French and Indian War

The French and Indian War

While there was no single, direct cause for the American Revolution, the French and Indian War stands out as a decent starting point of things gone wrong in the colonies. The conflict was part of the larger Seven Year War between Britain and France, each side employing overseas help to emerge victorious in the New World. The French made deals with the Indians, making colonists, especially in Virginia, fearful of Native American raids. The colonists stepped up their own defenses, while calling on aid from overseas as well, initially strengthening the bond. It wouldn’t be long before opinion towards the Crown would turn sour, as colonists were not only mistreated during the war, but unrepresented in peace talks. Feelings of kinship and loyalty to the Crown were replaced by anger and frustration. Gwenda Morgan in Virginia and the French and Indian War: a Case Study of the War’s Effects on Imperial Relations believed the war initially calmed tensions between Britain and the colonies but eventually would become a source of newfound tension. Both British conduct during the war, towards the colonists as well as the enemy, and its self serving approach during the peace conference in Paris would fill colonists with newfound feelings of resentment and independence.

The conflict began over the Ohio territory, which was being claimed by both colonists and the French with their Indian allies. George Washington and his company were ordered to the territory to establish a presence when they were intercepted by the French and forced to withdraw. Morgan credits this to the Virginians being unaccustomed to conflict and being unprepared. Over a period of about fifty years there had been no invasive acts and the forts and militias decayed with inactivity (Morgan 28). In the face of the newly constructed French Fort Duquesne, British reinforcements from overseas and at the constant hounding of Virginian Governor Dinwiddie, the Virginian Assembly would...