Chapter 6

• The Duel for North America, 1608–1763

I. France Finds a Foothold in Canada

• At the close of the seventeenth century, a struggle for North American continent began.– The three major European powers in this struggle

were: England, France, and Spain – but it also swept up Native Americans as well. (map of land claims on the next slides)

• Domestic strife, foreign wars, and religious clashes between Catholics and Protestant Huguenots had hindered New World ambitions for England, Holland, and France.

Map 6-1 p99

Map 6-4 p102

• In 1598, the Edict of Nantes granted limited toleration to French Protestants. – Religious wars ceased and France began to blossom

into the mightiest nation on the European continent.

• In 1608, a year after Jamestown, France established themselves at Quebec (which commanded the St. Lawrence River) under the leadership of Samuel de Champlain the “Father of New France.”– Champlain entered into friendly relations with the

Huron Indian tribes and joined them in battle against their enemy, the federated Iroquois tribes of upper New York area.

• France’s relation with the Huron earned a lasting enemy in the Iroquois tribes and they hampered any French penetration into the Ohio Valley… sometimes raiding French settlements and serving as allies of the British.

II. New France Fans Out

• New France contained one valuable resource… Beaver.– European fashion-setters valued beaver-pelt hats

for warmth and appearance.

• French fur trappers that ranged all over the woods and waterways of North America were a rough bunch called coureurs de bois (“runners of the woods”). – They were later known as voyageurs because they

would transport their furs via the waterways.

– They soon began to recruit Natives into the fur business, which lead to some disastrous drawbacks.• Natives were decimated by the white man’s diseases and

taken by his alcohol.• Mass slaughtering of animals violated many Natives

religious beliefs (which demonstrated the effect Europeans had on traditional ways of life for the Natives.)

• The fur trade brought French trappers across the Great Lakes, into present-day Saskatchewan and Manitoba; along the valleys of the Platte, the Arkansas, and the Missouri; west to the Rockies; and south to the border of Spanish Texas.

• French Catholic missionaries (Jesuits) labored to save Natives for God and from fur-trappers. – They made few converts, but played a vital role as

explorers and geographers.

• Other explorers sought only to advance the empire.– Antoine Cadillac pushed into the Ohio Valley and

founded Detroit.– Robert de LaSalle floated down the Mississippi to

the Gulf and named the great interior basin “Louisiana” to check Spanish penetration into the Gulf of Mexico.• He returned three years later to settle, but once he

couldn’t find the Mississippi Delta his men killed him.

• French officials did manage to plant several fortified posts in what is now Mississippi and Louisiana, the most important of these being New Orleans (1718).– Commanding the mouth of the Mississippi River,

the outpost was a great staging area to transport resources to the West Indies and to Europe.

III. The Clash of Empires

• The earliest contests among the European powers for control of America were the King William’s War (1689-1697) and Queen Anne’s War (1702-1713).– Mainly British colonists against the French Coureurs

de bois, w/both sides recruiting natives.– At the time, neither Britain not France considered

America worth sending large numbers of regular troops to battle, so combatants ended up waging more of a guerrilla war.

• Indian allies of the French continually hit British colonial frontiers.• Spain eventually allied w/France, but when the peace

terms were signed in 1713, you could see how bad they must have been beaten up by what they awarded Britain.– Britain received: Nova Scotia, New Foundland, and Hudson Bay.

• A generation of peace ensued which permitted Britain to provide the colonies w/decades of “salutary neglect” –the roots of independence.

– By the signing of the treaty of 1713, Britain also won limited trading rights in Spanish America, but brought with it friction over smuggling.• British Captain Robert Jenkins had a run-in with Spanish

revenue authorities, they cut off one of his ears and sent back to his king as a message – don’t mess with Spain.

– The War of Jenkins’s Ear broke out in 1739 between Britain and Spain.• The conflict was confined to the Caribbean Sea and the

colony of Georgia.

– This smaller scuffle between Britain and Spain merged with the larger war of Austrian Succession, as it was known in Europe, only it was called King George’s War in America.• France allied itself with Spain so Britain attacked New

France with New Englanders. – The New Englanders were able to capture the reputedly

impregnable French fortress of Louisbourg.

• When the treaty was signed in 1748, Britain gave the fortress back to the French, which enraged the New Englanders for returning a massive weapon that would only be used against them again.

Table 6-1 p101

IV. George Washington Inaugurates War with France

• As France and Britain continued to position themselves in the New World, the Ohio River Valley became the biggest bone of contention.– The British would inevitably push west, and the

French needed it to connect their Canadian territory with the lower Mississippi Valley.

Map 6-4 p102

• Rivalry over this lush territory brought tensions to boil over.– 1749, British colonial speculators (including

Washington’s family) obtained shaky legal rights to 500,000 acres in the Ohio River Valley.

– In this same land, the French were building a chain of Forts to command the Ohio River.• The most formidable was Fort Duquesne which

commanded the intersection of the Monongahela and Allegheny Rivers and join to make the Ohio River.

– In 1754, the Governor of Virginia sent George Washington, as a lieutenant colonel in command of 150 militiamen, to secure Virginia’s claims to the territory.

Map 6-5 p104

• Washington and his men ran into a small French detachment 40 miles from Fort Duquesne and fired on them.– They killed the commander and sent the others running back to

the fort.

• The French promptly returned w/reinforcements and surrounded Washington and his men in their hastily constructed fortification, Fort Necessity.– After a 10 hour siege, Washington was forced to surrender his

command. He was fortunate to march his men away with the full honors of war.

– With the shooting already taking place, the British feared the French Acadians, who they conquered in 1713, might rise up against them.• The British then uprooted about 4,000 of the in 1755 and

transplanted them, some as far south as Louisiana.– The descendants of the Acadians are now called “Cajuns”.

Table 6-2 p103

V. Global War and Colonial Disunity• The war that began by George Washington in

the wilds of the Ohio River Valley in 1754, was called the French and Indian War in America, and the Seven Years War in Europe.

• The British and French fought each other on American soil, but the major wars were taking place in Europe.– Germany held off the French and their allies so well

that the French wasted so much strength in Europe that they couldn’t throw the adequate force into the New World.

Map 6-6 p105

• The colonials had a tough time unifying their people.– Colonists closest to the fighting were much more

generous volunteers of men and resources than those who were further from the fighting.

– In 1754 the British government called for an intercolonial congress to Albany, NY.• Delegates from only 7 of the 13 colonies showed up.• The purpose of the congress was:

1. To keep the Iroquois tribes loyal by showing them Britain was spreading the war.

2. To achieve greater colonial unity and thus bolster the common defense against France.

• Ben Franklin was the leading spirit of the Albany Congress.

p106

• Franklin’s attempt to adopt a plan for colonial home rule was unanimously accepted by the Albany Congress, but spurned by the individual colonies, as well as Britain.– The colonies thought the plan didn’t give them enough

independence; to the British, the plan gave the colonies too much.

– Franklin later made an observation…» “All people agree on the need for union, but their weak

noodles are perfectly distracted when they attempt to agree on details.”

VI. Braddock’s Blundering and Its Aftermath

• The opening clashes of the French and Indian War went badly for the British colonists.– The arrogant General Edward Braddock had

experience in European warfare and was sent to Virginia with a detachment of British regulars.

– In 1755, he set out for Fort Duquesne with his regulars and a considerable force of colonial militia, who drove Braddock nuts with their behind-the-tree methods of fighting the natives.• Axmen hacked a path through thick forest toward Fort

Duquesne. A few miles out they encountered a smaller French and Indian force.

• At first they successfully repulsed the force, but the French and Indians quickly melted into the woods and fired into the ranks of the redcoats.• George Washington, an aide to Braddock, had two horses

shot out from under him and four bullets through his coat. Braddock was killed, and his entire force was routed after taking heavy losses.

– Encouraged by the easy victory, Natives expanded the warpath from Pennsylvania to North Carolina.

– The British launched a full scale invasion of Canada in 1756, now that the undeclared war in America merged into a world conflict.• They chose to attack a number of exposed wilderness

posts simultaneously, instead taking their full force against Quebec and Montreal.– If they had fallen, the smaller outposts would’ve withered.

VII. Pitt’s Palms of Victory• An exceptional British leader emerged –

William Pitt.– He drew much of his strength from the common

people that loved him.– He was a fantastic orator that believed passionately

in his cause, in his country, and in himself.

• Pitt first dispatched an expedition in 1758 against Louisbourg. Pitt’s forces were able to take the strong fort and provide a huge morale boost to the British, as this was the first significant victory.

• Quebec was next on Pitt’s list.– A 32 year old James Wolfe, who had been an officer

since he was 14, had been given command on the expedition.

– The Battle of Quebec in 1759 was one of the most significant engagements in British and American history.• The British weren’t doing that well until Wolfe made a

daring move by sending his troops up a cliff face at night to get a better position to fight in the morning.• The two armies faced each other on the outskirts of

Quebec. The commanders for both armies fell, and in the end the British were able to pull out another victory as Quebec surrendered.

p107

• When Montreal fell in 1760 and the peace settlement took place at Paris in 1763, the French authority was tossed from North America, leaving behind a fertile population that to this day is strong minority in Canada.– To compensate their Spanish ally for its losses they

gave them the trans-mississippi Louisiana and the outlet of New Orleans.

– Spain, for its part, turned over Florida to Britain in return for Cuba.

– Britain emerged as the dominant power in North America, while taking its place as the leading naval power in the world.

North America Before 1754

North America After 1763 (after French losses)

VIII. Restless Colonists• While the French and Indian War increased

colonial self-esteem, it also shattered the myth of British invincibility.– The “buckskin” militia had seen the demoralized

British regulars, under Braddock, huddling helplessly together or fleeing from their unseen enemy.

• A friction had developed between arrogant British officers and the raw colonial recruits.– The British refused to recognize any militia

commission above the rank of captain.

– General Wolfe referred to the colonial militia as being “in general the dirtiest, most contemptible, cowardly dogs that you can conceive.”

– The colonials felt that they deserved credit for risking their lives to secure a New World empire.

• British officials were also distressed by the lack of colonial support to the cause.– American shippers were using fraudulent papers to

traffic supplies into ports of the Spanish and French West Indies for huge profits.

– Other colonists, self-centered and alienated by distance from the war, refused to provide troops and money for the conflict.• They wanted the privileges of Englishmen, without the

duties and responsibilities of Englishmen.

• The unity of the colonies did make some progress during the war.– Despite the enormous distances, geographic

barriers, conflicting religions (Catholics to Quakers), varying nationalities (German to Irish), differing colonial governments, boundary disputes, and resentment of the backcountry settlers against the aristocratic bigwigs, these barriers began to melt.

IX. War’s Fateful Aftermath

• The removal of the French from Canada had a major impact on American attitudes.– While the French were a threat, colonists had to

cling to the power of Britain. Now that they were pushed out, British influence in the colonies was no longer needed or in many cases wanted.

• The French, having been humiliated by the British, consoled themselves with the thought that some day Britain too might lose their American empire

• Spain was (temporarily) eliminated from Florida, but still held Louisiana and New Orleans, and much of western North America.

• The Natives were hit hard – they lost the ability to play rival European powers off one another.– After the French and Indian War the Natives would

have to negotiate exclusively with the British.• Seeing the writing on the wall, the Ottawa chief

Pontiac in 1763 led several tribes, aided by some French traders, in a campaign to drive the British out of the Ohio country.– Pontiac’s uprising laid siege to Detroit and

eventually overran all but three British posts west of the Appalachians.

Map 6-8 p110

• The British retaliated by waging a primitive version of biological warfare… distributing blankets infected with smallpox.• Such tactics crushed the uprising and brought an uneasy

truce to the frontier.

– The bloody episode convinced the British of the need to stabilize relations with the western natives and to keep regular troops stationed along the frontier.

• Land-hunger colonists were eager to finally be able to settle land west of the Appalachians, but in an attempt to regulate expansion and minimize further bloodshed, Britain issued the Proclamation of 1763.

– The proclamation angered many American speculators.• They felt that fighting in the French and Indian War had

given them a right to it.• In complete defiance to the proclamation, the trails

across the Appalachians were full of settlers.– With their path cleared and a new vision of their destiny, they

were in no mood to be restrained.

• British aristocrats, whose ego’s were swollen from their recent victories, became annoyed by their unruly colonial subjects.

• The stage was set for a family quarrel.