the Americasbetween the European Imperialist powers of England and France. These warswere wars over a control and expansion of their empires. The first of thewars was King William’s War, followed by Queen Anne’s War.
Then came KingGeorge’s War and finally the biggest of the wars was the French and IndianWar. In this paper I will describe the events that led to those wars. The first of the French and Indian wars was King William’s War (1689-1697). In the summer of 1689, “an Iroquois raiding party struck hard at aFrench settlement of Lachine near Montreal1”. The French, under a newgovernor, initiated a counteroffensive against the English frontier.
Theforce and amount of damage they caused did much to establish a pattern ofsavagery in border warfare. The English ha suffered serious losses at Schenectady, Salmon Falls,and Falmouth. The English had come to realize that “the heart of NewFrance was Quebec on the Saint Lawrence River2”, and attempted itscapture. A land army was to advance down the Champlain Valley towardMontreal and a fleet, commanded by Sir William Phips, was to come fromBoston to the Saint Lawrence and the up to Quebec.
“The land army failed to get within one hundred mile of Montreal3”,enabling the French governor, the comte de Frontenac, to move troops fromMontreal to Quebec. By the time Phips arrived to Quebec, “the city was toostrongly defended to be captured4”. From then on, the English retreatedand the war was “characterized as a small scale raiding activity, againstisolated frontier settlements5”. A series of attacks were executed against “English fur trading postson the Hudson Bay and on settlements in Maine and Newfoundland6”. Sinceneither side was winning the war and “becoming weary of the struggle7”, apeace was arranged at Ryswick in September 1697, ending the warindecisively. After the end of King Williams War, “the French resumed theirexpansion into the region of the Great Lakes and the MississippiValley8”, this made the English fear that “the whole trans-AppalachianWest would come under the French Flag9”.
After the French king hadsecured the Spanish throne for his grandson, the Spanish Succession brokeout in Europe in 1701. England “entered the conflict in May 1702, thistime declaring war on both France and Spain10”. Now the English colonieshad “enemies to the south and to the north11”. From 1702 to 1704, there were various expeditions on both sides toattack one another. In 1704, “a party of French and Indians surprisedDeerfield, Massachusetts, killing many settlers and taking othersprisoner12”. In 1711, the “Tuscaroras Indians of North Carolina rose upagainst the English, but it ended two years later with the defeat of theTuscaroras13”.
By 1712, since France and Spain were “weakened by their widespreadexertions against England and were eager for peace14”. An internationalagreement was reached in 1713, which was called The Treaty of Utrecht. Init, “Spain kept Florida, but France lost Acadia to the British15”. Afterthis, “both the British and French resumed their competitive expansion intothe trans-Appalachian West16”. King George’s War evolved from a “commercial rivalry between Britainand Spain known as the War of Jenkins Ear17”.
It became King George’sWar when France entered as an ally to Spain. King George’s War didn’tbegin until 1744, “when the French mad an unsuccessful assault on PortRoyal18”. In 1745, Governor William Shirley of Massachusetts decided tocapture Louisburg. Governor Shirley appointed “William Pepperell of Maine to command aNew England army in that expedition19”.
Pepperell was assisted by theRoyal Navy, which was led under the command of Sir Peter Warren20″. Withthe assistance of each other, Pepperell and Warren made “Louisburgsurrender in June 1745 after a seven week siege21”. Since in 1731, the French, “had also had an advance base at CrownPoint on Lake Champlain, sent parties of French and Indian raids to attackfrontiers of New England and New York22”. These attacks did a goodamount of damage and frightened the British colonist in the area. Sinceneither side was near a victory in neither the American nor Europe, theywere in look for peace once again.
The Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1748″returned Louisburg to France23″. The treaty ended King George’s War,but it didn’t put an end to the hostile feelings that had been aroused. The French and Indian War, Seven Years War to the Europeans, was a”colonial .
