French and Indian War Study Guide

Name ______

I. Colonies Relationship with England

i. England established colonies to benefit themselves (mercantilism)

1. Navigation Acts – colonies can’t trade with other countries

ii. Years of Neglect (1650s – 1750s)

1. England ignored colonists due to wars

a. England doesn’t enforce her laws/rules

b. Colonies grow independent

II. Competing Empires

i. By the middle of the 1700s, France and Britain each controlled large areas of North America (New France and the 13 Colonies)

ii. Native Americans lived on both of their claimed lands

1. Few French settlers did not threaten Native Americans

2. Need of British settlers for farmland led to conflict with Native Americans

iii. By 1740’s, British settlers were pursuing into the Ohio River Valley claimed by the French

III. French and Indian War

i. French and Indian War was only a small part of a much larger global conflict between England and France (a.k.a. The Seven Years War)

ii. 1753 – George Washington, leader of the militia, was sent to inform the French to leave Ohio River Valley; French refused

iii. The Albany Plan of Union

1. A plan proposed by Benjamin Franklin to unite the colonies

2. Join, or Die political cartoon

3. Plan rejected

iv. French Advantages

1. New France was a single colony and could act quickly

2. New England was a series of small colonies continually squabbling with each other

3. French used professional soldiers, England used Militia

4. French had help of many tribes of Indians because they treated them with respect and had a profitable relationship (Huron)

v. English Advantages

1. Much larger population

2. English colonies were along the coast and easier to defend

3. English colonists were defending their home

4. Factories and supplies

vi. Fighting

1. Early British Defeats

a. English General Braddock was defeated at Fort Duquesne because of poor strategy

2. The British Turn the Tide

a. William Pitt becomes Prime Minister of England

i. Invests huge sums of money and England goes into debt

ii. Finds top generals like General Wolfe

iii. Capture Quebec, the capital of New France (France can no longer defend the rest of its North American territory).

vii. The Treaty of Paris – 1763

1. Ends the war

a. French lose all of the territory except New Orleans (given to Spanish because Spain loses Florida)

IV. Pontiac’s Rebellion

i. Colonists begin to settle Ohio River Valley (frontier)

ii. Pontiac united several groups of Native Americans to attack the English and drive them out of the valley

iii. English gave small pox infected blankets, destroying Indian population

V. Proclamation of 1763

i. Fearing another rebellion, English forbade colonists from settling west of Appalachian Mountains.

1. Colonists angered and thought they had the right to settle these lands

2. This law was the first of many leading to the American Revolution