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In the 1740s both England and France traded for furs with the Native Americans in the Ohio River Valley.
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Rivalries and battles in Europe spill over into the Colonies
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The French and the British defended the Ohio River Valley by building forts such as the French Fort Duquense (now called Pittsburgh)
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Major George Washington delivered a message to a French Captain demanding that French troops leave the territory in question. The demand was rejected by the French.
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Brought representatives from England, American Colonies, and Indians together to align against the French. Indians claimed neutrality. Plan was rejected.
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George Washington and a small force of Virginia militiamen marched to the Ohio River Valley to drive the French out by capturing Fort Duquesne.
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For the first 3 years of the war (1754-1757), the outnumbered French dominated the battlefield, defeating the English in battles at…
Fort Oswego
Fort Ticonderoga
Fort William Henry (notorious battle which ended in a massacre of British soldiers by Indians allied with the French.) -
A combined force of French soldiers and their Native American allies overwhelmed Fort Necessity. The French permitted Washington and his men to return to Virginia safely, but made them promise they would not build another fort west of the Appalachian Mountains for at least a year
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It took England 2 years after the battle at Fort Necessity to declare war.
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England began to make peace with important Indian allies.
Under the direction of Lord William Pitt began adapting their war strategies to fit the territory and landscape of the American frontier.
The French were abandoned by many of their Indian allies and exhausted by years of battle, outnumbered and outgunned by the British -
The French collapsed in 1758-59, with a massive British victory at Quebec led by General James Wolfe in September 1759.
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BySeptember 1760, the British controlled French possessions; the war was effectively over.
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1763 Treaty of Paris, which also ended the European “Seven Years War”
France was forced to surrender all American possessions to the British.
The British continued to fight with the Indians over the issue of land claims. "Pontiac's War" flared up shortly after the Treaty of Paris was signed -
The war effectively ended French influence in North America.
England gained massive amounts of land and vastly strengthened its hold on the continent.
The effects of the French and Indian War played a major role in the worsening relationship between England and its colonies that eventually led into the Revolutionary War.
