Essential Question:
How did the French and Indian War change the course of colonial affairs in
America?
The French and Indian War [or Seven Years War]
An Overview
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The final inter-colonial war between France and Great Britain, the French and Indian War, like the
three wars before it, had European roots. Called the Seven Years' War in Europe, the French and
Indian War actually began two years earlier than its European counterpart. The three prior FrenchEnglish conflicts in America were largely centered in the Northeast, but the French and Indian War
shifted to the Ohio River Valley, an area that had become increasingly important as European
interests began to reach west beyond the Appalachians.
The French, who sought a corridor of trade to connect the Mississippi River and Louisiana with
their outposts on the Great Lakes and beyond, built a series of forts in the Ohio Valley, the most
important being Fort Duquesne (Pittsburgh). At the same time, the British Crown, with a continuing
eye toward colonization, had offered large land grants for settlement. Under the circumstances, it
was inevitable that the two powers would collide.
The opening stages of the war saw the advantage go to the French. As early as 1754, a young
Virginian named George Washington distinguished himself in an unsuccessful attempt to capture
Fort Duquesne. The following year saw a second, more determined effort, albeit one that was to end
ignominiously. A column of British regulars under the command of Gen. Edward Braddock was
ambushed and routed by the French and their Indian allies in July 1755. British casualties were
heavy; Braddock himself was mortally wounded. Humiliated and devastated, the British column was
forced to withdraw. The Ohio Valley Indians, concerned with the growing threat of settlements,
viewed Braddock's defeat as an opportunity to strike a further blow against the English. In the
following year, thousands of white settlers from Virginia and Pennsylvania to South Carolina felt
the fury of Indian attacks.
The British position continued to deteriorate. Increasingly, Indian nations and tribes, some from as
far west as the Great Lakes, threw their support behind the French; they saw an opportunity not only
to drive back the hated white settlers but to plunder as well. Despite the efforts of Sir William
Johnson, Indian agent, the British, who had seen the powerful Delaware and Shawnee nations ally
with the French, feared the Iroquois might also join the enemy.
In August 1756, a combined French and Indian force captured Fort Oswego on Lake Ontario and the
following year took Fort William Henry, situated at the foot of New York's Lake George. Following
the capture of Fort William Henry, immortalized in James Fenimore Cooper's Last of the Mohicans,
many of the British garrison, including women and children, were massacred by Indian allies of the
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French as they marched out of the fort, despite customary assurances of honorable treatment as
prisoners of war. The French, mortified at the slaughter, were unable to control their allies.
The 1757 appointment of the controversial William Pitt, the Elder as British prime minister was
perhaps the turning point in the French and Indian War. One of Pitt's first steps was to strengthen the
British forces in North America and appoint able commanders to prosecute the war to a successful
conclusion. He also instituted a stronger policy regarding the employment of Indian allies. No less
important, particularly in the area of Indian relations, was the work of Sir William Johnson, whose
tireless efforts to convince the Iroquois to remain neutral at last bore fruit. The Iroquois, in turn,
persuaded the Delawares to cease warfare against the British. The tide was beginning to turn.
During the summer of 1758, a strong British force failed to take Fort Ticonderoga (Fort Carillon to
the French), but that failure was offset by the capture of Louisbourg, on Cape Breton Island, and
Fort Frontenanc, both located in Ontario. British fortunes were also improving in the south, where
Gen. John Forbes cut a new trail through the Pennsylvania wilderness in yet another effort to take
Fort Duquesne.
Forbes' strategy produced the Treaty of Easton, in which the British managed to enlist strong Indian
support for their effort to take Fort Duquesne, which many of the Indians were anxious to see
abandoned regardless of whom it belonged to. In return for the Indians' support, the British provided
certain financial considerations and their promise to withdraw from the Ohio River country.
Surrounded and unable to be supplied, the French abandoned Fort Duquesne, which Forbes
promptly occupied and renamed Fort Pitt.
A year later, in 1759, a mixed force of British regulars and Iroquois allies took Fort Niagara.
Sensing the vulnerability of their position, the French then abandoned Fort Carillon (Ticonderoga)
and Crown Point and withdrew to Canada. In September 1759, British general James Wolfe's defeat
of the French Army, commanded by Marquis Louis-Joseph de Montcalm, on the Plains of Abraham
resulted in the surrender of Quebec. The deaths of the two generals, Wolfe and Montcalm, has made
the British victory one of the epic stories of history. For all intents and purposes, the British victory
at Quebec marked the end of the French and Indian War, although some historians believe France
had privately conceded victory to the British.
The Treaty of Paris (1763) officially ceased the inter-colonial wars between England and France.
The conclusion of the French and Indian War was a watershed event that marked the end of French
power in North America. As a result of the treaty, England acquired Canada and all of Spanish
Florida. For the next two decades, England would be the sole, dominant power in North America.
MLA Citation
Keenan, Jerry. "French and Indian War." American History. ABC-CLIO, 2014. Web. 19 Sept. 2014.