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Chapter I - The French and Indian War
The French and Indian War 1754 - 1763
In the years between 1700 and 1763 the two great superpowers of the eighteenth century, France and Britain, competed for sovereignty in Europe and the New World in a series of fierce battles, spilling vast quantities of blood over both continents. This conflict climaxed in the French and Indian War between 1754 and 1763. Trouble began in America when King George II granted land to English settlers in the upper Ohio Valley despite vigorous protests from the French. In response to this high-handed British appropriation of disputed territory, the French built a series of forts near present-day Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to discourage British settlers. By 1755 the French had succeeded in driving out English traders and settlers.
As a result, the governor of Virginia sent a twenty-one-year-old lieutenant named George Washington into the region with Virginia militiamen to investigate the situation. Near Fort Duquesne, Washington encountered French troops and opened fire. An enthusiastic Washington later wrote, "I heard bullets whistle by, and believe me, there is something charming in the sound." Washington's exuberance quickly dissipatedly however when an overwhelming number of French troops forced him to surrender on the 4th of July, 1754.
This undeclared war flared up sporadically during the next two years, provoking Benjamin Franklin to plead earnestly with representatives of the thirteen colonies to "join or die." Continuing to show what Franklin called an "astonishing lack of unity," the colonies refused to combine forces against the French. "Everyone cries a union is necessary," grumbled Franklin, "but when they come to the manner and form of the union, their weak noodles are perfectly distracted."
Meanwhile, in 1755 two thousand ill-trained British troops and colonial militiamen led by General Edward Braddock unsuccessfully challenged the French troops and the Indians who had joined them, failing to capture Fort Duquesne. Trained in European warfare Braddock's troops were no match for the enemy who shot from behind trees and then melted into the forest untouched. Braddock's defeat resulted in death for many of the English settlers between Pennsylvania and North Carolina who were left unprotected from devastating Indian attacks.
Facing total disaster in North America, King George and Prime Minister William Pitt changed their strategy and concentrated on fighting the French mainly in the "vitals of Canada" rather than in Europe. Between 1757 and 1758 the British sent over 23,000 troops to the French-controlled Quebec-Montreal region. After a series of setbacks, British troops finally captured Fort Duquesne as well as Fort Louisburg strategically located on the St. Lawrence River. In 1759 the brilliant British general, James Wolfe, led his troops against the French stronghold at Quebec. For two months Wolfe attempted to find a way into Quebec, which was surrounded by "impregnable fortified heights." During a bitterly cold September night, some of Wolfe's men finally found a path up the hills behind Quebec, and Wolfe quickly dispatched troops through this gap to attack French forces.
As French troops charged toward the British, they were mowed down by a murderous volley of gunfire once they were within shooting range. The devastated French troops quickly surrendered and grudgingly allowed the British to enter Quebec. The subsequent capture of Montreal in 1760 sealed the fate of the French in North America, even though the war dragged on until 1763.
With the signing of the Peace of Paris in 1763, the old colonial dream of ridding the continent of the "Gallic menace" had finally come true. Britain obtained all of France's North American possessions east of the Mississippi, their islands in the West Indies and all of Spanish Florida. Thus, France possessed no territory in North America, and the British reigned supreme east of the Mississippi. However, a humiliated France would avenge itself years later by joining forces with the American rebels to help defeat the British Empire in the Revolutionary War.
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