Who Fought Again Great Britain the French and Indian War

The French and Indian War (1754-1763) is the proper name given to the North American theatre of the Vii Years' War (1756-1763), a global conflict involving the major powers of Europe. Though war was not formally declared until 1756, armed conflict began in 1754 as disputes over land claims in the Ohio Valley lead to a series of frontier battles between the French and British. Both received support from diverse Native American tribes, though the outnumbered French became far more than dependent on these allies as the war progressed. The French saw a number of early victories, most notably over George Washington and Edward Braddock in Western Pennsylvania. Washington speedily became a central figure in the conflict, maturing during his tenure in the Virginia militia from an inexperienced immature major to the commander in chief of the colony's regiment. Washington's involvement during the state of war'south early stages provided the future President with invaluable military experience while as well gaining him positive notoriety that helped to launch his futurity political career. The tide turned in favor of the British in 1757 when King George 2 appointed Secretarial assistant of Land William Pitt to commander of wartime operations.  Pitt believed that securing victories in North America would ensure Uk's global success, and reinvigorated the war attempt past reorganizing military leadership and strengthening the Crown'southward relationship with its colonists in America. British assaults on strategic outposts such as Ticonderoga, Niagara, and Quebec in 1759, followed by the successful siege of Montreal in September of 1760, prompted the French surrender. Though United kingdom of great britain and northern ireland'southward victory in the French and Indian War expelled France from North America and secured massive territorial gains for the empire, subsequent Crown policies concerning revenue enhancement and westward expansion resulted in widespread colonial discontent. The disharmonize and its aftermath produced substantial ideological divisions between Great britain and her North American colonies that ultimately contributed to the outbreak of the American Revolution.

The French and Indian War was one of many French-British conflicts fought during the Second Hundred Years' War (1689-1815), a historical era that included Male monarch William's State of war (1689-1697), Queen Anne's War (1702-1713) and King George's State of war (1744-1748). The struggle for control over North America that developed into the French and Indian War materialized in the mid-eighteenth century due to a dispute over French state claims in Due north America. Between 1700 and 1750, the colonial populations of Canada and Louisiana increased significantly, forcing expansion into the Ohio River Valley region. As settlement in this surface area and the Lower Mississippi Valley increased, New France increased her agricultural output and invested heavily in Louisiana'due south carbohydrate economy. During this period, the French strengthened military ties and existing trade relationships with numerous Indian societies, sparking competition with the British for Ethnic allies. By 1749, population growth in the East and a desire for landed wealth from colonial elites prompted the Virginia House of Burgesses to issue large grants of territory in the West to individual land companies, such as the Ohio Visitor. Still, competing claims from the French challenged the Ohio Company'south plan for time to come sale of these lands, prompting the colony of Virginia to initiate efforts toward halting the structure of French forts in western Pennsylvania and removing these rivals from the region. In tardily October of 1753, 20-one-year-one-time George Washington, a major in the Virginia Militia, volunteered to deliver a bulletin to the French on behalf of the colony'due south governor, Robert Dinwiddie. The ultimatum ordered that the French halt structure on Fort LeBoeuf in Western Pennsylvania and evacuate lands in the Ohio Valley, or else face an armed attack.

George Washington's feel in the French and Indian War was a formative i, allowing him to develop from a adamant, all the same inexperienced, leader, to a distinguished commander of the Virginia militia. Washington did not manage to expel the French on his expedition to Fort LeBoeuf, and his lack of a formal military education revealed itself in a number of tactical blunders during the war's early years. Washington's near infamous mistake took place in July of 1754 post-obit the Boxing of Fort Necessity, where his surrender unwittingly included an admission that British troops had assassinated the French officer Joseph Coulon de Jumonville. While these events prompted Washington to resign his commission from the Virginia militia, his errors gained the attention of officials in London, who shortly afterwards dispatched 2 regiments to Northward America under command of Major General Edward Braddock. Furthermore, the publication of Washington's journals from the LeBeouf expedition, titled The Journal of Major George Washington , illuminated the importance of decision-making the Ohio Valley, and the necessity of this region in securing United kingdom of great britain and northern ireland'due south North American Empire. This business relationship convinced governmental officials that war machine force was necessary to remove the French from the Western borderland and gained acclaim for Washington on both sides of the Atlantic. This notoriety prompted Washington to return to military service in 1755 as an adjutant-de-camp for Braddock's summer trek to Fort Duquesne. Though this mission concluded in defeat at the Battle of the Monongahela, his distinguished services earned Washington a promotion to Commander in Chief of the Virginia Militia Forces, a post he held until his resignation in 1758.

Weak leadership and disagreements within the British army plagued Washington's military tenure in the ii years following the Braddock expedition. Proposals to assault forts in Canada, including Quebec, Niagara, and Duquesne, were dismissed past colonial governors, who oftentimes voiced concerns over their commanders' collective lack of active military experience, particularly when compared to their French counterparts. Between 1755 and 1757, these disputes immune French forces, along with their Indian allies, to capture numerous British forts in New York and Pennsylvania, while wreaking havoc in the Southern backcountry. Upon taking office in 1757, Secretary of State William Pitt assumed command over British military operations, developing a programme to reinvigorate the North American war effort. Pitt's strategy called for the British to finance the expansion of Prussia's army, increasing hostilities in Europe and diverting French attention from the colonies.  By weakening France's armed forces effort in the colonies and bolstering the number of regular soldiers fighting in North America, the British to regained control of the war by 1759, swaying many Indigenous groups from their French allegiances and capturing almost of the vital outposts protecting Canada. Furthermore, between 1760 and 1762, the British Empire seized well-nigh every French territory in the Caribbean, adding Cuba in August of 1762 following Kingdom of spain'south official declaration of war. Faced with imminent defeat, France and her allies agreed to negotiations with the British, signing the Treaty of Paris on February 10, 1763. By the conditions of the treaty, French republic ceded all North American land claims due east of the Mississippi River to Great Uk, along with a number of her Westward Indian islands and Canada. Espana, France'southward marry by the Family Compact, received trans-Mississippi Louisiana as well equally command over New Orleans. The Spanish in turn ceded Florida to Great Britain in return for Cuba, which the British had seized in June of the previous twelvemonth. While these territorial shifts put the whole of eastern North America under British control, much of the populace criticized the terms of the treaty. Objectors argued that by restoring to France the valuable saccharide islands of Martinique, St. Lucia, and Guadeloupe, Britain had given her the opportunity to recover, rebuild, and potentially emerge as a armed forces threat in the time to come. Supporters, however, praised Britain'south treaty negotiations, declaring her empire in Due north America to finally be secure and complete.

United kingdom's extensive territorial gains often overshadow the complicated legacies and consequences of the French and Indian War. These geographic shifts triggered an era of social and political alter that estranged the Crown from much of her colonial citizenry. The British had clustered a substantial amount of debt in fighting the state of war, and consequently implemented a number of revenue enhancement measures upon the colonies to alleviate the Empire's financial burden. These parliamentary taxes, including the Stamp Act and the Townshend Acts, incited protests throughout North America and lead many colonials to assert that the British Empire threatened their bones rights and liberties. Accompanied by discontent over the Proclamation Line of 1763 and changes made to the management of Indian affairs, tensions between colonists and the Crown evolved into outright acts of opposition and rebellion. For the continent'southward Native populations, French removal altered carefully crafted diplomatic practices, specially the rest-of-ability strategy that had come to define Indigenous-European political relations over the class of the eighteenth century. The British-French rivalry had previously provided North American Indians with opportunities to play European nations off of one another and control cross-cultural merchandise relationships. However, in an attempt to limit Native autonomy and increase Ethnic dependence following the Treaty of Paris, the British government used their about unchallenged control over North American merchandise to strength Native state cessions and adherence to British governmental interests. Such measures eroded relations between the two groups, leading to an alarming increment in Anglo-Indian violence in the years following 1763.

Washington's service in the Virginia Militia during the French and Indian War provided him with an invaluable educational activity in leadership and military strategy, lessons he relied on in the American Revolution. However, Washington'southward French and Indian War experience did more than than just teach the future president about commanding troops; it reshaped his way of thinking about the human relationship between Britain and her colonies. Washington had defended his career in the Virginia Militia toward achieving an equal commission in the British Army, an aspiration that never came to fruition by the time of his resignation in 1758. Washington's military experience led him to believe that his commission rejection was not due to a lack of capability, simply rather because the British Military regarded colonial militia men every bit junior. Like many of his Virginia counterparts, Washington'due south political and economical beliefs continued to clash with Crown policies throughout the 1760s, particularly following the establishment of Declaration Line. His French and Indian War experience reveals the early stages of ideological divergence between specific groups of colonials and the mother land, a division that ultimately lead to the outbreak of American Revolution.

Jennifer Monroe McCutchen

Texas Christian University

Sources:

Anderson, Fred. Crucible of War: The 7 Years' State of war and the Fate of Empire in British North America, 1754-1766 . New York, NY: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2000.

Anderson, Fred, ed. George Washington Remembers: Reflections on the French and Indian War . Lanham, Doctor: Rowman and Littlefield, 2004.

Calloway, Colin. The Scratch of a Pen: 1763 and the Transformation of North America . New York, NY: Oxford University Printing, 2006.

Fowler, William M., Jr. Empires at War: The French and Indian State of war and the Struggle for Due north America, 1754-1763 . New York, NY: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2005.

Ward, Matthew C. Breaking the Backcountry: The Seven Years' State of war in Virginia and Pennsylvania, 1754-1765 . Pittsburgh, PA: Academy of Pittsburgh Press, 2004.

Washington, George, and Robert Dinwiddie. The Periodical of Major George Washington: Sent by the Hon. Robert Dinwiddie, Esq ; His Majesty's Lieutenant-Governor, and Commander in Chief of Virginia, to the Commandant of the French Forces on Ohio. : To Which Are Added, the Governor's Letter of the alphabet, and a Translation of the French Officer'due south Answer . Williamsburg [Va.]: Printed by William Hunter, 1754.

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Source: https://www.mountvernon.org/library/digitalhistory/digital-encyclopedia/article/french-and-indian-war/

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