FRENCH AND INDIAN WARS 



2330 



FRENCH GUIANA 



Scotia, and allowed to it the monopoly of the 

 slave trade in the colonies. 



King George's War (1744-1748). This, too, 

 was related to a great European conflict, the 

 WAR OF THE AUSTRIAN SUCCESSION (see SUC- 

 CESSION WARS). Again the Spaniards were the 

 allies of the French and Indians, and the war 

 in the South was between the colonies of South 

 Carolina and Florida. It was in the North, 

 however, that the main issue was fought out. 

 The colonial forces of New England, under ' 

 William Pepperell, took the French fortress of 

 Louisburg, on Cape Breton Island, and all the 

 efforts of the French and Indians did not effect 

 a recapture of it. When the Treaty of Aix-la- 

 Chapelle was signed in 1748, however, it gave 

 Louisburg back to France, contrary to the 

 wishes of the New Englanders, who were proud 

 of their conquest. 



French and Indian War (1754-1760). The 

 three conflicts described above had made al- 

 most no change in the divisions of American 

 territory, and had left the main issues unde- 

 cided. It remained for this last struggle, more 

 specifically known as the French and Indian 

 War, to effect a permanent settlement. In 

 Europe this fight to the death was known as 

 the SEVEN YEARS' WAR, and involved prac- 

 tically all of the great powers, while one phase 

 of it was fought out in far-away India. In 

 America, especially determined were the 

 French to maintain their hold on the lands 

 watered by the Ohio, and to these the English 

 were equally determined to assert their claim. 

 In 1754 the governor of Virginia sent out at 

 the head of a small force a young man who 

 had proved his courage and his wisdom 

 George Washington and he demanded of the 

 French that they withdraw from the contested 

 territory. Naturally the French refused, and 

 in the conflict which followed, the first gun of 

 the war was fired. 



Braddock's Expedition. Meanwhile, the 

 French had erected a fort called Duquesne, at 

 the junction of the Allegheny and Mononga- 

 hela rivers, and in 1755 General Braddock was 

 sent with a force of English regulars to dis- 

 lodge them. Refusing to listen to the advice 

 of his young subordinate, Washington, who 

 knew the Indian methods of fighting, Braddock 

 led his force boldly through the woods, where 

 it was attacked from ambush and utterly de- 

 feated. Braddock was killed, but Washington 

 succeeded in leading a part of the troops to 

 safety. In the same year the English were 

 unsuccessful in two other expeditions, one 



against Crown Point and one against Fort 

 Niagara. One thing the British could do, how- 

 ever, and that was to exile from their territory 

 of Acadia, or Nova Scotia, the French colonists 

 whose loyalty was doubted, and it was this 

 incident which Longfellow has portrayed so 

 effectively in his Evangeline. 



The English Win. Not until 1758 did the 

 English begin to retrieve their fortunes. The 

 new English prime minister, William Pitt, put 

 into operation a thoroughly energetic policy, 

 and the war was prosecuted with a vigor which 

 soon brought it to a close. Louisburg, Fort 

 Duquesne, Crown Point and Niagara all fell 

 before the English; and in September, 1759, 

 occurred the final conflict with its dramatic 

 ending the Battle of Quebec. Unable to take 

 by storm the city which was held by the 

 French under Montcalm with his 15,000 troops, 

 the English General Wolfe began a siege, and 

 finally led a part of his force to the Plains of 

 Abraham above the city. The battle which 

 followed was a turning point in American his- 

 tory, and has been ever 'since one of the 

 events over which boy readers have loved to 

 pore, thrilled by its records of heroism. When 

 Quebec fell the long struggle was ended, Eng- 

 land was to be supreme in North America. 

 The Treaty of Paris, signed in 1763, gave to that 

 country Canada and all the French possessions 

 east of the Mississippi, together with the Span- 

 ish territory of Florida, while Spain received 

 from France all of its lands west of the Mis- 

 sissippi, with the "Isle of Orleans," including 

 the city of New Orleans. The only remnants 

 of its colonial empire left to France were the 

 tiny islands, Saint Pierre and Miquelon, south 

 of Newfoundland, which it was allowed to keep 

 as fishing stations on condition that they re- 

 main unfortified. England had thenceforth no 

 rival in America but Spain. A.B.H. 



Consult Parkman's Montcalm and Wolfe; 

 Wood's The Fight for Canada. 



Related Subjects. The reader is referred to 

 the following articles in these volumes : 

 Paris, Treaties of Quebec, Battle of 



Pitt, William Succession Wars 



FRENCH GUIANA, geah'na, or CAYENNE, 

 ka en, a French colony in Northern South Amer- 

 ica which costs France over a million dollars 

 each year to maintain as a settlement for con- 

 victs. The Atlantic Ocean washes its swampy 

 northern shore; on the east the river Oyapock 

 separates it from Brazil, as do ranges of the 

 Tumac-Humac Mountains on the south. Along 



