|
|
|||||||||
Prehistory | 2 Worlds Meet | New France | England Arrives | Clash of Empires | Revolution | British America | Reform/Revolt | Responsible Government | Confederation | Nation Building | Laurier | The Great War | Roaring 20's | Great Depression | WWII | The Peace | Cold War | Trudeau | PC's in Power | Modern Canada
English Colonies | France vs England | Fur Trade | HBC | The Mississippi | Le Petite Guerre | Containment | New France | Preparations | War | Treaty of Paris
The contest between France and England unfolded on European battlefields, in tangled and complicated alliances throughout the corridors of European Capitals, on frontiers in Asia, Africa, the Atlantic and of course in North America.
France with strong government support had been building up a colony along the ST Lawrence river since the early years of Jacques Cartier's voyages along the Atlantic coast of North America. Under Frontenac and Champlain the colony had grown and the Fur trade had provided a lure for exploration of the continent south along the Mississippi to New Orleans, west to the Rocky Mountains and north the the shore of the Hudson Bay and the Arctic Ocean.
England had settled and expanded along the eastern seaboard of North America from the Maritimes down to Georgia. The competition for the abundant fisheries along the Grand Banks also served as a source of irritation to the relationship between the French and English Colonies.
European wars spilt over into the new world and in 1629 Kirke of England destroyed the French colony of Port Royal. Both sides also recruited and drew Indian nations into this conflict. The Iroquois became solid allies of the English and by the 1680's Iroquois raids had become a grave and constant danger not only to the daily life of New France but to the actual survival of the colony.
In 1689 the War of the League of Augsburg broke out and the Iroquois were unleashed on New France descending upon Lachine killing 24 during the attack and another 42 after the surrender of the settlement. Frontenac who had returned as governor of New France organized his Indian allies and launched a counterattack on the outlaying settlements of New England.
This conflict - hot and cold continued for the next 80 years with raids by the English on Louisbourg, the capture by the Hudson Bay by the French and it's return to England, the expansion and establishment of French forts all along the wets side of the Alleghenies right down to the Gulf of Mexico which effectively cut of the British colonies from further expansion into any other areas of the America's from the English Colonies.
This set the stage for a confrontation between the English and The French not only in the America's but across the globe. The competition came to a head in 1755 when a young inexperienced commissioned British Officer named George Washington, under General Braddock become embroiled in a pre-emptive effort by the British to force the French from one of their Mississippi basin forts - Fort Duquesne. This action lead to a series of events which quickly escalated into what was really the 1st global war between the empires of France and England.
