Background.

By 1755 the ninety thousand French colonists along the St. Lawrence River in North America had fought several wars with the 1.5 million English colonists on the eastern seaboard. Most of these wars were the result of conflicts fought mainly in Europe, and a few were strictly local struggles. None of them settled the issues at stake in North America. The French wanted an empire extending from the Atlantic Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico, and to secure it they claimed all lands watered by streams flowing into the St. Lawrence River the Great Lakes, and the Mississippi River. Meanwhile the English claimed all lands occupied by their allies, the Iroquois Indians, including the southern banks of the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence River, as well as the northern part of the Mississippi River. Both sides resorted to arms in what became known in North America as the...