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French and Indian War

Introduction

The French and India war was between France and Britain along side their own colonists and the allied Indian groups. It was basically fought to get control of the land in North America. It started in the year 1754 and ended after seven years in the year 1763. The war helped to initiate and then became a part of the Seven Years War. It is also called the fourth French Indian war because of the other three struggles earlier between France, Britain and the Indians. One of the reasons that this war started was that both France and Britain wanted to take over the Ohio River valley to make the most of timber and fur trades in the area. (Shy)

Discussion

Origin

After the European overseas conquest, France and Britain were left with a territory in North America. Britain had control over the 'Thirteen colonies' along with Nova Scotia and France had its rule over a huge area by the name of New France. Both, Britain and France had frontiers that pushed against each other. Even more wars took place between these two empires before the actual French Indian war that includes King William's war (1689-1697), King George's war (1744-1748) and the Queen Anne's war (1702-1713). By the year 1754, Britain had control over almost 1.5 million colonists and France had around seventy five thousand colonists under it. The expansion was pushing both the empires closer together and so, stress was also increasing.

In 1750s, stress and tension increased a lot in Nova Scotia and the Ohio River Valley. In Nova Scotia, both the empires claimed huge areas and France had built illegal forts which the British considered as illegal. The French also resorted to provoking the colonists that spoke French to rebel against their British rulers. (Titus)

The Ohio River Valley

The colonists considered the Ohio River valley as a very rich source for them, the Ohio river valley also had a strategic importance for the French because they used it for proper and effective communication between the two partitioned regions of their American Empire. When influence in the region started decreasing, the British started using it for the purpose of trade. But France started to build forts over there and evicted the British. Therefore, In the year 1754, Britain also created a fort at the forks of the River Ohio. To protect it, they sent the twenty three year old, Colonel of the Virginian militia George Washington, with a force.

But the French men had already apprehended the fort before the arrival of George Washington. But he carried on, killing Ensign Jumonville in the process. After trying to secure and get limited reinforcements, George Washington was finally defeated by a French and Indian attack that was carried out by the brother of Ensign Jumonville. So Washington had to retreat from the valley. Britain retaliated to this by sending ordinary troops to the thirteen colonies to increase its forces over there and there was no formal declaration about it ...