[books i've been reading]

The French & Indian War doesn’t stand on its own, but is the North American theater of the epic Seven Years War that all but tore the world apart at the seams, taking just under 1.5 million lives in its duration. Samuel Eliot Morison, awed at the Seven Years War’s global scope, remarked, “This should really have been called the First World War.” The Seven Years War would span the globe, comprising four different theaters under their own names: the Pomeranian War (fought in Sweden and Prussia), the Third Carnatic War (fought on the Indian subcontinent), the Third Silesia War (fought in Prussia and Austria), and the French and Indian War (fought in North America). Every major European power took up arms across four continents: North America, Africa, Asia, and Europe. Tensions between the European powers hadn’t been resolved at the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle terminating the last war, and the tensions only broiled. The eruption came in the Pennsylvanian backcountry due to the inexperience and ineptitude of a relatively-unknown Virginian provincial named George Washington.

Because the French had retained Fortress Louisbourg following the conclusion of the War of the Austrian Succession, Great Britain countered its presence by building a fortified town and navy base at Halifax in Nova Scotia. The French countered this move by building two new forts of their own at the mouth of the Bay of Fundy. Simultaneously, to the west beyond the Alleghenies, Virginian land speculators coveted the rich and fertile Ohio River Valley. The colony of Virginia claimed the land belonged to her; New France adamantly insisted the land belonged to them. The land, of course, was already taken by vast numbers of native Americans, and both the French and English wrestled for the benefits of trade with the indigenous peoples. As English traders flooded the Ohio River Valley, the French began erecting new forts in the interior, the biggest being Fort Duquesne at the Forks of the Ohio. The British interpreted this as a French attempt to strangle English trade and stifle British expansion beyond the Alleghenies. In 1754, the governor of Virginia, Robert Dinwiddie, sought to expel the French from the Forks of the Ohio. He sent a small detachment of colonial troops, led by a young George Washington, to force the French to abandon their pet project at Fort Duquesne. Washington blundered by ambushing and wiping out a small French patrol which, as it turns out, was actually a peace envoy en route to deliberate with Washington. Washington, realizing with horror his mistake, retreated with the main French force hot on his heels. He hastily constructed a wooden fort, dubbed Fort Necessity, to try and repel the French assault. The French, aided by their Indian allies, were too much for Washington’s small force, and he had no choice but to surrender, and he did so on July 4^th of 1754. In his capitulation he signed a French document in which he admitted to “assassinating” a French peace diplomat. At this time, such a declaration was a causus belli for war.

Tensions between the European powers had been in delicate limbo since the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, and Washington’s blunder in the dark forest of Pennsylvania served as the catalyst for the eruption of the world’s first true world war. The next year, 1755, the British sent troops and supplies across the Atlantic to seize the interior from the French. The British were successful in taking the forts at the head of the Bay of Fundy, and they deported the Acadian French still living in Nova Scotia, hardening the resolve of the sympathetic Canadians. British victory in the north was offset by disaster in the west: an expedition to destroy the French at Fort Duquesne, led by General Edward Braddock, was all but annihilated in an ambush orchestrated by the French and their Indian allies. Braddock lost his life, and Washington took command, executing a hasty but orderly retreat. The expedition had only come within ten miles of Fort Duquesne before being waylaid. Braddock’s defeat emboldened the Shawnee and Lenni Lenape, and these natives began attacking colonial settlements in Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania. The frontier rolled back to within 100 miles of Philadelphia as Indian savagery forced thousands to flee towards the coast to escape the tomahawk and keep their scalps. In 1756, the French captured the British fort on Lake Ontario, and they followed up that victory with another in 1757, seizing the British fort on Lake George.

Thus far Great Britain had been humiliated by the French, and a politician by the name of William Pitt swore he knew how to turn bitter defeat into sweet victory. The English people listened, and he focused on “America First” in the Seven Years’ War, redirecting the bulk of Great Britain’s efforts on ousting the French from North America. His program thrust Great Britain into massive debt, but he was able to turn the tide of war. In 1758, 45,000 British troops (half regulars and half colonial volunteers) set their teeth against 6800 French regulars and 2700 provincials, aided by their Indian allies. The French were even worse off than numbers tell, for the last year had been a bad one for crops, and they were on the brink of starvation; and as Pitt turned Great Britain’s focus onto North America, France expelled her energies on the war in Europe and in protecting her islands in the Caribbean. New France was virtually left on her own, and the war shifted as the spring of 1758 blossomed.

The French at Fort Duquesne were abandoned by their Indian allies. Unable to withstand the massive onslaught of British troops marching their way, the French blew up the fort and fled north. The British rebuilt the fort and renamed it Fort Pitt after William Pitt. That same year the British captured Louisbourg, opening the St. Lawrence for the capture of Quebec in 1759. With Quebec and Louisbourg in the sack, the British marched on Montreal in 1760, and overwhelmed by enemy forces, the Governor-General of New France had no choice but to surrender. The Seven Years War lasted for another three years, but the war in North America had all but reached an end (Indian uprisings following the surrender of their French allies waged on, but the colonists rejoiced knowing France’s grip on the continent had been expelled, and they were confident that nothing but good years lay ahead of them as English subjects). They were right… for a time.

But the war was expensive.

Someone had to pay for it.

And that meant taxes.