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Chapter 4 Life in the American Colonies (1607-1770)

Lesson 4a Rivalry in North America

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Britain and France

  • Two of the strongest powers in Europe
    • Competed for wealth and empire
    • Rivalry caused bitter feelings between French and British colonists in North America
  • Bitterness increased when the British tried to enter the Ohio River Valley (French controlled)
    • The French did not want to share the fur trade

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American Colonists Take Action

  • Virginians planned on settling the Ohio Valley
  • Fall of 1753- Virginia’s Governor Robert Dinwiddie sent a surveyor into the land
    • Named George Washington
    • Washington was 21 years old
    • He was told to tell the French that they were trespassing on land that Great Britain claimed
  • Washington was to demand they leave

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France’s Response to Washington

  • Washington delivered the message
  • Washington said later, “that it was their absolute design, or plan, to take possession of the Ohio, and by God they would do it”

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Washington’s First Command

  • Spring of 1754- Washington was a lieutenant colonel
  • Washington was sent back to Ohio
    • With a militia (150 men)
  • Was to build a fort near Pittsburgh (today)
    • French were already building Fort Duquesne on that spot

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Washington’s Fort

  • Washington built a small post nearby called Fort Necessity

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  • British were greatly outnumbered

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  • The inexperienced British troops attacked a French force first

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  • The British quickly surrendered and returned to Virginia

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  • Washington’s bravery in attacking first made him famous in the colonies and Europe

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The Iroquois Confederacy

  • Most powerful group of Native Americans in the East
  • New York area
  • Initially five nations- Mohawk, Seneca, Cayuga, Onondaga, and Oneida
  • Others later joined or were conquered
  • 1722- Tuscarora joined
  • English referred to them as the Six Nations

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The Iroquois

  • Remained independent
    • Traded with both France & Britain
    • Played the British and French against each other
  • Controlled the Great Lakes area
  • Mid 1700s the Iroquois pressured when the British moved into the Ohio River Valley
    • Leaders gave certain trading rights to the British and reluctantly became allies w/ Britain
  • This upset the balance of power between France and Britain

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Albany Plan of Union

  • Representatives from several colonies met in Albany, New York (June 1754)
    • To discuss the threat of war
    • Also find a way to defend themselves against the French
    • And persuade the Iroquois to support the British
  • Ben Franklin presented his Albany Plan of Union
    • Called for a united colonial government
    • Not a single colonial assembly approved the plan (failed)
    • No colony wanted to give up any of its power

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Franklin’s Response

  • Disappointed
  • “Everybody cries, a Union is necessary; but when they come to the manner and form of the union, [they] are perfectly distracted”
  • Albany meeting failed to unite the colonists in fighting the French
  • Soon a full scale war erupted