Download The French and Indian War

The French and Indian
War!
The first global war.
An original Power Point presentation by David Knapp
Part of a bigger fight!
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French and Indian War
is the name given by
historians to the
colonial wars in the
late 17th and the 18th
cent. They were really
campaigns in the
worldwide struggle for
empire. At the time
the fighting in North
America was viewed in
Europe as only an
unimportant aspect of
the struggle.

This was just part of a
big fight all over the
world that lasted from
1689 to 1763.
Other parts of this fight:
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King William's War
The first of the wars, King William's War (1689–97),
approximately corresponds to the European War of the Grand
Alliance (1688–97). It was marked in America principally by
frontier attacks on the British colonies and by the taking of
Port Royal (now Annapolis Royal, N.S.) by British colonial
forces under Sir William Phips in 1690. (The French recaptured
it the next year.) The British were unable to take Quebec, and
the French commander, the comte de Frontenac, attacked the
British coast. The peace that followed the Treaty of Ryswick in
1697 was short-lived, and shortly the colonies were plunged
into war again.
Queen Anne's War
Queen Anne's War (1702–13) corresponds to the War of the
Spanish Succession. The frontier was again the scene of many
bloody battles; the French and Native American raid (1704) on
Deerfield, Mass., was especially notable. Another British
attempt to take Quebec, this time by naval attack, failed. Port
Royal, and with it Acadia, fell (1710) to an expedition under
Francis Nicholson and was confirmed to the British in the
Peace of Utrecht, as were Newfoundland and the fur-trading
posts about Hudson Bay.
King George's War
Hostilities lapsed for years until trouble between England and
Spain led to the so-called War of Jenkins's Ear, which merged
into the War of the Austrian Succession. The American phase,
King George's War, did not begin until 1744, when the French
made an unsuccessful assault on Port Royal. The next year, a
Massachusetts-planned expedition under William Pepperrell
with a British fleet under Sir Peter Warren took Louisburg.
Border warfare was severe but not conclusive. The Treaty of
Aix-la-Chapelle (1748) returned Louisburg to France, but the
hostile feelings that had been aroused did not die.
The French and Indian War
Rivalry for the West, particularly for the valley of the upper
Ohio, prepared the way for another war. In 1748 a group of
Virginians interested in Western lands formed the Ohio
Company, and at the same time the French were investigating
possibilities of occupying the upper Ohio region. The French
were first to act, moving S from Canada and founding two
forts. Robert Dinwiddie, governor of Virginia, sent an
emissary, young George Washington, to protest.

This was just part of a
big fight all over the
world that lasted from
1689 to 1763.
The end of Native power!
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For more than a generation, the
powerful Iroquois Confederacy, an
alliance of several Native American
nations from the Iroquoian language
family, dominated a middle ground
between the French and British
colonies in North America. The
Iroquois, originally centered in
western New York, had gained
control of a vast region in the
interior of the continent by alliances
with other Native American peoples
and had successfully excluded the
European nations from this territory.
The Iroquois were able to maintain
their power against that of both the
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British and the French, but this
three-way balance of power began
to break down during the 1740s.
British traders penetrated deep into
the Ohio country and established
direct relations with tribal groups
who previously had been controlled
by the Iroquois or had traded only
with the French.
This was the last time
that a group of Native
Americans had as much
power as the Europeans
– and the Group was the
Iroquois Nation
The conflict started over land!
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The Ohio company, an association
of land speculators based in
Virginia, encouraged the British
excursions. The company had
received a grant of 500,000 acres
from the British king and wanted
to move traders and settlers into
this interior region. In 1753
Governor Robert Dinwiddie of
Virginia, who was also a leading
member of the Ohio Company,
dispatched 21-year-old George
Washington on his first military
mission. Washington carried a
message to the French, warning
them to leave the region. In the
following year Governor Dinwiddie
ordered the construction of a fort
at the forks of the Ohio (where
the Monongahela and Allegheny
rivers meet), later the site of
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

The conflict started
over land in the Ohio
River valley.
George Washington Starts the War!
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The contest between the Ohio
Company and the French was
now joined and hinged on
possession of the spot where the
Monongahela and the Allegheny
join to form the Ohio (the site of
Pittsburgh). The English started a
fort there but were expelled by
the French, who built Fort
Duquesne in 1754. Dinwiddie,
after attempting to get aid from
the other colonies, sent out an
expedition under Washington. He
defeated a small force of French
and Native Americans but had to
withdraw and, building Fort
Necessity, held his ground until
forced to surrender (July, 1754).
The British colonies, alarmed by
French activities at their back
door, attempted to correlate their
activities in the Albany Congress.
War had thus broken out before
fighting began in Europe in the
Seven Years War.
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George Washington
Starts the War!
The War starts badly for the
English
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The war did not begin well for the
British. The British Government sent
General Edward Braddock to the
colonies as commander in chief of
British North American forces, but he
alienated potential Indian allies and
colonial leaders failed to cooperate
with him. On July 13, 1755 Braddock
himself died while on a failed
expedition to capture Fort Duquesne
in present-day Pittsburgh, after being
mortally wounded in an ambush. The
war in North America settled into a
stalemate for the next several years,
while in Europe the French scored an
important naval victory and captured
the British possession of Minorca in the
Mediterranean in 1756. However, after
1757 the war began to turn in favor of
Great Britain. British forces defeated
French forces in India, and in 1759
British armies invaded and conquered
Canada.
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The British lose the
first few fights.
Most Native Americans helped the
French.
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The Iroquois were the main Native
American group that helped the
English Most others thought that
the French would be a better ally.
Later the English began to Win!
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In 1758 the tide began to turn
and the British started to take the
upper hand. They launched a
three part attack on the French.
In July, Brigadier General John
Forbes assembled a large force to
move against Fort Duquesne.
Despite an initial setback, Forbes
had great success. He held a
council with the Indian tribes,
establishing peace between them
and the British. When the French
realized they would no longer
have Indian allies, they quickly
abandoned Fort Duquesne. Which
the English soon rebuilt and
renamed Fort Pitt.
In early 1759 General James
Wolfe and a fleet of 20 ships
under Admiral Charles Saunders.
The British lay siege to Quebec
from June 27th until September
18th, when the French
surrendered. This was the turning
point of the war.
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After 1758 the English
began having military
success.
The War ends in 1763 with the
Treaty of Paris
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Warfare ended with the Treaty
of Paris in 1763, and the
peace terms reflected British
military successes. Britain
gained control over half the
North American continent,
including French Canada, all
French territorial claims east
of the Mississippi River, and
Spanish Florida. In return,
Britain gave Cuba and the
Philippines back to Spain, and
France compensated its
Spanish ally for the loss of
Florida by giving it title to all
of Louisiana west of the
Mississippi River.
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In 1763 the English win
control of most of North
America.