II.

Early Rivalries

By the end of the 17th century, Britain had established flourishing colonial settlements along the Atlantic Coast in New England and in the Chesapeake Bay region. At the same time, France had founded small communities along the St Lawrence River and had claimed the entire Mississippi River Valley, following the expeditions of French explorers Louis Jolliet and René-Robert Cavelier, sieur de La Salle. These North American colonies became part of an intense rivalry between Britain and France. Each country tried to equal or surpass the economic, political, and military power of the other through colonization, alliances, and warfare.

Beginning in 1689, Britain fought a century-long series of wars with France and its ally, Spain. On three occasions prior to the French and Indian War, these hostilities spilled over into the western hemisphere where Britain and France competed to control the valuable fur trade on the North American mainland and the rich sugar production on the islands of the West Indies. Both nations received military assistance from colonists in these wars, but also relied on the help of Native Americans who participated because of their own rivalries for land and power.

The first of these conflicts was King William’s War, known in Europe as the Nine Years’ War, and consisted of little more than a number of skirmishes that produced no changes in territory. The next conflict was Queen Anne’s War, known in Europe as the War of the Spanish Succession. During this war, the major battle in North America was a British and colonial attempt to capture Quebec in 1710. Although the expedition failed, Britain used victories in Europe to gain significant additional territory from France in the Peace of Utrecht, including Newfoundland, Acadia, and the Hudson Bay region of northern Canada, as well as greater access to the Native American fur trade. A new conflict, King George’s War, began outside North America as part of the War of the Austrian Succession. In 1745 New England militiamen captured the French naval fortress of Louisbourg on Cape Breton Island but the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle returned the fortress to France.