FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR, THE (1754-60), some times called the Fourth Intercoloniai War, was the last and most decisive of the conflicts in North America between France and England in their struggle for possession of the continent. It was the American counterpart to the Seven Years' War (q.v.) in Europe. Control of the Ohio valley was the issue which caused the reopening of hostilities. To the French the Ohio valley was the essential link between their colonies on the St. Lawrence and those on the Mississippi. To the English it represented room for westward expansion as an alternative to being surrounded by the French. Fighting began when the troops of Virginia under George Washington, which were sent to build a fort at the junction of the Monongahela and Allegheny rivers, were fired on by a detach ment of French troops on the same mission. The first two years of the war brought only disaster to the English, chiefly because of poor organization and divided councils. Notable among the fail ures was the defeat of an expedition sent under Gen. Edward Braddock (q.v.) to capture Ft. Duquesne. With the assumption of the secretaryship of state in England by William Pitt (q.v.) the attack was renewed all along the line with such energy that the tide turned and success resulted. Louisburg surrendered to Amherst in July, 1758 and the fall of Ft. Frontenac followed soon after. In November Forbes occupied Ft. Duquesne and rebuilt the fort under the name of Ft. Pitt, the nucleus of the present city of Pittsburgh. In May, 1759, the French commandant, Bourla maque, withdrew from Ticonderoga and Crown Point. Ft. Niagara surrendered to Amherst in July. The decisive victory for the English was the daring and successful assault on Quebec by Wolfe in September, 1759. On Sept. 8, 1760, after the fall of Montreal, the French signed terms of capitulation which ended the war in America. Final peace came only with the end of the war in Europe and the signing of the Treaty of Paris (1763) by which the French transferred Canada and all its dependencies to the English crown, thus ending a rivalry in North America which had lasted a hundred and fifty years.
See F. Parkman, Montcalm and Wolfe (1884) ; H. R. Casgrain, Wolfe and Montcalm (1905) ; W. Wood, The Fight for Canada (1906) ; J. Windsor, The Mississippi Basin (1895) ; H. L. Osgood, The American Colonies in the 18th Century (1926).