French and Indian Wars

A driving cause behind the wars was the desire of each country to take control of the interior territories of America, as well as the region around Hudson Bay; both were deemed essential to domination of the fur trade.

In the first three conflicts, the French were able to offset these factors largely by more effective mobilization of Indigenous allies, but they were finally overwhelmed in the fourth and last war.

[3] A common view is that European combat methods and military tactics were not adapted to the American forests and to the indigenous art of war.

These techniques, which included cover and stressed ambushes, is supposed to have been the reason why the colonists finally defeated the French, and then the British army during the American Revolutionary War.

In reality, however, the French and Indian wars were finally won by Britain through the application of traditional European tactics.

[4][5] Although ultimately futile, the French fought according to the tactical doctrine contemporaries called la Petite guerre, or today's guerilla warfare.

The numerical inferiority of the French forces in North America made it impossible to fight a war according to standard European tactics.

The British Army was largely recruited among the poor and the criminal classes; yet, the independent companies had lower status.

The independent companies became rooted in the local society, often transforming the military service into a sideline of a civilian occupation, and remaining in the colonies after expiration of the enlistment period.

Massachusetts Bay, New York and Connecticut usually mobilized large contingents, while the southern colonies always very reluctantly contributed to the imperial cause.

In reality, however, membership in the militia was restricted to the more substantial members of society, since every militiaman had to provide himself with a musket, knapsack, powder, bullets, flints, and sword.

[8][10][11][12] In 1754 six battalions from the regiments Artois, Béarn, Bourgogne, Guyenne, Languedoc, and La Reine were transferred to New France.

[10][12] The Iroquois League played an important strategic role in the struggle between Britain and France over northeastern America because of its location east and south of Lake Ontario.

The Mi'kmaq and the Abenaki accepted Catholicism as it confirmed their alliance with the French against British colonists in Nova Scotia.

Fleeing attacks by New England colonists during and after King Philip's War motivated their displacement to French territory.

At the end of the French and Indian wars, all resident Indigenous peoples were joined in the confederation of the Seven Nations of Canada.

The warfare included the widespread and escalating abuse of civilians on all sides, in which settlements were attacked, both Colonial and Indigenous, the residents killed or abducted, and houses and crops burned.