The French and Indian

War

The French and Indian War, the colonial part of the seven years war, lasted from 1756 – 1763.

The war was a clash between the French and English over territory. In North America, the war was also a conflict between British and French colonists.

The war began when a young Virginian Major, George Washington, and his men carried a note to the Ohio region to demand to the French that they leave the area . . . The French declined.

Benjamin Franklin attempted to unite the colonists with the Albany Plan, a plan to place the British North American colonies under a more centralized government. The plan was adopted on July 10, 1754, by representatives from seven of the British North American colonies. Although never carried out, it was the first important plan to conceive of the colonies as a collective whole united under one government.

At Ft. William Henry in New York in 1757, a surrendering British garrison of 185 was massacred by Native Americans aligned with the French; 310 were taken captive.

The tide turned for the British in 1758, under Lord William Pitt.The British wore down the French; many of the Native tribes were abandoned by the French, and the key Battle of Quebec led to the French surrender in 1759, although skirmishes continued until the Treaty of Paris in 1763.

• North America 1763:

1763

Major Results:•British territory greatly expanded in North America.•British debt grew.•American colonists, at first excited about their victory, became angry about the new tax burden: Sugar Act, 1764, Stamp Act, 1765.

•Proclamation of 1763: Parliament forbid the settlement west of the Appalachian Mountains•American colonists unify against G.B. : militias, Sons of Liberty, Daughters of Liberty