Well hey there and welcome back to Heimler’s History. And welcome to the first topic video for Unit 3 of the AP U.S. History curriculum. Now this unit covers the time period 1754 to 1800, and in this video we’re going to begin by talking about the French and Indian War, so if them brain cows are ready to get milked, let’s get to it. Now, before we begin let me mention that if you’re needing more help than these videos note guides to follow along, practice questions, and everything you need to get an A in your class and a five on your exam. I really think it’ll help you, and it helps support the work I’m doing here, so if that’s something you’re into, check it out. Okay, the French and Indian War. If I was in class, the first thing I would ask my students is to name the two sides in this war, and inevitably someone would raise their hand and tell me that the French were fighting the Indians. And then I would smile and gently correct them by saying, WRONG. I’m kidding, I love my students. Anyway, this was not a conflict between the French and the Indians. It was a conflict between the British and the French, and the French allied themselves with several groups of American Indians, and to be fair, so did the British, but their alliances weren’t as important for this conflict. So it’s the French and Indians versus the British. Okay, so with that established, let me tell you what we’ll be trying to accomplish in this video. Basically we’re just trying to explain the causes and effects of the French and Indian War. Okay, easy. So let’s start with the causes. Now the first thing you need to know is that the French and Indian War was actually a smaller conflict in the context of a much larger global conflict between the British and French called the Seven Years’ War. So the Seven Years’ War was the worldwide conflict, and the French and Indian War was the part of that conflict which occurred on American soil. So the cause of this war was pretty simple: the British American colonists were steadily encroaching on land in the Ohio River Valley that the French laid claim to. And here’s where I introduce you to a young and scrappy Virginian officer named George Washington. By 1753 he had been appointed Lieutenant Colonel in the Virginia militia, and as such, Virginia’s governor sent Washington west to warn the French of encroaching on British holdings in the Ohio River Valley. The French commander whom Washington met rebuffed him—“Consider yourself rebuffed—and six months later this same commander took control of a British post in Pennsylvania called Fort Duquesne. And so fresh from chopping down a cherry tree (don’t write that down, that’s not real) Washington, with help from his American Indian allies, led a surprise attack on the fort in 1754 and gained it back. And then two months later, the French, salty about their own rebuff at the hands of the man whom they rebuffed, led a much larger force against the fort and took it right back. Now why is any of this important? Because this was the cause of the French and Indian War. Territorial disputes in the Ohio River Valley between the French and the British caused this war to begin in 1754. Now even before Washington was defeated at Fort Duquesne, a congress was meeting to try to figure out British colonial defense against the French and Indians. It was known as the Albany Congress or the Albany Convention. Here, delegates from several of the British colonies met to discuss a more organized colonial response to frontier defense, trade, and westward expansion. They also invited a delegation from the Iroquois Confederacy to join them with the hopes of allying with this powerful Indian association, but I guess they were more like a token presence because the delegates didn’t really involve them in the discussions. Side note: you may be wondering why the American Indians were willing to ally themselves with either side at all. Like, weren’t the European settlers taking over their ancestral lands? Why in the world are they making friends with them? Well, for most American Indian groups, they could see that the best chance of maintaining some modicum of control over their lands lay in the perpetual conflict between European powers. Like, as long as these two European nations were fighting each other, the American Indians had a chance to maintain some control. What they feared most is ONE of these European nations gaining control of the North America. But I’m sure they don’t have anything to worry about, that’s not going to happen, right? Right? Anyway, it was at the Albany Congress that our boy Benjamin Franklin took the opportunity to introduce his Albany Plan of Union. Under this plan the colonies would establish a council of representatives to decide on those matters I already mentioned: frontier defense, trade, and westward expansion. Now this plan was ultimately rejected, not least because the taxation it required to exist stunk in the nostrils of the delegates. But the reason it was important is that it laid the foundation for the future revolutionary Congress, on which, more in another video. Now, back to the war. At first the French kind of mopped the floor with the British colonists, and it was going very badly for them. Add to that, as the Seven Years’ War expanded more and more into a global conflict, the British implemented policies that ended up being very unpopular with their American colonists. First, the British cranked up the forced impressment of American men to join the ranks of the Royal Navy. That’s one point in the lasting colonial resentment category. Second, throughout the war the British quartered troops in colonial homes. And if anyone resisted feeding and housing soldiers at their own expense, they were threatened with violence. That’s another point in the lasting colonial resentment category. Now as the war dragged on, eventually King George was getting a little twitchy about how much it was costing, and so he opened formal peace negotiations with the French. And the war was ended in 1763 with the signing of the Peace of Paris. Now this treaty had massive results for the American colonists. First, Spain ceded Florida to the British. Second, the French were ousted from the North American continent and the Spanish were given control of the former French lands west of the Mississippi. Third, all the land east of the Mississippi River, which is to say, the Ohio River Valley, was granted to the British. And now is where we start talking about the effects of the French and Indian War, and there were two main consequences I need to mention. First, because the land in the Ohio River Valley was under British control now, American colonists hungry for more land began to push westward. And, as you can imagine, this migration intensified conflicts with the Native Americans who lived there. And when news of this new land arrangement reached the Ottowa leader Pontiac, he led raids against the encroaching colonists in Detroit and other military forts in Virginia and Pennsylvania. And seeking to protect their colonists from more violence with the natives of the region, the British Parliament established the Proclamation Line of 1763 which forbade colonists from migrating west across the Appalachian mountains and taking land in the Ohio River Valley. But the colonists were like, YEAH RIGHT. And went ahead and migrated west anyway. And their reasoning was that this war was fought on their soil at the cost of their blood, and therefore they were entitled to the spoils of that war. But when the British said, nuh uh, that put another point in the lasting colonial resentment category. And the second major consequence of the war was that it was expensive. As a result of fighting this war, the British national debt roughly doubled. Add to that, the cost of running the colonies increased something like five-fold. And so in order to pay for all of that, the British Parliament decided to raise the revenue by raising taxes on the American colonies—BIG MISTAKE—and to see why that mistake added yet another point to the lasting colonial resentment score, you’ll have to join me for the next video. Alright, thanks for hanging out with me and that’s what you need to know about Unit 3 topic 2 of the AP U.S. History Curriculum. 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