Colonial American military history
Encyclopedia
Colonial American military history is the military record of the Thirteen Colonies
from their founding to the American Revolution
in 1775.
and so Ranger companies were developed. Rangers were full-time soldiers employed by colonial governments to patrol between fixed frontier fortifications in reconnaissance providing early warning of raids. In offensive operations, they were scouts and guides, locating villages and other targets for task forces drawn from the militia or other colonial troops.
The father of American ranging is Colonel Benjamin Church (c. 1639–1718). He was the captain of the first Ranger force in America (1676). Church was commissioned by the Governor of the Plymouth Colony
Josiah Winslow
to form the first ranger company for King Philip's War
. He later employed the company to raid Acadia
during King William's War
and Queen Anne's War
.
Benjamin Church designed his force primarily to emulate Native American patterns of war. Toward this end, Church endeavored to learn to fight like Native Americans from Native Americans. Americans became rangers exclusively under the tutelage of the Indian allies. (Until the end of the colonial period, rangers depended on Indians as both allies and teachers.) Church developed a special full-time unit mixing white colonists selected for frontier skills with friendly Native Americans to carry out offensive strikes against hostile Native Americans in terrain where normal militia units were ineffective.
Under Church served the father and grandfather of two famous rangers of the eighteenth century: John Lovewell and John Gorham
respectively. Rogers' Rangers
was established in 1751 by Major Robert Rogers
, who organized nine Ranger companies in the American colonies. These early American light infantry
units, organized during the French and Indian War
, were actively called "Rangers" and are often considered to be the spiritual birthplace of the modern Army Rangers.
In major operations outside the local jusrisdiction, the militia was not employed as a fighting force. Instead the colony asked for (and paid) volunteers (i.e., Rangers
), many of whom were also militia members. After the local Indian threat ended (in most places by 1725), the militia system was little used, except for local ceremonial roles.
At the end of the colonial era, as the American Revolution
approached, the militia system was revived, weapons were accumulated, and intensive training began. The militia played a major fighting role in the Revolution, especially in expelling the British from Boston in 1776 and capturing the invading British army at Saratoga in 1777. However most of the fighting was handled by the Continental Army, comprising regular soldiers.
of 1637, King Philip's War
in 1675, the Susquehannock war in 1675–77, and the Yamasee War
in 1715. Dummer's War
(1722–1725) happened in Maine
and Nova Scotia
. There also occurred slave uprisings such as the Stono Rebellion
in 1739. Finally, there was Father Le Loutre's War
, which also involved Acadians, in the lead up to the French and Indian War
.
was a conflict between Dutch settlers and Indians in the colony of New Netherland
from 1643 to 1645. The fighting involved raids and counter-raids. It was bloody in proportion to the population; more than 1,600 natives were killed at a time when the European population of New Amsterdam was only 250.
, 1739–1748. After 1742 the war merged into the larger War of the Austrian Succession
involving most of the powers of Europe. Georgia beat back a Spanish invasion of Georgia in 1742
, and some sporadic border fighting continued. The war merged into King George's War
, which ended with the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle
in 1748.
between Britain
and France for control of North America, the most important of which 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. This final war was to give thousands of colonists, including George Washington
, military experience which they put to use during the American Revolution
.
Britain and France fought a series of four French and Indian Wars
—followed in 1778 with another war when France joined the Americans in the American Revolution
. The French settlers in New France were outnumbered 15–1 by the 13 American colonies, so the French relied heavily on Indian allies.
The wars were long and bloody, causing immense suffering for everyone involved. In the long run the Indians were the biggest losers; many were on the losing side, as Spain and France were defeated. When theBritish finally won full control the Indian power was sharply limited. Frontier settlers were exposed to sudden Indian raids; many were killed or captured, and even more were forced back from the frontier. One profitable form of wartime activity in which colonists engaged was privateering—legalized piracy against enemy merchant ships. Another was hunting enemy Indians for the purpose of scalping them and claiming the cash bounty offered by colonial governments.
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. With his New England militia, Sir William Phips moved in 1690 to take the French strongholds at Port Royal
and at Quebec, the latter commanded by Comte de Frontenac, the governor of New France. Phip's conquered the capital
of Acadia and various other communities in the colony (e.g., Battle of Chedabucto
). Phips's written ultimatum demanding Fontenac's surrender at Quebec prompted Frontenac to say his reply would come only 'from the mouths of my cannon and muskets.' Having to reckon with Quebec's formidable natural defenses, its superior number of soldiers, and the coming of winter, Phips sailed back to Boston with his hungry, smallpox-ridden, and demoralized force. His failure shows a growing recognition of the need to replicate European combat techniques and move closer to England's war policy in order to achieve military success.
The Iroquois suffered heavily in King William's War and were brought, along with other western Indians, into the French trading network. The colonist treatment of Indian tribes after King Philip's war led directly the Wabanaki
tribe's involvement in the war. Unlike tribes in southern New England, it retained significant power relative to the colonists and rejected attempts to exert authority over them. Treaties made during 1678–84 included concessions to Indian sovereignty, but such concessions were largely ignored in practice. Expanding settlements fueled tensions and led to Indian threats of a repeat of the violence of King Philip's War and offered an opportunity to the French, who wanted to counter English influence in the region. The lack of stability and authority evidenced by the imprisonment of Governor Andros in 1689 combined with existing grievances and French encouragement led to Wabanaki attacks on settlements on the Northeast coast, a pattern that would be repeated until the withdrawal of the French in 1763.
Queen Anne's War (1702–1713) was the second war for control of the continent and was the counterpart of the War of the Spanish Succession
in Europe. The conflict also involved a number of American Indian
tribes and Spain, which was allied with France.
Carolina governor James Moore
led an unsuccessful attack
on St. Augustine, the capital of Spanish Florida
, in 1702, and led one of several raiding expeditions
that wiped out much of Florida's Indian population in 1704-6. 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
. The expedition never materialized, but the British did supply their allies with firearms, which the Tallapoosas used in their siege of Pensacola
. Although these warriors proved their effectiveness in combining native tactics and European arms, the English failed to compensate them adequately and seriously underestimated their importance as the key to the balance of power in the southeastern interior. Consequently, by 1716 the Tallapoosas and other tribes had shifted allegiance to the other side and prepared to use what they had learned against South Carolina settlements.
In 1704 French and Indian forces had attacked a number of villages and Deerfield, Massachusetts, was prepared for an attack. The attack came during the night of 28 February 1704; much of the village was burned, many were killed, and others were taken captive. Seventeen of the captives were killed along the way to Canada as they were injured and could not keep up, and starvation took additional lives.
Major Benjamin Church retaliated by raiding Acadia
(see Raid on Grand Pre
) and captured prisoners for ransom. The most famous Acadian captive being Noel Doiron
. Eventually, 53 New England captives returned home, including one of the targets of the invaders, the Reverend John Williams. His accounts of the experience made him famous throughout the colonies.
South Carolina was especially vulnerable, and Charleston repulsed an attempted raid
by French and Spanish fleets in the summer of 1706.
French privateers inflicted serious losses on New England's fishing and shipping industries. The privateering was finally curbed in 1710 when Britain provided military support to its American colonists resulting in the British Conquest of Acadia
(which became peninsular Nova Scotia
), the main base used by the privateers.
The war ended with a British victory in 1713. By the Treaty of Utrecht, Britain gained Acadia, the island of Newfoundland, the Hudson Bay
region, and the Caribbean island of St. Kitts. France was required to recognize British authority over the Iroquois.
Following Queen Anne's War, relations between Carolina and the nearby native populations deteriorated, resulting in the Yamasee War
of 1715 and Dummer's War
a few years later, which very nearly destroyed the province.
, 1744–48, was the North American phase of the 1744–1748 War of the Austrian Succession
. In 1745, naval and ground forces from Massachusetts in the Siege of Louisbourg
captured the strategic French base on Cape Breton Island
. During the war, the French made four attempts to regain Acadia
by capturing the capital Annapolis Royal
. The most famous attempt being the failed Duc d'Anville Expedition
. The French regained fortress Louisbourg at the peace treaty. The French led Indian allies in numerous raids, such as the one on Nov. 28, 1745 which destroyed the village of Saratoga, New York, killing and capturing more than one hundred of its inhabitants. The war merged into War of Jenkin's Ear against Spain, and ended with the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle
in 1748.
advanced into French-held territory near modern-day Pittsburgh. Washington was captured at Fort Necessity after ambushing a French company
and released. He returned with the 2,100 British regulars and American colonials under British General Edward Braddock
, which was decisively destroyed
at the Battle of the Monongahela
in July 1755.
in 1710, Acadia/ Nova Scotia remained dominated by Catholic Acadians and Mi'kmaq. The British did not make a concerted military effort to control the region until 1749 when they founded Halifax, which sparked Father Le Loutre's War
. The French and Indian War spread to the region with a British victory in the Battle of Beausejour (1755). Immediately after this battle the New England and British forces engaged in numerous military campaigns, which became known as the Expulsion of the Acadians.
(at the southern end of Lake George
) in August 1757, British defenders were surrounded by an overwhelming French force and their Indian allies from many tribes. The British surrendered to the French after having been offered generous terms that included protection from the Indians. Nonetheless, the Indian warriors, whose customs permitted the enslavement of some captured enemy soldiers and the scalping of others, ignored French efforts to prevent the massacre and killed or captured hundreds of the surrendered British force, including women, children, servants, and slaves. Some of those scalped had smallpox, and the scalps were brought to numerous Indian villages as trophies, where they caused an epidemic that killed thousands of Indians.
In early July 1758, British General James Abercromby with a force of over 15,000 attacked General Louis-Joseph de Montcalm
and his garrison of 3,500 French and Canadian troops at Fort Carillon
, which overlooked Lake Champlain
. The British had 44 cannons, the heaviest weighing more than 5,000 pounds. The fort, later called Ticonderoga
by the British, controlled access to French Canada. Abercromby's force included 5,825 red-coated British regulars including the Royal Highlanders. He had 9,000 colonials from Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, and New Jersey. Some 400 Mohawk warriors joined in. Abercromby's attack became disorganized and he suffered the worst British defeat of the war, with over 2,000 killed. He retreated and the campaign ended in failure.
the great French stronghold of Louisbourg on Cape Breton Island
(now part of Nova Scotia). Amherst's large British naval force of over 170 ships and 13,000 men came under furious attack by French defenders until British General James Wolfe
found a safe landing spot out of sight of the French. The ultimately successful siege lasted seven weeks. With the fall of Louisbourg, the New England and British forces engaged in the second phase of the Expulsion of the Acadians from the region.
named Amherst as his new commander-in-chief of North America for 1759. The Louisbourg victory opened the St. Lawrence River to British incursions, and Amherst devised a three-pronged attack against French Canada: a push up the St. Lawrence to attack Quebec
, another northward invasion from Albany by way of lakes George and Champlain, and pressure against the French in the west at Fort Niagara. The 1759 battle for Quebec City, fought on the Plains of Abraham
decided the future of Canada as British forces under General James Wolfe
defeated the French army of General Louis-Joseph Montcalm. Both generals were killed.
The Fort William Henry massacre has shaped American cultural attitudes toward Indians. It was only the best known episode of indiscriminate bloodshed and captive-taking and deranged relations between Indians and Anglo-American colonists. Even in Pennsylvania, a colony that had never known an Indian war before 1755, indiscriminate hatred of Indians became something like a majority sentiment by 1764. When most native groups sided with the British in the Revolution, the animosity only grew. The American novelist James Fenimore Cooper
wrote The Last of the Mohicans
in 1826, a widely read novel that was adapted for several Hollywood films. Cooper refers to the dangerous "savages" and shows their willingness to kill. The book creates a lasting impression of the untrustworthiness and dangerousness of Indians in general. One long-standing theme in American popular culture has portrayed the Indians as revenge-seeking savages looking to scalp their enemies.
The victory of Wolfe over Montcalm was a decisive moment in shaping the self-image of British Canada, while Francophone Canada has refused to allow commemorations.
In 1760 British commander Lord Amherst abruptly ended the distribution of gifts of ironware, weapons and ammunition to the Indians, a French practice that the Indians had come to rely on. Chief Pontiac
(1720–1769), a chief of the Ottawa tribe assumed leadership in the Detroit area; other chiefs in the loose confederation of tribes directed attacks on all British forts in the Great Lakes area in the spring of 1763. Eight outposts were overrun, and English supply lines across Lake Erie were cut; assaults on Fort Detroit and Fort Pitt failed. At this point news arrived of the complete French capitulation and withdrawal from North America, and the uprising quickly collapsed. Few American military units were involved, as British regulars handled the action. London issued a proclamation in October 1763 forbidding whites to enter Indian territory west of the Appalachian Mountains, hoping to minimize future conflict and laying plans for an Indian satellite state in the Great Lakes region.
By expelling the French Empire from North America, the British victory made it impossible for the Iroquois
and other native groups to keep their autonomy by playing rival powers against one another. The Indians who had been allied of France realized their weak position when the British began to treat them as if they, not the French, had been conquered. They reacted with violence to Britain's abrupt changes in the terms of trade and suspension of diplomatic gift giving, launching an insurrection to teach the British a lesson in the proper relationship of ally to ally. By driving British troops from western forts in and sending raiding parties that caused panic as refugees fled east, the Indian coalition forced the British to rescind the offending policies and renew giving gifts. By 1764, as the various tribes came to terms with Britain, Indian leaders realized that their war-fighting ability was crippled. Without a competing empire to arm and supply them, they simply could not keep fighting once they ran out of gunpowder and lead.
The Proclamation of 1763 angered American settlers eager to move west; they largely ignored it, and saw the imperial government as an ally of the Indians and an obstacle to their goals. As Dixon (2007) argues, "Frustrated by their government's inability to contend with the Indians, back country settlers concluded that the best way to insure security was to rely on their own devices" Such actions eventually pushed them into direct conflict with the British government and ultimately proved one of the main forces leading to backcountry support for the American Revolution.
Thirteen Colonies
The Thirteen Colonies were English and later British colonies established on the Atlantic coast of North America between 1607 and 1733. They declared their independence in the American Revolution and formed the United States of America...
from their founding to the American Revolution
American Revolution
The American Revolution was the political upheaval during the last half of the 18th century in which thirteen colonies in North America joined together to break free from the British Empire, combining to become the United States of America...
in 1775.
Rangers
Rangers in North America served in the 17th and 18th-century wars between colonists and Native American tribes. The British regulars were not accustomed to frontier warfareScalping
Scalping is the act of removing another person's scalp or a portion of their scalp, either from a dead body or from a living person. The initial purpose of scalping was to provide a trophy of battle or portable proof of a combatant's prowess in war...
and so Ranger companies were developed. Rangers were full-time soldiers employed by colonial governments to patrol between fixed frontier fortifications in reconnaissance providing early warning of raids. In offensive operations, they were scouts and guides, locating villages and other targets for task forces drawn from the militia or other colonial troops.
The father of American ranging is Colonel Benjamin Church (c. 1639–1718). He was the captain of the first Ranger force in America (1676). Church was commissioned by the Governor of the Plymouth Colony
Plymouth Colony
Plymouth Colony was an English colonial venture in North America from 1620 to 1691. The first settlement of the Plymouth Colony was at New Plymouth, a location previously surveyed and named by Captain John Smith. The settlement, which served as the capital of the colony, is today the modern town...
Josiah Winslow
Josiah Winslow
Josiah Winslow was an American Pilgrim leader. He served as governor of Plymouth Colony from 1673 to 1680.Born in Plymouth Colony , he was son of Edward Winslow and Susanna White. In 1651 in London, with his father, he married Penelope Pelham, daughter of Herbert Pelham, the first treasurer of...
to form the first ranger company for King Philip's War
King Philip's War
King Philip's War, sometimes called Metacom's War, Metacomet's War, or Metacom's Rebellion, was an armed conflict between Native American inhabitants of present-day southern New England and English colonists and their Native American allies in 1675–76. The war is named after the main leader of the...
. He later employed the company to raid Acadia
Acadia
Acadia was the name given to lands in a portion of the French colonial empire of New France, in northeastern North America that included parts of eastern Quebec, the Maritime provinces, and modern-day Maine. At the end of the 16th century, France claimed territory stretching as far south as...
during King William's War
King William's War
The first of the French and Indian Wars, King William's War was the name used in the English colonies in America to refer to the North American theater of the Nine Years' War...
and Queen Anne's War
Queen Anne's War
Queen Anne's War , as the North American theater of the War of the Spanish Succession was known in the British colonies, was the second in a series of French and Indian Wars fought between France and England, later Great Britain, in North America for control of the continent. The War of the...
.
Benjamin Church designed his force primarily to emulate Native American patterns of war. Toward this end, Church endeavored to learn to fight like Native Americans from Native Americans. Americans became rangers exclusively under the tutelage of the Indian allies. (Until the end of the colonial period, rangers depended on Indians as both allies and teachers.) Church developed a special full-time unit mixing white colonists selected for frontier skills with friendly Native Americans to carry out offensive strikes against hostile Native Americans in terrain where normal militia units were ineffective.
Under Church served the father and grandfather of two famous rangers of the eighteenth century: John Lovewell and John Gorham
John Gorham (military officer)
John Gorham was a New England Ranger and was the first significant British military presence on the frontier of Nova Scotia and Acadia to remain in the region for a substantial period of time after the Conquest of Acadia . He established the famous "Gorham's Rangers". Gorham was commissioned a...
respectively. Rogers' Rangers
Rogers' Rangers
Rogers' Rangers was an independent company of colonial militia, attached to the British Army during the Seven Years War . The unit was informally trained by Major Robert Rogers as a rapidly deployable light infantry force tasked with reconnaissance and conducting special operations against distant...
was established in 1751 by Major Robert Rogers
Robert Rogers (soldier)
Robert Rogers was an American colonial frontiersman. Rogers served in the British army during both the French and Indian War and the American Revolution...
, who organized nine Ranger companies in the American colonies. These early American light infantry
Infantry
Infantrymen are soldiers who are specifically trained for the role of fighting on foot to engage the enemy face to face and have historically borne the brunt of the casualties of combat in wars. As the oldest branch of combat arms, they are the backbone of armies...
units, organized during the French and Indian War
French and Indian War
The French and Indian War is the common American name for the war between Great Britain and France in North America from 1754 to 1763. In 1756, the war erupted into the world-wide conflict known as the Seven Years' War and thus came to be regarded as the North American theater of that war...
, were actively called "Rangers" and are often considered to be the spiritual birthplace of the modern Army Rangers.
Militia
The beginning of the United States military lies in local governments which created militias that enrolled nearly all free white men. British regular army and Royal handled international wars.In major operations outside the local jusrisdiction, the militia was not employed as a fighting force. Instead the colony asked for (and paid) volunteers (i.e., Rangers
United States Army Rangers
United States Army Rangers are elite members of the United States Army. Rangers have served in recognized U.S. Army Ranger units or have graduated from the U.S. Army's Ranger School...
), many of whom were also militia members. After the local Indian threat ended (in most places by 1725), the militia system was little used, except for local ceremonial roles.
At the end of the colonial era, as the American Revolution
American Revolution
The American Revolution was the political upheaval during the last half of the 18th century in which thirteen colonies in North America joined together to break free from the British Empire, combining to become the United States of America...
approached, the militia system was revived, weapons were accumulated, and intensive training began. The militia played a major fighting role in the Revolution, especially in expelling the British from Boston in 1776 and capturing the invading British army at Saratoga in 1777. However most of the fighting was handled by the Continental Army, comprising regular soldiers.
Indian wars
In the early years of the British colonization of North America, military action in the colonies that would become United States were the result of conflicts with Native Americans, such as in the Pequot WarPequot War
The Pequot War was an armed conflict between 1634–1638 between the Pequot tribe against an alliance of the Massachusetts Bay, Plymouth, and Saybrook colonies who were aided by their Native American allies . Hundreds were killed; hundreds more were captured and sold into slavery to the West Indies. ...
of 1637, King Philip's War
King Philip's War
King Philip's War, sometimes called Metacom's War, Metacomet's War, or Metacom's Rebellion, was an armed conflict between Native American inhabitants of present-day southern New England and English colonists and their Native American allies in 1675–76. The war is named after the main leader of the...
in 1675, the Susquehannock war in 1675–77, and the Yamasee War
Yamasee War
The Yamasee War was a conflict between British settlers of colonial South Carolina and various Native American Indian tribes, including the Yamasee, Muscogee, Cherokee, Chickasaw, Catawba, Apalachee, Apalachicola, Yuchi, Savannah River Shawnee, Congaree, Waxhaw, Pee Dee, Cape Fear, Cheraw, and...
in 1715. Dummer's War
Dummer's War
Dummer's War , also known as Lovewell's War, Father Rale's War, Greylock's War, the Three Years War, the 4th Indian War or the Wabanaki-New England War of 1722–1725, was a series of battles between British settlers of the three northernmost British colonies of North America of the time and the...
(1722–1725) happened in Maine
Maine
Maine is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the east and south, New Hampshire to the west, and the Canadian provinces of Quebec to the northwest and New Brunswick to the northeast. Maine is both the northernmost and easternmost...
and Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia is one of Canada's three Maritime provinces and is the most populous province in Atlantic Canada. The name of the province is Latin for "New Scotland," but "Nova Scotia" is the recognized, English-language name of the province. The provincial capital is Halifax. Nova Scotia is the...
. There also occurred slave uprisings such as the Stono Rebellion
Stono Rebellion
The Stono Rebellion was a slave rebellion that commenced on 9 September 1739, in the colony of South Carolina...
in 1739. Finally, there was Father Le Loutre's War
Father Le Loutre's War
Father Le Loutre’s War , also known as the Indian War, the Micmac War and the Anglo-Micmac War, took place between King George's War and the French and Indian War in Acadia and Nova Scotia. On one side of the conflict, the British and New England colonists were led by British Officer Charles...
, which also involved Acadians, in the lead up to the French and Indian War
French and Indian War
The French and Indian War is the common American name for the war between Great Britain and France in North America from 1754 to 1763. In 1756, the war erupted into the world-wide conflict known as the Seven Years' War and thus came to be regarded as the North American theater of that war...
.
Dutch wars
Kieft's WarKieft's War
Kieft's War, also known as the Wappinger War, was a conflict between settlers of the nascent colony of New Netherland and the native Lenape population in what would later become the New York metropolitan area of the United States...
was a conflict between Dutch settlers and Indians in the colony of New Netherland
New Netherland
New Netherland, or Nieuw-Nederland in Dutch, was the 17th-century colonial province of the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands on the East Coast of North America. The claimed territories were the lands from the Delmarva Peninsula to extreme southwestern Cape Cod...
from 1643 to 1645. The fighting involved raids and counter-raids. It was bloody in proportion to the population; more than 1,600 natives were killed at a time when the European population of New Amsterdam was only 250.
Spanish wars
The British fought the Spanish in the War of Jenkins' EarWar of Jenkins' Ear
The War of Jenkins' Ear was a conflict between Great Britain and Spain that lasted from 1739 to 1748, with major operations largely ended by 1742. Its unusual name, coined by Thomas Carlyle in 1858, relates to Robert Jenkins, captain of a British merchant ship, who exhibited his severed ear in...
, 1739–1748. After 1742 the war merged into the larger War of the Austrian Succession
War of the Austrian Succession
The War of the Austrian Succession – including King George's War in North America, the Anglo-Spanish War of Jenkins' Ear, and two of the three Silesian wars – involved most of the powers of Europe over the question of Maria Theresa's succession to the realms of the House of Habsburg.The...
involving most of the powers of Europe. Georgia beat back a Spanish invasion of Georgia in 1742
Invasion of Georgia (1742)
The 1742 Invasion of Georgia saw a Spanish military force invade and attempt to occupy the British colony of Georgia as part of the War of Jenkins' Ear. Local British forces under the command of the Governor James Oglethorpe rallied and defeated the Spaniards at the Battle of Bloody Marsh and the...
, and some sporadic border fighting continued. The war merged into King George's War
King George's War
King George's War is the name given to the operations in North America that formed part of the War of the Austrian Succession . It was the third of the four French and Indian Wars. It took place primarily in the British provinces of New York, Massachusetts Bay, New Hampshire, and Nova Scotia...
, which ended with the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle
Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle (1748)
The Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle of 1748 ended the War of the Austrian Succession following a congress assembled at the Imperial Free City of Aachen—Aix-la-Chapelle in French—in the west of the Holy Roman Empire, on 24 April 1748...
in 1748.
France and Britain at war
Beginning in 1689, the colonies also frequently became involved in a series of four major warsFrench and Indian Wars
The French and Indian Wars is a name used in the United States for a series of conflicts lasting 74 years in North America that represented colonial events related to the European dynastic wars...
between Britain
Kingdom of Great Britain
The former Kingdom of Great Britain, sometimes described as the 'United Kingdom of Great Britain', That the Two Kingdoms of Scotland and England, shall upon the 1st May next ensuing the date hereof, and forever after, be United into One Kingdom by the Name of GREAT BRITAIN. was a sovereign...
and France for control of North America, the most important of which were Queen Anne's War
Queen Anne's War
Queen Anne's War , as the North American theater of the War of the Spanish Succession was known in the British colonies, was the second in a series of French and Indian Wars fought between France and England, later Great Britain, in North America for control of the continent. The War of the...
, in which the British won French Acadia
Acadia
Acadia was the name given to lands in a portion of the French colonial empire of New France, in northeastern North America that included parts of eastern Quebec, the Maritime provinces, and modern-day Maine. At the end of the 16th century, France claimed territory stretching as far south as...
(Nova Scotia), and the final French and Indian War
French and Indian War
The French and Indian War is the common American name for the war between Great Britain and France in North America from 1754 to 1763. In 1756, the war erupted into the world-wide conflict known as the Seven Years' War and thus came to be regarded as the North American theater of that war...
(1754–1763), when France lost all of Canada. This final war was to give thousands of colonists, including George Washington
George Washington
George Washington was the dominant military and political leader of the new United States of America from 1775 to 1799. He led the American victory over Great Britain in the American Revolutionary War as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army from 1775 to 1783, and presided over the writing of...
, military experience which they put to use during the American Revolution
American Revolution
The American Revolution was the political upheaval during the last half of the 18th century in which thirteen colonies in North America joined together to break free from the British Empire, combining to become the United States of America...
.
Britain and France fought a series of four French and Indian Wars
French and Indian Wars
The French and Indian Wars is a name used in the United States for a series of conflicts lasting 74 years in North America that represented colonial events related to the European dynastic wars...
—followed in 1778 with another war when France joined the Americans in the American Revolution
American Revolution
The American Revolution was the political upheaval during the last half of the 18th century in which thirteen colonies in North America joined together to break free from the British Empire, combining to become the United States of America...
. The French settlers in New France were outnumbered 15–1 by the 13 American colonies, so the French relied heavily on Indian allies.
The wars were long and bloody, causing immense suffering for everyone involved. In the long run the Indians were the biggest losers; many were on the losing side, as Spain and France were defeated. When theBritish finally won full control the Indian power was sharply limited. Frontier settlers were exposed to sudden Indian raids; many were killed or captured, and even more were forced back from the frontier. One profitable form of wartime activity in which colonists engaged was privateering—legalized piracy against enemy merchant ships. Another was hunting enemy Indians for the purpose of scalping them and claiming the cash bounty offered by colonial governments.
King William's War: 1689–1697
Port Royal, Nova Scotia
Port Royal was the capital of Acadia from 1605 to 1710 and is now a town called Annapolis Royal in the western part of the Canadian province of Nova Scotia. Initially Port Royal was located on the north shore of the Annapolis Basin, Nova Scotia, at the site of the present reconstruction of the...
and at Quebec, the latter commanded by Comte de Frontenac, the governor of New France. Phip's conquered the capital
Battle of Port Royal (1690)
The Battle of Port Royal occurred at Port Royal, the capital of French Acadia, during King William's War , the first of the four French and Indian Wars. A large force of New England provincial militia arrived before Port Royal, which was surrendered without resistance not long after...
of Acadia and various other communities in the colony (e.g., Battle of Chedabucto
Battle of Chedabucto
The Battle of Chedabucto occurred at Chedabucto on June 3, 1690 during King William's War . The battle happened on 3 June 1690 and was part of Sir William Phips and New England's military campaign against Acadia...
). Phips's written ultimatum demanding Fontenac's surrender at Quebec prompted Frontenac to say his reply would come only 'from the mouths of my cannon and muskets.' Having to reckon with Quebec's formidable natural defenses, its superior number of soldiers, and the coming of winter, Phips sailed back to Boston with his hungry, smallpox-ridden, and demoralized force. His failure shows a growing recognition of the need to replicate European combat techniques and move closer to England's war policy in order to achieve military success.
The Iroquois suffered heavily in King William's War and were brought, along with other western Indians, into the French trading network. The colonist treatment of Indian tribes after King Philip's war led directly the Wabanaki
Wabanaki
Wabanaki, Wabenaki, Wobanaki, etc. may refer to:In geography* area referred as the "Dawn land" by many Algonquian-speaking peoples to describe the Eastern region of the North American continent, generally described as being New England in the United States, plus Quebec and the Maritimes in CanadaIn...
tribe's involvement in the war. Unlike tribes in southern New England, it retained significant power relative to the colonists and rejected attempts to exert authority over them. Treaties made during 1678–84 included concessions to Indian sovereignty, but such concessions were largely ignored in practice. Expanding settlements fueled tensions and led to Indian threats of a repeat of the violence of King Philip's War and offered an opportunity to the French, who wanted to counter English influence in the region. The lack of stability and authority evidenced by the imprisonment of Governor Andros in 1689 combined with existing grievances and French encouragement led to Wabanaki attacks on settlements on the Northeast coast, a pattern that would be repeated until the withdrawal of the French in 1763.
Queen Anne's War
War of the Spanish Succession
The War of the Spanish Succession was fought among several European powers, including a divided Spain, over the possible unification of the Kingdoms of Spain and France under one Bourbon monarch. As France and Spain were among the most powerful states of Europe, such a unification would have...
in Europe. The conflict also involved a number of American Indian
Indigenous peoples of the Americas
The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...
tribes and Spain, which was allied with France.
Carolina governor James Moore
James Moore (South Carolina politician)
James Moore was the British governor of colonial South Carolina between 1700 and 1703. He is remembered for leading several invasions of Spanish Florida, including attacks in 1704 and 1706 which wiped out most of the Spanish missions in Florida....
led an unsuccessful attack
Siege of St. Augustine (1702)
The Siege of St. Augustine was an action in Queen Anne's War during November and December 1702. It was conducted by English provincial forces from the Province of Carolina and their native allies, under the command of Carolina's governor James Moore, against the Spanish colonial fortress of...
on St. Augustine, the capital of Spanish Florida
Spanish Florida
Spanish Florida refers to the Spanish territory of Florida, which formed part of the Captaincy General of Cuba, the Viceroyalty of New Spain, and the Spanish Empire. Originally extending over what is now the southeastern United States, but with no defined boundaries, la Florida was a component of...
, in 1702, and led one of several raiding expeditions
Apalachee Massacre
The Apalachee massacre was a series of brutal raids by English colonists from the Province of Carolina and their Indian allies against a largely pacific population of Apalachee Indians in northern Spanish Florida that took place during Queen Anne's War in 1704...
that wiped out much of Florida's Indian population in 1704-6. Thomas Nairne
Thomas Nairne
Thomas Nairne was a Scots trader and the first Indian agent of the Province of Carolina. He is best known for recording Native American customs and practices in the 1690s and 1700s, and for articulating visions and policies that guided colonial policy toward Indians...
, the Province of Carolina
Province of Carolina
The Province of Carolina, originally chartered in 1629, was an English and later British colony of North America. Because the original Heath charter was unrealized and was ruled invalid, a new charter was issued to a group of eight English noblemen, the Lords Proprietors, in 1663...
's Indian agent, planned an expedition of British soldiers and their Indian allies to destroy the French settlement at Mobile
Mobile, Alabama
Mobile is the third most populous city in the Southern US state of Alabama and is the county seat of Mobile County. It is located on the Mobile River and the central Gulf Coast of the United States. The population within the city limits was 195,111 during the 2010 census. It is the largest...
, and the Spanish settlement at Pensacola
Pensacola, Florida
Pensacola is the westernmost city in the Florida Panhandle and the county seat of Escambia County, Florida, United States of America. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 56,255 and as of 2009, the estimated population was 53,752...
. The expedition never materialized, but the British did supply their allies with firearms, which the Tallapoosas used in their siege of Pensacola
Siege of Pensacola (1707)
The Siege of Pensacola was two separate attempts in 1707 by English-supported Creek Indians to capture the town and fortress of Pensacola, then one of two major settlements in Spanish Florida. The first attempt, in August 1707, resulted in the destruction of the town, but Fort San Carlos de...
. Although these warriors proved their effectiveness in combining native tactics and European arms, the English failed to compensate them adequately and seriously underestimated their importance as the key to the balance of power in the southeastern interior. Consequently, by 1716 the Tallapoosas and other tribes had shifted allegiance to the other side and prepared to use what they had learned against South Carolina settlements.
In 1704 French and Indian forces had attacked a number of villages and Deerfield, Massachusetts, was prepared for an attack. The attack came during the night of 28 February 1704; much of the village was burned, many were killed, and others were taken captive. Seventeen of the captives were killed along the way to Canada as they were injured and could not keep up, and starvation took additional lives.
Major Benjamin Church retaliated by raiding Acadia
Acadia
Acadia was the name given to lands in a portion of the French colonial empire of New France, in northeastern North America that included parts of eastern Quebec, the Maritime provinces, and modern-day Maine. At the end of the 16th century, France claimed territory stretching as far south as...
(see Raid on Grand Pre
Raid on Grand Pre
The Raid on Grand Pré was the major action of a raiding expedition conducted by New England militia Colonel Benjamin Church against French Acadia in June 1704, during Queen Anne's War...
) and captured prisoners for ransom. The most famous Acadian captive being Noel Doiron
Noel Doiron
Noel Doiron was a leader of the Acadians, renown for the decisions he made during the Deportation of the Acadians. Doiron was deported on a vessel named the Duke William . The sinking of the Duke William was one of the worst marine disasters in Canadian history...
. Eventually, 53 New England captives returned home, including one of the targets of the invaders, the Reverend John Williams. His accounts of the experience made him famous throughout the colonies.
South Carolina was especially vulnerable, and Charleston repulsed an attempted raid
Charles Town expedition
The Charles Town expedition was a combined French and Spanish attempt under Captain Jacques Fefebvre to capture the capital of the English Province of Carolina, Charles Town during Queen Anne's War .Organized and funded primarily by the French and launched from Havana, Cuba, the...
by French and Spanish fleets in the summer of 1706.
French privateers inflicted serious losses on New England's fishing and shipping industries. The privateering was finally curbed in 1710 when Britain provided military support to its American colonists resulting in the British Conquest of Acadia
Siege of Port Royal (1710)
The Siege of Port Royal , also known as the Conquest of Acadia, was conducted by British regular and provincial forces under the command of Francis Nicholson against a French Acadian garrison under the command of Daniel d'Auger de Subercase, at the Acadian capital, Port Royal...
(which became peninsular Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia is one of Canada's three Maritime provinces and is the most populous province in Atlantic Canada. The name of the province is Latin for "New Scotland," but "Nova Scotia" is the recognized, English-language name of the province. The provincial capital is Halifax. Nova Scotia is the...
), the main base used by the privateers.
The war ended with a British victory in 1713. By the Treaty of Utrecht, Britain gained Acadia, the island of Newfoundland, the Hudson Bay
Hudson Bay
Hudson Bay , sometimes called Hudson's Bay, is a large body of saltwater in northeastern Canada. It drains a very large area, about , that includes parts of Ontario, Quebec, Saskatchewan, Alberta, most of Manitoba, southeastern Nunavut, as well as parts of North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota,...
region, and the Caribbean island of St. Kitts. France was required to recognize British authority over the Iroquois.
Following Queen Anne's War, relations between Carolina and the nearby native populations deteriorated, resulting in the Yamasee War
Yamasee War
The Yamasee War was a conflict between British settlers of colonial South Carolina and various Native American Indian tribes, including the Yamasee, Muscogee, Cherokee, Chickasaw, Catawba, Apalachee, Apalachicola, Yuchi, Savannah River Shawnee, Congaree, Waxhaw, Pee Dee, Cape Fear, Cheraw, and...
of 1715 and Dummer's War
Dummer's War
Dummer's War , also known as Lovewell's War, Father Rale's War, Greylock's War, the Three Years War, the 4th Indian War or the Wabanaki-New England War of 1722–1725, was a series of battles between British settlers of the three northernmost British colonies of North America of the time and the...
a few years later, which very nearly destroyed the province.
King George's War
King George's WarKing George's War
King George's War is the name given to the operations in North America that formed part of the War of the Austrian Succession . It was the third of the four French and Indian Wars. It took place primarily in the British provinces of New York, Massachusetts Bay, New Hampshire, and Nova Scotia...
, 1744–48, was the North American phase of the 1744–1748 War of the Austrian Succession
War of the Austrian Succession
The War of the Austrian Succession – including King George's War in North America, the Anglo-Spanish War of Jenkins' Ear, and two of the three Silesian wars – involved most of the powers of Europe over the question of Maria Theresa's succession to the realms of the House of Habsburg.The...
. In 1745, naval and ground forces from Massachusetts in the Siege of Louisbourg
Siege of Louisbourg (1745)
The Siege of Louisbourg took place in 1745 when a New England colonial force aided by a British fleet captured Louisbourg, the capital of the French province of Île-Royale during the War of the Austrian Succession, known as King George's War in the British colonies.Although the Fortress of...
captured the strategic French base on Cape Breton Island
Cape Breton Island
Cape Breton Island is an island on the Atlantic coast of North America. It likely corresponds to the word Breton, the French demonym for Brittany....
. During the war, the French made four attempts to regain Acadia
Acadia
Acadia was the name given to lands in a portion of the French colonial empire of New France, in northeastern North America that included parts of eastern Quebec, the Maritime provinces, and modern-day Maine. At the end of the 16th century, France claimed territory stretching as far south as...
by capturing the capital Annapolis Royal
Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia
Annapolis Royal is a town located in the western part of Annapolis County, Nova Scotia. Known as Port Royal until the Conquest of Acadia in 1710 by Britain, the town is the oldest continuous European settlement in North America, north of St...
. The most famous attempt being the failed Duc d'Anville Expedition
Duc d'Anville Expedition
The Duc d'Anville Expedition was sent from France to recapture peninsular Acadia . The expedition was the largest military force ever to set sail for the New World prior to the American Revolution. The effort to take the Nova Scotian capital, Annapolis Royal was also supported on land by a force...
. The French regained fortress Louisbourg at the peace treaty. The French led Indian allies in numerous raids, such as the one on Nov. 28, 1745 which destroyed the village of Saratoga, New York, killing and capturing more than one hundred of its inhabitants. The war merged into War of Jenkin's Ear against Spain, and ended with the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle
Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle (1748)
The Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle of 1748 ended the War of the Austrian Succession following a congress assembled at the Imperial Free City of Aachen—Aix-la-Chapelle in French—in the west of the Holy Roman Empire, on 24 April 1748...
in 1748.
French and Indian War: 1754–63
Provincial troops, as distinct from the militias, were raised by the 13 colonial governments in response to annual quotas established by the British commanders-in-chief. These troops saw service in most campaigns and employment throughout North America during the Seven Years' War.Virginia
The war began in 1754 as Virginia militia led by Colonel George WashingtonGeorge Washington
George Washington was the dominant military and political leader of the new United States of America from 1775 to 1799. He led the American victory over Great Britain in the American Revolutionary War as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army from 1775 to 1783, and presided over the writing of...
advanced into French-held territory near modern-day Pittsburgh. Washington was captured at Fort Necessity after ambushing a French company
Battle of Jumonville Glen
The Battle of Jumonville Glen, also known as the Jumonville affair, was the opening battle of the French and Indian War fought on May 28, 1754 near what is present-day Uniontown in Fayette County, Pennsylvania...
and released. He returned with the 2,100 British regulars and American colonials under British General Edward Braddock
Edward Braddock
General Edward Braddock was a British soldier and commander-in-chief for the 13 colonies during the actions at the start of the French and Indian War...
, which was decisively destroyed
Braddock expedition
The Braddock expedition, also called Braddock's campaign or, more commonly, Braddock's Defeat, was a failed British military expedition which attempted to capture the French Fort Duquesne in the summer of 1755 during the French and Indian War. It was defeated at the Battle of the Monongahela on...
at the Battle of the Monongahela
Battle of the Monongahela
The Battle of the Monongahela, also known as the Battle of the Wilderness, took place on 9 July 1755, at the beginning of the French and Indian War, at Braddock's Field in what is now Braddock, Pennsylvania, east of Pittsburgh...
in July 1755.
Acadia/ Nova Scotia
Despite the British Conquest of AcadiaSiege of Port Royal (1710)
The Siege of Port Royal , also known as the Conquest of Acadia, was conducted by British regular and provincial forces under the command of Francis Nicholson against a French Acadian garrison under the command of Daniel d'Auger de Subercase, at the Acadian capital, Port Royal...
in 1710, Acadia/ Nova Scotia remained dominated by Catholic Acadians and Mi'kmaq. The British did not make a concerted military effort to control the region until 1749 when they founded Halifax, which sparked Father Le Loutre's War
Father Le Loutre's War
Father Le Loutre’s War , also known as the Indian War, the Micmac War and the Anglo-Micmac War, took place between King George's War and the French and Indian War in Acadia and Nova Scotia. On one side of the conflict, the British and New England colonists were led by British Officer Charles...
. The French and Indian War spread to the region with a British victory in the Battle of Beausejour (1755). Immediately after this battle the New England and British forces engaged in numerous military campaigns, which became known as the Expulsion of the Acadians.
New York
At Fort William HenryFort William Henry
Fort William Henry was a British fort at the southern end of Lake George in the province of New York. It is best known as the site of notorious atrocities committed by Indians against the surrendered British and provincial troops following a successful French siege in 1757, an event which is the...
(at the southern end of Lake George
Lake George (New York)
Lake George, nicknamed the Queen of American Lakes, is a long, narrow oligotrophic lake draining northwards into Lake Champlain and the St. Lawrence River Drainage basin located at the southeast base of the Adirondack Mountains in northern New York, U.S.A.. It lies within the upper region of the...
) in August 1757, British defenders were surrounded by an overwhelming French force and their Indian allies from many tribes. The British surrendered to the French after having been offered generous terms that included protection from the Indians. Nonetheless, the Indian warriors, whose customs permitted the enslavement of some captured enemy soldiers and the scalping of others, ignored French efforts to prevent the massacre and killed or captured hundreds of the surrendered British force, including women, children, servants, and slaves. Some of those scalped had smallpox, and the scalps were brought to numerous Indian villages as trophies, where they caused an epidemic that killed thousands of Indians.
In early July 1758, British General James Abercromby with a force of over 15,000 attacked General Louis-Joseph de Montcalm
Louis-Joseph de Montcalm
Louis-Joseph de Montcalm-Gozon, Marquis de Saint-Veran was a French soldier best known as the commander of the forces in North America during the Seven Years' War .Montcalm was born near Nîmes in France to a noble family, and entered military service...
and his garrison of 3,500 French and Canadian troops at Fort Carillon
Battle of Carillon
The Battle of Carillon, also known as the 1758 Battle of Ticonderoga, was fought on July 8, 1758, during the French and Indian War...
, which overlooked Lake Champlain
Lake Champlain
Lake Champlain is a natural, freshwater lake in North America, located mainly within the borders of the United States but partially situated across the Canada—United States border in the Canadian province of Quebec.The New York portion of the Champlain Valley includes the eastern portions of...
. The British had 44 cannons, the heaviest weighing more than 5,000 pounds. The fort, later called Ticonderoga
Fort Ticonderoga
Fort Ticonderoga, formerly Fort Carillon, is a large 18th-century fort built by the Canadians and the French at a narrows near the south end of Lake Champlain in upstate New York in the United States...
by the British, controlled access to French Canada. Abercromby's force included 5,825 red-coated British regulars including the Royal Highlanders. He had 9,000 colonials from Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, and New Jersey. Some 400 Mohawk warriors joined in. Abercromby's attack became disorganized and he suffered the worst British defeat of the war, with over 2,000 killed. He retreated and the campaign ended in failure.
Louisbourg
Meanwhile Lord Jeffrey Amherst capturedSiege of Louisbourg (1758)
The Siege of Louisbourg was a pivotal battle of the Seven Years' War in 1758 which ended the French colonial era in Atlantic Canada and led directly to the loss of Quebec in 1759 and the remainder of French North America the following year.-Background:The British government realized that with the...
the great French stronghold of Louisbourg on Cape Breton Island
Cape Breton Island
Cape Breton Island is an island on the Atlantic coast of North America. It likely corresponds to the word Breton, the French demonym for Brittany....
(now part of Nova Scotia). Amherst's large British naval force of over 170 ships and 13,000 men came under furious attack by French defenders until British General James Wolfe
James Wolfe
Major General James P. Wolfe was a British Army officer, known for his training reforms but remembered chiefly for his victory over the French in Canada...
found a safe landing spot out of sight of the French. The ultimately successful siege lasted seven weeks. With the fall of Louisbourg, the New England and British forces engaged in the second phase of the Expulsion of the Acadians from the region.
Canada
In London, Prime Minister William PittWilliam Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham
William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham PC was a British Whig statesman who led Britain during the Seven Years' War...
named Amherst as his new commander-in-chief of North America for 1759. The Louisbourg victory opened the St. Lawrence River to British incursions, and Amherst devised a three-pronged attack against French Canada: a push up the St. Lawrence to attack Quebec
Quebec City
Quebec , also Québec, Quebec City or Québec City is the capital of the Canadian province of Quebec and is located within the Capitale-Nationale region. It is the second most populous city in Quebec after Montreal, which is about to the southwest...
, another northward invasion from Albany by way of lakes George and Champlain, and pressure against the French in the west at Fort Niagara. The 1759 battle for Quebec City, fought on the Plains of Abraham
Battle of the Plains of Abraham
The Battle of the Plains of Abraham, also known as the Battle of Quebec, was a pivotal battle in the Seven Years' War...
decided the future of Canada as British forces under General James Wolfe
James Wolfe
Major General James P. Wolfe was a British Army officer, known for his training reforms but remembered chiefly for his victory over the French in Canada...
defeated the French army of General Louis-Joseph Montcalm. Both generals were killed.
Legacy
Anderson (2006) suggests the war played a pivotal precipitating role in the American Revolution, helped the United States to become an imperial nation, and should perhaps be known as "the War That Made America."The Fort William Henry massacre has shaped American cultural attitudes toward Indians. It was only the best known episode of indiscriminate bloodshed and captive-taking and deranged relations between Indians and Anglo-American colonists. Even in Pennsylvania, a colony that had never known an Indian war before 1755, indiscriminate hatred of Indians became something like a majority sentiment by 1764. When most native groups sided with the British in the Revolution, the animosity only grew. The American novelist James Fenimore Cooper
James Fenimore Cooper
James Fenimore Cooper was a prolific and popular American writer of the early 19th century. He is best remembered as a novelist who wrote numerous sea-stories and the historical novels known as the Leatherstocking Tales, featuring frontiersman Natty Bumppo...
wrote The Last of the Mohicans
The Last of the Mohicans
The Last of the Mohicans: A Narrative of 1757 is a historical novel by James Fenimore Cooper, first published in February 1826. It is the second book of the Leatherstocking Tales pentalogy and the best known...
in 1826, a widely read novel that was adapted for several Hollywood films. Cooper refers to the dangerous "savages" and shows their willingness to kill. The book creates a lasting impression of the untrustworthiness and dangerousness of Indians in general. One long-standing theme in American popular culture has portrayed the Indians as revenge-seeking savages looking to scalp their enemies.
The victory of Wolfe over Montcalm was a decisive moment in shaping the self-image of British Canada, while Francophone Canada has refused to allow commemorations.
Pontiac's rebellion
Chief Pontiac
Pontiac or Obwandiyag , was an Ottawa leader who became famous for his role in Pontiac's Rebellion , an American Indian struggle against the British military occupation of the Great Lakes region following the British victory in the French and Indian War. Historians disagree about Pontiac's...
(1720–1769), a chief of the Ottawa tribe assumed leadership in the Detroit area; other chiefs in the loose confederation of tribes directed attacks on all British forts in the Great Lakes area in the spring of 1763. Eight outposts were overrun, and English supply lines across Lake Erie were cut; assaults on Fort Detroit and Fort Pitt failed. At this point news arrived of the complete French capitulation and withdrawal from North America, and the uprising quickly collapsed. Few American military units were involved, as British regulars handled the action. London issued a proclamation in October 1763 forbidding whites to enter Indian territory west of the Appalachian Mountains, hoping to minimize future conflict and laying plans for an Indian satellite state in the Great Lakes region.
By expelling the French Empire from North America, the British victory made it impossible for the Iroquois
Iroquois
The Iroquois , also known as the Haudenosaunee or the "People of the Longhouse", are an association of several tribes of indigenous people of North America...
and other native groups to keep their autonomy by playing rival powers against one another. The Indians who had been allied of France realized their weak position when the British began to treat them as if they, not the French, had been conquered. They reacted with violence to Britain's abrupt changes in the terms of trade and suspension of diplomatic gift giving, launching an insurrection to teach the British a lesson in the proper relationship of ally to ally. By driving British troops from western forts in and sending raiding parties that caused panic as refugees fled east, the Indian coalition forced the British to rescind the offending policies and renew giving gifts. By 1764, as the various tribes came to terms with Britain, Indian leaders realized that their war-fighting ability was crippled. Without a competing empire to arm and supply them, they simply could not keep fighting once they ran out of gunpowder and lead.
The Proclamation of 1763 angered American settlers eager to move west; they largely ignored it, and saw the imperial government as an ally of the Indians and an obstacle to their goals. As Dixon (2007) argues, "Frustrated by their government's inability to contend with the Indians, back country settlers concluded that the best way to insure security was to rely on their own devices" Such actions eventually pushed them into direct conflict with the British government and ultimately proved one of the main forces leading to backcountry support for the American Revolution.
Further reading
- Anderson, Fred. The War That Made America: A Short History of the French and Indian War (2006), excerpt and text search
- Carp, E. Wayne. "Early American Military History: A Review of Recent Work," Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 94 (1986) 259–84
- Ferling, John E. Struggle for a Continent: The Wars of Early America (1993), to 1763
- Gallay, Alan, ed. Colonial Wars of North America, 1512–1763: An Encyclopedia (1996) excerpt and text search
- Leach, Douglas Edward. Arms for Empire: A Military History of the British Colonies in North America, 1607–1763 (1973)
- Peckham, Howard H. The Colonial Wars (1965), excerpt and text search
- Rodger, N. A. M. The Command of the Ocean: A Naval History of Britain, 1649–1815 (2006)