![]() British American population and economic growth by 1754, however, had reached a point where many of the largest colonies felt friction with New France. The other British colonies had not been involved and there were occasions, such as during the War of the Austrian Succession, where New England struggled on its own without even the help of New York. To this point in time, British conflict with the French had focused on the frontiers between New England and Acadia, New York, and Canada. The French response (along with several of their Aboriginal allies) was to pursue and capture Washington at Fort Necessity before releasing him with a clear message for Virginia: the Ohio Valley was beyond their grasp. ![]() The following year Washington returned (once again under orders from Virginia’s governor) and ambushed a French detachment. The result was intensified French activity in the region. Led by George Washington (1732-1799), a scion of the Virginian gentry and shareholder in a speculative land company, a Virginian party set out in 1753 to request that the French relinquish their position in the Ohio Valley. By 1755 it had a population of 3,000 Haudenosaunee (Montreal had 4,000 people) and it was being repurposed for war. Figure 6.14 Fort de la Présentation was built by the Suplicians in 1749 as a mission to the Mohawks. The Seven Years’ War provides another example of this pattern. Certainly the War of the Austrian Succession was, in the Maritimes, much more about the ongoing Wabanaki resistance than transatlantic affairs. From an Aboriginal perspective, this was far less often the case. If one looks at North American history only through the lens of British and French interests, then it is true that most of the imperial wars to 1755 began as offshoots of European conflicts. Intercolonial Rivalries, Imperial Ambitions, and the Conquest
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