Download M1 | Conflict with Britain | The French and Indian

M1 | Conflict with Britain | The French and Indian War
North America in the 1750s
The French and Indian War
Being both interested in expanding their colonies in
North America and the Caribbean islands, Great Britain and France were big rivals by the mid-1700s. The
colonial powers saw an increase1 in territory as a
means to increase their wealth and power. From 1754
to 1763 they fought against each other in the Seven
Years War, which took place in both Europe and North
America. The conflict in North America is called the
“French and Indian War” referring to the two main
enemies of the British colonists: the royal French
forces and the various indigenous2 forces that allied
with them, although Britain also had allies amongst
the Native Americans. The war was mainly fought
along the frontiers separating New France from the
British colonies, from Virginia in the South to Nova
Scotia in the North.
Even if most of the conflict had already been settled
in 1760, the war officially ended with the signing of
the Treaty of Paris in 1763 after the French had surrendered3 in Canada. According to the Treaty of Paris,
the territory east of the Mississippi River and most of
Canada had to be handed over to the British. Although the war was primarily motivated by the ambition to secure territorial control, its consequences
were far-reaching. Not only did the war put an end to
the French rule4 in North America which made Britain
the dominant colonial power. Its outcome also determined the fate of the British colonies as it sowed
the seeds5 for the American Revolution.
France and Britain both suffered6 financially because
they had spent a lot of money in the war. It nearly
doubled Britain’s national debt7 to £138 million. Seeking ways to pay off the debts, the British Crown tried
to impose8 new taxes on its colonies. On the one
hand, Englishmen living in England were already overtaxed and riots9 throughout England did not allow any
further taxation whereas the American colonies were
quite prosperous10. On the other hand, the British felt
that the colonists were supposed to pay off the debts
since part of the money had been spend to defend
the colonists against the French. The colonists protested at once against these taxes claiming that the
Parliament had no right to tax them as they had no
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elected members in the Parliament to represent
them.
One of the most important effects of the war was that
the colonists had learned to unite11 against a common12 enemy and were now armed13 and experienced
in leading armies. When the colonists became more
and more indignant at14 the taxes imposed on them,
they already knew how to take up arms and had experienced men to lead them.
British gains following the Treaty of Paris
Annotations
1 increase: Ausweitung, Vergrößerung | 2 indigenous: eingeboren | 3 to surrender: aufgeben, kapitulieren | 4 French rule:
frz. Herrschaft | 5 to sow the seeds: die Samen sähen
[sprichw.] | 6 to suffer: leiden | 7 national debt: Staatsverschuldung | 8 to impose: auferlegen | 9 riots: Unruhen | 10
prosperous: wohlhabend | 11 to unite: sich verbünden | 12
common: gemeinsam | 13 armed: bewaffnet | 14 indignant at:
empört über
Text mainly based on: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_and_Indian_War (26.6.14); Bildnachweis: alle Fotos: Public Domain (gemeinfrei), via Wikimedia Commons; für Einzelnachweise Fotos anklicken