Milestones: 1750–1775 - Office of the Historian
Milestones: 1750–1775
French and Indian War/Seven Years’ War, 1754–63
The French and Indian War was the North American conflict in a larger imperial                     war between Great Britain and France known as the Seven Years’ War. The French                     and Indian War began in 1754 and ended with the Treaty of Paris in 1763. The war                     provided Great Britain enormous territorial gains in North America, but disputes                     over subsequent frontier policy and paying the war’s expenses led to colonial                     discontent, and ultimately to the American Revolution.
Map from the French and Indian War
The French and Indian War resulted from ongoing frontier tensions in North                     America as both French and British imperial officials and colonists sought to                     extend each country’s sphere of influence in frontier regions. In North America,                     the war pitted France, French colonists, and their Native allies against Great                     Britain, the Anglo-American colonists, and the Iroquois Confederacy, which                     controlled most of upstate New York and parts of northern Pennsylvania. In 1753,                     prior to the outbreak of hostilities, Great Britain controlled the 13 colonies                     up to the Appalachian Mountains, but beyond lay New France, a very large,                     sparsely settled colony that stretched from Louisiana through the Mississippi                     Valley and Great Lakes to Canada. (See Incidents Leading up to the French                         and Indian War and Albany Plan )
The border between French and British possessions was not well defined, and one                     disputed territory was the upper Ohio River valley. The French had constructed a                     number of forts in this region in an attempt to strengthen their claim on the                     territory. British colonial forces, led by Lieutenant Colonel George Washington,                     attempted to expel the French in 1754, but were outnumbered and defeated by the                     French. When news of Washington’s failure reached British Prime Minister Thomas                     Pelham-Holles, Duke of Newcastle, he called for a quick undeclared retaliatory                     strike. However, his adversaries in the Cabinet outmaneuvered him by making the                     plans public, thus alerting the French Government and escalating a distant                     frontier skirmish into a full-scale war.
General Edward Braddock
The war did not begin well for the British. The British Government sent General                     Edward Braddock to the colonies as commander in chief of British North American                     forces, but he alienated potential Indian allies and colonial leaders failed to                     cooperate with him. On July 13, 1755, Braddock died after being mortally wounded                     in an ambush on a failed expedition to capture Fort Duquesne in present-day                     Pittsburgh. The war in North America settled into a stalemate for the next                     several years, while in Europe the French scored an important naval victory and                     captured the British possession of Minorca in the Mediterranean in 1756.                     However, after 1757 the war began to turn in favor of Great Britain. British                     forces defeated French forces in India, and in 1759 British armies invaded and                     conquered Canada.
Facing defeat in North America and a tenuous position in Europe, the French                     Government attempted to engage the British in peace negotiations, but British                     Minister William Pitt (the elder), Secretary for Southern Affairs, sought not                     only the French cession of Canada but also commercial concessions that the                     French Government found unacceptable. After these negotiations failed, Spanish                     King Charles III offered to come to the aid of his cousin, French King Louis XV,                     and their representatives signed an alliance known as the Family Compact on                     August 15, 1761. The terms of the agreement stated that Spain would declare war                     on Great Britain if the war did not end before May 1, 1762. Originally intended                     to pressure the British into a peace agreement, the Family Compact ultimately                     reinvigorated the French will to continue the war, and caused the British                     Government to declare war on Spain on January 4, 1762, after bitter infighting                     among King George III’s ministers.
Despite facing such a formidable alliance, British naval strength and Spanish                     ineffectiveness led to British success. British forces seized French Caribbean                     islands, Spanish Cuba, and the Philippines. Fighting in Europe ended after a                     failed Spanish invasion of British ally Portugal. By 1763, French and Spanish                     diplomats began to seek peace. In the resulting Treaty of Paris (1763),                     Great Britain secured significant territorial gains in North America, including                     all French territory east of the Mississippi river, as well as Spanish Florida,                     although the treaty returned Cuba to Spain.
Unfortunately for the British, the fruits of victory brought seeds of                     trouble with Great Britain’s American colonies. The war had been enormously                     expensive, and the British government’s attempts to impose taxes on colonists to                     help cover these expenses resulted in increasing colonial resentment of British                     attempts to expand imperial authority in the colonies. British attempts to limit                     western expansion by colonists and inadvertent provocation of a major Indian war                     further angered the British subjects living in the American colonies. These                     disputes ultimately spurred colonial rebellion, which eventually developed into                     a full-scale war for independence.