2. Competing European Claims
In the middle of the 18th century,
France and England had competing
claims for land in North America.
The French held trapping and trade
routes in the Ohio Valley.
The English colonies were
encroaching on French territory are the
population grew.
They also competed over trade issues
with the Native Americans in the
disputed region.
4. The Battle of Fort Necessity
The French set up forts along to
protect their fur trading interests.
Some of these forts conflicted with
English claims.
Virginia Governor Dinwiddie
dispatched a young George
Washington in 1753 to deliver a protest
to the French. This protest was
ignored.
The British sent a party to construct a
fort on the site of modern Pittsburg.
Young George Washington
5. The Battle of Fort Necessity
A recreation of Ft. Necessity.
The force was driven off by the French who, in turn, constructed Fort Duquesne on
the site.
The next year, Dinwiddie turned to Washington to expel the French from the site.
Washington was quickly overwhelmed by superior French and Native American
numbers.
Washington had to retreat to the hastily constructed Fort Necessity, which he had to
surrender shortly there after. This incident was a prelude to the French and Indian
War.
6. The Albany Congress
In 1754, war was inevitable.
The colonies sent delegates to Albany
to discuss strategy for common
defense.
They approved a document written by
Benjamin Franklin promoting a
substructure of government below
British authority to govern the
colonies.
The council would be comprised of
elected representatives from each
colony and headed by a President-
General appointed by the crown.
The colonies were not ready for
political union and it is unlikely that the
"Join or Die" (1754) published by Franklin is British government would have
supported the plan.
considered the first political cartoon of the colonies.
7. From the Albany Plan of Union From the Constitution
(1754) (1787)
“[the President]…he shall take care that the
9. That the assent of the President-General
be requisite to all acts of the Grand Council, laws be faithfully executed…”
and that it be his office and duty to cause
them to be carried into execution.
10. That the President-General, with the “[the President]…shall have power, by and
advice of the Grand Council, hold or direct with the advice and consent of the Senate, to
all Indian treaties… and make peace or make treaties, provided two thirds of the
declare war with Indian nations. Senators present concur…”
11. That they make such laws as they judge “[Congress will] regulate Commerce with
necessary for regulating all Indian trade. … foreign Nations, and among the several States,
and with the Indian Tribes…”
15. That they raise and pay soldiers and “[Congress will] raise and support Armies…To
build forts for the defence of any of the
Colonies… provide and maintain a Navy…”
16. That for these purposes they have power “The Congress shall have Power To lay and
to make laws, and lay and levy such general collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises…”
duties, imposts, or taxes…
8. Braddock’s Defeat
In July 1755, the British sent a force
from Virginia to attack Fort Duquesne.
The heavy force was defeated by the
smaller French force and their Native
American allies.
Both the British commander,
Braddock, and the French commander
Beaujeu, were killed.
23 year old George Washington won
accolades for rallying the defeated
British and preventing the battle from
turning into a rout.
The first two years of fighting were
characterized by humiliating defeats for
the British.
9. The Seven Years War in Europe
The French and Indian War was essentially the North American theatre of a larger
conflict, the Seven Years War, in Europe.
Britain, Prussia, and Hanover fought against an alliance of France, Austria, Saxony,
Russia, Sweden and Spain.
Prime Minister Pitt of England provided subsidies to Prussia to fight in Europe and
committed British troops and resources to winning the war against the French in
North America.
The European phase of the war lasted from 1757 to 1763.
10. Fortunes Reverse
In 1757, expansion advocate
William Pitt became the British
Prime Minister and vowed to lead
country to victory.
Pitt concentrated on:
expelling the French from North
America
buying the cooperation by the
colonists by stimulating the North
American economy with a massive
infusion of British currency
buying the support of the Native
Americans with promises of fixed
territorial boundaries.
11. Fortunes Reverse
The greatly fortified force devastated the Cherokee to the South and began capturing
strategic French forts and cutting off their supply lines.
The British conquered Quebec in 1759.
In 1760, they captured Montreal.
In the final years of the war, the British defeated the French Navy and took French
colonies in the Caribbean.
The French Empire in North America came to an end.
12. French Defeat: Treaty of Easton
The Treaty of Easton, signed in 1758,
essentially sealed France’s fate.
In the treaty, the British promised the
Six Iroquois Nations to stop
settlements west of the Alleghenies in
exchange for their neutrality in the war.
This caused the French to abandon
Fort Duquesne and, by 1760, Detroit
and Montreal, the last two French
strongholds in North America, had
fallen.
This was the end of major fighting in
North America.
13. The Treaty of Paris
The 1763 Treaty of Paris ended the French and Indian War.
The French transferred its claims west of the Mississippi to Spain and ceded its
territory east of the Mississippi to the British.
The Treaties of Easton and Paris limited colonization to the Eastern seaboard.
14. Pontiac's Rebellion
Native Americans quickly grew
disenchanted with the British.
The British exhibited little cultural
sensitivity, traded unfairly, and failed to
stop encroachments on Indian land.
This unrest culminated in a rebellion by
Pontiac, a Native American leader who
united various tribes with the goal of
expelling the British.
The uprising lasted from 1763 to 1766.
Massacres and atrocities occurred on
both sides— most notably, British
General Jeffrey Amherst gave the
Native Americans blankets infested
with smallpox.
15. Chief Pontiac: Address to Ottawa, Huron, and Pottawatomie
Indians
(May 5, 1763)
“It is important … that we exterminate from our lands this nation which
seeks only to destroy us. You see as well as I do that we can no longer supply
our needs, as we have done from our brothers, the French. The English sells
us goods twice as dear as the French do, and their goods do not last. …
When I go to see the English commander and say to him that some of our
comrades are dead, instead of bewailing their death, as our French brothers
do, he laughs at me and at you. If I ask for anything for our sick, he refuses
with the reply that he has no use for us. …
Are we not men like them? … What do we fear? It is time.”
16. The Royal Proclamation of 1763
Violent incidents such as Pontiac's Rebellion prompted the English crown to attempt
to mandate an end to encroachments on territory promised to the Indians.
Settlers were not to establish themselves west of the “Proclamation Line.”
The effort was unsuccessful and is viewed by many to be a leading cause of the
Revolutionary War.
