what happened to the french empire as a result of the french and indian war

The French and Indian War (1754-1763) is the name given to the Due north American theatre of the 7 Years' War (1756-1763), a global conflict involving the major powers of Europe. Though war was not formally alleged until 1756, armed disharmonize began in 1754 as disputes over land claims in the Ohio Valley lead to a series of borderland battles betwixt the French and British. Both received back up from various Native American tribes, though the outnumbered French became far more dependent on these allies as the war progressed. The French saw a number of early on victories, about notably over George Washington and Edward Braddock in Western Pennsylvania. Washington quickly became a key figure in the disharmonize, maturing during his tenure in the Virginia militia from an inexperienced young major to the commander in chief of the colony's regiment. Washington's involvement during the war'south early stages provided the future President with invaluable military machine experience while also gaining him positive notoriety that helped to launch his time to come political career. The tide turned in favor of the British in 1757 when King George Two appointed Secretary of State William Pitt to commander of wartime operations.  Pitt believed that securing victories in N America would ensure U.k.'s global success, and reinvigorated the war attempt by reorganizing military machine leadership and strengthening the Crown'south relationship with its colonists in America. British assaults on strategic outposts such as Ticonderoga, Niagara, and Quebec in 1759, followed by the successful siege of Montreal in September of 1760, prompted the French surrender. Though Britain's victory in the French and Indian War expelled French republic from North America and secured massive territorial gains for the empire, subsequent Crown policies concerning tax and westward expansion resulted in widespread colonial discontent. The conflict and its backwash produced substantial ideological divisions betwixt U.k. and her North American colonies that ultimately contributed to the outbreak of the American Revolution.

The French and Indian State of war was one of many French-British conflicts fought during the Second Hundred Years' War (1689-1815), a historical era that included Rex William's War (1689-1697), Queen Anne'southward War (1702-1713) and King George's War (1744-1748). The struggle for control over North America that adult into the French and Indian War materialized in the mid-eighteenth century due to a dispute over French state claims in Due north America. Between 1700 and 1750, the colonial populations of Canada and Louisiana increased significantly, forcing expansion into the Ohio River Valley region. Every bit settlement in this area and the Lower Mississippi Valley increased, New France increased her agricultural output and invested heavily in Louisiana's carbohydrate economic system. During this period, the French strengthened military ties and existing trade relationships with numerous Indian societies, sparking competition with the British for Ethnic allies. By 1749, population growth in the Eastward and a desire for landed wealth from colonial elites prompted the Virginia Business firm of Burgesses to issue big grants of territory in the West to private state companies, such every bit the Ohio Company. However, competing claims from the French challenged the Ohio Company's plan for future sale of these lands, prompting the colony of Virginia to initiate efforts toward halting the structure of French forts in western Pennsylvania and removing these rivals from the region. In late Oct of 1753, twenty-one-year-old George Washington, a major in the Virginia Militia, volunteered to deliver a message to the French on behalf of the colony'due south governor, Robert Dinwiddie. The ultimatum ordered that the French halt construction on Fort LeBoeuf in Western Pennsylvania and evacuate lands in the Ohio Valley, or else face up an armed attack.

George Washington's experience in the French and Indian War was a determinative 1, allowing him to develop from a determined, yet inexperienced, leader, to a distinguished commander of the Virginia militia. Washington did not manage to miscarry the French on his expedition to Fort LeBoeuf, and his lack of a formal military machine instruction revealed itself in a number of tactical blunders during the war's early years. Washington's nigh infamous mistake took place in July of 1754 post-obit the Boxing of Fort Necessity, where his surrender unwittingly included an admission that British troops had assassinated the French officeholder Joseph Coulon de Jumonville. While these events prompted Washington to resign his commission from the Virginia militia, his errors gained the attention of officials in London, who shortly after dispatched two regiments to North America under command of Major General Edward Braddock. Furthermore, the publication of Washington'southward journals from the LeBeouf expedition, titled The Journal of Major George Washington , illuminated the importance of controlling the Ohio Valley, and the necessity of this region in securing Britain's North American Empire. This account convinced governmental officials that military machine force was necessary to remove the French from the Western borderland and gained acclaim for Washington on both sides of the Atlantic. This notoriety prompted Washington to return to military service in 1755 as an aide-de-camp for Braddock's summer trek to Fort Duquesne. Though this mission ended in defeat at the Boxing of the Monongahela, his distinguished services earned Washington a promotion to Commander in Primary of the Virginia Militia Forces, a post he held until his resignation in 1758.

Weak leadership and disagreements within the British army plagued Washington'south armed forces tenure in the 2 years following the Braddock expedition. Proposals to attack forts in Canada, including Quebec, Niagara, and Duquesne, were dismissed past colonial governors, who often voiced concerns over their commanders' commonage lack of active military experience, particularly when compared to their French counterparts. Between 1755 and 1757, these disputes allowed French forces, along with their Indian allies, to capture numerous British forts in New York and Pennsylvania, while wreaking havoc in the Southern backcountry. Upon taking office in 1757, Secretarial assistant of State William Pitt assumed control over British war machine operations, developing a program to reinvigorate the N American war endeavor. Pitt'due south strategy called for the British to finance the expansion of Prussia'south army, increasing hostilities in Europe and diverting French attention from the colonies.  By weakening France'due south war machine attempt in the colonies and bolstering the number of regular soldiers fighting in N America, the British to regained control of the war by 1759, swaying many Indigenous groups from their French allegiances and capturing nearly of the vital outposts protecting Canada. Furthermore, betwixt 1760 and 1762, the British Empire seized virtually every French territory in the Caribbean area, adding Cuba in August of 1762 following Spain'southward official declaration of war. Faced with imminent defeat, France and her allies agreed to negotiations with the British, signing the Treaty of Paris on Feb 10, 1763. By the conditions of the treaty, France ceded all N American land claims east of the Mississippi River to Great Britain, along with a number of her West Indian islands and Canada. Spain, French republic's ally by the Family Compact, received trans-Mississippi Louisiana as well as command over New Orleans. The Castilian in turn ceded Florida to Great United kingdom in return for Cuba, which the British had seized in June of the previous year. While these territorial shifts put the whole of eastern North America nether British command, much of the populace criticized the terms of the treaty. Objectors argued that by restoring to France the valuable carbohydrate islands of Martinique, St. Lucia, and Guadeloupe, Britain had given her the opportunity to recover, rebuild, and potentially emerge every bit a military threat in the future. Supporters, yet, praised Britain'south treaty negotiations, declaring her empire in North America to finally be secure and complete.

United kingdom's extensive territorial gains often overshadow the complicated legacies and consequences of the French and Indian War. These geographic shifts triggered an era of social and political change that estranged the Crown from much of her colonial citizenry. The British had amassed a substantial corporeality of debt in fighting the war, and consequently implemented a number of taxation measures upon the colonies to alleviate the Empire'due south financial burden. These parliamentary taxes, including the Postage Human activity and the Townshend Acts, incited protests throughout N America and atomic number 82 many colonials to assert that the British Empire threatened their bones rights and liberties. Accompanied by discontent over the Proclamation Line of 1763 and changes made to the management of Indian affairs, tensions between colonists and the Crown evolved into outright acts of opposition and rebellion. For the continent'due south Native populations, French removal contradistinct carefully crafted diplomatic practices, particularly the balance-of-power strategy that had come to define Indigenous-European political relations over the course of the eighteenth century. The British-French rivalry had previously provided Due north American Indians with opportunities to play European nations off of one another and control cross-cultural trade relationships. Withal, in an try to limit Native autonomy and increment Indigenous dependence following the Treaty of Paris, the British government used their well-nigh unchallenged control over Due north American merchandise to force Native land cessions and adherence to British governmental interests. Such measures eroded relations between the two groups, leading to an alarming increase in Anglo-Indian violence in the years following 1763.

Washington's service in the Virginia Militia during the French and Indian State of war provided him with an invaluable education in leadership and military strategy, lessons he relied on in the American Revolution. However, Washington's French and Indian War experience did more than than only teach the future president about commanding troops; information technology reshaped his manner of thinking about the human relationship between United kingdom of great britain and northern ireland and her colonies. Washington had dedicated his career in the Virginia Militia toward achieving an equal committee in the British Ground forces, an aspiration that never came to fruition by the time of his resignation in 1758. Washington's military experience led him to believe that his commission rejection was non due to a lack of capability, merely rather considering the British Military regarded colonial militia men as inferior. Similar many of his Virginia counterparts, Washington's political and economic beliefs connected to clash with Crown policies throughout the 1760s, peculiarly following the establishment of Proclamation Line. His French and Indian War feel reveals the early stages of ideological divergence between specific groups of colonials and the mother country, a division that ultimately atomic number 82 to the outbreak of American Revolution.

Jennifer Monroe McCutchen

Texas Christian University

Sources:

Anderson, Fred. Crucible of War: The 7 Years' War and the Fate of Empire in British North America, 1754-1766 . New York, NY: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2000.

Anderson, Fred, ed. George Washington Remembers: Reflections on the French and Indian War . Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2004.

Calloway, Colin. The Scratch of a Pen: 1763 and the Transformation of N America . New York, NY: Oxford University Printing, 2006.

Fowler, William M., Jr. Empires at War: The French and Indian War and the Struggle for Northward America, 1754-1763 . New York, NY: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2005.

Ward, Matthew C. Breaking the Backcountry: The 7 Years' War in Virginia and Pennsylvania, 1754-1765 . Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2004.

Washington, George, and Robert Dinwiddie. The Journal of Major George Washington: Sent past the Hon. Robert Dinwiddie, Esq ; His Majesty's Lieutenant-Governor, and Commander in Principal of Virginia, to the Commandant of the French Forces on Ohio. : To Which Are Added, the Governor's Letter, and a Translation of the French Officer's Answer . Williamsburg [Va.]: Printed by William Hunter, 1754.

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Source: https://www.mountvernon.org/library/digitalhistory/digital-encyclopedia/article/french-and-indian-war/

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