French Expansion.--Exploration was a most important inci dent of both the fur trade and the missionary enterprises of the French. Between 167o and 1690 their work culminated in the great exploring activity of Marquette, Joliet and La Salle. The Ohio and Mississippi rivers were discovered and their courses were mainly or wholly traced. Explorers also penetrated far into the regions beyond the Mississippi. Posts were established at various points along the Great Lakes. During the first two dec ades of the 18th century the French also established themselves on the Gulf of Mexico, Mobile being founded in 1702 and New Orleans in 1718. Quebec and the Gulf ports were then connected by a series of forts which, though few and weak, sufficed for communication and for the establishment of claim to the Missis sippi valley. They were Niagara and Detroit, commanding the approaches to lakes Erie and Huron ; Fort Miami, on the Maumee river ; Fort St. Joseph, at the southern end of Lake Michigan ; Vincennes and French Fort, on the Wabash; Fort Chartres, on the Mississippi opposite St. Louis; Michillimackinac and Ste. Marie, which guarded the upper lakes. French zeal and enterprise had thus seized upon the heart of the continent. It seemed possible that English settlements might be confined to the coast, for they expanded slowly and no genius for exploration or sympathy with Indian life was shown. The tendency of British commercial policy was likewise to confine them there. The Indian alliances of the English were also far less extensive than those of the French. The provinces of South Carolina and Georgia had conflicts with the Spanish on the Florida frontier, and in these the Indian tribes of the south were also involved. But these rivalries were slight and local in character when compared with the struggle for su premacy which was preparing between the French and English.
The conflict with the French was precipitated by events in Europe. It was the English Revolution of 1689 that opened the great conflict between France and England. The question of Protestantisth versus Catholicism was involved, but at bottom the struggle was one for the balance of power among European States. Rival claims, too, existed between the two powers in America, Africa and Asia. Questions of commercial and naval supremacy world-wide in extent were involved, and the colonial possessions of the two States were necessarily drawn into the struggle. In America it involved four intercolonial wars (Dutch War with France, War of Queen Anne or Spanish Succession, War of Austrian Succession and Seven Years War), which were closed respectively by the treaties of Ryswick (1697), Utrecht (1713), Aix-la-Chapelle (1748), and Paris (1763). On the American continent during the first two wars the struggle was confined to the northern frontier, and consisted of devastating raids by the French and Indians, which in turn provoked retaliatory efforts on the part of the English. These took the form in part of attacks on Acadia and of unsuccessful efforts to conquer Canada by means of joint expeditions by sea and land. The
favourite land route was that from New York by way of Lake Champlain to Montreal, while the expeditions by sea were forced to make the long and perilous voyage round Nova Scotia and through the Gulf and River St. Lawrence to Quebec. In 1690 and again in i7ii an enterprise of this kind was actually under taken. Acadia, "with its ancient limits," and the claim of France to Newfoundland and the Hudson Bay territory were, however, ceded to England by the Treaty of Utrecht.
Wars Between French and British in America.—A5 the great world conflict progressed the relative importance of the colonial and maritime issues which were involved increased. The first two wars had their origin primarily in European questions. The third war had its beginning in the Spanish West Indies, and clearly revealed the existence of the Bourbon Family Compact, which bound France and Spain together. On the American conti nent its most striking event was the capture, in 1745, of Louis burg, a stronghold which the French had recently fortified on Cape Breton. This victory was secured largely by the efforts of the New England colonists. In the following year another plan for the conquest of Canada was thwarted by the necessities of war in Europe. At the close of the war Louisburg, too, was restored to the French. After this fashion did the world struggle react upon the special interests of the English in North America, and perplex and irritate the colonists.
In the fourth intercolonial war (1754-63) the struggle between the two nationalities in North America was decided. Events which immediately preceded this war—the occupation of the Ohio valley and the building of Fort Duquesne—clearly revealed an intention on the part of the French to exclude the English from the Missis sippi valley. A persistent effort was also made to recover Acadia. The western, as well as the northern, frontier was now threatened, and the war which followed affected all the Colonies. Great Britain sent over a succession of commanders-in-chief. Great improvement was made upon the crude efforts at joint colonial action which had characterized the earlier wars : the Albany congress of 1754 greatly surpassed in importance the meetings of governors and military officers which had occasionally been held in previous times, though its plan of colonial union failed. The campaigns of this war were all upon a comparatively large scale. Campaigns were carried on not merely along the line of Lake Champlain and in Acadia, but against Fort Duquesne, Os wego and Fort Frontenac, Louisburg and Quebec itself. The weak Spanish power was overthrown in Florida and expeditions were sent against the southern Indians. In all quarters, and especially after Pitt became secretary of State, the British assumed the offensive. The Navy of Great Britain, as well as its Army, was called into action on a much larger scale in America than ever before. The result was the conquest by the British of Canada, and all North America east of the Mississippi river; the French claim to territory west of this river was ceded to Spain in 1762.