The two primary participants in the french and indian war were and .

Fort Necessity National Battlefield

Guiding Questions: What were they fighting for?  Why did the American Indians fight?  Why did the British and French want access to the land?

Objective

Student Objectives: Students Will…• List one reason the American Indians who lived in the Ohio River Valley became involved• List one reason the French wanted to control the Ohio River Valley

• List one reason the British wanted to control the Ohio River Valley

Background

This is Unit 2 from the teacher’s guide “The French and Indian War 1754-1763.” It includes one lesson plan:

• “What Were They Fighting For?” has the students read about the motives of each of the three groups and do an oral report.

Critical Content: The American Indians living in the Upper Ohio River Valley used the land, forests and waterways to maintain a traditional lifestyle. They liked trading with the Europeans, but did not want them to settle their lands. The American Indians were fighting to maintain control of their land and their cultural future. The French claimed the Upper Ohio River Valley. They wanted to trade with the American Indians and control the area. The British also claimed the Upper Ohio River Valley. The British settlers wanted to farm the land, the British traders wanted to trade with the American Indians, and the British land speculators wanted to buy the land so they could make a profit selling it. It was clear there was going to be conflict. 

See the “Related Lessons and Educational Materials” section for links to the other units in the teacher’s guide.

Preparation

The teacher should make copies of the student reading "What Were They Fighting For?" 

Materials

The downloaded lesson plan includes an introduction (p 43), teacher instructions (p 44), and three student readings (p 45-47).

Download Lesson Plan - What Were They Fighting For?

The teacher background covers from the beginning of the war to the beginning of the American Revolution. For this unit read page 17, What Were They fighting For?

Download Teacher Background: The French and Indian War 1754-1763

This color map is optional. It shows the French and British colonies and the disputed area. It also shows where the American Indian Nations lived and where French and British forts were located.

Download Map: Indian Nations and French and Indian War Forts 1754-1760

Lesson Hook/Preview

Everyone wants and needs things to survive and be happy. However, sometimes one person’s wants and needs differ from another person’s wants and needs, leading to conflict.  Write about one time you wanted something different than another person and what happened.

Procedure

1. Download the pdf of the lesson plan which includes the teacher instructions and the student readings.

2. Download the teacher background from the Materials section and read page 17.

3. Divide the class into three teams. Assign to each team one of the three groups – French, British or American Indian. Give each student a copy of the student reading.

4. Have the students read the student reading and identify the reasons their group (French, British or American Indian) wanted to control the Ohio River Valley and what they needed to accomplish this.

5. Have the team make an oral presentation about what they learned about their group's wants and needs.

6. Have each student complete a graphic organizer listing the three groups, each of the groups’ wants, and each of the groups’ needs.

7. As a math extension, graph the population of each of the groups at the start of the French and Indian War using this information: British: 1.5 million people, French: 70,000 people, American Indians in northeastern North America: 175,000

Vocabulary

Upper Ohio River Valley - the area drained by the rivers that flow into the Ohio River in what is now western Pennsylvania.

Neutral - When a nation or person does not support either side of a conflict.

Allies - People or groups that join together for a common cause.

Assessment Materials

The assessment includes a competed graphic organizer, a graph, an oral presentation rubric, a graphic organizer rubric and a bar graph rubric.

Download the assessment document for information and three rubrics.

Assessment The French and Indian War 1754-1763 Unit 2: What Were They Fighting For?

Download Assessment

Supports for Struggling Learners

The teacher can help struggling readers by reading the student readings aloud.

Enrichment Activities

Complete the Math Extension activity found in the lesson plan.

Additional Resources

Fort Necessity National Battlefield web site 

A Charming Field for an Encounter the park's handbook 

Becoming George Washington a curriculum about George Washington in the French and Indian War

Related Lessons or Education Materials

“The French and Indian War 1754-1763” Teacher’s Education Kit is broken into eight units and a Teacher Background section. Units 1 - 6 chronologically follow the war from start to finish, including how the war set the stage for the American Revolution.  

Links to the other units:

Unit 1: Who Were the People Involved?

Unit 2: What Were They Fighting For?

Unit 3: How Did the Conflict Begin? (This includes two lessons on George Washington)

Unit 4: How Did the War Progress?

Unit 5: How Did the Conflict End? What Were the Consequences?

Unit 6: How Did the French and Indian War Set the Stage for the American Revolution?

Unit 7: Biography Cards (there are nine American Indian, nine French, nine British biographies)

Unit 8: Primary Documents and Artifacts

Introduction

French and Indian War Historic Sites in Western Pennsylvania

Contact Information

Email us about this lesson plan

NOTE TO READERS
“Milestones in the History of U.S. Foreign Relations” has been retired and is no longer maintained. For more information, please see the full notice.

The French and Indian War was the North American conflict in a larger imperial war between Great Britain and France known as the Seven Years’ War. The French and Indian War began in 1754 and ended with the Treaty of Paris in 1763. The war provided Great Britain enormous territorial gains in North America, but disputes over subsequent frontier policy and paying the war’s expenses led to colonial discontent, and ultimately to the American Revolution.

The French and Indian War resulted from ongoing frontier tensions in North America as both French and British imperial officials and colonists sought to extend each country’s sphere of influence in frontier regions. In North America, the war pitted France, French colonists, and their Native allies against Great Britain, the Anglo-American colonists, and the Iroquois Confederacy, which controlled most of upstate New York and parts of northern Pennsylvania. In 1753, prior to the outbreak of hostilities, Great Britain controlled the 13 colonies up to the Appalachian Mountains, but beyond lay New France, a very large, sparsely settled colony that stretched from Louisiana through the Mississippi Valley and Great Lakes to Canada. (See Incidents Leading up to the French and Indian War and Albany Plan)

The border between French and British possessions was not well defined, and one disputed territory was the upper Ohio River valley. The French had constructed a number of forts in this region in an attempt to strengthen their claim on the territory. British colonial forces, led by Lieutenant Colonel George Washington, attempted to expel the French in 1754, but were outnumbered and defeated by the French. When news of Washington’s failure reached British Prime Minister Thomas Pelham-Holles, Duke of Newcastle, he called for a quick undeclared retaliatory strike. However, his adversaries in the Cabinet outmaneuvered him by making the plans public, thus alerting the French Government and escalating a distant frontier skirmish into a full-scale war.

The war did not begin well for the British. The British Government sent General Edward Braddock to the colonies as commander in chief of British North American forces, but he alienated potential Indian allies and colonial leaders failed to cooperate with him. On July 13, 1755, Braddock died after being mortally wounded in an ambush on a failed expedition to capture Fort Duquesne in present-day Pittsburgh. The war in North America settled into a stalemate for the next several years, while in Europe the French scored an important naval victory and captured the British possession of Minorca in the Mediterranean in 1756. However, after 1757 the war began to turn in favor of Great Britain. British forces defeated French forces in India, and in 1759 British armies invaded and conquered Canada.

Facing defeat in North America and a tenuous position in Europe, the French Government attempted to engage the British in peace negotiations, but British Minister William Pitt (the elder), Secretary for Southern Affairs, sought not only the French cession of Canada but also commercial concessions that the French Government found unacceptable. After these negotiations failed, Spanish King Charles III offered to come to the aid of his cousin, French King Louis XV, and their representatives signed an alliance known as the Family Compact on August 15, 1761. The terms of the agreement stated that Spain would declare war on Great Britain if the war did not end before May 1, 1762. Originally intended to pressure the British into a peace agreement, the Family Compact ultimately reinvigorated the French will to continue the war, and caused the British Government to declare war on Spain on January 4, 1762, after bitter infighting among King George III’s ministers.

Despite facing such a formidable alliance, British naval strength and Spanish ineffectiveness led to British success. British forces seized French Caribbean islands, Spanish Cuba, and the Philippines. Fighting in Europe ended after a failed Spanish invasion of British ally Portugal. By 1763, French and Spanish diplomats began to seek peace. In the resulting Treaty of Paris (1763), Great Britain secured significant territorial gains in North America, including all French territory east of the Mississippi river, as well as Spanish Florida, although the treaty returned Cuba to Spain.

Unfortunately for the British, the fruits of victory brought seeds of trouble with Great Britain’s American colonies. The war had been enormously expensive, and the British government’s attempts to impose taxes on colonists to help cover these expenses resulted in increasing colonial resentment of British attempts to expand imperial authority in the colonies. British attempts to limit western expansion by colonists and inadvertent provocation of a major Indian war further angered the British subjects living in the American colonies. These disputes ultimately spurred colonial rebellion, which eventually developed into a full-scale war for independence.