Transcript The Road to War - Edison Social Studies

The French and Indian War
 French
and Indian War- Conflict between
France, Spain, and their Native American allies;
and the British and their Native American Allies
for control of lands west of the Appalachian
Mountains
 Albany Plan of Union- An attempt to create a
unified colonial government for the defense of
the colonies
 Treaty of Paris- The document that brought an
end to the French and Indian War
 France
and England along with Spain, and
the Netherlands were the major world
powers in the mid 1700’s
• England’s many colonies led to the coining
of the term “The Sun Never Sets on the
British Empire”
• England and France were the two that had
major holdings in North America
 France held land in what is today Canada and
west of the Appalachian Mountains
 Early
on, English settlement was
restricted to the Atlantic Coast
• Due to increased settlement, British settlers
started to move west
 Fur trappers also worked west of the Appalachians
• The French began to feel threatened by this
expansion
 They were eager to protect their land from their rival
 The
French won the support of most of
the native tribes in the region
• The French were mainly trappers who worked
with the Native Americans and respected their
land
• British settlers were mainly farmers who took
land to create farms and largely ignored native
American sovereignty
 The
British did gain Iroquois support as
they were enemies with a tribe that sided
with the French
 Small
scuffles occurred three times between
1689 and 1748
• The French and Indian war broke out in 1754
 A young surveyor was sent west to build a fort for the
British
 He learned later that the French had built Fort Duquesne at
the very spot at which he was ordered to build
 The surveyor launched a successful surprise attack on the
French and then set up a hastily built Fort Necessity
 He was forced to surrender the fort after being outnumbered
700- 150 during the French Counterattack
 This young surveyors name…
George Washington
 Delegates
from 7 colonies met in Albany
to create a unified colonial defense
• Benjamin Franklin proposed the Albany Plan of
Union
 Representatives from all 13 colonies would form a
“Grand Council”
 They would make laws, raise taxes and set up the defense of
the colonies
• It was accepted by the delegates but
unanimously defeated by the colonial councils
 General
Edward Braddock mounted an ill
fated attack on Fort Duquesne in 1755
• He was warned by the Iroquois and Washington
that the French were ready
 He ignored the warning and pushed ahead
• The French launched a surprise attack
 Red coats made for easy targets
 Braddock had 5 horses shot out from under him
before he was finally hit
 Half of the British force was killed or wounded
 Washington was nearly killed as well
 In
1757, William Pitt became the head of
British Government
• He made defeating the French in North America
priority number one
 He felt that if they beat the French in North America, they
would be able to control the entire world
 He sent Britain’s top General, and called for support from
the colonists by promising monetary payments for military
services and supplies
 The strategy worked and the British won after several more
years of struggle
 When the British captured Fort Duquesne, they renamed it
Fort Pitt
 The city of Pittsburgh grew around this site
 The
official end of the war did not come
until 1763 with the signing of the Treaty of
Paris
• Britain gained Canada as well as all French land
east of the Mississippi
• France was able to keep its holdings in the West
Indies
• Spain gave up Florida to Britain
 France had to give Spain all of its land West of the
Mississippi
 Also got New Orleans
 The
French and Indian War changed the
landscape of Colonial North America
 The British gained a great deal of land at
the expense mainly of their rival the
French
 The British spent large sums of money
“protecting” the colonies
 The first real attempt at uniting the
colonies came about during the war