|
English Colonies |
France vs England |
Fur Trade |
HBC | The Mississippi
| Le Petite Guerre
| Containment |
New France |
Preparations |
War |
Treaty of Paris
The contest between
France and England unfolded on European battlefields, in
tangled and complicated alliances throughout the
corridors of European Capitals, on frontiers in Asia,
Africa, the Atlantic and of course in North America.
France with strong
government support had been building up a colony along
the ST Lawrence river since the early years of Jacques
Cartier's voyages along the Atlantic coast of North
America. Under Frontenac and Champlain the colony had
grown and the Fur trade had provided a lure for
exploration of the continent south along the Mississippi
to New Orleans, west to the Rocky Mountains and north
the the shore of the Hudson Bay and the Arctic Ocean.
England had settled and expanded along
the eastern seaboard of North America from the Maritimes
down to Georgia. The competition for the abundant
fisheries along the Grand Banks also served as a source
of irritation to the relationship between the French and
English Colonies.
European wars spilt
over into the new world and in 1629 Kirke of England
destroyed the French colony of Port Royal. Both sides
also recruited and drew Indian nations into this
conflict. The Iroquois became solid allies of the
English and by the 1680's Iroquois raids had become a
grave and constant danger not only to the daily life of
New France but to the actual survival of the colony.
In 1689 the War of the
League of Augsburg broke out and the Iroquois were
unleashed on New France descending upon Lachine killing
24 during the attack and another 42 after the surrender
of the settlement. Frontenac who had returned as
governor of New France organized his Indian allies and
launched a counterattack on the outlaying settlements of
New England.
This conflict - hot
and cold continued for the next 80 years with raids by
the English on Louisbourg, the capture by the Hudson Bay
by the French and it's return to England, the expansion
and establishment of French forts all along the wets
side of the Alleghenies right down to the Gulf of Mexico
which effectively cut of the British colonies from
further expansion into any other areas of the America's
from the English Colonies.
This set the stage for
a confrontation between the English and The French not
only in the America's but across the globe. The
competition came to a head in 1755 when a young
inexperienced commissioned British Officer named George
Washington, under General Braddock become embroiled in a
pre-emptive effort by the British to force the French
from one of their Mississippi basin forts - Fort
Duquesne. This action lead to a series of events which
quickly escalated into what was really the 1st global
war between the empires of France and England. |
