French and Indian War

World History

(noun)

A 1754–1763 conflict that comprised the North American theater of the worldwide Seven Years' War of 1756-1763. The war pitted the colonies of British America against those of New France, with both sides supported by military units from their parent countries of Great Britain and France as well as by American Indian allies.

Related Terms

(noun)

A 1754–1763 war that comprised the North American theater of the worldwide Seven Years' War of 1756-1763. The war pitted the colonies of British America against those of New France, with both sides supported by military units from their parent countries of Great Britain and France as well as by American Indian allies.

Related Terms

U.S. History

(noun)

The North American theater (1754–1763) of the Seven Years' War, fought primarily between the colonies of British America and New France, with both sides supported by military units from their parent countries of Great Britain and France.

Related Terms

Examples of French and Indian War in the following topics:

  • The Seven Years' War: 1754-1763

    • The French and Indian War (1754-1763) was the North American chapter of the Seven Years' War.
    • The French and Indian War (1754–1763) was the North American chapter of the Seven Years' War.
    • The French and Indian War was the last of four major colonial wars between the British, the French, and their Native American allies.
    • Unlike the previous three wars, the French and Indian War began on North American soil and then spread to Europe, where Britain and France continued fighting.
    • Schematic map of the French and Indian War showing territorial possessions and troop movement.

  • The French and Indian War

    • The French and Indian War was fought between the colonies of Great Britain and New France, supported by American Indian allies on both sides.
    • In some countries, the war is alternatively named after combats in the respective theatres: the French and Indian War (North America, 1754–63), Pomeranian War (Sweden and Prussia, 1757–62), Third Carnatic War (Indian subcontinent, 1757–63), and Third Silesian War (Prussia and Austria, 1756–63).
    • The French and Indian War (1754–1763) is the name for the North American theatre of the Seven Years' War.
    • This is a scene from the French and Indian War (1754–1763), depicting the alliance of French and American Indian forces.
    • Describe the political and economic impact of the French and Indian War on the colonies

  • The Western Lands

    • Following the French and Indian War, the colonial desire to expand westward was met with resistance from American Indians.
    • The French and Indian Wars of the 1760s resulted in a complete victory for the British, who took possession of the lands west to the Mississippi River, which had formerly been claimed by the French but were largely inhabited by American Indian tribes.
    • In December of 1763, following the end of the French and Indian War and the signing of the proclamation, a vigilante group made up of Scots-Irish frontiersmen known as the Paxton Boys attacked the local Conestoga, a Susquehannock tribe who lived on land negotiated by William Penn and their ancestors in the 1690s.
    • In the aftermath of the French and Indian War, the frontier of Pennsylvania remained unsettled.
    • This map shows the status of the American colonies in 1763, after the end of the French and Indian War.

  • French-British Rivalry in the Ohio Country

    • Colonial settlement in the Ohio Country became a primary cause of the French and Indian War.
    • The issue of settlement in the region is considered to have been a primary cause of the French and Indian War and a contributing factor to the American Revolutionary War.
    • The rivalry between the two European nations, the Iroquois, and the Ohio natives for control of the region played an important part of the French and Indian War in the 1750s.
    • The war ended with the defeat of the French and their allies.
    • This picture depicts the Battle of Jumonville Glen, which is considered by historians to be the opening battle of the French and Indian War in North America and the start of hostilities in the Ohio valley.

  • European Wars in the Colonies

    • The British and the Dutch vied over the colony of New Netherland, the British and the Spanish fought the War of Jenkins' Ear, and the British and the French fought in a series of wars that concluded in 1763 with the French and Indian War.
    • Britain and France fought four wars that became known as the French and Indian Wars—followed in 1778 with another war when France joined the Americans in the American Revolution.
    • The Iroquois suffered heavily in King William's War and were brought, along with other western American Indians, into the French trading network.
    • Thomas Nairne, the Province of Carolina's Indian agent, planned an expedition of British soldiers and their American Indian allies to destroy the French settlement at Mobile and the Spanish settlement at Pensacola.
    • The final imperial war, the French and Indian War (1754–1763), known as the Seven Years’ War in Europe, proved to be the decisive contest between Britain and France in America.

  • Empires in Conflict

    • The British and the Dutch vied over the colony of New Netherland, the British and the Spanish fought the War of Jenkins' Ear, and the British and the French fought in a series of wars that concluded in 1763 with the French and Indian War.
    • The most important conflicts were Queen Anne's War, in which the British won French Acadia (Nova Scotia), and the final French and Indian War (1754–1763), when France lost all of Canada.
    • King William's War (1689–97), also known as the Nine Years War and the War of the League of Augsburg, was a phase of the larger Anglo-French conflict for colonial domination throughout the world.
    • Thomas Nairne, the Province of Carolina's Indian agent, planned an expedition of British soldiers and their Indian allies to destroy the French settlement at Mobile and the Spanish settlement at Pensacola.
    • In 1704 French and Indian forces had attacked a number of villages, one of which was the population center of Deerfield, Massachusetts.

  • Pontiac's Uprising

    • British expansion into American Indian land after the French and Indian War led to resistance in the form of Pontiac's Rebellion in 1763.
    • After the Seven Years' War, British troops proceeded to occupy the various forts in the Ohio Country and Great Lakes region that had been previously garrisoned by the French.
    • While the French had long cultivated alliances among certain of the American Indian tribes, the British post-war approach was to subordinate the tribes, and tensions quickly rose between the American Indians and the British.
    • Once a tradition with the French, gift giving was a symbol of peaceful relations, and the prohibition of such exchanges was interpreted by many American Indians as an insult.
    • Although the conflict divided tribes and villages, the war also saw the first extensive multi-tribal resistance to European colonization in North America and was the first war between Europeans and American Indians that did not end in complete defeat for the American Indians.

  • New France and Louisiana

    • French traders in America quickly realized the economic benefits of working with American Indians to exploit fur and timber exports.
    • Thus, the French found themselves escalating native wars and supporting the Algonquian against the Iroquois, who received weapons from their Dutch trading partners.
    • In these wars, fighting between rival American Indian peoples spread throughout the Great Lakes region.
    • Pierre and Miquelon, to Great Britain and Spain in the Treaty of Paris in 1863, which ended the Seven Years War (also known as the French and Indian War).
    • This map illustrates the British and Spanish territorial gains following the Treaty of Paris that ended the French and Indian War.

  • The War and Its Consequences

    • The Seven Years' War changed relations between the European powers, their colonies and colonists, and the American Indians in North America.
    • Most of the North American fighting of the French and Indian War (the North American theatre of the Seven Years' War) ended on September 8, 1760, when the Marquis de Vaudreuil surrendered Montreal—and effectively all of Canada—to the British.
    • Early in the war in 1755, the British had expelled French settlers from Acadia, some of whom eventually fled to Louisiana.
    • The war changed economic, political, governmental, and social relations between Britain, France, and Spain; their colonies and colonists; and the American Indians that inhabited the territories they claimed.
    • For France, the military defeat and the financial burden of the Seven Years' War weakened the monarchy and eventually contributed to the advent of the French Revolution in 1789.

  • The Northwest Territory

    • The Northwest Indian War (1785–1795) led to further expansion of the United States into American Indian territory.
    • The Western Confederacy, an alliance among the American Indian nations dating back to the French colonial era, was renewed during the American Revolutionary War.
    • The Northwest Indian War, or Little Turtle's War, resulted from conflict between the United States and the Western Confederacy over occupation of the Northwest Territory.
    • Following the battle, the Western Confederacy and the United States signed the Treaty of Greenville on August 3, 1795, to end the Northwest Indian War.
    • Although the Northwest Indian War, known in the U.S.