The French and Indian War

The war pitted Britain, the Anglo-American colonists, and the Iroquois (Haudenosaunee) Confederacy, which controlled most of upstate New York, against France, its colonists, and many Native nations of the Ohio Valley and Great Lakes. Native nations fought for their own reasons — trade, alliances, and above all the defense of their lands against British settlers. The name “French and Indian War” reflects the British colonists’ view of who their enemies were.

In 1753 Britain’s thirteen colonies reached roughly to the Appalachian Mountains. Beyond lay New France, a vast, thinly settled colony stretching from Canada through the Great Lakes and the Mississippi Valley to Louisiana. The boundary was undefined, and the upper Ohio River valley — where the French had built forts to secure their claim — was disputed by both empires and by the Native peoples who lived there.

Opening clashes (1754–1755). In 1754 Virginia sent Lieutenant Colonel George Washington with a small force to expel the French. After a skirmish in which a French officer was killed, Washington was attacked at Fort Necessity and forced to surrender. In 1755 a larger British expedition under General Edward Braddock was ambushed on its way to Fort Duquesne (present-day Pittsburgh); Braddock was mortally wounded.

French successes and stalemate (1755–1757). The war in North America settled into a stalemate while fighting spread to Europe, where France captured the British base of Minorca in 1756.

British victory (1758–1760). Under William Pitt, Britain poured money and troops into America. British armies took French forts and in 1759 invaded and conquered Canada.

Global war and peace (1761–1763). After peace talks failed, Spain allied with France in 1761 and entered the war. The Treaty of Paris of 1763 ended it.

• Washington at Fort Necessity (1754): a frontier skirmish that, through decisions in London and Paris, escalated into a world war.
• Braddock’s defeat (1755): showed how dependent European armies were on Native allies and frontier knowledge.
• The conquest of Canada (1759–1760): decided the war in North America.

In the Treaty of Paris of 1763, Britain gained all French territory east of the Mississippi River as well as Spanish Florida, while returning Cuba to Spain. France was virtually removed from the North American mainland.

Victory left Britain with enormous debts and a vast new territory to govern. Without France to play against Britain, Native nations lost bargaining power; when British officers stopped the customary gift-giving that sustained alliances, the Ottawa leader Pontiac organized a broad pan-tribal war in 1763. Britain responded with the Proclamation of 1763, forbidding colonial settlement west of the Appalachians — infuriating settlers and land speculators. To pay for the war and frontier defense, Parliament began taxing the colonies, starting the chain of protests that led to the Stamp Act crisis and the American Revolution.