The French and Indian War - Case Study Example

Introduction

French and Indian war refers to a conflict involving the major European powers, which took place between 1754 and 1763. This war began as early as 1754 after French and British clashed over ownership of land in the Ohio Valley. The conflict started with series of frontier battles and later led to the formal declaration of the war in 1756. The Native Americans also took part in the war choosing to come in support of either the British or the French. The latter, however, became far more reliant on these allies as the war got to its peak, especially when they felt outnumbered. French showed early signs of victory characterized by resounding victories over Edward Braddock and George Washington in Western Pennsylvania. However, things changed later in 1757 after King George II appointed William Pitt, then secretary of states, to command the wartime operations. The French surrendered especially following the assaults carried by the British on strategic outposts like Niagara, Ticonderoga, and Quebec in 1759. The successful Montreal siege by the British in 1760 further worsened things for the French. British obviously befitted from their victory over French, having expelled France from North America, subsequently benefiting from massive territories acquired. However, their continued operation in this region grew widespread colonial discontent. The war and its outcome produced serious ideological differences between the British and their North America colonies and ultimately led to the eruption of the American Revolution.

Causes of the French and Indian War

As stated earlier the main reason behind the eruption of French and Indian War was the dispute on whether the upper Ohio River belonged to the British or the French. British wanted this land, particularly as it was strategic for trading activities and settlement by Pennsylvanians and Virginians. Although land dispute superimposed as the major issue, the disagreement on which national culture is to be upheld at the heart of North America played behind the scene. Such is the case that English settlers formed a higher population in the disputed region as compared to the French although the latter showed greater influence regarding trade, exploration, and alliances with the locals.

British held to their claim of the coveted region citing the exploration of the region by John Cabot towards the end of the 15th century. Both Plymouth Company and Virginia Company claimed ownership of land within particular limits between Pacific and Atlantic oceans granted by English royal charter at the beginning of 17th Century. Province of Carolina came into being in the south part of Virginia in 1663 and was given a sea-to-sea grant. Two years later, this charter underwent amendments that saw the territory expanded to form the South Carolina, North Carolina and Georgia colonies. These changes meant that British owned all the area on the south of French Canada and that on the north of Spanish Florida, from sea to sea. The French disagreed with this idea, claiming ownership of the entire Mississippi Valley and the Ohio Valley because of the explorations conducted by René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de la Salle. In 1682, during this exploration, La Salle was said to have traveled through the Great Lakes, gone via Mississippi River taking possession of the entire land connected to the river and those close to its tributaries. He did all this in the name of the king of France.

The cold war surrounding the claims by the two opposing forces over the lands in the great Mississippi basin lasted for about 60 years. Progressive settlement of English settlers along the Atlantic seaboard on the south of Gulf of Saint Lawrence followed. This period also realized the formation of more colonies such as British Nova Scotia that was founded in 1749. As time went by, dwellers of these colonies pushed westwards and established themselves in the Piedmont country in an attempt to escape the tidewater areas. By the mid-18th century, Virginians type of houses, the small cabins, had taken over the west of the Appalachians. The Virginians extended to the upper reaches marked by waterways such as New and Holston rivers. In the same period, Pennsylvanian traders, in their hundreds, settled in the upper Ohio valley. This region belonged to the Indian people allied to Great Britain. On the other hand, the French who held a firm control over Canada as early as the 17th century began to expand into the great lakes region and established a permanent settlement at Detroit.

Initial Hostilities

French –British conflict over the North American claims was certain. The only reason why it was held back was the widely separated nature of their trade exploitations. However, the governor-general of New France directive in 1749 offered the best opportunity for the hidden conflict to erupt. The case has it that governor-general directed Pierre-Joseph Céloron de Blainville to force all the trading houses, comprised largely of the British population, in the disputed regions of the upper Ohio River and Allegheny River to lower the British flags. The traders, Pennsylvania traders, seen as intruders into the French territories, were directed to draw back to the eastern Appalachian slopes. As expected, the directive was met with resistance, a factor that made the French apply force destroying a key British colonial trading center located on the upper Miami River. As if that was not enough, the French and the allied Indians captured and killed English –speaking traders they come across in the upper Ohio Valley. The effect spread to English people inhabiting the Virginia region. The new developments made the government of Virginia respond taking the stand that territories on the upper Ohio were part of lands included in the colony charter of 1960. This government argued that the charter’s grant, which gave Virginia ownership of the western lands, held much water compared to France’s claim that was merely best upon La Salle’s exploration that came much later. The council of Virginia led by the governor taking this position had in fact given to the settlers about 6,000 square km of land in the Ohio Valley by 1752. The unfolding meant that almost all key Virginia families such as the Washington’s, Randolph’s and the Lees maintained a strong interest in the fate of the Ohio region. The news soon reached Lieut. Gov. Robert Dinwiddie who was situated at the colonial capital in Williamsburg prompting him to act in attempts to stop the French from driving out English traders and erecting fortresses on the headwaters of the Allegheny. Gov. Dinwiddie sent George Washington to Fort LeBoeuf, in 1753 as a warning against the illegal occupation of land belonging to Virginia. This mission failed, and Ohio Company of Virginia was encouraged to construct a fortress at the convergence of Monongahela Rivers and Allegheny as a second plan. The plan was anchored on the ground that Ohio Company of Virginia had received special grant over the upper Ohio valley and it was understood that troops from Virginia would stand with the proposal.

French responded quickly to avert this plan. In 1754, during springtime, French troops came into Allegheny in large numbers and took over the whole operation after proving strong for Virginia Militia lead by Col. Joshua Fry. Washington later took over the leadership of the Virginia Militia after the death of Col. Fry in 1754 and located his base at Fort Necessity present day Confluence, Pennsylvania. This post lied about 60 km from Fort Duquesne owned by the French. On May 28, the French scouting party came under attack by Washington’s forces, leading to the killing of Coulon de Jumonville, a French commander, and nine others. Additionally, 20 French soldiers were taken captive. Reacting to the provocation, French attacked Fort Necessity on July 3 and besieged it. Washington’s force together with the reinforcement of the militia troops from Virginia and the British infantry from North Carolina could not withstand the joint French and Indian force. Washington and his troops withdrew back to Virginia surrendering the fort to the French who burned it, thanks to the big combined force that outnumbered Washington’s forces by about two to one.

The defeat did not go well with the government of Virginia who appealed to London for support. The then king George II thought this not a wise idea, a view also held by the Duke of Newcastle, then his prime minister, who stated, “Let Americans fight Americans.” George later changed his mind and sent Gen. Edward Braddock upon realizing that the Seasoned French regulars were too strong for the raw Virginia militia. Braddock mission was to evict the French from Fort Duquesne and its neighborhoods. At the same time, Adm. Edward Boscawen arrived in Canada with a powerful fleet with a mission of stopping the arrival of any further reinforcement to the French troops. These events marked the beginning of the war that was later to spread across the continent with the sole aim of defending the British territories in the Ohio Valley.

Early French Victories

The British regulars and American colonials realized successive losses in the first four years of the war, thanks to the powerful French land forces operating in the new world. In 1755, Braddock was killed, and his army scattered following an ambush while on their way to Fort Duquesne. In the same year, Lord Loudoun carried out an amphibious expedition that began in New York City towards Louisbourg, a French fortress, in Cape Breton Island. This expedition became a total failure too. Gen. James Abercrombie later led an attack on the French stronghold in 1758. This attack, directed to the northern end of Lake George, Fort Ticonderoga (then called Fort-Carillon) realized a great loss for the British despite having a large army. French defenders led by Gen. Louis-Joseph de Montcalm-Grozon, marquis de Montcalm killed many British armies and caused many families in New York, western Maryland, central Pennsylvania, and western Virginia to flee. The affected land remained deserted as people fled eastwards to escape the growing hostilities.

The capture of a narrow strip of land linking Nova Scotia and the mainland named Fort Beauséjour in 1755 became the only success realized by the British Duke this period. British authorities maintained the region as part of the Nova Scotia surrendered by France during the signing of Utrecht treaty in 1713. Despite this, the resident French-speaking Acadians in Fort Beauséjour region strongly resisted paying their allegiance to the British and even went further to support the French as they tried to repossess this region. The British response came later through eviction of Acadians at Halifax after realizing that their small contingent of soldiers could not garrison the region and overpower the pro-French population. Acadians were carried away from their villages located in western Nova Scotia and dispersed among the many British colonies in the south. A number of these Acadians returned to Halifax after the war, others established themselves in French Louisiana.

The reasons behind British Victory

The series of defeats might have dealt a big blow to the British, but it worked good to allow William Pitt and then seen as a formidable political leader to take over the entire war operations. Previously sidelines by political enemies, Pitt focused attaining victory over the French in North America. His decision follows his conviction that victory over the French in North America remains a key step despite the wide spread of the Anglo-French war across the world. Pitt’s strategy for victory involved recruitment of new regular’s regiments and reinforcement of the old exhausted units. Additionally, he conjured a plan to identify first-class military officers and came up with people such as James Wolfe, Jeffrey Amherst and John Forbes who proved worthwhile in the fight. Pitt went ahead to persuade parliament to grant his mission almost unlimited funds. He also assured the colonies a generous compensation of the expenses if they choose to support the British troops. Pitt ensured that he remained personally in control of all-important details of the operations in North America as a measure against any fiascoes. This move made him personally responsible for the Victory Britain achieved in North America.

In addition to Pitt’s capacity to organize the operation, other important factors stood to his advantage. First, His tenure happens to coincide with the period when the British Royal Navy showed significant growth in superiority. Using their newly acquired status, the British army gradually but repeatedly destroyed French troop transports, merchantmen, and warships from the seas, thus preventing the reinforcement of troops and supply of munitions from France. In August 1759, during the engagement off Lagos, Portugal, Boscawen destroyed the French Mediterranean fleet captained by Jean-François de la Clue-Sabran as it was heading to Brest seaport. In another encounter called Battle of Quiberon Bay of November 1759, Adm. Edward Hawke came close to destroying the main French fleet.

Second, by the time the war reached its peak, Britain boasted of great industrial and financial resources than their counterparts who were experiencing an economic paralysis and national bankruptcy. British colonies also proved much helpful, especially to the armies on the war front, by supplying them their plenty foodstuffs. Dwellers of French Canada on the other side faced a prolonged period of famine and at the same time blockades at the Gulf of St. Lawrence and off the coast of France made it almost impossible to import food.

Lastly, the British regulars and the colonial forces in America proved lethal with their newly acquired skills in wilderness fights. One Anglo-American unit most remembered for adopting this style of combat is the Rogers’s Rangers, a force of about 600 frontiersmen under Robert Rogers. By adopting a Guerilla warfare style, it meant that no great decisions would be needed in the context. The two side’s style of war depicted well-established principles of tactics and strategy. This simply means, “The war witnessed the transfer to North America of European methods of fighting, modified to meet local conditions." In this case, the British dominance of the high seas and the mounting morale and capability to realize success by the battle-hardened British and American troops served as important factors in determining the result of the war.

These circumstances made it hard for the French to keep the fight and thus their end came in 1757. The following year Amherst captured Louisbourg. Not long, John Bradstreet forced the garrison living in Fort Frontenac to surrender. In the same year, Henry Bouquet and Forbes fought against Fort Duquesne and brought it under their control. Sir William Johnson ensured Fort Niagara surrenders in the following year. Amherst, on the other hand, forced the French out of Crown Point and Fort-Carillon. The British sealed it all with the September 13, 1759, victory in the Battle of Quebec. Commanders of the two fighting forces, Wolfe and Montcalm got life-threatening injuries as their men fought on the Plains of Abraham near Quebec City. Seeing how hopeless the situation was, marquis de Vaudreuil, the governor-general, surrendered on September 8, 1760. Upon his surrender, he did not only capitulate his remaining stronghold, Montreal, but also the whole of Canada. With this, came the end of the North American War that had lasted for seven years.

The signing of the Treaty of Paris

The events of the previous seven years forced France to negotiate a treaty of peace. The signing of this treaty took place on February 10, 1763, in Paris. The terms of the agreement required France to surrender Canada to Great Britain and stop any claims to the territories located east of the Mississippi River, a distance away from New Orleans surroundings. Spain, a latecomer in the conflict, on the other hand, was required to cede Florida in exchange of Havana, previously claimed by the British. France compensated Spain loss by surrendering Louisiana, as well as New Orleans. The events saw France that had previously dominated the larger part of North America pull out from that continent as a military and political power. On the other hand, the British dominance grew end to end of the Atlantic coastline from Northern extents of Hudson Bay to the Florida Keys.

Post war Era

Following the triumphant outcome, one would think the British Empire was to determine the future of North America forever. On the contrary, the very victory played a big role in frustrating the loyalty the British enjoyed from the American colonists. There is no doubt that the American colonists only collaborated with the British to fight against their common enemy, the French by then. Upon the completion of the war, things change as the colonialists now saw a continued dependence on the mother country, in its place of bringing many benefits, would prove burdensome with its obligations. Having overcome the fear of living close to powerful neighboring enemies, the Americans worked hard to reduce the degree of influence of the King and parliament on their land. Resistances advanced by the colonialists, especially when attempts were made by parliament to compel colonialists to pay tax, friction developed. The government and settlement of the now-expansive colonial empire served as the very cause of disagreement that would later culminate in the American Revolution in the following decade.

Conclusion

The French and Indian, as is popularly known refers to one of the numerous battles fought between the French and the British. Struggles for control over control of French land claims in North America served as the reasons that precipitated into the conflict. The French, relying on the help advanced by local Indians, initially realized significant victories by capturing several British forts in Pennsylvania and New York. British army later worked cleverly to outwit the French control of the North America colonies and regained control of the war. Additionally, the British swayed the allegiances of the indigenous groups who helped in the war and even advanced to capture important territories in Canada. The aftermath of the war proved to be another brawl for the British authority back home as colonialists resisted their attempts to impose taxations to help maintain the newly acquired territories. The new disagreements between the colonialists and the British authority soon culminated into the American Revolution that marked the following decade.