French and Indian War DBQ Essay

For party years, end-to-end the 1600s and early part of the 1700s, the British portrayal a policy of salutary disuse to struggled its colonies. Britain en numbered a series of Navigation Laws, scarce these attempts to regulate trade were minimally enforced. The colonists had a generally friendly attitude toward the British overall since they enjoyed the benefits of an imperial descent without sequent restrictions. However, this dealinghip was dramatically altered by the cut and Indian War. The course of the war itself significantly affected the governmental and ideologic relationship of the colonists to their mother country, in as much as the colonists found the British imposition of restrictions and its hierarchical army to be repulsive to liberty, duration the British aphorism the lead for niftyer imperial gibe. However, it was the sparing aftermath of the war, which left British with a stupefying war debt and a need to raise youthful compound r hithertoues tha t militated nigh heavily against colonial cooperation with the British.The French and Indian War, called the S flat Years War in Europe, had its antecedents in the settlement of the French and the British in the Ohio Valley, region of the American continent. twain the French and British sought to support lands in the region, while Native Americans resisted the attempts of two(prenominal) to settle. The Indians for the around part played off of both sides to maintain an uneasy balance of power, scarcely onenessness group counterbalancetually unyielding to grant trading concessions to the British, giving England great access to the interior of the continent. France axiom this as a threat to its ingest territories and summarily constructed forts of defense, like fortification Duquesne. The British followed suit, make forts of their own. One such effort was to arrive at Fort Necessity near Fort Duquesne, which George Washington led. At the fort, however, Washington be came involve in a conflict with the French forces there he was captured and forced to surrender. thus began the French and Indian War.The colonists had a largely friendly and amicable attitude toward the British at the outset. For example, General Washington praised the British General Braddock in a 1755 garner a man of abilities and experience (Doc. C). The vast British policy of salutary dribble allowed the colonists to enjoy the benefits of trade with and tax shelter from the British without the discomfort to frBigid tally. However, this changed as the war progressed. In the second stage of the French and Indian War, beginning in 1756, Britain sought to land greater control on the colonial war effort. British Prime look William Pitt tried to control the contact of the battle himself, impressing (forcibly enlisting) colonists to fight and imposing other restrictions on colonial freedom. A colonial soldier, for example, wrote in 1759 of how he was unlikely to get strong drink or clothing and of how he was crush to martial law. He protested that he, too, was a man of English blood, but that he was not afforded the Englishmans liberty (Doc. D).This political control by Britain led to riots and colonial underground pretty soon, the consequences of it overwhelmed any befits it may find offered, and William Pitt was forced to back down. However, for the rest of the war, the political legacy of repression remained in colonial minds and produced repulsion to British control. Another ideological purview of the interaction between Britain and its colonies furthered this hostility. The colonists themselves were unionised into military volunteer units of men fighting with relative equality. The British, meanwhile, were organized into hierarchical divisions in which rigid distinguish was maintained. The Massachusetts soldier who protested political repression similarly noted this when he observed that the British troops are but atomic better than slav es to their officers (Doc. D).This ideological idea of a righteous American army unneurotic with a rigid British one further augmented the colonial sub fashion to British oppression. The colonists not only dictum British political interference in their affairs as illegitimate they alike resented British hierarchy. The British, however, took from the war an entirely unlike perspective. The colonists may save seen themselves as great aid in the struggle one sermon by Reverend doubting Thomas Bernard in 1763 portrayed New England as the greated helper of Britain in the effort. However, the British dictum the colonists as lazy and unhelpful. England was further scandalise by the fact that some American merchants had actually sold supplies to the French westerly Indies during the war against France. The political and ideological lessons learned by the British, therefore, were that the colonists are too freelance and must be made to act properly. The conlusion, then, was that gr eater imperial control was necessary. piece political and ideological differences may have contributed to the change from a friendly relationship to a hostile one, economics was a major factor as well. The 1763 agreement of Paris gave Britain all of Frances ground east of the Mississippi, except Canada (Doc. A). This doubled the surface of the British Empire and augmented the urgency of stationing British troops on the frame up to protect against Indian raids. This was at the very(prenominal) time that Britain faced a staggering war debt from the seven years of fighting. Yet, the colonists largely refused to contribute to a war fought for their own defense. A 1763 British Order in Council found that the receipts from the colonies couldnt even pay a fourth of the greet of collecting it. It also reported that neglect, connivance, and phony had hampered gross collection in a time of greatest need (Doc. F).The British, thence, saw it as justified to seek new sources of revenue from the colonies. The principle vehicle for doing so was the 1765 Stamp Act, part of Prime look Greenvilles program to exert greater control over the colonies. The Act necessitate that all paper products from wills and deeds to acting cards have a plaster bandage on them. This was the first direct revenue income (a tax paid outright, rather than an confirmative one incorporated into the full set of a good) imposed by Britain. totally previous taxes could be construed by the colonists as ones imposed by Britain to regulate commerce. However, this act could not be interpreted that way it could only be seen as an univocal attempt by Britain to raise revenue. This enkindle outrage from colonists all over. Lawyers and influential members of corporation were affected newspaper publishers, one of the most influential groups on public opinion, were shadowed by the tax.The Pennsylvania Journal even announced that it would expire because of the dreadful tax (Doc H). A Stamp Act telling was formed to resist the revenue increase, while the Sons of Liberty terrorized collection agents. Such colonial protests continued as Britain further act to impose control, until these events eventually produced the American Revolution. The French and Indian War transformed relations between the colonies and Britain from one of friendly complaisance to one of hostile distrust. During the course of the war, political repression by Britain and ideological opposition to Britains hierarchical army produced the seed of American protest at the same time, Britain saw the necessity of imposing greater control on its recalcitrant colonies.The economic results of the war, however, were even more disastrous. The costs of the fighting and protection of a newly enlarged stain forced Britain to impose new revenue like the 1765 Stamp Act so the colonists would pay their own share. However, the colonists bitterly resented this despotic British attempt to raise revenue without the con sent of their colonial assemblies. In this way, the French and Indian War soured the resonance between Britain and its colonies that eventually produced the American Revolution.