The French and Indian War, or Seven Years' War as it is termed in Europe, began in North America in 1754 when George Washington's forces clashed with the French in western Pennsylvania (war was not formally declared between Britain and France until May 1756), and ended in 1763 with the Treaty of Paris, although major hostilities in North America ceased with the British capture of Canada in 1760.

Causes and Course of the War

The causes of the war lay in both global and regional issues. Britain and France had conflicting colonial claims, particularly in North America, and especially in the upper Ohio Valley. When Pennsylvania traders and Virginia land-speculators began to take an interest in the region in the late 1740s, the French began construction of a series of forts from which they could exclude British influence. Virginia responded by dispatching...