2.1 The American Revolution and Constitution

Perhaps no single event led to the American Revolution more clearly than the French and Indian War of 1754 – 1763. By the mid-18th century, the British mainland colonies were surrounded by hostile neighbors. Native Americans were all around them; the Spanish were to the south in Florida; the French controlled the fur trade on the interior. The French and Indian War was just the last of four major conflicts that had occupied European countries – King William’s War (aka the War of the League of Augsburg, 1689 – 1697); Queen Anne’s War (aka the War of Spanish Succession, 1702 -1713); and King George’s War (aka War of Austrian Succession, 1739 – 1748). In each of the previous wars, the bloodshed had begun in Europe and conflict had spread to the New World where “American militiamen fought for the British against French Catholics and their Indian allies.”¹ This changed with the French and Indian War.

During the earlier conflicts, the Iroquois Confederacy, one of the largest Eastern American Indian groups, maintained a policy of neutrality and acted as middlemen between the European colonists and countries. This allowed them to consolidate their control over the entire American interior north of Virginia and south of the Great Lakes. Trouble began though in the 1740s when the Iroquois, claiming to speak for the Delawares and Shawnees, negotiated away large tracts of tribal land to the English. As a result of these negotiations, British colonists began moving into Ohio Country, an area already claimed by the French as well.

In response to the French threat, delegates from seven northern and middle colonies gathered at Albany, New York in June of 1754. The Albany Congress had two primary goals – to persuade the Iroquois to abandon neutrality and ally with the British, and to coordinate defense of the English colonies against the French. The Congress failed to achieve its first goal, but they did adopt a plan for unification, known as the Albany Plan of Union which would have established an elected intercolonial legislature with the power to tax. The colonial governments rejected the Plan of Union because they feared loss of their own power; however, this is significant because it was the first time that colonists declared their unification as Americans. Before the Albany Congress assembled, printer Benjamin Franklin, a representative at the Congress had published a very famous cartoon showing the separate colonies as part of a disjointed snake above the slogan “Join, or Die.” This implied the strong opinion that the colonies must join together or fall separately. While the Albany Congress deliberated, war began in the Ohio Country.

In 1754, a group of British militiamen and Native American allies led by a young George Washington, killed a French diplomat. This incident led to the beginning of the war. In North America, the French achieved victory after victory. The conflict spread to Europe in 1756, “when British-allied Frederick II of Prussia invaded the neutral state of Saxony. As a result of this invasion, a massive coalition of France, Russia, Austria, Russia, and Sweden attacked Prussia and the few German states allied with Prussia.”² As with the war in America, initially the British-backed Prussians lost battle after battle on land, but the British were dominant at sea. Because they were able to maintain control of the oceans, the British were able to send regular soldiers as reinforcements in North America. From 1758 on, the British saw victory after victory over their enemies. New France fell in 1760, but the war would continue in Europe as the Spanish entered the war. The war would finally conclude in Europe in 1763 with the signing of the Treaty of Paris and Treaty of Hubertusburg. In these treaties, the French lost most of its North American holdings to the British. Spain, as a defeated ally of France, ceded Florida to the British. In compensation for their losses and as a reward for their allegiance, France gave Spain Louisiana. France was now temporarily shut out of the North American continent, and only maintained a few small possessions in the Caribbean.

The Mother Country had effectively protected its colonies from French and American Indian intrusion. For American Indian peoples, they experienced more loss of life and land. The colonists were more unified than ever across colonial lines. Colonial men formed a strong opinion of themselves in war and because of missteps made by regular British troops in North America when fighting in the countryside, they had a poor view of the British. The catalyst for later imperial conflict was the huge war debt acquired due to the Seven Years’ War.

Legacy of the French and Indian War

As a result of the French and Indian War, Native Americans realized they could no longer pit one European country against another. The war also opened up the floodgates for expansion of the British colonies to the west. Settlers began to move into the Ohio region rapidly. This led to Native American resistance such as Pontiac’s Rebellion.³ These rebellions indicated to British authorities that the vast territory they had acquired in North America was going to be difficult to govern. As a result, British Parliament issued the Proclamation of 1763. The Proclamation Line was set marking the Appalachian Mountains as the boundary between the British colonies and American Indian country. Instead of preventing conflict between colonists and Native American peoples, the Proclamation of 1763 angered colonists many of whom envisioned the land to the west as a profit making endeavor.

Notes

1. Joseph Locke and Ben Wright, eds., “Chapter 4,” The American Yawp: A Massively Collaborative Open US History Textbook (Redwood City, CA: Stanford University Press, 2018), V. Seven Years’ War, at http://www.americanyawp.com/text/04-colonial-society/
2. Locke, “Chapter 4,” V. Seven Years’ War.
3. For more information, see Locke, “Chapter 4,” VI. Pontiac’s Rebellion.