North America in 1750
CAUSES OF WAR
• Continuous rivalry between British and
French over North American empires
– King William’s War, War of Jenkins Ear,
King George’s War
• Conflicting claims over Ohio River Valley
– England?
• fur trade/expansion
– France?
• fur trade/link b/w Canada & MS Valley
Beaver fur has multiple
layers of different types
of hair.
CAUSES…..
• France’s Fort Duquesne
– Threatened colonial safety
– A barrier to further British
expansion westward
1753  Major
Washington
• VA Gov. Dinwiddie learns FR troops
moved into Ohio River Valley & building
forts
• Major Washington, 21, sent by Gov.
to deliver message to FR to get out
– FR interpreter with him
• Return trip to VA is brutal
– Winter, horses dying, so hike through snow
– Indian who offered to show them a hortcut
and then shot at him (poor aim!)
– Pursued by Hurons (FR allies)
– Falls off raft into ice-choked Allegheny
River
– Spends freezing night on island, guide
suffers frostbite but GWash unhurt
• Gov. publishes account of Washington’s arduous
900 mi. journey in both Williamsburg & London
– Washington gains international reputation by age 22….
»
- THE LEGEND BEGINS!
1754  The Spark
British
The
Ohio Valley
CONFLICT
BEGINS AT
FORT DUQUESNE
Will spark
global war!
French
Ft. Duquesne, #1
• Colonel GW & 150 VA militia
dispatched by Gov. Dinwiddie
• Skirmish w/FR & kill 10, including
their commander
– BIG MISTAKE militarily
– “I heard the bullets whistle, and believe
me, there is something charming in the
sound.” George Washington
• GW retreats to makeshift fort,
Ft. Necessity…what happens
there?
• Forced to surrender when
surrounded by FR (on July 4th)
– GW humiliated,,,, resigns, but will
later return
• Sparks global war!
Reconstructed model of the
hastily built Fort Necessity.
Depiction of
George
Washington
at age 22.
A young George
Washington
surrenders to
the French.
1754  Albany Plan of Union
 Meeting called by BR for purpose of
keeping Iroquois loyal to them –
Covenant Chain
 Franklin proposes a “Plan of Union” to
achieve greater colonial unity and
provide for better defense against FR
 Would provide for one colonial assembly
to manage trade, Indian policy &
defense
 Representatives from only 7 colonies
come; plan rejected by colonies &
London
 So, Albany Congress failed BUT... a
first attempt at colonial cooperation
by Benjamin Franklin - Cartoon in the Pennsylvania Gazette, May 9, 1754
1755  Ft. Duquesne #2
•
British Gen. Edward Braddock
• George Washington & Daniel Boone

•
Attack Fort Duquesne and are
severely defeated – why?
1500 French and Indian forces – over
900 of 1100 BR, including Braddock,
killed
• GW becomes legend!
•
4 bullets pierced coat, 2 horses shot
from under him, Indian belief…
BR then fail in Canada… too many small
attacks; no concentrated effort on Quebec…
•
1756  War Is Formally
Declared!
Lord
Loudoun
Marquis
de Montcalm
Native American tribes exploited both sides!
A global war is in effect:
“The Great War for Empire”
British-American
Colonial Tensions
Colonials
Methods of
Fighting:
• Indian-style guerilla
tactics.
Military
• Col. militias served
Organization: under own captains.
British
• March in formation or
bayonet charge.
• Br. officers wanted to
take charge of colonials.
Military
Discipline:
• No mil. deference or
protocols observed.
• Drills & tough
discipline.
Finances:
• Resistance to rising
taxes.
• Colonists should pay
for their own defense.
Demeanor:
• Casual,
non-professionals.
• Prima Donna BR
officers with servants
& tea settings.
20,000 colonials serve – myth of BR invincibility shattered.
1757  William Pitt
Becomes Foreign Minister


He understood colonial concerns &
offered them a compromise:
For colonial loyalty & mil. cooperationBritish would reimburse colonies
for much of their troops/supplies.
RESULTS?  Colonial morale up by 1758
 TURNING POINT IN WAR!!
Puts
younger BR officers in place;
 “The
enemy of my enemy…..”
Aids FR’s enemies elsewhere
around world & thus forces FR to
withdraw some troops from AM
Battle at Ft. William Henry
“Last of the Mohicans”
• Lake George, NY
• BR Col. Munro vs. FR Montcalm
• BR, unable to get reinforcements,
surrender the fort Aug. 1757
• FR Indian allies massacre BR on
their exit from the fort
1758-1761  The Tide
Turns for England
1758 –
First major
BR victory:
LOUISBURG,
the gateway
to New France,
St. Lawrence River
* By 1761, SP has become an ally of FR
Battle of Quebec - 1759
•James Wolfe vs. Montcalm
•BR couldn’t get Quebec because …
•Wolfe comes up with a new plan….
Battle of Quebec - 1759
•The End
for France!
•Montcalm &
Wolfe both
die
•Montreal
then taken
in 1760
1763  Treaty of Paris
France --> lost all Canadian possessions,
most of her empire in India, and claims
to lands east of the Mississippi River;
only keeps W Indies sugar islands - Haiti
Spain --> got all lands west of the
Mississippi River & New Orleans from
FR; but cedes Florida to England in
exchange for Cuba.
England --> got all French lands in
Canada, exclusive rights to Caribbean
slave trade, and commercial dominance
in India; owns all lands east of MS River
North America in 1763
North
America in
1763
North
America in
1750
Effects of the War
on Britain?
1. It increased her colonial empire
in the Americas.
2. It greatly enlarged England’s
debt – heavy taxation of the
colonies begins!
3. Britain’s contempt for the
colonials created bitter
feelings.
Effects of the War on the
American Colonials
1. It united them against a common
enemy for the 1st time!
2. It created bitter feelings towards
the British that would only intensify.
3. Military experience for officers & men.
4. Shattered myth of BR invincibility!
5. Encourages colonial expansion.
6. Hostility towards Native Americans.
The Aftermath: Tensions
Along the Frontier
1763  Pontiac’s Rebellion
Fort Detroit
• Ottawa Chief / FR Indian allies attack BR & AM
• Destroy 3 BR outposts / kill 2,000 colonists in
PA, MD, VA
• Biological warfare used by BR in Detroit
– Distribute “gifts” of smallpox-infected
blankets to Indians.
Pontiac’s Rebellion (1763)
RESULT? BR realize need to stabilize Indian
relations & keep troops stationed along the frontier.
Colonists see Pontiac’s defeat as free ticket to
populate the OH Valley.
BACKLASH!
British  Proclamation
Line of 1763.
Goal of the BR?
Reaction of Colonials?
General Colonial Reaction to
Proclamation of 1763
• Colonists see it as an attack on their
liberty, an attempt to control them
• Ignore it and continued to move West
• DANIEL BOONE helped lead the way!
Deeper Unrest: The Paxton
Boys & The Regulators
• The PA frontier area populated by many roughand-tumble Scots-Irish immigrants - weary of the
colonial assembly’s inattention to Indian attacks
and requests for soldiers, guns, powder and lead.
Many in the assembly were pacifist Quakers.
• A group of Paxton men took matters into their
own hands in Dec. 1763 - raided a small settlement of peaceful, co-existing Conestoga Indians
in Lancaster County, PA. 6 Indians killed in the
attack & 14 taken captive; all later murdered.
• PA Gov. issued warrants for arrest, but
sympathetic frontiersmen refused to assist in
bringing the Paxton Boys to justice.
• Paxton Boys later marched on Philly in 1764 to
protest the Quakers’ lenient Indian policies.
• Franklin himself negotiated resolution
• Similar “Regulator Movement” in Carolinas.
– Regulators were backcountry farmers.
– Called for more courts on frontier, fairer taxation, and
greater representation in colonial assemblies.
Collaboration of Susan Pojer and Pamela Montague