'3월의 토끼집' : French And Indian War’s Influence on the American Revolution

2008년 07월 02일

French And Indian War’s Influence on the American Revolution

서양사학과
Sang OH

It was July 4th of 1776, the United States of America, originally the British thirteen colonies of New England, declared its formal independence from the British Empire. The declaration was a result of series of culminating events which deepened the gap between the colonies and the English motherland. However, it would perhaps be suffice to say that the causes of “American War of Independence” (1776~1783) lay fifteen years earlier, at the end of a war between France and England.

Dubbed as “the French and Indian War”(1754~1763), the military conflict between France and England in North American colonies was merely a small part of much larger war involving various European countries called “the Seven Years’ War”(1756~1763). But French and Indian War played a significant part in shaping of the American mindset about acquiring independence from the Britain, at the same time marking the starting point of British imperialism.

In the early phase of the war, French army stationed in Canada was triumphant for a while. Their crushing victory at the Monongahela River (1755) and Fort Carillon (1758) against the British almost marked the French superiority in North America. But, under the guidance of brilliant leadership by Prime Minister William Pitt (the Elder, Earl of Chatham) England began to turn the tide of war in their favor, at last taking Quebec City itself at the battle of Plains of Abraham (1759) and driving out the French influence in North America completely. At the following peace treaty in Paris (1763), England officially annexed Canada from French. However, this annexation of huge territory caused a flow of unexpected threats to local tranquility. (Lawrence, pg.95)

After the French influence faded away, the native Ottawa and Iroquois Indians felt the British policy regarding Indians to be unfair, since French treated them as equal allies but British did not. After a couple of border dispute, Indians under the chief Pontiac rebelled against the British (Pontiac’s Rebellion, 1763~1766). But the conflict against the Indians were unpreventable, since the New Englanders kept migrating westward despite the efforts of restriction by the government in London. (White, pg.260) At the same time, as military conflict with Indians remained a threat even after the French retreat, the British government had to keep the army constantly garrisoned in North America. Since this was the case, the British government insisted that a portion of the expenses to be paid by the New Englanders. Estimating the colonial defense expenses to be 200,000 pounds annually, the British goal was that the American colonies would be taxed for 78,000 pounds out of 200,000. (Middlekauff, pg.62) This needs for military expenses led the British to impose a series taxes on New England, which was seriously (and naturally) opposed by the New Englanders. New Englanders, having seen the end of French dominion, considered the British military protection un-necessary.

So to avoid un-necessary military expenditure (already having spent too much on Seven Years’ War) and to ease the stress on borderlines while setting up the procedures of governance in the newly acquired Quebec, the British government introduced the Quebec Act of 1774. The act expanded the Quebec’s territorial border to Mississippi river and therefore restricted New Englanders’ migration to west. This severely outraged the Americans, more than they were by taxes, as many of them believed in a constant cultivation of frontier their identity and purpose.

As for the Americans, it was they who actually experienced the war itself, and they thought that the British played no part of it. While the British commanders during the French and Indian War disregarded the American colonial militias inferior, incompetent and unfit for combat compared to the British regular army (Lawrence, pg.93), Americans actually provided all the expenses and supplies for the army. Also, the Americans, as the threat to their lives and territory during the war were very real unlike what the mainland British people felt, formed a common sense of unity and identity against the French. This is emphasized by the formation of the first continental congress (which was to inform of Britain the dire situation of the colonies and seek help) and the famous political cartoon drawn by Benjamin Franklin; “Join or Die”, depicting snake severed in several pieces, to visualize the importance of colonial unity. (Pennsylvania Gazette, May 9th, 1754) Combined with the British display of clear contempt for Americans during the war and by series of prime ministers ignorant of the colonial situation (Pitt the Elder was the only exception), political and social atmosphere of the New England began to separate from the British mainland. (Lawrence, pg.105)

But even as the colonial Englanders began to form their own independent identity apart from that of British mainland, the British government clung to the old view that the colonies were economic satellites of Britain, and existed solely to generate wealth for the mother country. (Lawrence, pg.99) This; British practice of the mercantilism was a result of French defeat and the following social atmosphere of patriotism and expansionism created during the war. This was not the case for the New Englanders, as they did not share the view but rather deemed the colony-motherland relationship unfair. Thus, the British effort to cover the expenditure from previous war and current military expenses by taxing the colonists – Navigation Acts (1761), Sugar Act (1764), Currency Act 1764), Stamp Act (1765), Townsend Act (1767) - resulted only in New Englanders’ grudge and hostility.

It was, therefore, the results of the French and Indian War which led to the eventual secession of the New England from Britain. The War gave the colonists an opportunity to form a political identity of their own, and a sense of unity which would make them easier to unite in the Second Continental Congress (1775). For the British, they could not efficiently hold newly and suddenly acquired vast patch of land from the French, as they were yet infantile in running the colonial empire. So they tried to distribute the burden of the colonies to the colonists, thus ruining the motherland-colony relation deeply. All these prepared the precursors to the American War of Independence (1775~1783).

References

White, Richard. "The Middle Ground: Indians, Empires, and Republics in the Great Lakes Region, 1650–1815" London, Cambridge University Press, 1991

Middlekauff, Robert. "The Glorious Cause: The American Revolution, 1763-1789" (1985, Online) http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=84633736

Lawrence, James. "The Rise and Fall of the British Empire", New York, Saint Martin's Griffin, 2005

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