. The British government simply let the colonist govern themselves and make their own
decisions will little to no interference. The new laws that were being passed made the colonist feel
that their natural rights and freedoms were being limited.
The first of Parliament’s laws was the Proclamation of 1763. It said that colonists
could not settle west of the Appalachian Mountains. Britain wanted this land to remain in the hands
of its Native American allies to prevent another revolt or war from taking place. The proclamation
angered colonists who had hoped to move to the fertile Ohio Valley. Many of these colonists had
no land of their own. It also upset colonists who had bought land as an investment. As a result,
many ignored the law.
Source: Prentice Hall: The American Nation; Glencoe: The American Republic; McDougal Littel: Creating America
Mary Frank 2007-2008
Placard 4C
The Taxing Begins
Britain owed a large debt from the French and Indian War. Keeping troops in
the colonies to enforce the Proclamation of 1763 would raise the debt even higher.
Britain needed more revenue, or income, to meet its expenses. So it attempted to
have the colonies pay part of the war debt. It also wanted them to contribute toward
the costs of frontier defense and colonial government. In the past, the king had
asked the colonial assemblies to pass taxes to support military actions that took
place in the colonies. This time, however, Parliament voted to tax the Americans
directly.
Source: Prentice Hall: The American Nation; Glencoe: The American Republic; McDougal Littel: Creating America
Mary Frank 2007-2008