Unit 3: Topic 2 - The Seven Years’ War (The French and Indian War) Flashcards
What was the French and Indian War?
The French and Indian War (1754-1763) was fought by the British against France and the Native American tribes that were allied with the French. This was part of the larger worldwide war between the British and French known as the Seven Years War.
Why was the Ohio River Valley a hotspot for conflict?
The Ohio River Valley was a fertile region that was good for agriculture and hunting. The British saw this area as their gateway to western expansion, and the French viewed it as their vital link between their possessions in Canada and the Lower Mississippi Valley. France kept trying to expand into the Ohio and Mississippi River Valleys, forming alliances and trade agreements with the Native Americans there, but the British already had claims to the land.
What was the first battle of the French and Indian War? What was the outcome?
Fort Necessity, 1754
The first battle of the war was a defeat for the British. The Governor of Virginia sent an army, led by 21 year-old George Washington, to try and remove the French from their forts in Western Pennsylvania. They wanted to stop French expansion, but Washington lost 1/3 of his men and he was forced to surrender.
What does George Washington have to do with the French and Indian War?
George Washington fought in the war and gained his most important pre-revolutionary military experience during this conflict.
As a result of this, it made him the best-known soldier in the colonies.
What was the Albany Plan of Union?
Seven colonies (New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, and Maryland) met at the Albany Congress. Benjamin Franklin used this meeting to present his Plan of Union, which proposed the creation of a colonial executive power that would oversee trade laws and military preparedness for the British North American colonies.
Why did the Albany Plan of Union fail?
Colonial assemblies were uninterested in combining money, militias, and the authority they already wielded independently of each other. They were worried that this Plan of Union would dilute their individual authority.
What was the significance of the Albany Plan of Union?
The Albany Congress would lay the groundwork for future colonial meetings such as the Stamp Act Congress and the Continental Congresses. This set an important precedent for collaborative meetings between the colonies and created the nascent idea of an American identity. Additionally, the Albany Congress was the first expression of the idea of a single, national government uniting all of the colonies into one political body.
What advantages did the British have in the French and Indian War?
- William Pitt united forces in the British war effort. There was a better structure in command that led to a more effective military.
- The British Royal Navy was superior to the French Navy.
- In Great Britain there were vastly greater financial and industrial resources available than there were in France, which was faced with national bankruptcy and economic paralysis before the end of the struggle.
What was the Treaty of Paris of 1763? How did this impact the French and British territorial holdings?
The Treaty of Paris was signed in 1763, ending the French and Indian War and resulting in British Victory. This is different from the Treaty of Paris that ended the Revolutionary War.
Britain: According to its terms, France was to cede Canada to Great Britain and to relinquish all claims to the lands lying east of the Mississippi River. Great Britain acquired both French Canada and Spanish Florida.
France: France ceded (gave up) to Spain its huge western territory, Louisiana, and claims west of the Mississippi River in compensation for Spain’s loss of Florida. With this treaty, the British extended their control of North America, and French power on the continent virtually ended.
What were the immediate effects of the War?
Britain’s victory in the Seven Years’ War gave them unchallenged supremacy in North America and also established them as the dominant naval power in the world. No longer did the American colonies face the threat of concerted attacks from the French, the Spanish, and
their American Indian allies. More important to the colonies, though, was a change in how the British and the colonists viewed each other.
What was the British View of the War? How does that differ from the Colonial view of the War?
British View: The British came away from the war with a low opinion of the colonial military abilities. They held the American militia in contempt as a poorly trained, disorderly rabble. Furthermore, they noted that some of the colonies had refused to contribute either troops or money to the war effort. Most British were convinced that the colonists were both unable and unwilling to defend the new frontiers of the vastly expanded British empire.
Colonial View: The colonists took an opposite view of their military performance. They were proud of their record in all four wars and developed confidence that they could successfully provide for their own defense. They were not impressed with British troops or their leadership, whose methods of warfare seemed badly suited to the densely wooded terrain of eastern America.
How did the British shift their colonial policies following the French & Indian War? What was their reasoning behind this shift in perspective?
Previously, Britain had exercised little direct control over the colonies and had generally allowed the Navigation Acts regulating colonial trade to go unenforced. This policy of salutary neglect was abandoned as the British adopted more forceful policies to take control of their expanded North American dominions.
**Reasons: **
- The French and Indian War had been extremely costly.
- Britain now felt the need to maintain a large British military force to guard its American frontiers.
- Among British landowners, pressure was building to reduce the heavy taxes that the colonial wars had laid upon them.
- To pay for troops to guard the frontier without increasing taxes at home, Great Britain wanted the American colonies to bear more of the cost of maintaining the British empire.
What was Pontiac’s Rebellion?
In 1763, Chief Pontiac led a major attack against colonial settlements on the western frontier. The American Indians were angered by the growing westward movement of European settlers onto their land and by the British refusal to offer gifts as the French had done. Pontiac’s alliance of American Indians in the Ohio Valley destroyed forts and settlements from New York to Virginia.
What was the Proclamation Line of 1763?
In response to Pontiac’s Rebellion, the Proclamation of 1763 banned colonial settlement west of the Appalachian Mountains. The area from the Appalachians to the Mississippi River was set aside as reserved for the Native Americans.
How did the Proclamation of 1763 mark a change in relations between Britain and the American colonies?
The Proclamation of 1763 marked the end of the period of salutary neglect, and marked the first time the British directly interfered with colonial affairs.
Further British interference would come in the form of taxation, as the British government sought to have the American colonies pay for some of the costs of the French and Indian War.
