CHAPTER II 



THE FRENCH OF THE OHIO VALLEY, 1763-1775 



THE result of England's last great colonial strug- 

 gle with France was to sever from the latter 

 all her American dependencies, her colonists be- 

 coming the subjects of alien and rival powers. Eng- 

 land won Canada and the Ohio Valley ; while France 

 ceded to her Spanish allies Louisiana, including 

 therein all the territory vaguely bounded by the 

 Mississippi and the Pacific. As an offset to this 

 gain Spain had herself lost to England both Flor- 

 idas, as the coast regions between Georgia and 

 Louisiana were then called. 



Thus the thirteen colonies, at the outset of their 

 struggle for independence, saw themselves sur- 

 rounded, north, south, and west, by lands where the 

 rulers and the ruled were of different races, but 

 where rulers and ruled alike were hostile to the new 

 people that was destined in the end to master them 

 all. 



The present province of Quebec, then called 

 Canada, was already, what she has to this day re- 

 mained, a French state acknowledging the English 

 king as her over-lord. Her interests did not con- 

 flict with those of our people, nor touch them in 



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