Why Did Britain Strengthen Its Control Over The American Colonies After The French And Indian War?

Too known as the Seven Years' War, this New World disharmonize marked another chapter in the long purple struggle between Britain and France. When France's expansion into the Ohio River valley brought repeated conflict with the claims of the British colonies, a series of battles led to the official British declaration of war in 1756. Boosted past the financing of future Prime Minister William Pitt, the British turned the tide with victories at Louisbourg, Fort Frontenac and the French-Canadian stronghold of Quebec. At the 1763 peace briefing, the British received the territories of Canada from France and Florida from Spain, opening the Mississippi Valley to westward expansion.

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The French and Indian War: A Summary

The Seven Years' State of war (chosen the French and Indian War in the colonies) lasted from 1756 to 1763, forming a chapter in the majestic struggle between Britain and France called the Second Hundred Years' State of war.

In the early 1750s, France's expansion into the Ohio River valley repeatedly brought information technology into conflict with the claims of the British colonies, especially Virginia. In 1754, the French built Fort Duquesne where the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers joined to form the Ohio River (in today's Pittsburgh), making it a strategically important stronghold that the British repeatedly attacked.

During 1754 and 1755, the French won a cord of victories, defeating in quick succession the young George Washington, Gen. Edward Braddock and Braddock's successor, Governor William Shirley of Massachusetts.

In 1755, Governor Shirley, fearing that the French settlers in Nova Scotia (Acadia) would side with France in whatsoever military confrontation, expelled hundreds of them to other British colonies; many of the exiles suffered cruelly. Throughout this period, the British military effort was hampered by lack of involvement at home, rivalries among the American colonies and France'southward greater success in winning the support of the Indians.

In 1756 the British formally declared war (marking the official kickoff of the Seven Years' State of war), but their new commander in America, Lord Loudoun, faced the aforementioned problems as his predecessors and met with little success confronting the French and their Indian allies.

The tide turned in 1757 considering William Pitt, the new British leader, saw the colonial conflicts as the central to building a vast British empire. Borrowing heavily to finance the war, he paid Prussia to fight in Europe and reimbursed the colonies for raising troops in North America.

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British Victory in Canada

In July 1758, the British won their beginning swell victory at Louisbourg, near the oral fissure of the St. Lawrence River. A month later, they took Fort Frontenac at the western end of the river.

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In November 1758, General John Forbes captured Fort Duquesne for the British afterwards the French destroyed and abased it, and Fort Pitt—named after William Pitt—was congenital on the site, giving the British a fundamental stronghold.

The British then closed in on Quebec, where Gen. James Wolfe won a spectacular victory in the Boxing of Quebec on the Plains of Abraham in September of 1759 (though both he and the French commander, the Marquis de Montcalm, were fatally wounded).

With the fall of Montreal in September 1760, the French lost their concluding foothold in Canada. Soon, Spain joined France against England, and for the rest of the war Britain full-bodied on seizing French and Spanish territories in other parts of the earth.

The Treaty of Paris Ends the War

The French and Indian War concluded with the signing of the Treaty of Paris in February 1763. The British received Canada from France and Florida from Espana, but permitted France to keep its West Indian sugar islands and gave Louisiana to Kingdom of spain. The arrangement strengthened the American colonies significantly by removing their European rivals to the north and southward and opening the Mississippi Valley to west expansion.

Bear upon of the Seven Years' War on the American Revolution

The British crown borrowed heavily from British and Dutch bankers to bankroll the state of war, doubling British national debt. King George 2 argued that since the French and Indian War benefited the colonists by securing their borders, they should contribute to paying downward the war debt.

To defend his newly won territory from future attacks, King George Two also decided to install permanent British army units in the Americas, which required additional sources of revenue.

In 1765, parliament passed the Postage Human action to help pay downwardly the war debt and finance the British ground forces'southward presence in the Americas. Information technology was the first internal tax directly levied on American colonists by parliament and was met with stiff resistance.

It was followed by the unpopular Townshend Acts and Tea Human activity, which further incensed colonists who believed there should be no taxation without representation. Britain's increasingly militaristic response to colonial unrest would ultimately lead to the American Revolution.

Fifteen years after the Treaty of Paris, French bitterness over the loss of nigh of their colonial empire contributed to their intervention on the side of the colonists in the Revolutionary War.

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