see also essay from University
of Groningen
The French and Indian Wars 1689–1763, the name given by American historians to the North American
colonial wars between Great Britain and France in the late 17th and the 18th
C. They were really campaigns in the worldwide struggle for empire and were
roughly linked to wars of the European coalitions. At the time they were
viewed in Europe as only an unimportant aspect of the struggle, and, although
the stakes were Canada, the American West, and the West Indies, the fortunes
of war in Europe had more effect in determining the winner than the fighting
in the disputed territory itself.
To the settlers in America, however, the rivalry of the two powers was of
immediate concern, for the fighting meant not only raids by the French or the
British but also the horrors of tribal border warfare. The conflict may be
looked on, from the American viewpoint, as a single war with interruptions.
The ultimate aim—domination of the eastern part of the continent—was the
same; and the methods—capture of the seaboard strongholds and the little
Western forts and attacks on frontier settlements—were the same.
The wars helped to bring about important changes in the British colonies. In
addition to the fact of their ocean-wide distance from the mother country, the
colonies felt themselves less dependent militarily on the British by the end
of the wars; they became most concerned with their own problems and put
greater value on their own institutions. In other words, they began to think
of themselves as American rather than British.
King William’s War
The first of the wars, King William’s War (1689–97), approximately
corresponds to the European War of the Grand Alliance
(1688–97). It was marked in America principally by frontier attacks on the
British colonies and by the taking of Port Royal (now Annapolis Royal, N.S.)
by British colonial forces under Sir William Phips in 1690. (The
French recaptured it the next year.) The British were unable to take Quebec,
and the French commander, the comte de Frontenac, attacked the British coast.
The peace that followed the Treaty of Ryswick in 1697 was short-lived, and
shortly the colonies were plunged into war again.
The European phase of the war broke out first when WIlliam III joined the
League of Augsburg and the Netherlands (Grand Alliance, 12 May 1689) to resist
Louis XIV's invasion of the Rhenish Palatinate (25 Sept. 1688). In America
hostilities broke out between the English and French on Hudson Bay and between
the Iroquois and the French in the area from the Mohawk to the St. Lawrence.
The French under Frontenac (returned as governor, Oct. 1689) struck with their
Native American allies along the northern frontier, with raids on Schenectady
(9 Feb. 1690), Salmon Falls, N.H. (27 Mar.), and Falmouth (Portland, Me., 31
July), followed by Abenaki raids on Wells, Me. (21 June 1692), Durham N.H. (23
June 1694), and Haverhill, Mass. (15 Mar. 1697). On the western frontier
Frontenac attacked the Iroquois (1693-1696). On the part of the English the
only successful colonial operation was the seizure of Port Royal (11 May 1690)
by an expedition of Massachusetts troops under Sir William Phips (1651-1695),
recaptured a year later by the French. The 3-pronged attack on the St.
Lawrence projected at the Albany Conference ousted the English from their
Hudson Bay posts at the mouths of the Severn (1690) and the Hayes (1694), but
the English recaptured the James Bay area (1693). The inconclusive Treaty of
Ryswick (30 Sept. 1697) restored the status quo ante in the colonies and
turned the Hudson Bay dispute over to commissioners, who reached no agreement
(1699).
Morris Jeffrey and Richard. "Encyclopedia of American History: seventh
edition". New York: Harper Collins Publishers. ©1996.
King William's War (1689-1697) was the first of what came to be known in
America as the French and Indian wars. In fact, the French and Indian Wars
were a series of colonial wars between Great Britain and France that lasted
three-quarters of a century. Hostilities in King William's War began in 1690,
when in the course of a few months Schenectady, N.Y., was burned by the French
and Indians, and colonial English forces launched attacks on Port Royal (now
Annapolis Royal), Nova Scotia, and on Quebec. Despite further raids by the
French and Indians, the war ended in a stalemate. The Treaty of Ryswick, by
which were ended the war and its European counterpart, the War of the Grand
Alliance restored all colonial possessions to their prewar status.
-
French and Indian forces from Montreal attacked and burned Schenectady,
N.Y.
-
The city of Quebec was attacked by English forces in the first major
military operation of King William's War. They were repulsed by the French
under Louis de Baude, comte de Palluau et de Frontenac
-
King William's War was ended by the Treaty of Ryswick. From the
standpoint of the American colonies, the war was completely pointless.
Both French and English forces won a number of engagements and managed to
occupy part of each other's territory. However, the treaty restored all
possessions to their prewar status.
Carruth, Gorton. "The Encyclopedia of American Facts and Dates".
10th Ed. New York: Harper Collins Publishers. ©1997.
Queen Anne’s War
Queen Anne’s War (1702–13) corresponds to the War of the Spanish Succession. The
frontier was again the scene of many bloody battles; the French and Native
American raid (1704) on Deerfield, Mass., was especially notable. Another
British attempt to take Quebec, this time by naval attack, failed. Port Royal,
and with it Acadia,
fell (1710) to an expedition under Francis Nicholson and was confirmed to the
British in the Peace of Utrecht, as were Newfoundland and the fur-trading
posts about Hudson Bay.
King George’s War
Hostilities lapsed for years until trouble between England and Spain led to
the so-called War of Jenkins’s Ear, which merged into the War of the Austrian Succession.
The American phase, King George’s War, did not begin until 1744, when the
French made an unsuccessful assault on Port Royal. The next year, a
Massachusetts-planned expedition under William Pepperrell with a
British fleet under Sir Peter Warren took Louisburg. Border
warfare was severe but not conclusive. The Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle (1748)
returned Louisburg to France, but the hostile feelings that had been aroused
did not die.
The French and Indian War
Rivalry for the West, particularly for the valley of the upper Ohio, prepared
the way for another war. In 1748 a group of Virginians interested in Western
lands formed the Ohio
Company, and at the same time the French were investigating possibilities
of occupying the upper Ohio region. The French were first to act, moving south
from Canada and founding two forts. Robert Dinwiddie, governor of
Virginia, sent an emissary, young George Washington, to protest.
The contest between the Ohio Company and the French was now joined and
hinged on possession of the spot where the Monongahela and the Allegheny join
to form the Ohio (the site of Pittsburgh). The English started a fort there
but were expelled by the French, who built Fort Duquesne in 1754.
Dinwiddie, after attempting to get aid from the other colonies, sent out an
expedition under Washington. He defeated a small force of French and Native
Americans but had to withdraw and, building Fort Necessity, held
his ground until forced to surrender (July, 1754). The British colonies,
alarmed by French activities at their back door, attempted to correlate their
activities in the Albany
Congress. War had thus broken out before fighting began in Europe in the Seven Years War.
The American conflict, the last and by far the most important of the series,
is usually called simply the French and Indian War. The British undertook to
capture the French forts in the West—not only Duquesne, but also Fort
Frontenac (see Kingston,
Ont., Canada), Fort
Niagara, and the posts at Ticonderoga and Crown Point. They also
set out to take Louisburg and the French cities on the St. Lawrence, Quebec
and Montreal. They at first failed in their attempts. The expedition led by
Edward Braddock
against Duquesne in 1755 was a costly fiasco, and the attempt by Admiral
Boscawen to blockade Canada and the first expeditions against Niagara and
Crown Point were fruitless.
After 1757, when the British ministry of the elder William Pitt was
reconstituted, Pitt was able to supervise the war in America. Affairs then
took a better turn for the British. Lord Amherst in 1758 took
Louisburg, where James Wolfe
distinguished himself. That same year Gen. John Forbes took Fort
Duquesne (which became Fort Pitt).
The French Louis Joseph de Montcalm, one of the
great commanders of his time, distinguished himself (1758) by repulsing the
attack of James Abercromby
on Ticonderoga. The next year that fort fell to Amherst. In the West, the hold
of Sir William Johnson
over the Iroquois and the activities of border troops under his general
command—most spectacular, perhaps, were the exploits of the rangers under
Robert Rogers—reduced
French holdings and influence.
The war became a fight for the St. Lawrence, with Montcalm pitted against
the brilliant Wolfe. The climax came in 1759 in the open battle on the Plains
of Abraham (see Abraham,
Plains of). Both Wolfe and Montcalm were killed, but Quebec fell to the
British. In 1760, Montreal also fell, and the war was over. The Treaty of
Paris in 1763 (see Paris,
Treaty of) ended French control of Canada, which went to Great Britain.
Bibliography
The classic works in English on the conflict are those of Francis Parkman. See also W.
Wood, The Passing of New France (1915); G. M. Wrong, The Conquest of
New France (1918); L. H. Gipson, The British Empire before the American
Revolution, Vol. IV–VIII (with individual titles, 1939–53); B.
Connell, The Savage Years (1959); E. P. Hamilton, The French and
Indian Wars (1962); H. Bird, Battle for a Continent (1965); G.
Fregault, Canada: The War of the Conquest (1955, tr. 1969); F.
Anderson, Crucible of War (2000).
From Columbia Encyclopedia online http://www.bartleby.com/65/
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