Comparing The French And Indian War And Its Legacy

The French and Indian War and Its Legacy As the colonization of the New World began to ramp up during the eighteenth century, the global imperial powers waged several bellicose endeavors against one another because of the geopolitical implications of having strategic colonies in this new and undiscovered territory. Indeed, wars were waged over resources, trade routes and territories (“French and Indian War”). The most significant conflict that germinated during this epoch involved America and, more specifically, broke out in 1753 in the colony of Pennsylvania (“French and Indian War”). Beginning in 1754 and ending with the Treaty of Paris that was signed in 1763, the French and Indian War began because of global impulse for colonization as

As American colonists began to expand westward of the Appalachian Mountains to find farmland to cultivate, they came into contact with French traders from Canada who were also going west to procure various furs. Such a collision resulted in an attack between the two parties in the disputed territories (Foner 157). Both the French and the British perceived the French and Indian War as a war to grant control over the North American continent to the victorious imperial power. The region was indeed extremely important to France and Britain because it was believed to be a prime locale that could be used as a supply point for the lucrative sugar trade that was burgeoning in the Caribbean during that epoch (“French and Indian War”). Despite the fact that furs were quite valuable, the currency of sugar from the Caribbean superseded the value of all other raw materials taken together in the British colonies. Ultimately, with the British colonies expanding in the new World, the French felt threatened by their presence to their strategic trade

The British were able to make immense territorial gains in the New World, but unfortunately, the cost of the war also exacerbated the debt that Britain was in. Furthermore, the war cultivated a large degree of resentment and enmity towards the colonists amongst British leaders who decried how little military and fiduciary assistance they had received from the colonists when the war was taking place. This amalgam of factors eventually convinced British leaders that the colonies needed to be significantly reorganized, with the central authority being in London (“Effects of the War”). British leaders, therefore, configured plans that granted London much more control over the colonial governments; such plans ultimately undergirded the increasing colonial antipathy towards the colonial policies implemented by Britain and would subsequently lead to the American Revolution a decade