Topic of Discussion The French and Indian War

Transcription

1 I Introduction A. The study of Chapter five has focused on the beginning of an American identity. That is, how did the American people come to understand their role as an independent thinking people who desired to determine their own freedoms, politics and way of life? B. Section one establishes a mindset of rational thought that justifies for the American people that the current controlling government (British Crown) was not a relevant or functional entity. According to the enlightened thought, the government should serve the people not the people serve the government. The government therefore should be by the people and for the people. Since, the British Crown was not for the people, rather it demanded of the colonist that they serve the British government. These people therefore, had justification to dissolve their current form of government and start again. C. Another aspect of section one approaches an independent mindset from a more personal approach by discussing the Great Awakening. In this section, the authors establish a religious precedent for the people to question authority and make their life more personal and meaningful. This was encouraged in a more personal view of religion and God. The people were encouraged to pledge their allegiance to their church if in fact their church was being forthright, honest and acting in the people s best interest. After all, it was the people who held the power, not the organization of leaders who structured and ran the church. If the people did not believe their leaders or church was being forthright, they had the obligation to break the agreement or covenant with their

2 church and start fresh with a new church (or denomination). Here again, people were being encouraged to think for themselves, challenge corrupt authority and be courageous to throw the old system out and start over. D. Section three established the importance of the basic personal fundamental rights of the people. The author s look back on why the rights of an Englishman were so important. This was brought out by reflecting on the Magna Carta which established the basic human rights of being able to purse life, liberty and happiness. Next, there was a discussion on the Glorious Revolution with the English Bill of Rights being the outcome. These rights guaranteed basic freedoms that the British Crown had to recognize or the people would revolt. It was these English Rights that the colonist held so close to their hearts. They did not want to lose their rights and protections as English citizens. However, it was slowly being revealed that the British Crown did not recognize the American colonists as true mainland citizens and thus they were treated and taxed differently. The Americans evolved as a people who had a say, representation in their destiny. However, when the money going to Britain started to slow down, the mercantilist venue started to be questioned and the Americans started to assert their authority, it was then that the British King and Parliament needed to put a stop to this insurrection of their investments in America. E. So now, we come to section three, the French and Indian War. This section transitions from Europe back to the Americas and the author s continue of how the colonial people were moving towards self-determinism and controlling their own fate by breaking away from England.

3 II The French & Indian War A. The French and Indian War is the name given to the conflict involving England The English and the French battled for colonial domination in North America, the Caribbean, and in India. The English did ultimately come to dominate the colonial outposts, but at a cost so staggering that the resulting debt nearly destroyed the English government. It was that debt that caused the escalation of tensions leading to the Revolutionary War. Parliament was desperate to obtain two objectives; first, to tax the colonies to recover monies expended on the battle over North America, and second to restore the profitability in an effort to recover monies spent on the battle over India. B. The French and Indian War, as it was referred to in the colonies, was the beginning of open hostilities between the colonies and England. Prior to this, England and France had been building toward a conflict in America since As the population in the colonies experienced remarkable growth, England sought the American raw materials. In order to maintain a military presence in North America as well as continue their global battles, England also needed to secure a great deal of money. It was through shipping American products exclusively to England (the Navigation Acts) that helped secure revenue and simultaneously interfere with the French in the Caribbean. Enforcement of these regulations became difficult, so the English government established extensive customs services, and vice-admiralty courts empowered to identify, try, and convict suspected smugglers.

4 C. The colonies were wholly interested in overcoming the French in North America and appealed to the King for permission to raise armies and monies to defend themselves.* Despite sincere petitions from the royal governors, George II was suspicious of the intentions of the colonial governments and declined their offer. English officers in America were also widely contemptuous of colonials who volunteered for service. A few of the men who signed the Declaration had been members of volunteer militia who, as young men, had been dressed down and sent home when they applied for duty. Such an experience was not uncommon. It led communities throughout the colonies to question British authorities who would demand horses, feed, wagons, and quarters but deny colonials the right to fight in defense of the Empire, a right which they considered central to their self-image as Englishmen. III A Brief History A. As the British colonies became more populated and prosperous, their citizens began to look towards the rich lands across the Appalachian mountains as providing new opportunities for settlement and economic growth. The French, who claimed the entire watersheds of the Mississippi and St. Lawrence Rivers became worried about British moving into this region and so they moved to set up a series of forts. The British, meanwhile, built their own forts and granted lands in the Ohio Valley to the Ohio Company and adventurous traders set up bases in the region.

5 B. In 1750, British and French representatives met in Paris to try to solve these territorial disputes, but no progress was made. In 1752, the governor of New France was given specific instructions to take possession of the Ohio Valley and removing all British from the area. The following year, he sent troops to western Pennsylvania where they built. At the same time the, Governor of Virginia also granted land in the Ohio Valley to citizens of his colony, setting in motion the events which inevitably led to the French & Indian War. C. When the British officers heard of these new French forts on the upper Allegheny River they sent out a young Virginia officer, George Washington, to deliver a letter demanding that the French leave the region. This mission was a failure, however Washington identified a point of land along the route that proved to be an excellent spot for a fort. In early 1754, in response to Washington's suggestion, the British started to build a fort there, but French troops soon arrived and threw them out. The French completed the fortification, renaming it Fort Duquesne. Washington, meanwhile, had been sent out with a contingent of troops to help establish British control in the west, and when he heard of the surrender of Fort Prince George, he set up camp in Great Meadows, southeast of Fort Duquesne. Washington received a report that a nearby French contingent intended to attack, so he launched a preemptive strike against the French camp. This was the first engagement of the yet undeclared French & Indian War. Though Washington won that engagement, he was soon defeated by a superior force sent out from Fort Duquesne, leaving the French in command of the entire region west of the Allegheny Mountains.

6 D. Despite all this military activity, it wasn't until 1756 that war was officially declared between the French and British. The military activity that year and the following was relatively inconclusive, though the French generally had the upper hand. In 1758 the tide began to turn and the British started to take the upper hand. In July, Brigadier General John Forbes assembled a large force to move against Fort Duquesne. Despite an initial setback, Forbes had great success. He held a council at Fort Bedford with the Indian tribes of region, establishing peace between them and the British. When the French realized they would no longer have Indian allies, and knowing that their communication with Montreal was cut off with the capture of Fort Frontenac, they quickly abandoned Fort Duquesne, destroying the fort as much as possible. Forbes occupied the site, which he soon had rebuilt and renamed Fort Pitt, establishing British control of the upper Ohio Valley for the first time. E. The news in 1759 continued to be positive for the British. Quebec was the strongest fortress in Canada, the lynch pin of French power in North America and the British knew that if they were able to capture Quebec, the rest of the country would soon fall into their dominion, so in early 1759 they planned the largest attack of the war, a combined force of about 9,000 soldiers under General James Wolfe and a fleet of 20 ships under Admiral Charles Saunders. The British lay siege to Quebec from June 27th until September 18th, when the French surrendered their garrison in the city. This was the turning point of the war, with an eventual British victory all but certain. By the end of the year, the British had control of almost all of North America

7 F. This was confirmed two and a half years later at the Treaty of Paris, February 10, 1763, which gave all of North America east of the Mississippi, other than New Orleans, to the British. The French also turned over their claims of New Orleans and the lands west of the Mississippi to Spain, as compensation for Spain's surrendering Florida to the British. Though the European-based war ceased, the Native Americans in the west remained hostile to the British. The Pontiac Rebellion and other Indian hostilities lasted until the end of 1764, at which time peace finally reigned in North America. This peace, however, would last only a decade until a new war, the Revolution, began a new episode in the history of the continent. IV French Indian War Effects A. The French Indian War caused huge losses of man and material for both sides. The British forces succeeded and ascertained their military supremacy. The most important French Indian War effect was that The British got the right to keep all of Canada in addition to obtaining some other benefits like trading and sea routes in North America. B. The British victory in the French and Indian War had a great impact on the British Empire. Firstly, it meant a great expansion of British territorial claims in the New World. But the cost of the war had greatly enlarged Britain's debt. Moreover, the war generated substantial resentment towards the colonists among English leaders, who were not satisfied with the financial and military help they had received from the colonists during the war.

8 All these factors combined to persuade many English leaders that the colonies needed a major reorganization and that the central authority should be in London. The English leaders set in motion plans to give London more control over the government of the colonies and these plans were eventually a big part of the colonial resentment towards British imperial policies that led to the American Revolution. C. The war had an equally profound but very different effect on the American colonists. First of all, the colonists had learned to unite against a common foe. Before the war, the thirteen colonies had found almost no common ground and they coexisted in mutual distrust. But now they had seen that together they could be a power to be reckoned with. And the next common foe would be Britain. D. With France removed from North America, the vast interior of the continent lay open for the Americans to colonize. But The English government decided otherwise. To induce a controlled population movement, they issued a Royal Proclamation that prohibited settlement west of the line drawn along the crest of the Allegheny mountains and to enforce that measure they authorized a permanent army of 10,000 regulars (paid for by taxes gathered from the colonies; most importantly the "Sugar Act" and the "Stamp Act"). This infuriated the Americans who, after having been held back by the French, now saw themselves stopped by the British in their surge west. E. For the Indians of the Ohio Valley, the third major party in the French and Indian War, the British victory was disastrous. Those tribes that allied themselves with the French had earned the enmity of the victorious English.

9 The Iroquois Confederacy, which had allied themselves with Britain, fared only slightly better. The alliance quickly unraveled and the Confederacy began to crumble from within. The Iroquois continued to contest the English for control of the Ohio Valley for another fifty years; but they were never again in a position to deal with their white rivals on terms of military or political equality F. One of the positive effects of The French Indian War was the start of a freedom struggle in America which eventually culminated in the American War of Independence. This 7-years war severely demoralized French forces and diminished its power at a greater scale in Asia, Europe and North America at the same time.

10 Discussion 5-4 US History ~ Chapter 5 Topic Discussions E Lundberg Section 1 ~ Early American Culture Section 2 ~ Roots of an American Democracy Section 3 ~ The French and Indian War Pages Pages Pages

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