French and Indian Wars
1744-1766

Historical and Geographic Setting

by Bill Protz

During the Eighteenth Century, France and Great Britain continued colonial development of the North American continent for economic purposes.

Scouts of the French Army in North America emerge from the woods. Miniatures are 30mm Willies from the collection of Bill Protz. Photo by Bill Kojis.

According to Francis Parkman, "The French claimed all America, from the Alleghanies to the Rocky Mountains, and from Mexico and Florida to the North Pole, except only the ill-defined possessions of the English on the borders of Hudson Bay; and to these vast regions, with adjacent islands, they gave the general name of New France. They controlled the highways of the continent, for they held its two great rivers. First, they had seized the St. Lawrence, and then planted themselves at the mouth of the Mississippi. Canada at the North, and Louisiana at the south, were the keys of a boundless interior, rich with incalculable possibilities. The English colonies, ranged along, the Atlantic coast, had no royal road to the great inland, and were, in a manner, shut between the mountains and the sea."

Large though the geographical claim of France was, her population on the North American continent numbered only some 80,000. Two thirds lived adjacent to the St. Lawrence while the remainder mostly inhabited Louisiana. The British American population by contrast numbered about 1,500,000 and was advantageously concentrated in the smaller area of the Atlantic seaboard colonies. The respective populations were separated, however, by a virtually impenetrable wilderness of forest, mountains and streams essentially inhabited by native American Indians. Why, therefore, was there bloodshed? The answer is found in the realm of economics.

The enormous regions between French and British settlements were immeasurably rich in two commodities. One was fur and the other was land. As fur traders moved within the continental interior a lucrative resource in fur trading was developed. Frenchmen, Englishmen, and Redmen interacted with each other in the commercial game of competition. Each strove for the best markets, hunting areas, privileges, gifts and greatest profits. Mischief was not unheard of in these transactions.

Following the hunters and traders came farmers seeking new land and opportunities. To the French the English were about to swarm into French claimed land in the Ohio and there was little that could be done about it except the erection of chains of forts to bar British expansion. The British, particularly the colony of Virginia, counter-claimed parts of the Ohio and were, in fact, moving into French claimed areas. So in 1754 the French began to erect forts in the Ohio to stem the British tide. One such post was Fort Duquesne, later known as Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The Indians naturally resisted both sides.

Given the historical enmity between France and Great Britain in the light of competition for wealth, the stage was set for warfare. One may even contend that the frontiers of New France and British America were rarely free of the threat of warfare so long as the Redmen continued their legitimate defiance of white encroachment. However, the French were highly successful in creating friendships with the Indian. The British were not. The French used this to offset their numerical disadvantage as they loosed the Redmen occasionally upon the British to roll back the frontier in waves of terror dating back to the previous century.

As we think of warfare of other times and in other places, we imagine an army of one side marching off to engage the army of another. Each would meet and overcome natural barriers that could at times be very difficult. However, in North America, natural barriers were of a higher magnitude of difficulty. This was because the main natural feature of North America was its forest. It was a universe so vast that it could successfully be penetrated only by rivers and lakes or by the farmer's axe as generations of his offspring worked the land. By the mid 18th Century only the coastal regions and river routes were primarily populated. Settlement of the interior by folk other than robust frontiersmen would take more time. Consider the prose of Victor Suthren's A KINGS RANSOM as he describes the forest.

"The European experience of wilderness rarely prepared men for the nature of the primeval forests they found when they came upon the dark and haunted shores of America. For there was no equivalent to the endless stretching carpet of gigantic trees that went on without halt to the horizon, day after day, wherever men walked And the forest made the discoverer's world of North America one of shadow, darkness and shadow so profound and filled with real and imagined menace that the settlers struggled with grim strength to gain sunlight. The first tools their hands took up, eyes agleam with purpose, were the axes, to hack away at the towering barrier that enclosedthem, kept them locked in the shadow of the forest floor without break save in the winding silver rivers or sundappled lakes. They cursed and swore and hated the forest and the black nightmare shadows of its depths, and they were faced by it in the earlier days with three choices: to destroy the forest, and plant anew the orderedparkland of Europe, to admit defeat, and leave the leafy giants to their domain; or to let themselves be drawn within it and meld with its rhythms and its purposes, as the brown men they alternately fought and befriended had done for thousands of years."

Through this forest and up its rivers and lakes the British respectively hacked and sailed their way toward French forts and population centers. They were harassed by their foe using the same routes. The French occasionally won dynamic victories until collapse finally came in 1760 as British and Americans brought overwhelming numbers seconded by the advantage of seapower to bear.

Militarily we can divide North America into three theaters.

1. The St. Lawrence River

This major route was used by the British to stab at the sentinel and twin hearts of New France, Fort Louisbourg, Quebec and Montreal. Guarding the Atlantic approaches to this river road was Louisbourg on Cape Breton Island in the French colony of Isle Royale. This fortress had to be taken first before entering the St. Lawrence. Otherwise, it would remain a thorn in the rear, perhaps as a base of operations for the French Navy.

2. The Champlain Valley

The only good route on a north-south axis connecting the St. Lawrence River with what we now call eastern New York State and the Hudson River Valley route to New York City was the Champlain Valley. By 1756 a traveler from New York City could take a boat north up the Hudson past Albany disembarking at Fort Edward. A portage of 15 miles further north would lead to the southern flank of Lake George, a tributary of which spills into Lake Champlain. At the northern terminus of Lake Champlain the Richelieu River continues northward emptying into the St. Lawrence near Montreal. This route was of major importance to both sides from 1744 to 1760.

A neighboring route leading to the westward from Albany was known as The Mohawk Valley. Had our traveler of the preceding paragraph decided to journey west from Albany, he would have done so via the Mohawks' River. At its western extremity he would have portaged across the Oneida Carry to a lake of the same name. After paddling its length, his journey would continue on the Oswego River to a post of that name on Lake Ontario. From there he could sail northeastwards to the St. Lawrence River of westward to the Niagara River, the portal into the other Great Lakes then controlled by France.

3. The Frontier

This appellation is mine and consists of what we now call Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Ohio. The French gained access into this region by entering Lake Erie by the Niagara River. A French traveler would sail to the southern shore of Lake Erie and disembark for the Ohio River. This river road was of primary importance to the French as they launched raids on the western frontiers of the British colonies such as those contemplated from Fort Duquesne. However, the Ohio was also the link with the Mississippi River and French Illinois and Louisiana.

More French and Indian Wars: 1744-1766

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