SCHOOL OF FREEDOM 104C THE FRENCH AND INDAIN WAR

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The English claim to land in the American colonies when the first settlers arrived in 1606 in Jamestown, Virginia was based on explorations of John Cabot[1] in 1497 and 1498 from Newfoundland to the Carolinas. Cabot was an Italian explorer who was commissioned to find a western route to Asia by King Henry VII.



Claims by France for many of those same lands were based on French explorer Jacques Cartier[2] who, with his crew, spent the winter of 1535 at the site of present-day Quebec City. Cartier was the first European to sail down the St. Lawrence River and discover the Great Lakes region, which was close to the Iroquois village of Stadacona.[3]



In 1570, possibly because of contacts the Indians had with explorers, the Iroquois Confederation[4] was formed among the Iroquois, Mohawk, Seneca, Onadaga and Oneida people. An Iroquois Chief, Dekanawidah, wrote a Constitution that stated, in part:



"The soil of the earth from one end of the land to the other is the property of the people who inhabit it. By birthright the Ongwehonweh (Original beings) are the owners of the soil, which they own and occupy and none other may hold it. The same law has been held from the oldest times. The Great Creator has made us of the one blood and of the same soil he made us and as only different tongues constitute different nations he established different hunting grounds and territories and made boundary lines between them."



By 1606, when the Virginia Charter[5] was given to the Virginia Company of London by King James of Britain, the English claimed all the lands west of their settlements along the Atlantic Ocean, and the French claimed the lands along the rivers and streams from their settlements and forts. The first settlers arrived at Jamestown,[6] Virginia May 14, 1607, led by Captain John Smith. In 1620 one hundred people arrived on the Mayflower at Cape Cod. The men wrote and signed the Mayflower Compact[7]which described their purpose in their journey and became the foundation document for the Constitution 180 years later:



"Having undertaken, for the glory of God, and advancement of the Christian faith, and honor of our King and Country, a voyage to plant the first colony in the northern parts of Virginia, do by these presents solemnly and mutually, in the presence of God, and one of another, covenant and combine our selves together into a civil body politic, for our better ordering and preservation and furtherance of the ends aforesaid; and by virtue hereof to enact, constitute, and frame such just and equal laws, ordinances, acts, constitutions and offices, from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the general good of the Colony, unto which we promise all due submission and obedience"



The Indians and the English settlers seemed to agree that those who lived on this land did so because they had been blessed by their Creator.



In 1608, France's Samuel de Champlain[8] founded the city of Quebec. Champlain became friends with Algonguin and other Indians who urged Champlain to help them fight against the Iroquois Indians. French expanded their forts and their trade into the area that is now New York and conflicts began over control of the land. The French considered the Ohio River a vital link between their settlements in New France (Canada) and Louisiana. They built a fort near Niagara Falls at the mouth of the Niagara River, which connects Lake Eire and Lake Ontario in western New York. That 35-mile river was the access to the Great Lakes and, via the Ohio River, the westward route to the heartland of the continent making it a vital link for the French.



In 1749, King George II of England granted the American and British investors in the Ohio Company 200,000 acres of land on the upper waters of the Ohio River, consisting of territory covering most of modern-day Ohio, plus eastern Indiana, western Pennsylvania and north of the Ohio River. From its post at Wills Creek, now Cumberland, Maryland, the Ohio Company planned additional settlements and started to open an 80-mile wagon road to the Monongahela River.



By 1753, the French began to drive out English traders and to claim the Ohio River Valley for France. French soldiers seized and imprisoned a group of surveyors sent by the Ohio Company and began building forts along Lake Erie and the Ohio River.



The French believed they had a right to all the lands surrounding the tributaries on rivers they controlled. The Ohio Company believed it was their land since King George II granted a portion of lands within the boundaries of the Virginia Charter. An old Indian, hearing the argument said, "You English claim all on one side of the river and you French all on the other side; where does the Indian's land lie?"



In May of 1754, George Washington, and his men, were met by the French and a battle took place that he described in a letter to his brother, John Augustine,[9] in which he said: "I fortunately escaped without any wound." Two months later, on July 3, 1754, exactly 22 years before the Declaration of Independence was signed, the opening battle of the French and Indian War began with 700 French soldiers and their Indian allies attacking George Washington's hastily built Fort Necessity[10]. The attack took place as a drenching rain nearly filled the trenches in the stockade making it impossible for Washington and his forty militiamen and a dozen Indians to keep gunpowder and guns dry enough to shoot. For the first and only time in his life, Washington surrendered. He and his men were allowed to return and report to the governor of Virginia, where he resigned his commission.



In 1755, King George II of England sent one of his top generals, Edward Braddock, with forty years experience, to eject the French from the Ohio Territory. Washington was re-appointed as General Braddock's aide and guide to the area. Washington suggested that the Virginia Rangers, who were familiar with the country and with Indian warfare, lead the advance troops. However, Braddock angrily dismissed the notion that the "untrained" Americans lead his "professional" army, who were dressed in full uniform, and had cleaned their weapons the night before.



Braddock allowed his troops to march forward through the center of the plain without Indian scouts or the offered Virginia Rangers in advance and, according to the writings of Washington Irving describing the event: "were met with a murderous fire from among trees and a ravine on the right."[11]



Major General Edward Braddock, pride of the British military, was shot off his horse, fatally wounded with a bullet in his lung, in the battle for Fort Duquesne, built on the current site of Pittsburgh. His aides, Captains Orme and Morris were wounded and disabled early in the battle; his secretary was killed. Most of the Virginia Rangers who were covering Braddock's position were killed or wounded. But George Washington, who was in every part of the field and a conspicuous target for the enemy, miraculously went unscathed. At one point Washington sprang from his horse, seized a piece of field artillery from a frightened, leaderless and seemingly paralyzed soldier, and pointed it where he needed cover for his men.



Later, in a letter to his half brother, John Augustine, George Washington summed up his previous year's experience following Braddock's death, which ended his service to the British military as follows:[12]



"I was employed to go on a journey in the winter, when I believe few or none would have undertaken it, and what did I get by it? - My expenses borne! I was then appointed, with trifling pay, to conduct a handful of men to the Ohio. What did I get by that? Why, after putting myself to a considerable expense in equipping and providing necessaries for the campaign, I went out and was soundly beaten and lost all! "



However, the war that began in Ohio Territory and called the French and Indian War, soon became a world war known as the Seven Years War that impacted the future of nations on four continents. France was in a coalition involving Austria, Russia, Sweden and Saxony (Later party of Germany). Britain was aligned with Prussia, headed by Frederick the Great in Berlin and all members of the coalitions became involved, including India.



The war that began in 1753 with the building of a French Fort on the current site of Pittsburgh became the Seven Years War that ended in 1763 with the Treaty of Paris[13] and left all the nations involved in it with massive public debt and serious economic problems. When King George III and England's parliament passed new taxes and oppressive laws for the American colonies to pay the debts incurred by the ten years of wars, the colonists rebelled.

[1] John Cabot -http://www.carolana.com/Carolina/Explorers/johncabot.html

[2] Jacques Cartier - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Cartier

[3] Discovery of Canada & Quebec - http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/features/quebec/q1.html

[4] Native Americans - Iroquois Confederacy - http://www.constitution.org/cons/iroquois.htm

[5] Virginia Charters and Boundaries - 1606 - http://www.virginiaplaces.org/boundaries/charters.html

[6] Jamestown - 1606 - http://www.preservationvirginia.org/rediscovery/page.php?page_id=6

[7] Yale Avalon Project - The Mayflower Compact http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/amerdoc/mayflower.htm

[8] Samuel de Champlain- founds Quebec - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_de_Champlain

[9] Letter from Washington to John Augustine Washington , May 31, 1754- http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/etcbin/toccer-new2?id=WasFi01.xml&images=images/modeng&data=/texts/english/modeng/parsed&tag=public&part=48&division=div1

[10] National Park Service - Battle of Fort Necessity - http://www.nps.gov/fone/fonehist.htm

[11] Major General Edward Braddock, shot off his horse is fatally wounded -Ridpath's History, Vol XIV, Page564

[12] Washington's Letter to John Augustine Washington, August 2, 1755 - http://www.familytales.org/dbDisplay.php?id=ltr_gwa2630&person=gwa

[13] Treaty of Paris - http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h754.html

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Mary Mostert has written articles on political and social issues for more than 60 years, including a weekly newspaper column for Gannett Newspapers. She has written four books, including books on the Declaration of Independence and US Constitution. Her e-mail is mary@bannerofliberty.com and website is http://www.bannerofliberty.com

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