Migration and Conflict

West of the Appalachian Mountains is the Ohio Valley. This area was rich in animals necessary for the lucrative fur trade, and covered vast amounts of unsettled land. The Ohio valley was occupied by Native American tribes, primarily peoples such as the Shawnee and Lenni-Lenape (Delaware) who had been displaced by the Iroquois League. Both the British and the French traded with the Indians in this region. As the population and confidence of the English settlers in the colonies grew in the mid-1700s, they began to migrate to Ohio. There they came into conflict with the French over the fur trade and control of the region. Conflict between the English colonists and the French traders increased after the end of King George's War in 1748.

In 1754, 7 colonies met to address these problems at the Albany Congress. They considered, but did not adopt, Benjamin Franklin's Albany Plan of Union. The Albany Plan of Union attempted to unite the English colonies with the Iroquois League in a defensive stance against New France

The governor of Virginia sent a 21-year-old named George Washington to stop the French from building a fort near the site of present-day Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and to protest French attacks. But in Western Pennsylvania, at Fort Necessity, the French defeated and captured him and his 400 troops. They made him sign a statement in French (which George Washington did not understand) "confessing" that his men had assassinated some Frenchmen. Then they released George Washington. He remembered that lesson and in the Revolutionary War made sure that in the future he always had an aide who could understand French. That future aide would be the very influential Founding Father named Alexander Hamilton.

While George Washington was humiliated by this experience, that did not matter to the young colonies trying to assert themselves. When he returned to Virginia was treated as their hero.

George Washington is the most honored person in all of American history. Why was he so great? Was he so great? He was not a brilliant man. He was not a great military general. In terms of military strategy, he was not particularly good. He was inept during the French and Indian War, for example. He did not write much of value. Most likely he was great because of his values, and how everyone knew he would stick to his principles.

French and Indian War

The English and the French did not like each other in Europe, and their conflicts there spilled over into America. They had constant friction in fighting over territory and trading rights. They had four wars between 1689 and 1763, which are known collectively as the French and Indian Wars.

The French traded more with the Indians, and so the Indians tended to side with the French. Also, some Indians saw how George Washington was defeated, so they probably thought the English colonies were weaker than the French. Finally, it's likely the French treated the Indians better than the English did.

"The" French and Indian War was the seven-year struggle that was the culmination of the conflicts between France and England in America. It was the American portion of the Seven Years' War (1756-1763) between England and France in Europe. The name "French and Indian" to describe the war is confusing, because the French and Indians were on the same side, both fighting against the British, and there were some Native Americans who were allied with the British.

The British struggled badly at first in this war. But eventually a smart fellow named William Pitt was appointed Prime Minister of England. The city of Pittsburgh is named after him. Pitt believed in appointing generals based on merit, not seniority or friendship. Pitt recognized the importance of the colonies and began investing significant money and resources into the war. He then started beating the French. Under Pitt's leadership, the English captured Fort Duquesne (renaming it Fort Pitt) in 1758, Quebec in 1759, and then Montreal in 1760. Taking advantage of their powerful navy, Britain gained control of the sea lanes and started winning in other places in world also, including India.

In 1763, the war ended when Britain, France and Spain signed the Treaty of Paris. Under the terms of the treaty, the French lost all of their possessions in North America, yielding to England all of their territory east of the Mississippi, with the exception of two islands off the coast of Newfoundland. England returned Cuba and the Philippines to Spain, in exchange for Florida, while France surrendered the Louisiana territory to Spain. Later, in 1803, Spain sold this land back to France, who quickly sold it to the United States in the Louisiana Purchase.

In North America, the end of the French and Indian Wars left the British with a great deal of territory west of the Appalachians, but the Indians, who were not included nor consulted in the peace settlement, did not give up their land easily. In 1763, Native Americans, inspired by the anti-British message of a Lenni-Lenape (Delaware) prophet named Neolin, and led by the Ottawa chieftain Pontiac, destroyed every British post west of the Appalachians with the exceptions of Niagara, Pitt, and Detroit.