The French and Indian War
In the 1750s, American colonists were happy to be part of the British Empire. Were it not for the French and Indian War, fought between England and France from 1754 to 1763, America might not have sought her independence.
Tom Hand, creator and publisher of Americana Corner, discusses how the French and Indian War changed the colonists view of their place in the British Empire, and why it still matters today.
Images courtesy of the Library of Congress, New York State Archives, National Army Museum, National Postal Museum, National Archives, Wikipedia.
The British American experience since 1607 when the first English settlers arrived in Jamestown had largely been confined to the eastern seaboard north of Spanish Florida. As the British began to expand beyond this Atlantic bubble in the mid-1700s, they came into conflict with their longtime nemesis, the French, primarily over which nation would dominate the lucrative fur trade in the Ohio Country.