French and Indian War (1754-1763)

French and Indian War (1754-1763) (known in Europe as the Seven Years War) was the culmination of the struggle between Great Britain and France for supremacy in North America. Each side was augmented by colonial militia forces and Indian allies. The first phase of the war (1754-57) was fought largely in the frontier areas of Virginia, Pennsylvania, New York, and New England and was marked by several defeats for the British forces, including George Washington's surrender of Fort Necessity (July 3, 1754), the annihilation of Gen. Edward Braddock's column on the Monongahela River near Fort Duquesne (July 9, 1755), and the taking of Forts Oswego (1756) and William Henry (1757) in New York. In 1757, William Pitt the Elder became Prime Minister, and in 1758, the British took the initiative and seized the French fortress at Louisbourg in July and the French outposts at Forts Frontenac and Duquesne later in the year. However, Maj. Gen. Jeffrey Amherst's attempt to take Fort Carillon (Ticonderoga) on Lake Champlain failed miserably. The British renewed their offensive in 1759, and Fort Carillon (Ticonderoga), Fort Crown Point, and Fort Niagara fell to the British. On September 13, 1759, Maj. Gen. James Wolfe gained a major victory by taking the city of Quebec, a victory marred by the death of both Wolfe and his opponent, the Marquis de Montcalm. The precarious British hold on the St. Lawrence River, and thus on New France, was reinforced by the surrender of French forces at Montreal on September 8, 1760. The French and Indian War was ended by the Treaty of Paris (February 10, 1763) which confirmed the British conquest of New France and its incorporation into the British empire. The war gave the British unchallenged control of North America, but it also provided the American colonists with military experience and aroused their resistance to dominance and economic exploitation by the mother country which led to the Revolutionary War less than a decade later.

See the Introduction, Abbreviations and Pronunciation for further details.