Chapter 6

France was a late entrant in colonizing the New World, facing internal conflicts between Catholics and Protestant Huguenots during the 1500s.

The Edict of Nantes in 1598 brought peace, and under King Louis XIV, France became a dominant European nation.

In 1608, Quebec was established as the center of New France, led by Samuel de Champlain, who allied with the Huron Indians but earned the enmity of the Iroquois tribes.

New France remained under royal, autocratic control, with a slow-growing Catholic population and little economic incentive for migration, unlike the British colonies.

The French government favored its Caribbean colonies over Canada.

New France's valuable resource was beaver pelts, which French fur-trappers pursued across North America for European fashion.

The fur trade, involving colorful coureurs de bois ("runners of the woods") and French voyageurs, recruited Indians but also brought disease and cultural disruption.

French Catholic missionaries tried to save Indians from the fur-trappers, while explorers aimed at empire-building, establishing posts like Detroit and New Orleans to counter English and Spanish expansion in the region and tap into the fur trade and agricultural resources of the interior valley.

The earliest contests for control of North America between European powers - King William's War (1689-1697) and Queen Anne's War (1702-1713), saw British colonists facing off against French coureurs de bois, with both sides enlisting Indian allies.

The combatants engaged in guerrilla warfare, and the French and their Spanish allies were eventually defeated, ceding Acadia, Newfoundland, and Hudson Bay to Britain in the Treaty of Utrecht (1713).

This period of relative peace allowed the British American colonies to develop with "salutary neglect" from Britain. Britain would leave the colonies alone to develop and not readily enforce their repressive laws.

However, tensions resurfaced in conflicts like the War of Jenkins's Ear (1739) and King George's War, where New Englanders temporarily captured the French fortress of Louisbourg.

France still held significant territory in North America despite these setbacks.

The Ohio Valley became a crucial battleground between the French and British as the westward-expanding British colonists sought access to the region.

The French, keen on linking their Canadian holdings with the lower Mississippi Valley, were erecting forts in the area.

In 1754, George Washington, a young Virginian, fired the first shots of the French and Indian war while trying to secure Virginia's claims in the Ohio country.

The fourth Anglo-French colonial war, known as the French and Indian War and the Seven Years War, began in America after George Washington's actions in the Ohio Valley in 1754.

It later evolved into the Seven Years' War, a global conflict fought in multiple theaters, including Europe, the West Indies, the Philippines, Africa, and the ocean.

The colonies were disunited, each pledging differing amounts of resources to the war depending on how much they were affected by it.

Looking for unified action in the face of war, the Albany Congress in 1754 was formed where Benjamin Franklin proposed a plan for colonial home rule.

While the plan was approved by the delegates, it was shot down by the colonies (for too little freedom) and by the British government (for too much freedom).

At the beginning of the French and Indian War, General Braddock, sent in for his wartime experience, led a British expedition to capture Fort Duquesne but suffered a disastrous defeat at the hands of a smaller French and Indian force.

The defeat inflamed Indian attacks on the frontier, and the British launched a full-scale invasion of Canada in 1756.

The war had evolved into a global conflict, and the British faced significant defeats and challenges, both military and financial, in their attempts to secure victory.

In a time of crisis during the French and Indian War, Britain found a remarkable leader in William Pitt, known as the "Great Commoner." The people loved him so much that they would kiss his horses.

Under Pitt's leadership, the British captured Louisbourg in 1758 and Quebec in 1759, resulting in the defeat of French power in Canada.

The 1763 peace settlement in Paris confirmed Britain's dominance in North America and elevated it to the leading naval power globally.

France ceded its North American territories to Britain (and Louisiana to Spain), retaining only a minority population in Canada and some sugar islands in the West Indies.

The French and Indian War boosted the confidence of Britain's colonists in their military strength, as they gained valuable experience and fought alongside British regulars.

British officials were distressed by the colonists' reluctance to wholeheartedly support the war effort, as some engaged in treasonous trade with enemy ports.

With the war over, American colonists felt free from the threats of France and England.

The Indians recognized their weakened position, and Ottawa chief Pontiac led a violent uprising --- Pontiac's Uprising --- in the Ohio valley.

However, London issued the Proclamation Line of 1763 (to prevent further Indian attacks), prohibiting white settlement beyond the Appalachian Mountains, leading to tensions between the colonists, who felt that they fought for the land, and the British.