Download Chap 6 outline - Boone County Schools

The Duel for North America
I.
II.
France Finds a Foothold in Canada
a. France in the New World
i. Was a latecomer to colonization in the New World because it was
busy with:
1. Foreign wars
2. Civil clashes between Roman Catholics and Protestant
Huguenots
ii. England was a latecomer to the New World for similar reasons
b. Edict of Nantes Changes France
i. Granted limited toleration of French Protestants, As a result:
1. Religious wars ceased
a. France blossomed into the mightiest and most
feared nation in Europe
c. France in New France (Canada)
i. King Louis XIV, a brilliant leader, reigned for 72 years (16431715)
ii. He took a deep interest in overseas colonies
iii. In 1608, a year after Jamestown, French settlement was established
in Quebec
iv. The leading figure was a soldier and explorer named Samuel de
Champlain
v. He entered into friendly relations with the nearby Huron Indian
tribes. He joined them in battle against their foes, the federated
Iroquois tribes. This would be a huge mistake for the French. The
Iroquois:
1. Hampered French penetration of the Ohio Valley
2. Ravaged French settlements
3. Served as allies of the British (especially during the Seven
Years’ War)
d. Government of New France
i. Fell under the direct control of the king after various commercial
companies had faltered or failed
ii. The royal regime was autocratic. The people elected no
representative assemblies, nor did they enjoy the right to trail by
jury, as in the English colonies
e. Population Growth in New France
i. Went slowly. By 1750, only 60,000 whites inhabited Canada
ii. Landowning French peasants, unlike the dispossessed English
tenant farmers, had little economic motive to move
iii. Protestant Huguenots, who might have had a religious motive to
migrate, were denied a refuge in this colony
iv. The French government favored its Caribbean island colonies, rich
in sugar and rum , over the snowy wilderness of Canada
New France Fans Out
III.
a. Beaver Trade
i. New France contained one valuable resource – the beaver. People
valued beaver-pelt hats for their warmth and appearance
ii. French fur-trappers ranged over the woods and waterways of North
America in pursuit of beaver. They littered the land with scores of
place names, including:
1. Baton Rouge (red stick)
2. Terre Haute (high land)
3. Des Moines (some monks)
iii. Indians entered the fur trade as well
iv. Consequences of the fur trade were:
1. Indians were decimated by the white man’s diseases and
debauched (corrupted) by his alcohol
2. Slaughtering beaver by the boatload also violated many
Indians’ religious beliefs and demonstrated the shattering
effect that contact with Europeans wreaked on traditional
Indian ways of life
3. Killing beaver all over Canada and America nearly
extinguished the beaver population in many areas and
inflicted incalculable ecological damage
b. Missionaries
i. French Catholic missionaries, notably the Jesuits, labored to save
the Indians for Christ. Some of them suffered unspeakable horrors
at the hands of the Indians
ii. Although they made few permanent converts, the Jesuits played a
vital role as explorers and geographers
c. Thwarting English and Spanish Settlers
i. To thwart English settlers pursing into the Ohio Valley, Antoine
Cadillac founded Detroit
ii. To check Spanish penetration into the region of the Gulf of
Mexico, Robert de La Salle went to the Mississippi delta and
named it Louisiana in honor his king, Louis XIV. He later tried to
colonize the area, but mislead 4 ships into Spanish Texas. His
crew led a mutiny against him and killed him
iii. However, French officials persisted in their efforts to block Spain
on the Gulf of Mexico. They planted several forts in Mississippi
and Louisiana, the most important of which was New Orleans
(1718)
iv. Fertile Illinois country, where the French established forts and
trading posts, was the garden of France’s North American empire.
Surprising amounts of grain were floated down the Mississippi for
shipment from New Orleans to the West Indies and Europe
The Clash of Empires
a. King William’s War (1689-1697) and Queen Anne’s War (1702-1713)
i. Both pitted British colonists against the French, with both sides
recruiting whatever Indian allies they could
IV.
ii. Neither France nor Britain at this stage considered America worth
the commitment of large detachments of regular troops, so the
combatants waged a kind of primitive guerrilla warfare
iii. Spain eventually allied with France
iv. Britain and New Englanders eventually defeated France and Spain
at the stronghold of Port Royal in Acadia (present-day Nova
Scotia)
b. Peace Treaty (1713)
i. Britain was awarded:
1. Acadia (the British renamed it Nova Scotia or New
Scotland)
2. Newfoundland
3. Hudson Bay
ii. A generation of peace ensued, with decades of “salutary neglect”
c. King George’s War or the War of Jenkins’s Ear (1739-1748)
i. By 1713, the British won limited trading rights in Spanish
America, but it there were later disputes over smuggling
ii. British captain Jenkins, encountering Spanish revenue authorities,
had one ear sliced off by a sword. The Spanish commander
wanted him to take it home to the crown and said he would’ve
done the same to the crown had he been in front of him
iii. This aroused furious resentment when he returned home to Britain
iv. This war broke out in 1739 between the British and the Spaniards.
It was confined to the Caribbean Sea and to the buffer colony of
Georgia. Philanthropist James Oglethorpe fought his Spanish foe
to a standstill
v. This small-scale scuffle with Spain in America soon merged with
the large-scale War of Austrian Succession in Europe, and came to
be called King George’s War in America
vi. France allied itself with Spain and England with New Englanders
vii. The British captured the reputedly impregnable French fortress of
Louisbourg, which was on Cape Breton Island and commanded the
approaches to the St. Lawrence River
d. Peace Treaty (1748)
i. Handed Louisbourg back to their French foe. This outraged the
victorious New Englanders. They felt betrayed by the English
ii. Louisbourg was still a strong fort of the French, ready to fight
against Americans again
George Washington Inaugurates War With France
a. Ohio Country
i. The Ohio Country became a bone of contention between the
French and British
ii. The Ohio Country was the critical area into which the westwardpushing British colonists would inevitably penetrate. It was also
key to the French if they were to link their Canadian holdings with
those of the lower Mississippi Valley
V.
iii. British colonists were determined to fight for their economic
security and for the supremacy of their way of life in North
America
b. George Washington
i. In 1749, a group of British colonial speculators, chiefly influential
Virginians, including the Washington family, had secured shaky
legal “rights” to some 500,000 acres in this region
ii. In the same disputed wilderness, the French were in the process of
erecting a chain of forts commanding the strategic Ohio River.
Especially formidable was Fort Duquesne, the pivotal point where
two rivers join to form the Ohio (later the site of Pittsburgh)
iii. To secure the Virginians’ claims, George Washington (a 21-year
old surveyor), was sent to the Ohio Country as a lieutenant colonel
in command of about 150 Virginian militiamen
iv. The Virginians encountered French troops 40 miles from Fort
Duquesne and fired on them, starting the Seven Years’ War
v. The French promptly returned with reinforcements, who
surrounded Washington in his hastily constructed breastworks,
Fort Necessity. He was forced to surrender on July 4, 1754.
However, he was allowed to march away
c. Nova Scotia
i. With the shooting already started and in danger of spreading, the
British authorities in Nova Scotia took vigorous action
ii. Understandably fearing a stab in the back from the French
Acadians, the British brutally uprooted 4,000 of them in 1755
iii. These deportees were scattered as far south as Louisiana, where
the descendants of the French-speaking Acadians are now called
“Cajuns” and number nearly a million
Global War and Colonial Disunity
a. A True World War
i. The first three Anglo-French colonial wars had all started in
Europe, but the 4th started in America
ii. It continued on an undeclared basis for two years and then widened
into the most far-flung conflict the world had yet seen. It was
fought not only in America, but in:
1. Europe
2. West Indies
3. Philippines
4. Africa
5. On the ocean
b. War in Europe
i. Europe – Britain and Prussia against France, Spain, Austria, and
Russia
ii. Bloodiest theater – Germany, where Frederick the Great repelled
French, Austrian, and Russian armies, often with the opposing
forces outnumbering his own 3 to 1
VI.
iii. The London government, unable to send him effective troop
reinforcements, subsidized him with gold
iv. Luckily for the British colonists, the French wasted so much
strength in this European bloodbath that they were unable to put an
adequate force in the New World
c. Albany Plan
i. Colonists who were nearest the shooting had responded much
more generously with volunteers and money than those enjoying
the safety of remoteness. Again there was colonial disunity
ii. In 1754, the British government summoned an intercolonial
congress to Albany, New York, near the Iroquois Indian country.
Travel-weary delegates from only 7 of the 13 colonies showed up
iii. There were two purposes to the meeting:
1. The immediate purpose was to keep the Iroquois tribes
loyal to the British in the spreading war. The chiefs were
bribed with many gifts
2. The longer-range purpose was to achieve greater colonial
unity and thus bolster the common defense against France.
A month before the meeting took place, Benjamin Franklin
published in his Pennsylvania Gazette the most famous
cartoon of the colonial era
iv. Franklin was the undeclared leader of the Albany Congress. His
contribution was a well-devised, but premature scheme for colonial
home rule, called the Albany Plan. Although the Albany delegates
unanimously adopted the plan, the individual colonies spurned it,
as did the crown. To the colonists, it did not seem to give enough
independence; to the British officials, it seemed to give too much.
However, it was an important precedent for the concept of uniting
v. Albany Plan:
1. Annual congress of delegates (representatives) from each
of the 13 colonies
2. Have the power to:
a. Raise a military and navy
b. Make war and peace with Native Americans
c. Regulate trade with N.A.
d. Tax
e. Collect customs duties
Braddock’s Blundering and Its Aftermath
a. Early British Defeats
i. The opening clashes of the French and Indian War went badly for
the British colonists
ii. General Braddock, a 60-year old officer experienced in European
warfare, set out in 1755 with 2,000 to capture Fort Duquesne
iii. However, a considerable part of his force contained ill-disciplined
colonial militiamen
VII.
iv. A few miles from Fort Duquesne, Braddock encountered a much
smaller French and Indian army. At first, the enemy force war
repulsed, but it quickly melted into the thickets and poured a
murderous fire into the ranks of British. The entire British force
was routed after appalling losses
v. This left the whole frontier from PA to NC open. Indians surged to
the colonist’s western frontier and scalped people as close to 80
miles from Philadelphia
vi. George Washington, with only 300 men, tried desperately to
defend the scorched frontier
b. Invasion of Canada
i. In 1756, the British launched a full-scale invasion of Canada
ii. They unwisely tried to attack a number of exposed wilderness
posts simultaneously, instead of throwing all their strength at
Quebec and Montreal. If these strongholds had fallen, all the
outposts to the west would have withered for lack of riverborne
supplies
Pitt’s Palms of Victory
a. William Pitt
i. An excellent British military leader who was known as the “Great
Commoner,” because he drew much of his strength from the
common people, who admired him so greatly that they kissed his
horses. A splendid orator with a majestic voice, he believed
passionately in his cause, in his country , and in himself
ii. In 1757, Pitt became the Prime Minister in England
iii. He decided against attacking the French West Indies, which were
causing heavy casualties. Instead, he decided to concentrate on the
vital areas of Canada – the Quebec-Montreal area (headquarters of
the French)
iv. In an attack against Louisbourg in 1758, the fort fell after a
blistering siege. This marked the first significant British victory in
the entire war
b. James Wolfe and Quebec
i. Pitt chose James Wolfe, who had been an officer since the age of
14
ii. The British attackers were making woeful progress when Wolfe, in
a daring night move, sent a detachment up a poorly guarded part of
the rocky cliff protecting Quebec. They scaled the cliff, pulled
themselves upward by the bushes, and showed the way for the
others
iii. In the morning the two armies faced each other on the Plains of
Abraham on the outskirts of Quebec. Wolfe was fatally wounded,
but the French were defeated and the city surrendered
c. The End of the War
i. When Montreal fell in 1760, the French were defeated
ii. The peace settlement was called the Treaty of Paris (1763)
VIII.
iii. French power was thrown completely off the continent of North
America, leaving a French population that is a strong minority in
Canada to this day
iv. Spain turned Florida over to Britain in return for Cuba, where
Havana had fallen to the British
v. To compensate their Spanish ally for its losses, France ceded to
Spain all trans-Mississippi Louisiana, plus the outlet of New
Orleans
vi. The treaty would mark the end of salutary neglect
Restless Colonists
a. America’s Military
i. Increased confidence in their military strength
ii. Fought well alongside British regulars
iii. Gained experience
iv. Early defeats shattered the myth of British invincibility
v. 20,000 American recruits by the end of the war
b. Friction Between British Officers and American Militia
i. The British showed the contempt of the professional soldier for
amateurs
1. The British refused to recognize any American militia
commission above the rank of captain
ii. Since they were from the civilized Old Country, they showed
contempt for the colonists, who were “scum” who had fled to the
“outhouses of civilization”
iii. Energetic and hard-working American settlers, in contrast,
believed themselves to be the cutting edge of British civilization.
They felt that they deserved credit rather than contempt for risking
their lives to secure a New World empire
iv. British officials were further distressed by the reluctance of the
colonists to support the common cause wholeheartedly
1. Smuggling
a. American shippers, using fraudulent papers,
smuggled goods to the enemy ports of the Spanish
and French West Indies
b. This treasonable trade in foodstuffs actually kept
some of the hostile islands from starving at the very
time when the British navy was trying to subdue
them
c. In the final year of the war, the British authorities,
forced to resort to drastic measures, forbade the
export of all supplies from the colonies
2. Lack of Troops
a. Self-centered and alienated by distance from the
war, colonists refused to provide troops and money
for the conflict
b. Not until Pitt had offered to reimburse the colonies
for a substantial part of their expenditures did they
move with some enthusiasm
IX.
c. Colonial Disunity
i. Present from early days and continued throughout the recent
hostilities
ii. Caused mainly by enormous distances and geographical barriers
iii. Conflicting religions
iv. Varied nationalities
v. Different types of colonial government
vi. Boundary disputes
vii. Resentment of crude backcountry settlers against the aristocratic
bigwigs
d. Colonial Unity
i. When soldiers and statesmen from widely separated colonies met
around common campfires and council tables, they were often
surprised by the fact that they shared the same ideals and spoke the
same language
ii. Barriers of disunity began to melt, although a long and rugged road
lay ahead before a coherent nation would emerge
War’s Fateful Aftermath
a. Indians After the War
i. In a sense, the history of the United States began with the fall of
Quebec and Montreal
ii. The Spanish and Indian menaces were also new substantially
reduced. Spain was eliminated from Florida, but it was still in
possession of Louisiana and much of western North America
iii. The French removal from Canada deprived the Indians of their
most powerful diplomatic weapon – the ability to play off the rival
European powers against one another
b. Chief Pontiac
i. Sensing the newly precarious position of the Indian peoples, the
Ottawa chief Pontiac in 1763 led several tribes, aided by a handful
of French traders who remained in the region, in a violent
campaign to drive the British out of the Ohio Country. Pontiac’s
forces overran all but 3 British posts west of the Appalachians
ii. The British retaliated swiftly and cruelly. One British commander
ordered blankets infected with smallpox to be distributed among
the Indians. Such tactics crushed the uprising and brought an
uneasy truce to the frontier
iii. Result - The bloody uprising convinced the British that they
needed to keep regular troops stationed along the restless frontier,
a measure for which they soon asked the colonists to foot the bill.
This helped to precipitate the American Revolution
c. Western Lands
i. Land-hungry American colonists were now free to go west of the
Appalachian Mountains
ii. A tiny band of pioneers like Daniel Boone had already trickled into
Tennessee and Kentucky
d. Proclamation of 1763
i. It flatly prohibited settlement in the area beyond the Appalachians
and that Native Americans owned the land on which they were
residing
ii. It wasn’t designed to oppress the colonists, but to work out the
Indian problem fairly and prevent another bloody eruption like
Pontiac’s uprising
iii. In complete defiance, many colonists went west. The colonists
questioned:
1. Was not the land beyond the mountains their birthright?
2. Had they not purchased it with their blood in the recent
war?
e. British and American Tension
i. The colonists began to develop a new vision of their destiny. With
a path cleared for the conquest of a continent, with their birthrate
high and lots of energy, they were in no mood to be restrained
ii. The British, who were puffed up by their recent victories and huge
land gain, were already annoyed with their colonial subjects