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French And Indian War Dbq

Decent Essays

During the eighteenth century, tension within the Americas over competing land and trading claims increased. Sparked by the French invasion of the British Ohio River Valley, the first major war in the Americas, known as the French and Indian War, began in 1754. The British national debt nearly doubled from the war, thus forcing Parliament to administer taxes on its British colonies. Britain also established new limitations on the colonists’ settlement for protection of the colonies. The colonies began to unite and new leaders emerged in response to Britain’s increasingly autocratic rule. This in turn galvanized the colonies to coalesce against the unfair practices. Although other wars had large impacts, the French and Indian War proved to …show more content…

As Fred Anderson asserts in Crucible of War: The Seven Years’ War and the Fate of Empire in British North America, “The Seven Years’ War had provided two unifying elements: a common enemy to animate agreement among colonies that were otherwise intensely localist; and a commander in chief to orchestrate activities.” (source 6 p 615). The American provinces demonstrated unprecedented intercolonial relations during the war as a result of sharing a common foe: the French. As the war came to an end, colonists believed that they were part of an increasingly corrupt and autocratic empire in which their liberties were being threatened and thus identified the British as their new threat. Subsequently, new groups with homologous beliefs emerged and provided bonds between previously incompatible peoples. The Loyal Nine, originally only in Boston, existed in every colony as it grew and became known as the Sons of Liberty. The group of shopkeepers, publicists, and artisans managed to convince battling neighbors to set aside their differences and focus on their similarities: resentment for the British and the desire for the repeal of the Stamp Act. For example, Boston’s North End and South End gangs were known for their battles but still united because of the Sons of Liberty. The Sons of Liberty was highly effective being that it had displaced the royal government in nearly every colony. The Sons of Liberty had eventually began forming Committees of Correspondence, a means of conducting action against Great Britain, in various colonies. The members of these organizations represented the leading men of each colony rather than unskilled workers like in the Sons of Liberty. The first efforts to unite the colonies were undertaken by this radical group in response to resentment toward the

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