The French and Indian War - Proclamation of 1763

This is a re-post from my US History blog. I will post content back and forth between the two.

The name "French and Indian War" (is the name for the part of the Seven Year's War that happened in North America. (The Seven Year's War was a European thing, although parts of it took place overseas, mostly in colonized areas.) Calling it the French and Indian War may be deceiving, since the French and (many of) the Native Americans actually fought on the same side against Great Britain, and not against each other as it may sound. On top of that, the Seven Year's War actually lasted for 9 years; 1754-1763. You love that, don't you?

In North America, the whole thing got started because Europe was still feverishly trying to colonize, or at least expand and maintain power. Now France had laid claim to the Mississippi watershed area as well as the Ohio Valley and the Great Lakes region, and had some forts and trading activity with the Native Americans going on. As time passed, the British colonies grew more prosperous, and people wanted to move out west over the Appalachian Mountains and set up shop in the rich Ohio Valley lands. The French weren't too happy with this British encroachments on "their" land, so they started building a string of forts to keep guard. Then, Britain built a couple of forts too; one in Oswego and the other in Halifax. (Oswego had started out a trading post below Lake Ontario, but was expanded to become a fort.)

British and French representatives met in Paris soon after, but no progress on the "who exactly has rights to the Ohio Valley, since the Native Americans obviously don't count" question was made. After that, France decided to just settle the situation by building even more forts even closer to British colonial soil, this time in Western Pennsylvania. At the same time, the governor of Virginia decided to start granting land in the Ohio Valley to Virginia citizens. To add to the trouble, a one George Washington decided to advise Britain to build a fort in a particularly nice location in the Ohio Valley, and so they did. Long story short, France captured it before it was finished, completed construction, and took it for their own. Washington then attacked the French, but he lost when re-enforcements came. Fort-wars then ensued for a while, until Britain finally decided it would be a good time to officially declare war in 1756.

The Native Americans (except the Iroquois Confederacy, who fought with Britain alongside some other tribes) sided with the French. France had a far more inclusive society in North America, and the Native Americans received less-meddling in their affairs on the part of France, and more friendliness and intermingling. The Native Americans would trade with the French, and fur trappers would actually bother to learn their languages, and sometimes even decided to marry the Native Americans too. In British society, things were decidedly less "chill;" they had an exclusive society. Things were more hostile, racist, and not as fair business wise with Native American-British relations, so understandably, most Native Americans decided to join France against Great Britain.

The war goes on, and Great Britain wins. The Native Americans aren't too happy, France gets kicked out of North America entirely, and ends up left with two small sugar islands. (Over Canada and the Ohio Valley, France decides to keep the sugar islands; this = importance of mercantilism!) Great Britain decides to raise the prices of goods sold to the Native Americans, and stops paying them for using forts on their land. They also stop giving exchanging gifts, which was an important and symbolic custom for the Native Americans, and they probably felt pretty offended that Britain just decided to stop it.

The Native Americans weren't feeling all that amiable towards the British, and when the prophet Neolin from a tribe in Delaware started preaching through ought the Great Lakes against materialism/alcohol/the English way of life, things didn't go well. On top of that, colonists had started to push further into Native American lands. The Ottawa war chief Pontiac, around the same time as Neolin was preaching, started a rebellion against the British and attacked colonists in the Ohio Valley; this was Pontiac's Rebellion (1763.) In response/anger, a group of colonists called the Paxton Boys in Western Pennsylvania attacked a peaceful group of Native Americans nearby and massacred them; partly out of racism and partly because they thought their government wasn't doing much to help them. Benjamin Franklin helped put an end to the killing by negotiating with the group, and was scathingly critical about their inhumane actions. Eventually, Great Britain decided to step in to end Pontiac's Rebellion, and did so, with the help of germ warfare in the form of smallpox infected blankets.

To ensure that something like that wouldn't happen again, the British government issued the Proclamation of 1763, which forbade settlement west of the Appalachian Mountains. This was an attempt to keep colonists out of the Ohio Valley, and out of trouble with the Native Americans. Colonists pretty much disregarded it, and moved westward anyways, angry at the British for placing this restriction on them. This was one of the first 'restrictive acts' that the British took against the colonists, and one that they became more resented for.

At the end of the French and Indian War, many British soldiers stayed in North America. Tensions increased between the colonists and the soldiers. Many colonists became disgusted/displeased with the behavior/attitudes/appearances of the soldiers, and felt that they had a more separate identity from them. The colonists also felt that Britain had under-appreciated the part that they had played in the fighting the war. During this time, a sense of common identity, separate from that of the British, became stronger, as well as resentment against Britain that would grow in the future.