Chapter 06 - The Duel for North America

Huguenots
The Huguenots were a groups of French Protestants that lived from about 1560 to 1629. Protestantism was introduced into France between 1520 and 1523, and the principles were accepted by many members of the nobility, the intellectual classes, and the middle class. At first the new religious group was royally protected, but toward the end of the reign of King Francis I they were persecuted. Nevertheless, they continued to grow.

French and Indian War
Was a war fought by French and English on American soil over control of the Ohio River Valley-- English defeated French in1763. Historical Significance: established England as number one world power and began to gradually change attitudes of the colonists toward England for the worse.

Albany Congress
A conference in the United States Colonial history form June 19 through July 11, 1754 in Albany New York. It advocated a union of the British colonies for their security and defense against French Held by the British Board of Trade to help cement the loyalty of the Iroquois League. After receiving presents, provisions and promises of Redress of grievances. 150 representatives if tribes withdrew without committing themselves to the British cause.

Proclamation of 1763
The Proclamation of 1763 was an English law enacted after gaining territory from the French at the end of the French and Indian War. It forbade the colonists from settling beyond the Appalachian Mountains. The Colonists were no longer proud to be British citizens after the enactment. The Proclamation of 1763 caused the first major revolt against the British.

William Pitt
William Pitt was a British leader from 1757-1758. He was a leader in the London government, and earned himself the name, "Organizer of Victory". He led and won a war against Quebec. Pittsburgh was named after him.

Robert de La Salle
Robert de La Salle was responsible for naming Louisiana. He was the first European to float down the Mississippi river to the tip from Canada and upon seeing the beautiful river valley named Louisiana after his king Louis XIV in 1682.

James Wolfe
Wolfe was the British general whose success in the Battle of Quebec won Canada for the British Empire. Even though the battle was only fifteen minutes, Wolfe was killed in the line of duty. This was a decisive battle in the French and Indian War.

Edward Braddock
Edward Braddock was a British commander during the French and Indian War. He attempted to capture Fort Duquesne in 1755. He was defeated by the French and the Indians. At this battle, Braddock was mortally wounded.

Pontiac
Indian Chief; led post war flare-up in the Ohio River Valley and Great Lakes Region in 1763; his actions led to the Proclamation of 1763; the Proclamation angered the colonists.

Samuel de Champlain
Samuel de Champlain was a French explorer who sailed to the West Indies, Mexico, and Panama. He wrote many books telling of his trips to Mexico City and Niagara Falls. His greatest accomplishment was his exploration of the St. Lawrence River and his latter settlement of Quebec.

I. France Finds a Foothold in Canada

  1. Like England and Holland, France was a late comer in the colony race. It was convulsed in the 1500s by foreign wars and domestic strife.
  2. In 1518 the Edict of Nantes was issued. It allowed limited toleration to the French Huguenots (Protestants).
  3. When King Louis XIV became king he started having interest in over sea colonies.
  4. 1608- France established Quebec, overlooking St. Lawrence.
  5. Samuel de Champlain, soldier and explorer is the “Father of New France”
  6. He had friendly relations with neighboring Huron Indians and helped defeat Iroquois.
  7. The Iroquois hampered French efforts.
  8. Unlike English colonist, French didn’t come by hordes, peasants were too poor and Huguenots weren’t allowed to leave.

II. New France Fans Out

  1. New France’s (Canada) one valuable resource was the beaver.
  2. Beaver hunters: Coureurs de Bois and gave lots of names to land.
    Ex: Place-names were left behind like Baton Rouge (red stick), Terre Haute (high land), Des Moines (the monks), and Grand Teton (big breast).
  3. French voyageurs recruited Indians to hunt beaver. They succumbed to disease and alcohol. The Beaver was heavily extinguished.
  4. French missionaries tried to convert Indians. French tried to thwart English from expanding which lead to the finding of Detroit
  5. Louisiana was founded in 1682 by Robert de la Salle to stop Spanish expansion. They came back three years later, landed in Texas and was killed by his crew.
  6. Detroit (the “City of Straits”) was founded in 1701 by Antoine Cadillac to help fend off the English from moving into the Ohio Valley.
  7. Illinois was very fertile, lots of ports and trading posts established.

III. The Clash of Empires

England got into some mini-wars in the 1700s with various other nations. Bottom line: it was England vs. France/Spain; England won.

  1. King William’s War and Queen Anne’s War
  2. The French coureurs de bois and the British colonists. Both sides recruited Indian allies.
  3. Both sides agreed that America wasn't worth risking regular troops.
  4. Pro-France Indians ransacked Schenectady, New York, and Deerfield, Mass.
  5. The British failed to take Quebec and Montreal, but temporarily seized Port Royal.
  6. The English won the war and a peace treaty was signed at Utrecht (1713)
  7. It gave the British Acadia (Nova Scotia), Newfoundland, and Hudson Bay.
  8. It pinned the French down to the settlements along St. Lawrence River.
  9. It gave the British trading rights with Spanish Florida.
  1. The War of Jenkins’s Ear
  2. A Spanish commander cut off an English Captain Robert Jenkins' ear.
  3. The war was small, played out in the Caribbean, and the buffer colony of Georgia.
  4. It merged with the larger War of Austrian Succession and became known as King George's War.
  5. The British invaded Ft. Louisbourg (guarding entrance to New France) and took it.
  6. The peace treaty gave Louisbourg back to the French. The English were outraged.

IV. George Washington Inaugurates War with France

  1. The Ohio valley became a battleground among the Spanish, British and French
  2. Lush, fertile and very good land.
  3. 1754 governor of Virginia sent 21 year old George Washington to the Ohio country as a lieutenant colonel in command of about one hundred and fifty minute men.
  4. Encountering some French in the foment forty miles from Fort Duquesne troops fired and killed French leader.
  5. Later French returned and surrounded Washington’s crude Fort necessity and fought “Indian Style” ten hours and made him surrender.
  6. He was permitted to march away with full war honors.
  7. Back in Nova Scotia, the British evicted the French Acadians. They migrated as far south as New Orleans and became known as the "Cajuns."

V. Global war and colonial disunity

  1. The fourth of these wars between Empires started in America unlike the first three.
  2. The French and Indian war (a.k.a. seven years’ war) began with Washington’s battle with the French.
  3. It was England and Prussia vs. France, Spain, Austria and Russia.
  4. In Germany (Prussia) Fredrick the Great won his title of “Great” by repelling French, Austrian and Russian armies even though he was badly outnumbered three to one.
  5. Many Americans sought for the American colonies to unite, for strength lay in numbers.
  6. In 1754 seven of the thirteen colonies met for an inter-colonial congress held in Albany, New York
  7. Albany Congress
  8. A month before congress, Ben Franklin published famous “Join or die” cartoon, featuring a snake in pieces representing the colonists.
  9. Franklin helped unite the colonists in Albany, but failed because states and England didn’t like it.
  10. It was a step toward unity.

VI. Braddock’s: Blundering and its Aftermath

  1. In the beginning, the British sent haughty sixty year old General Edward Braddock to lead a bunch of inexperienced soldiers with slow, heavy artillery. In a battle with the French, the British were ambushed routed by French using “Indian tactics”.
  2. In this battle, Washington reportedly had two horsed shot under him and four bullets through his coat but never through him.
  3. Afterwards, the frontier from Pennsylvania to North Carolina felt the Indian wrath, as scalping occurred everywhere.
  4. A rash of Indian uprisings spread across America from frontier Pennsylvania to North Carolina. Rewards were offered to whites for Indian scalps.
  5. As the British tried to attack a bunch of strategic wilderness posts, defeat after defeat piled up.

VII. Pitt’s Palms of Victory

  1. In this hour of British trouble; William Pitt, the “Great Commoner”, took the lead.
  2. 1757- he became the foremost leader in the London government and later earned the title “Organizer of Victory”.
  3. Changes Pitt made-
  4. He took the focus off of the French West Indies (this sapped British resources).
  5. He put focus on Quebec and Montreal (they controlled supply routes into New France).
  6. He replaced old, cautious officers with young, daring officers.
  7. He also replaced old, cautious officers with younger, daring ones.
  1. Pitt's plan worked.
  2. Ft. Louisbourg fell in 1758. This was like cutting the root and letting the vine wither because all French supplies funneled past Louisbourg.
  3. James Wolfe, 32 years old, scored a major victory at the Battle of Quebec.
  4. Quebec was considered impenetrable with its bluffs. But, Wolfe's men snuck up the cliffs, then surprised and defeated the French on the Plains of Abraham. Both Wolfe and his French counterpart Marquis de Montcalm were killed in the battle.
  5. The Battle of Quebec was a red letter event in British and American history.
  6. After Montreal fell to the British in 1760, it was all but over.
  1. 1759 Battle of Quebec ranks as one of the most significant engagements in British and American history. 1760 is the last last time French flags flew on American soil.
  2. Ended by The peace treaty of Paris in 1763.
  3. France was totally kicked out of North America meant British can go to Canada and land to Mississippi River.
  4. French allowed to keep small valuable sugar islands in West Indies and fishing stations
  5. France’s Final blow was they had to give Louisiana to Spain to compensate for Spain’s losses in the war.
  6. Great Britain took its place as leading naval power in the world and a great power in North America.

VIII. Restless Colonies

  1. The colonists having experienced war 1st hand and come out victors, were very confident.
  2. The myth of British invincibility had been shattered.
  3. Ominously, friction developed between the British officers and the colonial “boors”
  4. I.e., the British refused to recognize any American officers above captain rank.
  5. The hardworking Americans believed that they were equal to the red coats which caused trouble.
  6. Brits were concerned with American secret trade with enemy during war. British forbid export of all supplies from New England and middle colonies.
    Many Americans refused to fight French until Pitt offered to reimburse them.
  7. During French and Indian war, even though Americans were from different colonies, they found they had a lot in common and the barriers began to break between them.

IX. War’s Fateful Aftermath

  1. Now that the French had been beaten, the colonists could now roam freely, and were less dependent upon Great Britain.
  2. The French consoled themselves with the idea that maybe the Brits would lose their empire too. Spain- lost part of Florida
  3. The Indians recognized their weakened position
  1. Ottawa Chief Pontiac led a violent uprising in the Ohio Valley
  2. He had some success initially, but he British were ruthless and destroyed his people. One infamous tactic was to give the Indians blankets laced with smallpox.
  3. This opened the trans-Appalachians to the English. Daniel Boone trekked across the mountains and led settlers to Tennessee and Kentucky
  4. Now, land hungry Americans would now settle west of Appalachians, but in 1763 Parliament issued its Proclamation of 1763, which prohibits settlement beyond Appalachians.
  5. Document supposed to work out Indians’ problems to draw boundary but colonists saw it as more oppression from far away country.
  6. “Didn’t we just fight a war to win that land?”
    1765- an estimated 1000 wagons rolled through the town of Salisbury North Carolina. On their way up west in defiance of Proclamation .
  7. British- Proud and haughty didn’t want to accept blatant disobedience from lowly Americans. Revolutionary war stage was set.
  1. Makers of America: The French
  2. King Louis XIV dreamed of a French Empire in North America. Losses in 1713 and especially in 1763 ended that dream.
  3. The Acadians were some of the first French to be rooted out of their homes.
  4. These folks were from Acadia, the place that was changed to Nova Scotia.
  5. The British had demanded allegiance to Britain, or leave. The Acadians left.
  6. The scattered but largely went down to the bayous around New Orleans. They brought/developed a unique culture that came to be called the "Cajuns"…
  7. They brought Roman Catholicism with them.
  8. They raised sugar cane and sweet potatoes.
  9. They spoke a French dialect.
  10. They began to intermarry with the Spanish, French, and Germans.
  11. The Cajun culture is a mix of a lot of cultures thrown together in a mixing pot and stirred together.
  12. The Cajuns were very isolated until the 1930s. Gov. Huey Long started building bridges that linked up the bayous and the people.
  13. After the French and Indian War (1763) Quebec citizens began emigrating to New England. Their motivation was lack of food in Quebec.
  14. These folks hoped to return to Canada.
  15. They kept their religion (Catholicism) and their language (French).
  16. Even still, English is spoken today by the Cajuns and French-Canadians in America.
  17. Quebec remains today as the strongest testament of France in North America.
  18. The French language is on road signs, in classrooms, courts, and markets.