French and Indian War

War Begins, 1754-1760

The French and Indian War began in 1754 when the French attempted to make good on their claim to the land between the Allegheny and Ohio Rivers. When this news reached Virginia, the governor sent a young lieutenant colonel in the Virginia militia, George Washington, to warn the French. Washington carried the message to a French fort but was rebuffed.

Soon afterward he organized a force of volunteers, which skirmished a French detachment. Washington began building a stockade, calling it Fort Necessity. The French surrounded it, and Washington surrendered, withdrawing with the survivors. Washington’s surrender began a world war and triggered a series of Indian raids along the frontier.

The Fighting

For two years fighting occurred along the frontier of the colonies before the war erupted in Europe. In 1756 the colonial war spilled over when Austria formed an alliance with France and Russia. Britain, ever mindful of the precarious balance of power in Europe, allied with Prussia. King George II placed William Pitt as head of the ministry, an extremely capable and confident man, and he focused the war’s theater on North America, making it the main field of battle. Pitt sent large numbers of British troops to the colonies but also encouraged the colonials to enlist, demanding that they defend themselves against the French. Pitt’s tactics seem to work, and the war turned in favor of the British. After all, the British did have the world’s largest navy and outnumbered the French fifteen to one in the colonies.

Did you know? by Jacques Grasset de Saint-Sauveur Although scalping existed prior to the war, the British encouraged it as a war tactic by paying Indians bounties for their enemy’s scalps.  On June 12, 1755, the governor of Massachusetts declared that the colony would pay ₤40 for male Indian scalps and ₤20 for female Indian scalps.  Although the French paid Indians less, their Indian allies also scalped enemies during the war.  In theory, only the dead were scalped but several people survived the experience.  For example, in May 1756 French allied Indians near Fort Oswego, New York, attempted to kill British colonists who ventured outside the fort.  One man, Stephen Cross, wrote on May 25th that “one of our soldiers came in from the edge of the woods, where it seems he had lain all night having been out on the evening the day before and got drunk and could not get in, and not being missed, but on seeing him found he had lost his scalp, but he could not tell how nor when, having no others around.  We supposed the Indians had stumbled over him in the dark, and supposed him dead, and taken off his scalp.”  The man recovered.

“The Death of Jane McCrea” painting by John Vanderlyn In the painting “The Death of Jane McCrea,” artist John Vanderlyn visually interpreted the story and scalping of Jane McCrae.  At 25, she supposedly ran away to marry a British soldier but was captured and killed instead.  Her story circulated throughout the colonies as a cautionary tale to young women about their need for male protection.

The French and Indian War climaxed in 1759 with the most significant battle occurring at Québec where the British devastated the French ranks, ending French power in North America. News of the battle reached London simultaneously with news of a similar victory in India, where English forces had reduced French outposts. The French formally surrendered in the Americas in September 1760, but the war dragged on in Europe for three more years, culminating in England’s declaration of war against Spain and its subsequent defeat

The French and Indian War was the last of the four colonial wars fought between the French, British, and their Native American allies. 

Why were the Indians fighting in a European Conflict?

The Indians involved in the French and Indian War included the Haudenosaunee, also known as the Iroquois Nation, who allied with the British and lived in the Ohio Valley and the “far Indians”—the tribes who lived around the Great Lakes and who were allied with the French.

The Iroquois wanted to maintain their traditional lands in the Ohio River Valley, along with their lifestyles and control of their future.  While they wanted to trade with Europeans, they did not want white settlement in the valley.  Over time, the Iroquois had become as dependent on European goods, like guns, rum, and clothing, as had the Europeans on Iroquois beaver fur.

The “far Indian” tribes wanted to hunt the Ohio River Valley for fur to trade with their French allies, igniting tensions between themselves and the Iroquois. 

The French were almost entirely dependent on Indian trade as the basis of their economy and used the Ohio River Valley as a transportation artery for their trappers, missionaries, and soldiers.  The French did not want to settle the region but only maintain control over it.

The British wanted to move into the vast lands of the Ohio River Valley and the land appeared to many British to be “free” for the taking.  British colonials involved in fur trading were getting rich, and they too wanted control of the valley, intending to monopolize the fur-trading market. 

The goals of all three groups were often in conflict and factions within the groups splintered into even more individualized interests, resulting in conflict and war.   

Treaty of Paris

The Peace of Paris (Treaty of Paris, 1763) brought an end to the war and to French power in North America. Britain took all of France’s land east of the Mississippi River, except for New Orleans, and all of Spanish Florida. To compensate Spain for its loss of Florida, England gave Spain Louisiana, which consisted of New Orleans and all French land west of the Mississippi River. When France lost Louisiana, it lost all its North American colonies, including Tobago, Dominica, Grenada, and St. Vincent. Britain reigned supreme over North America east of the Mississippi.

Impact of the War on the Colonies

The war had a tremendous impact on the colonists and on England. England’s debt went through the roof, which meant it would have to raise taxes to pay the debt down. Pitt’s insistence that the colonials defend themselves added to their sense of independence. The military training they received made them believe that they did not need to rely on England for protection, and a cadre of well-trained, professional soldiers, men like George Washington, experienced battle and knew that Britain could be beaten on the battle field. Finally, during the early stages of the war, Benjamin Franklin suggested a plan that would join all thirteen colonies in a loose union. Although the colonials rejected the Albany Plan, it represented one of the first steps toward a unified colonial America.