brief discussion of the French - Indian War for High School World History class.

1. Ch. 4.2 – French-Indian War
Or the Seven Years War

2. Why not the 7 Years War?
 The name French and
Indian War is so given
because the British
fought the French and
many of the Native
Americans (Algonquin
and Huron tribes) who
sided with France,
although some did fight
alongside the British
and their Iroquois
allies.

3. Causes
 both the British and
the French claimed
the vast territory
between the
Appalachians and the
Mississippi river, from
the Great Lakes to the
Gulf of Mexico, known
as the Ohio Country.
Both countries used
trading posts as forts,
militarizing the region.

4. Causes
 Both European
countries ignored
Native American
claims to the land in
order to pursue their
beaver pelt
economies. Among
the most powerful of
the Native
Americans were the
Iroquois

5. Causes
 The British colonists
feared papal influence
in North America. To
the predominantly
Protestant British
settlers, French control
over North America
could have
represented a threat to
their religious and
other freedoms that
Massacre of the Protestant Martyrs at the
Bridge over the River Bann in Ireland,
1641. Engraving from Matthew Taylor,
England's Bloody Tribunal: Or, Popish
Cruelty Displayed, reminder of what could
happen.

6.  New France was administered by French
governors, Roman Catholic hierarchy and
missionaries such as Armand de La
Richardie, who were active in spreading the
Catholic brand of Christianity.
Marquis de Vaudreuil-Cavagnial –
Last governor of New France
1755-1760
Le Grand Voyage du Pays des
Hurons 1632

7. Cause  Newfoundland's
Grand Banks were
fertile fishing
grounds and coveted
by both sides. The
conclusion of this
war would see
France keeping only
the islands of Saint
Pierre and Miquelon,
allowing them
access to the Grand
Banks to this day.
This illustration shows the heavy traffic in
the area in the seventeenth century.

8. Hostilities begin…
 England began to push
westward into France’s North
American holdings. These
long time enemies began a
conflict in the spring of 1754
over land claims in the Ohio
Valley. This war later became
part of a larger conflict known
as the Seven Years’ War. The
English and the French (along
with their European allies)
fought for territorial and
colonial supremacy in Europe,
West Indies, Asia and Africa.
In the first engagement of the
French and Indian War, a 22-
year-old Lieutenant
Colonel George
Washington defeats a French
reconnaissance party in
southwestern Pennsylvania.

9.  Early on, the French
were victorious on the
battlefield, but the
appointment of Sir
William Pitt as British
Secretary of State
turned the tide of the
war. He pledged to
provide whatever
necessary for British
victory over the French
in the colonies and in
Europe. British began

10. Seige of Fort William Henry
 August 3-9, 1757-
French General Louis-Joseph de
Montcalm attacked the British-held
Fort William Henry. The fort,
located at the southern end of Lake
George, on the frontier between the
British Province of New York and the
French Province of Canada, was
garrisoned by a poorly supported
force of British led by Lt.
Colonel George Monro. After several
days of bombardment, Monro
surrendered to Montcalm, whose
force included nearly 2,000 Indians.
The terms of surrender included the
withdrawal of the garrison to Fort
Edward, with specific terms that the
French military protect the British

11.  The British evacuated the fort, leaving about 70 sick and wounded to
the care of the French. Almost immediately, Indians entered the fort to
plunder. Cries and screams for help from the sick and wounded
prisoners were heard outside the fort. A missionary, Pere Roubaud
says of one particular warrior, "[he] carried in his hand a human head,
from which trickled streams of blood, and which he displayed as the
most splendid prize that he could have secured."
 Montcalm's Indian allies violated the agreed terms of surrender and
attacked the British column as it left the fort. They killed and scalped a
significant number of soldiers and took as captives women, children,
servants, and slaves.

12. Peace
 The British-French hostilities in
North America had almost ended
by 1760. However, on 10 February
1763, Great Britain, France, Spain
and Portugal sign the Treaty of
Paris and end the war. The
concessions of the treaty involved
a complex series of land

13.  France was given the
choice of keeping either
New France or its
Caribbean island colony
Guadeloupe, and chose the
latter to retain one of its
sources of sugar. This
suited the British as well, as
their own Caribbean islands
already supplied ample
sugar, but with the
handover of New France
they gained control of all
lands in North America east
of the Mississippi River with
the exception of New
Orleans
Spain lost control of Florida to
Great Britain, but received New
Orleans and the Louisiana
Territory west of the Mississippi
River from the French.

14.  The conflict resulted in
the British acquiring
Canada, while Spain
gained Louisiana (New
France) in
compensation for its
loss of Florida to the
British. French
administrative
presence in North
America was almost
completely removed
and the Aboriginal
people of North
America were
 the end of the threat
from New France to
the British American
colonies and the
subsequent
reorganization of
those colonies with
increase taxation to
pay off war debts
would later become
one of the enabling
triggers for the
American
Revolution.