England Reigns Supreme Following French and Indian War
Since 1607, when the first English settlers arrived in Jamestown, British America had largely been confined to the eastern seaboard. As the colonies began to expand west in the mid-1700s, they came into conflict with their longtime nemesis, the French, primarily over which nation would dominate the lucrative fur trade in the Ohio Country. In 1754, these tensions erupted into the French and Indian War, and when it ended, the map of North America was redrawn. France was essentially expelled from the continent and England was awarded all lands east of the Mississippi to the Atlantic seaboard and from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico, except for New Orleans.
Tom Hand, creator and publisher of Americana Corner, discusses how England came to dominate the fight for control of North America, and why it still matters today.
Images courtesy of The New York Public Library, Library of Congress, National Army Museum, National Portrait Gallery - Smithsonian Institution, Wikipedia.
The British American experience since 1607 when the first English settlers arrived in Jamestown had largely been confined to the eastern seaboard north of Spanish Florida. As the British began to expand beyond this Atlantic bubble in the mid-1700s, they came into conflict with their longtime nemesis, the French, primarily over which nation would dominate the lucrative fur trade in the Ohio Country.