In the 1750s, the British are worried about the French.  The French are getting some of the best furs out of the west (west of the Appalachians) and they are inciting the Indians to attack frontier settlements.  Furthermore, the colonies are getting more populous, and the people (especially the rich, for wealth is often measured by land) want more land.  So, to get a hold in the west, in the vast areas Virginia claims, many wealthy and influential Virginians, including the Washington family, form the Ohio Company to survey, settle and sell 500,000 acres in the Ohio River Valley.

George Washington, aged 21, is sent to Fort Duquesne and tells the French to leave the area.  They say ‘non.’

George Washington goes home and reports.  He is made a Lt. Col. of militia and is sent by Governor Dinwiddie with about 150 militiamen into this territory to investigate French forts in the area.  He comes upon Ft Duquesne (now Pittsburgh), encounters a French patrol and ambushes it, driving it off.  The French prepared to counterattack, and Washington built Ft Necessity.  He was besieged and defeated in ten hours on 4 July, 1754.

Thus the French and Indian War begins.  It is sometimes called the Great War for Empire, because French and Indian was is no longer PC.  It is also called the Seven Years War because it lasted 7 years in Europe (but 9 in America).

Explain the difference between militia and regulars, between Indian, colonial, and line tactics, and possibly talk about weaponry.

1754:  A conference is held at Albany with the intention of getting the Iroquois to strengthen their alliance with Britain and of co-ordinating colonial war plans.  At this conference, Benjamin Franklin suggests the Albany Plan of Union, under which the colonies would have a common government to lead them through this (and possibly future) crisis.  The plan is rejected because the colonies do not want to give up their autonomy.  They do not feel they have enough in common.

1755:  General Edward Braddock, 60 years old and experienced in European warfare, is sent to America.  He leads 1,460 regulars and about 450 militiamen into the forest and is badly defeated (and killed) in an ambush near Ft Duquesne by the French and the Indians.

1756:  The war spreads to Europe and around the world.

1754-1757:  The war goes very badly for the British.  Indian raids kill and scalp hundreds along the frontier, and the British send little aid.

1757:  William Pitt becomes PM.  He raises taxes, decides to concentrate on Canada, and sends more troops to America, and the tide begins to turn.

1758:  Louisburg captured, opening the St Lawrence to the Royal Navy.  Ticonderoga and Ft Duquesne also taken.

1759:  Wolfe takes Quebec.  About 4,500 British troops defeat 4,500 French on the Plains of Abraham and capture at least 3,000 more (and possibly as many as 9,500 more—there were 7,000-14,000 French soldiers in Quebec).  Fort Niagra is also taken in this year.

1760:  Fall of Fort Loudon.  180 men and 60 women and children march out, all but 20-30 are slaughtered.  The rest are enslaved but mostly later ransomed.

1760:  Montreal captured.

1763:  Peace of Paris, borders redrawn.  Britain gets Canada and all land east of the Mississippi.

1763:  Americans flood across the mountains and annoy the Ottawa Indians, many of whom attack the settlements in Pontiac’s Rebellion.  This is put down by the British with force of arms and smallpox-infected blankets.

1763:  To protect the Indians and colonists, King George III issues the proclamation of 1763.

During the war, the British and the militia got bad impressions of one another.  The British did not seem to care for colonial welfare, and the militia were often poorly organised and were sometimes bad fighters.  The Proclamation Line angered many colonists, who felt betrayed by it.  Finally, Britain went deep into debt to pay for the war, and will soon need to make some money.  Who better to charge for this than the colonies?
 

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