Lecture 4: The French Indian War (1756 to 1763)

Learning Objectives  

By the end of this lesson, students will be able to do the following:

Ø  identify the events of the French and Indian War

Ø  see the role that the American colonies played in the conflict

Ø  connect the French and Indian War with the American Revolution through the restrictions placed on American colonists

Introduction

The Struggle for Continental Domination

      From the late seventeenth century to the mid-eighteen century North America was the scene of constant tension among the Spanish, French, and English. By that time, however, Spain had lost much of its power, and east of the Mississippi the contest over territorial control focused on the rivalry between France and England. Each of the two powers tried to have the upper hand in North America.

The French and Indian War

    The French and Indian War, a colonial extension of the Seven Years War that ravaged Europe from 1756 to 1763, was the bloodiest American war in the 18th century.  It took more lives than the American Revolution, involved people on three continents, including the Caribbean. The war was the product of an imperial struggle, a clash between the French and English over colonial territory and wealth. Within these global forces, the war can also be seen as a product of the localized rivalry between British and French colonists. Known as the French and Indian War, since it pitted the French and their Indian allies against the British (who had their own Indian allies), it represented the American side of the Seven Years’ War. In contrast to the earlier conflicts, however, this war began in America.

 

   Tensions between the British and French in America had been rising for some time, as each side wanted to increase its land holdings. What is now considered the French and Indian War (though at the time the war was undeclared), began in November 1753, when the young    Virginian major George Washington and a number of men headed out into the Ohio region with the mission to deliver a message to a French captain demanding that French troops withdraw from the territory. The demand was rejected. In 1754, Washington, at the head of a small militia force, received authorization to build a fort near the present site of Pittsburgh. Outnumbered by about seven hundred to four hundred, Washington’s force surrendered. He was unsuccessful because of the strong French presence in the area. In May, Washington’s troops clashed with local French forces, a skirmish that ultimately resulted in Washington having to surrender the meager fort he had managed to build just one month later. The incident set off a string of small battles.

The Albany Congress (1754)

While George Washington was surrendering Fort Necessity, an important meeting was taking place in Albany, New York. The British government had summoned delegates from New Hampshire, Massachusetts. New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia to meet with leaders of the Iroquois Indians. All except New Jersey and Virginia responded. The British wanted the Iroquois to aid them against the French. The purpose of the Albany Congress was to draw up a treaty with the Indians that all the colonies would sign. Until then, each colony had made its own agreement or treaty with the Indians.

    The Iroquois leaders listened politely to the customary speeches of welcome and gravely accepted the usual gifts. However, they would give no promises of support. They were well aware of growing French power in the west and had no desire to support a loser. They also felt that they had been cheated by British land speculators.

    After the Indians left, the delegates discussed a plan for joint colonial action proposed by Benjamin Franklin. Franklin believed the French were confident of victory over the British settlers because the latter were divided. Franklin thought the colonies should work together to defeat France. Each colony would still have its own government. They would also create one government together to decide important issues. His idea was called the Albany Plan of Union. The colonists rejected it. They did not want to join together under one government. So he proposed the Albany Plan of the Union that would set up a colonial council to deal with the common defense. The council would also raise taxes on its own for military purposes, and it would handle relations with the Indians as well as the acquisition and settlement of western lands.

   The Albany delegates sent the plan to the various colonies for their approval. In every colony it was either rejected or ignored. The assemblies did not want a council with control over western lands. Each colony wanted to press its own claims.

       In 1755, the British sent General Edward Braddock to oversee the British Colonial forces, but on his way to oust the French from Fort Duquesne he was surprised by the French and badly routed, losing his life in the process.

      After a year and a half of undeclared war, the French and the English formally declared war in May 1756. For the first three years of the war, the outnumbered French dominated the battlefield, soundly defeating the English in battles. Perhaps the most notorious battle of the war was the French victory at Fort William Henry, which ended in a massacre of British soldiers by Indians allied with the French. The battle and ensuing massacre was captured for history—though not accurately—by James Fenimore Cooper in his classic The Last of the Mohicans: A Narrative of (1757)

     The tide turned for the British in 1758, as they began to make peace with important Indian allies and, under the direction of Lord William Pitt began adapting their war strategies to fit the territory and landscape of the American frontier. The British had a further stroke of good fortune when the French were abandoned by many of their Indian allies. Exhausted by years of battle, outnumbered and outgunned by the British, the French collapsed during the years 1758-59, climaxing with a massive defeat at Quebec in September 1759. It was in this battle that both commanding officers, the British General Wolfe and the French General Montcalm were mortally wounded.

    By September 1760, the British controlled the entire North American frontier; the war between the two countries was effectively over. The 1763 Treaty of Paris, which also ended the European Seven Years War, set the terms by which France would capitulate. Under the treaty, France was forced to surrender all of her American possessions to the British and the Spanish.

    Although the war with the French ended in 1763, the British continued to fight with the Indians over the issue of land claims. “Pontiac’s War” flared shortly after the Treaty of Paris was signed. An Ottawa chief named Pontiac led the Indians in a war against the British. This was called Pontiac’s Rebellion. The British defeated the Indians in less than a year and many of the battlefields—including Detroit, Fort Pitt, and Niagara—were the same. The Indians, however, already exhausted by many years of war, quickly capitulated (ceased to resist) under the ferocious British retaliation; still, the issue remained a problem for many years to come.

      The results of the war effectively ended French political and cultural influence in North America. England gained massive amounts of land and vastly strengthened its hold on the continent.    Within this Peace Treaty, France gave Britain control of Canada and most of the land east of the Mississippi River. British soldiers stayed in the Ohio River Valley. The war, however, also had subtler results. It badly eroded the relationship between England and Native Americans. The Indians wanted the soldiers to leave. To avoid more conflict with American Indians, Britain made the Royal Proclamation of 1763. It recognized the Indians’ right to the land. It did not allow colonists west of the Appalachian Mountains. The colonists were angry.  They wanted to settle on the land. They did not want the British soldiers to live among them.  The hope was that restricting colonials to the seaboard would make governing them easier. Also, there would be less chance of trouble with the Indians.

Moreover, the proclamation persuaded colonists of two things. First, it convinced them that the British government was insensitive to their interests. Second and more important, it persuaded them that the British government was unable to enforce its orders.

Outcome of the War

   When the Treaty of Paris of 1763 was signed, millions of square miles of land changed hands. Britain took Florida from Spain because that country had supported France during the last years of the war. From France,

Britain obtained Canada and all the land east of the Mississippi River except the port of New Orleans. Britain could have gotten more, but the new king's minister was more interested in keeping a balance of power in Europe between Spain and France than he was in gaining territory. So he returned the West

Indian islands of Martinique (mar’ta nek’) and Guadeloupe (gwii’da loop’) to France and persuaded that country, in a separate treaty, to give Spain New Orleans and Louisiana.

 

    Although the war seemed to strengthen England’s hold on the colonies, 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.

Notes

***The Last of the Mohicans is set in 1757, during the French and Indian War (the Seven Years’ War), when France and Great Britain battled for control of North America. The novel is set primarily in the upper New York wilderness, detailing the transport of the two daughters of Colonel Munro, Alice and Cora, to a safe destination at Fort William Henry. Among the caravan guarding the women are the frontiersman Natty Bumppo, Major Duncan Heyward, and the Indians Chingachgook and Uncas, the latter two being the novel's title characters. These characters are sometimes seen as a microcosm of the budding American society, particularly with regard to their racial composition.

Cooper wants to emphasize the tensions between mankind and the land, between natives and colonists, and between nature and culture. He does this by using history as a frame and filling that frame with fictional events.

The novel has been one of the most popular English-language novels since its publication and is frequently assigned reading in American literature courses.[1]  It has been adapted numerous times and in many languages for films, TV movies and cartoons.

References

1.      Anderson, Fred. Crucible of War: The Seven Years' War and the Fate of Empire in British North America, 1754–1766. Faber and Faber, 2000

2.      Anderson, Fred. The War That Made America: A Short History of the French and Indian War(2006)

3.      Baugh, Daniel. The Global Seven Years War, 1754–1763 (Pearson Press, 2011) 660 pp; online review in H-FRANCE

4.      Black, Jeremy (1994). European Warfare, 1660–1815. London: UCL Press. ISBN 978-1-85728-172-9.

5.      Charters, Erica. Disease, War, and the Imperial State: The Welfare of the British Armed Forces During the Seven Years' War (University of Chicago Press, 2014).

6.      Corbett, Julian. England in the Seven Years' War: A Study in Combined Strategy (2 vols., 1907)

7.      Crouch, Christian Ayne. Nobility Lost: French and Canadian Martial Cultures, Indians, and the End of New France. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2014.

8.        Duffy, Christopher. Instrument of War: The Austrian Army in the Seven Years War (2000); By Force of Arms: The Austrian Army in the Seven Years War, Vol II (2008)

9.      Dull, Jonathan R. The French Navy and the Seven Years' War. University of Nebraska Press, 2005.

10.  Fenimore Cooper, James. (1826). The Last of the Mohicans.USA, H.C. Carey & I. Lea