Lesson 1: The French and Indian War

Question 1

Albany Plan of Union Definition

Answer 1

A proposal by Benjamin Franklin to create a unified government for the British colonies

Question 2

Edward Braddock Definition

Answer 2

An English general who led an attack against Fort Duquesne

Question 3

French and Indian War Definition

Answer 3

A war that took place from 1754 to 1763 that led to the end of French power in North America

Question 4

Plains of Abraham Definition

Answer 4

A field near Quebec; site of a major British victory over the French in the French and Indian War

Question 5

Treaty of Paris Definition

Answer 5

A 1763 agreement between Britain and France that ended the French and Indian War and transferred much of North America from French to British control

Question 6

William Pitt Definition

Answer 6

British Prime Minister credited for turning things around for the British during the French and Indian War by promising colonists large payments and land

Question 7

Who was the biggest threat in the English Colonies’ struggle for empire?

Answer 7

The most serious threat came from France. It claimed a vast area that circled the English colonies from the St. Lawrence River west to the Great Lakes and south to the Gulf of Mexico. To protect their land claims, the French built an extensive system of forts. These forts blocked the British colonies from expanding to the west.

Question 8

Why was the Ohio River and the Ohio River Valley important to the British and French? How did it cause conflict?

Answer 8

At first, most settlers in the British colonies were content to remain along the Atlantic coast. By the 1740s, however, traders were crossing the Appalachian Mountains in search of furs. Pushing into the forests of the Ohio Valley, which supported an abundance of wildlife, settlers tried to take over the profitable French trade with the Indians. France was determined to stop the British from expanding westward. The Ohio River was especially important to the French because it provided a vital link between their claims along the Great Lakes and their settlements along the Mississippi River.

Question 9

As the French and the British continued to compete for the Ohio River Valley, what motivated the Native Americans to choose sides?

Answer 9

Native Americans had hunted animals and grown crops in the Ohio Valley for centuries. They did not want to give up the land to European settlers, French or British. One Native American protested to a British trader, “You and the French are like the two edges of a pair of shears. And we are the cloth which is to be cut to pieces between them.” Still, the growing conflict between Britain and France was too dangerous to ignore. Some Native Americans decided that the only way to protect their way of life was to take sides in the struggle.

Question 10

How did the French gain Native American allies?

Answer 10

The French expected the Indians to side with them. Most French in North America were trappers and traders. Generally, they did not destroy Indian hunting grounds by clearing forests for farms. Also, many French trappers married Native American women and adopted their ways. As a result, France had built strong alliances with such Native American groups as the Algonquins and the Hurons.

Question 11

How did the British gain allies?

Answer 11

Many British settlers were farmers. These settlers usually ignored Indian rights by felling trees and clearing land for crops. However, an English trader and official, William Johnson, helped gain Iroquois support for Britain. The Iroquois respected Johnson. He was one of the few British settlers who had an Indian wife, Molly Brant. She was the sister of the Mohawk chief Thayendanegea, known to the British as Joseph Brant. Both Joseph and Molly Brant became valuable allies for the British. The British also won Native American allies in the Ohio Valley by charging lower prices than the French for trade goods.

Question 12

How did the allies of the French and the British get affected by the war?

Answer 12

In the end, Britain managed to convince the powerful Iroquois nations to join with them. The British alliance was attractive to the Iroquois because they were old enemies of the Algonquin and the Huron peoples. The war reignited old conflicts in the Ohio Valley between the Iroquois and the Algonquins and Hurons. Some tribes, like the Shawnees, Delawares, and Mingos, formed alliances to push Europeans off their lands. More often, however, the alliances Native Americans formed with the British and the French pitted tribes against each other in the fighting to come.

Question 13

What happened between the French and the British between 1689 and 1748? What did these events result in?

Answer 13

Three times between 1689 and 1748, France and Great Britain fought for power in Europe and North America. Each war ended with an uneasy peace.

Question 14

What happened between the British and the French in 1754? What was this conflict called?

Answer 14

In 1754, fighting broke out for a fourth time. British settlers called the conflict the French and Indian War because it pitted them against France and its Native American allies. The French and Indian War was part of a larger war called the Seven Years’ War that involved conflicts not just in North America but also in Europe and Asia. In North America, the Ohio River Valley was at the center of the dispute. There, the opening shots of the war were fired by soldiers led by George Washington.

Question 15

When did Washington take part in the Ohio Valley? What was his early life like?

Answer 15

When Washington took part in the Ohio Valley conflict he was only 22 years old. He had grown up on a plantation in Virginia, the son of wealthy parents.
Gifted at mathematics, he began working as a land surveyor at the age of 15. His job took him to frontier lands in western Virginia.

Question 16

What did the governor of Virginia send George Washington to do in 1753? What was the result? What did the governor of Virginia send him to do in 1754?

Answer 16

In 1753, the governor of Virginia sent Washington to deliver a letter to the French asking them to withdraw from the Ohio Valley. The French refused. After Washington returned from this mission, the governor of Virginia sent him west again. This time Washington’s assignment was to build a fort where the Monongahela and Allegheny rivers meet to form the Ohio River (present-day Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania). Washington led 150 men into the Ohio country in April 1754. Along the way, he heard that the French had just completed Fort Duquesne (doo KAYN) at the very spot where Washington hoped to build his fort.

Question 17

What did George Washington do to carry out his orders given to him by the Virginia governor in April 1754? What was the result?

Answer 17

Determined to carry out his orders, Washington hurried on. Indian allies revealed that French scouts were camped in the woods ahead. Marching quietly through the night, Washington launched a surprise attack and scattered the French. The Iroquois helped the British fight against the French, as well as the French allies, the Algonquins. Washington’s success was brief, however. Hearing that the French were about to counterattack, Washington and his men quickly built a makeshift stockade. They named it Fort Necessity. A force of 700 French and Indians surrounded the fort. Badly outnumbered, the Virginians surrendered. The French then released Washington, and he returned home. British officials recognized the significance of Washington’s skirmish. “The volley fired by this young Virginian in the forests of America,” a British writer noted, “has set the world in flames.”

Question 18

What was the purpose of the meeting in Albany, New York, while Washington was fighting a battle at Fort Necessity?

Answer 18

While Washington was fighting the French, delegates from seven colonies gathered in Albany, New York. One purpose of the meeting was to cement the alliance with the Iroquois, who were willing to defend the British claim to the Ohio Valley. This alliance would help the British fight the French and their Native American allies. Another goal of the meeting was to plan a united colonial defense.

Question 19

What was Benjamin Franklin’s Albany Plan of Union?

Answer 19

The delegates in Albany knew that the colonists had to work together to defeat the French. Benjamin Franklin, the delegate from Pennsylvania, proposed the Albany Plan of Union. The plan was an attempt to create “one general government” for the British colonies. It called for a Grand Council made up of representatives from each colony. The council would make laws, raise taxes, and set up the defense of the colonies.

Question 20

Who supported Franklin’s Albany Plan of Union? Who did not?

Answer 20

The delegates voted to accept the Plan of Union. However, when the plan was submitted to the colonial assemblies, not one approved it. None of the colonies wanted to give up any of its powers to a central council. A disappointed Benjamin Franklin expressed his frustration at the failure of his plan:

Question 21

What did General Edward Braddock do in 1755? What was his character like?

Answer 21

In 1755, General Edward Braddock led British and colonial troops in an attack against Fort Duquesne. Braddock was a stubborn man who had little experience at fighting in the forests of North America. Still, the general boasted that he would sweep the French from the Ohio Valley.

Question 22

What happened as Braddock and his men near Fort Duquesne?

Answer 22

Braddock’s men moved slowly and noisily through the forests. Although warned of danger by Washington and by Indian scouts, Braddock pushed ahead. As the British neared Fort Duquesne, the French and their Indian allies launched a surprise attack. Sharpshooters hid in the forest and picked off British soldiers, whose bright red uniforms made easy targets. Braddock himself had five horses shot out from under him before he fell, fatally wounded. Almost half the British were killed or wounded. Washington, too, was nearly killed.

Question 23

What happened for the next two years, after the British defeat at Fort Duquesne?

Answer 23

During the next two years, the war continued to go badly for the British. British attacks against several French forts failed. Meanwhile, the French won important victories, capturing Fort Oswego on Lake Ontario and Fort William Henry on Lake George. (Both forts occupied land that is now part of New York state.) All these defeats put a serious strain on the alliances with the Iroquois who had been counting on the British to protect them from the French. The Iroquois faced increasing danger from enemy tribes, who fought them for prisoners and goods.

Question 24

What advantage did the French and their Indian allies have during their surprise attack against the British near Fort Duquesne?

Answer 24

The French and their Indian allies had the advantage of familiarity with the forests of North America. General Braddock’s forces were ambushed in the forests on their way to Fort Duquesne in 1755.

Question 25

Who became prime minister in 1757 for Britain?

Answer 25

In 1757, William Pitt became prime minister, meaning he was the new head of the British government. Pitt made it his first job to win the war in North America. Once that goal was achieved, he argued, the British would be free to focus on victory in other parts of the world.

Question 26

What did William Pitt do to help with the French and Indian War in North America and what did he do to motivate colonists to fight?

Answer 26

So Pitt sent Britain’s best generals to North America. To encourage the colonists to support the war, he promised large payments for military services and supplies.

Question 27

What did Major General Jeffery Amherst do in 1758? What else happened for the British in the same year?

Answer 27

Under Pitt’s leadership, the tide of battle turned. In 1758, Major General Jeffrey Amherst captured Louisbourg, the most important fort in French Canada. That year, the British also seized Fort Duquesne, which they renamed Fort Pitt after the British leader. The city of Pittsburgh later grew up on the site of Fort Pitt.

Question 28

What advances did the British make during the French and Indian War in 1759?

Answer 28

The British enjoyed even greater success in 1759. By summer, they had pushed the French from Fort Niagara, Crown Point, and Fort Ticonderoga (ty kahn duh ROH guh). Next, Pitt sent General James Wolfe to take Quebec, capital of New France.

Question 29

Why was Quebec important in New France and how was it protected?

Answer 29

Quebec was vital to the defense of New France. Without Quebec, the French could not supply their forts farther up the St. Lawrence River. Quebec was well defended, though. The city sat on the edge of the Plains of Abraham, on top of a steep cliff high above the St. Lawrence. An able French general, the Marquis de Montcalm, was prepared to fight off any British attack.

Question 30

What was the result of the battle that took place in Quebec?

Answer 30

General Wolfe devised a bold plan to capture Quebec. He knew that Montcalm had only a few soldiers guarding the cliff because the French thought that it was too steep to climb. Late at night, Wolfe ordered British troops to row quietly in small boats to the foot of the cliff. In the dark, the soldiers swarmed ashore, climbed up the cliff, and assembled at the top. The next morning, Montcalm awakened to a surprise. A force of 4,000 British troops was drawn up and ready for battle on the Plains of Abraham. Quickly, Montcalm marched his own troops out to join in battle. By the time the fierce fighting was over, both Montcalm and Wolfe lay dead. Moments before Wolfe died, a soldier gave him the news that the British had won. Wolfe is said to have whispered, “Now, God be praised, I will die in peace.” On September 18, 1759, Quebec surrendered to the British.

Question 31

What officially ended the French and Indian War?

Answer 31

The fall of Quebec sealed the fate of New France, though fighting dragged on in Europe for several more years. Finally, in 1763, Britain and France signed the Treaty of Paris, bringing the long conflict to an end.

Question 32

What did the Treaty of Paris state? What lands did the French have now?

Answer 32

The Treaty of Paris marked the end of French power in North America. By its terms, Britain gained Canada and all French lands east of the Mississippi River except New Orleans. France was allowed to keep only two islands in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and its prosperous sugar-growing islands in the West Indies. Spain, which had entered the war on the French side in 1762, gave up Florida to Britain. In return, Spain received all French land west of the Mississippi. In addition, Spain gained the vital port city of New Orleans. Spain retained control of its vast empire in Central America and South America. After years of fighting, peace returned to North America. Yet, in a few short years, a new conflict would break out. This time, the struggle would pit Britain against its own 13 colonies.

Question 33

July 3, 1754: Conflict at Fort Necessity

Answer 33

George Washington marched British troops from Fort Cumberland to the Great Meadows. There, he built Fort Necessity to protect against the French. But he was outnumbered. When the French attacked, he retreated to Virginia. War had begun.

Question 34

July 9, 1755: British defeated at Fort Duquesne

Answer 34

General Braddock led the attack on Fort Duquesne. He divided his men so they could travel faster through the woods. But as they were crossing the Monongahela River, the French attacked. Disorganized and confused, the British were quickly defeated.

Question 35

August 14, 1756: French take Fort Oswego

Answer 35

The fight for Fort Oswego began at Fort Ontario. The French approached by land and water, sneaking up so quietly the British didn’t know they were there. Taking Ontario let the French reach Oswego’s exposed east side and easily capture the fort.

Question 36

August 10, 1757: Massacre at Fort William Henry

Answer 36

When Major General Daniel Webb learned of France’s plan to attack Fort William Henry, he quickly retreated. The few remaining troops surrendered after four days. As they fled to Fort Edward, Native Americans attacked, killing and capturing hundreds.

Question 37

July 26 and November 26, 1758: British capture Louisbourg and Fort Duquesne

Answer 37

Better planning helped the British make new gains. They captured Louisbourg by firing on land from ships. They also advanced in the wilderness. Attacks on Fort Duquesne weakened the French, who set fire to the fort to keep the British from using it. The British rebuilt the fort and renamed it Fort Pitt to honor the new English leader.

Question 38

September 13, 1759: Battle of Quebec

Answer 38

The British approached Quebec by boat. When questioned, they answered in French to avoid suspicion. Then, they bombed the shore and climbed the cliff to the city. The attack surprised the French, whose supply to northern forts was now cut off.

Question 39

September 8, 1760: Battle of Quebec

Answer 39

On September 6, British troops crossed the St. Lawrence River to the island of Montreal. But there was no battle. Lacking enough supplies and troops to fight, the French surrendered on September 8. On September 9, they gave up their arms.