Download The French and Indian War

Reading Assignment #1: Due ____________________________
Please read the sections on:
 New France
 Introduction to the French and Indian War
 Incidents leading up to the French and Indian War, 1753-54
Reading Assignment #2: Due ____________________________
Please read the sections on:
 The Albany Plan of Union, 1754
 The War
Reading Assignment #3: Due ____________________________
Please read the section on:
 Treaty of Paris
French explorer Champlain had visited and mapped the New England coast a
number of times before the Pilgrims arrived in 1620. This map of New France was
drawn in 1612 and includes all of what is now New England.
About the same time John Smith and the
Jamestown settlers were setting up camp in
Virginia, France was building permanent
settlements of their own. Samuel de
Champlain led a group of French colonists
through the mouth of the St. Lawrence
River to found Quebec in 1608. The fur
trade led fortune seekers deeper and
deeper into North America. French Jesuit
Missionaries boldly penetrated the
wilderness in the hopes of converting
Native Americans to Catholicism. By 1700,
France had laid claim to an expanse of
territory that ranged from Newfoundland in
the Northeast, down across the Great Lakes
through the Ohio Valley, southward along
the Mississippi River to the Gulf of Mexico,
and as far west as the Rocky Mountains.
There were profound differences between New England and New France. The
English colonies, though much smaller in area, dwarfed the French colonization in
population. Louis XIV was a devout Catholic and tolerated no other faiths within the
French Empire. French Huguenots, the dominant religious minority, therefore found
no haven in New France. Land was less of an issue in France than England, so French
peasants had less economic incentive to leave. The French Crown was far more
interested in its holdings in the Far East and the sugar islands of the Caribbean, so
the French monarchs did little to sponsor emigration to North America. Eventually,
the sparse French population would be no match for the more numerous British
colonists as the wars raged on.
Unlike the English colonies where self-rule had been pursued immediately, the
people of New France had no such privileges. There were no elected assemblies.
Decisions were made by local magistrates on behalf of the French king. Trial by jury
did not exist, nor did a free press. The French citizenry depended directly on the
Crown for guidance. The English colonists depended on themselves. In the end,
despite huge claims to North American lands, the French would be overwhelmed by
more numerous, self-directed subjects of Britain.
French cultural contributions are still felt in the modern United States. Cajun and
Creole food draw from French culinary traditions. We need look no further than the
map: Des Moines, Detroit, St. Louis, Grand Teton, and New Orleans, to see but some
of France's enduring influence.
1756-1763
(The Seven Years War)
The French and Indian War is
the name given to the American
theater of a massive conflict
involving Austria, England,
France, Great Britain, Prussia,
and Sweden called the Seven
Years War. The conflict was
played out in Europe, India, and
North America. In Europe,
Sweden, Austria, and France
were allied to crush the rising
power of Frederick the Great,
King of Prussia, while the
English and the French battled
for colonial domination in
North America, the Caribbean,
and in India. The English
ultimately came to dominate
the colonial outposts in North
America and India, but at a cost
so staggering that the resulting
debt nearly destroyed the
English government.
Incidents leading up to the French and Indian War, 1753-54
The French and Indian War, the North American phase of the larger Seven Years' War, began after
a series of incidents in the upper Ohio River valley, which the French and British governments
both claimed as their territory. Military forces assembled by both imperial powers built and
attempted to capture each others' forts in the region. These skirmishes, and particularly an
expedition led by George Washington, ultimately led to the escalation of a wider, full-scale war
between Great Britain and France.
Wanting to limit British influence along their frontier, the French built a string of forts from Lake
Erie towards the forks of the Ohio (present-day Pittsburgh). Since the colony of Virginia also
claimed this region, Virginian lieutenant governor Robert Dinwiddie sent Major George
Washington with a small expedition to order the removal of the French forts in late 1753.
Washington arrived at Fort Le Boeuf, about 15 miles inland from present-day Erie, Pennsylvania,
and delivered his message. The commander of the fort, Jacques Legardeur de Saint-Pierre,
received Washington and his men courteously, but denied the validity of English claims to the
contested region. Washington then returned hastily to Virginia, arriving in early 1754, and
delivered the French reply to Governor Dinwiddie. Dinwiddie and the legislature agreed that
French rejection of British demands constituted a hostile act, and that the French must be driven
from their frontier forts on British-claimed land. Dinwiddie sent Captain William Trent of the
Virginia militia to construct a fort at the strategically important forks of the Ohio River and also to
convince the local Indians to ally against the French. Dinwiddie also promoted Washington to the
rank of Lieutenant Colonel and ordered an expedition to compel the French to surrender their
forts.
While French and British officials maneuvered military forces
about, they also attempted to curry favor with American Indians
living in the region. However, many Indians in the upper Ohio
Valley were concerned about British colonists encroaching upon
their land, and did not acknowledge British authority. Although
many of them also feared French power and bore grudges against
the French from previous wars (e.g. the Iroquois Nation), the
Indians of the upper Ohio Valley believed a French alliance to be
the lesser of two evils (e.g. Algonquin & Huron). Consequently,
they were amenable to supplying French forces with additional
men and intelligence about British movements.
Aided by such reports, the French soon learned of the British fort
that William Trent and his small group of men were constructing,
and French forces moved swiftly to compel its surrender on April
17, 1754. The French destroyed the unfinished fort, building in its
place the much more formidable Fort Duquesne (plans to the right).
Further south, George Washington,
accompanied by Iroquois men, surprised
an encampment of French soldiers in
southwestern Pennsylvania on May 24,
1754. A brief fight ensued, wherein the
French leader, Joseph de Jumonville was
killed. Expecting further French
incursions, Washington then hastily
constructed a fort and prepared to defend
his forces. This fort became known as Fort
Necessity. However, a combined French
and Indian force forced the surrender of
the hastily made fortification on July 3.
Once he heard of Washington's defeat, Lieutenant-Governor Dinwiddie
immediately passed on the news to his superiors in London and called for aid
from neighboring colonies. Only North Carolina responded, but refused to
make any expenditures outside its own borders. However, British Prime
Minister Thomas Pelham-Holles, Duke of Newcastle, reacted swiftly to the
news, and planned a quick strike against the French forts before they could be
reinforced. King George II approved Newcastle's plan to send General Edward
Braddock to quickly seize French frontier forts.
Other political leaders wanted a bigger war, and so they publicly announced Newcastle's plans and
changed the original plan so that Braddock would command more forces and order the restless
North American colonies to provide additional support against the French. Once the plans had
been publicly announced, the French government moved quickly to dispatch reinforcements to
North America and further pursued negotiations to diplomatically isolate the British government
by winning over its traditional European allies. Once military forces were under way, war was
inevitable.
Albany Plan of Union, 1754
The Albany Plan of Union was a plan to place the British North American colonies under a more
centralized government. The plan was adopted on July 10, 1754, by representatives from seven of
the British North American colonies. Although never carried out, it was the first important plan to
conceive of the colonies as a collective whole united under one government.
Representatives of the colonial governments adopted the Albany Plan during a larger meeting
known as the Albany Congress. The British government in London had ordered the colonial
governments to meet in 1754, initially because of a breakdown in negotiations between the colony
of New York and the Mohawk nation, part of the Iroquois Confederation. More generally, imperial
officials wanted to sign a treaty with the Iroquois that would articulate a clear colonial-Indian
relations policy for all the colonies to follow. The colonial governments of Maryland, Pennsylvania,
New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts and New Hampshire all sent commissioners
to the Congress. Although the treaty with the Iroquois was the main purpose of the Congress, the
delegates also met to discuss intercolonial cooperation on other matters. With the French and
Indian War looming, the need for cooperation was urgent, especially for colonies likely to come
under attack or invasion.
Prior to the Albany Congress, a number of intellectuals and government officials had formulated
and published several tentative plans for centralizing the colonial governments of North America.
Imperial officials saw the advantages of bringing the colonies under closer authority and
supervision, while colonists saw the need to organize and defend common interests. One figure of
emerging prominence among this group was Pennsylvanian Benjamin Franklin. Earlier, Franklin
had written to friends and colleagues proposing a plan of
voluntary union for the colonies. Upon hearing of the Albany
Congress, his newspaper, the Pennsylvania Gazette, published
the political cartoon 'Join or Die,' which illustrated the
importance of union by comparing the colonies to pieces of a
snake's body. The Pennsylvania government appointed
Franklin as a commissioner to the Congress, and on his way,
Franklin wrote to several New York commissioners outlining
'short hints towards a scheme for uniting the Northern Colonies' by means of an act of the British
Parliament.
The Albany Congress began on June 19, and the commissioners voted unanimously to discuss the
possibility of union on June 24. The union committee submitted a draft of the plan on June 28, and
commissioners debated aspects of it until they adopted a final version on July 10.
Although only seven colonies sent commissioners, the plan proposed the union of all the British
colonies except for Georgia and Delaware. The colonial governments were to select members of a
'Grand Council,' while the British Government would appoint a 'president General.' Together,
these two branches of the unified government would regulate colonial-Indian relations and also
resolve territorial disputes between the colonies. Acknowledging the tendency of royal colonial
governors to override colonial legislatures and pursue unpopular policies, the Albany Plan gave
the Grand Council greater relative authority. The plan also allowed the new government to levy
taxes for its own support.
Despite the support of many colonial leaders, the plan, as formulated at Albany, did not become a
reality. Colonial governments, sensing that it would curb their own authority and territorial rights,
either rejected the plan or chose not to act on it at all. The British Government had already
dispatched General Edward Braddock as military commander in chief along with two
commissioners to handle Indian relations, and believed that directives from London would suffice
in the management of colonial affairs.
The Albany Plan was not conceived out of a desire to secure independence from Great Britain.
Many colonial commissioners actually wished to increase imperial authority in the colonies. Its
framers saw it instead as a means to reform colonial-imperial relations, while recognizing that the
colonies collectively shared certain common interests. However, the colonial governments' own
fears of losing power, territory, and commerce at one another's expense, and at the expense of the
British Parliament, ensured the Albany Plan's failure.
Despite the failure of the Albany Plan, it served as a possible model for future attempts at union: it
attempted to establish the division between the executive and legislative branches of government,
while establishing a common governmental authority to deal with external relations. More
importantly, it conceived of the colonies of mainland North America as a collective unit, separate
from the mother country but also from the other British colonies in the West Indies and
elsewhere.
The War
After a year and a half of undeclared war, the French and the English formally declared war in May
1756. For the first three years of the war, the outnumbered French dominated the battlefield,
soundly defeating the English in battles at Fort Oswego and Ticonderoga. Perhaps the most
notorious battle of the war was the French victory at Fort William Henry, which ended in a
massacre of British soldiers by Indians allied with the French. The battle and ensuing massacre
was captured for history—though not accurately—by James Fenimore Cooper in his classic The
Last of the Mohicans.
The tide turned for the British in 1758, as they began to make peace with important Indian allies
and, under the direction of Lord William Pitt began adapting their war strategies to fit the
territory and landscape of the American frontier. The British had a further stroke of good fortune
when the French were abandoned by many of their Indian allies. Exhausted by years of battle,
outnumbered and outgunned by the British, the French collapsed during the years 1758-59,
climaxing with a massive defeat at Quebec in September 1759, which was followed by the capture
of the capital of New France, Montreal in 1760.
Treaty of Paris, 1763
The Treaty of Paris of 1763 ended the French and Indian War/Seven Years' War between Great
Britain and France, as well as their respective allies. In the terms of the treaty, France gave up all
its territories in mainland North America, effectively ending any foreign military threat to the
British colonies there.
During the war, British forces had scored important overseas victories against France: not only
had the British conquered French Canada, they also won victories in India, and captured French
island colonies in the Caribbean. In March of 1762, French King Louis XV issued a formal call for
peace talks.
The British Government was also interested in ending the war. The Seven Years' War had been
enormously expensive, and the Government had had to finance the war with debt. Creditors were
beginning to doubt Great Britain's ability to pay back the loans it had floated on financial markets.
In addition, British King George II had died in 1760, and his successor George III was more
amenable to ending the war.
Initial attempts at negotiating a peace settlement failed. Facing this
dilemma, French negotiator Choiseul proposed a solution that
redistributed American territory between France, Spain and Great
Britain. Under Choiseul's plan, Britain would gain all French
territory east of the Mississippi, while Spain would retain Cuba in
exchange for handing Florida over to Great Britain. French
territories west of the Mississippi would become Spanish, along with
the port of New Orleans. In return for these cessions, along with
territory in India, Africa, and the Mediterranean island of Minorca,
France would regain the Caribbean islands that British forces had
captured during the war. The British Government also promised to
allow French Canadians to freely practice Catholicism and provided
for French fishing rights off Newfoundland.
Before Treaty
Choiseul preferred to keep the small Caribbean islands of Martinique,
Guadeloupe, and St. Lucia rather than hold on to the vast territory
stretching from Louisiana to Canada. This decision was motivated by
the fact that the islands' sugar industry was enormously profitable. In
contrast, Canada had been a drain on the French treasury. The loss of
Canada, while lamentable to French officials, made sense from a
mercantile perspective.
The diplomats completed their negotiations and signed the
preliminary Treaty of Paris on November 3, 1762. Spanish and French
negotiators also signed the Treaty of San Ildefonso at the same time,
which confirmed the cession of French Louisiana to Spain.
After Treaty
Although British King George III and his ministers were in favor of the treaty, it was unpopular
with the British public. However, the treaty contained enough concessions to war hawks that the
British Parliament ratified the Treaty of Paris by a majority of 319 to 64, and the treaty went into
effect on February 10, 1763.
For Anglo-American colonists, the treaty was a theoretical success. By confirming the conquest of
Canada and extending British possessions to the Mississippi, the colonists no longer had to worry
about the threat of a French invasion. For the American Indians in what had been frontier
territory, the treaty proved disastrous' they could no longer pursue what had been a largely
effective strategy of playing the French and British against each other to extract the most
favorable terms of alliance and preserve their lands against encroachment by Anglo-American
colonists.
Despite what seemed like a success, the Treaty of Paris ultimately encouraged dissension between
Anglo-American colonists and the British Government because their interests in North America no
longer coincided. The British Government no longer wanted to maintain an expensive military
presence, and its attempts to manage a post-treaty frontier policy that would balance colonists'
and Indians' interests would prove ineffective and even counterproductive. Coupled with
differences between the British government and colonists on how to levy taxes to pay for debts on
wartime expenses, the Treaty of Paris ultimately set the colonists on the path towards seeking
independence, even as it seemed to make the British Empire stronger than ever.