How the Colonial Battle For North America Changed the Course of American History
In 1763, Britain defeated France in the battle for North America and claimed the continent for their empire. However, France’s Ottawa allies were unbeaten and they would meet any threat to their homeland with force. The empires of Europe had spent decades fighting the first nations and each other for supremacy over North America.
Indigenous peoples and European settlers were locked in a near-constant life-and-death struggle for the land itself. By the 1750s, decades of hostility had taken its toll on Indigenous North America.
The Ottawa controlled the territory around the Great Lakes with their fellow Anishinabe, Ojibwe, and Potawatomi. Together, their homelands formed one of the richest hunting grounds in North America and the gateway to the west.
Ottawa’s economy was bound to the French fur trade as was their access to steel weapons, firearms, and ammunition. When fighting broke out in 1754, Ottawa chiefs were quick to answer France’s call to arms. These warriors fought valiantly on the front line of many battles but their courage could not save New France from occupation.
The news of France’s total defeat only reached Ottawa in the fall of 1760. When a force of American rangers under Robert Rogers was intercepted by Ottawa warriors along the shores of Lake Erie, the chief leading this party would soon become one of the most famous Indigenous leaders in North American history,
Chief Pontiac. Pontiac knew he had to prepare for life without the French. The Anishinabe, after the Seven Years’ War, continued to wonder whether or not they could trust the English.
The problem now was the French were gone and the only empire that they were going to be dealing with was the British. Pontiac had good reason to fear the new status quo because the man chosen to pacify Britain’s occupied territories would threaten everything Pontiac held.
Jeffrey Amherst had been sent to North America during the height of the Seven Years’ War at a time when Great Britain was losing the battle for the continent.
Amherst was a controversial man in his time and continues to be a controversial character even in the 21st century. In 1759, Amherst and his subordinates unleashed a three-pronged offensive that reversed the course of the war.
They swiftly overran New France’s frontier force and took the colonial capital of Quebec. When Amherst took Montreal in 1760, France’s war was over. However, their Ottawa allies still had the strength to resist.
While Amherst was an efficient military commander, he was a terrible choice to oversee the post-war occupation of New France. Amherst considered the first nations inherently treacherous and he was determined to treat nations like Ottawa as conquered subjects of the British Empire.
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