As the English and French boundaries began to meet by the 1750s, great tensions were wrought between the two contending countries. While the French were mainly occupying North America for the possibilities it presented involving trade, the English were looking to colonize the continent and spread through its vast, welcoming expanses. With these two opposing interests, the English?s to clear land for settlements, and the French?s to reap the benefits of land until it was barren, there was sure to be controversy. With both nations claiming the land to be their own, the stage was set for a grand clash between the two empires.
The French primarily occupied North American because of its trading opportunities. The large unscathed forests provided many chances for the French to capitalize and garner the benefits of the land. They also became stable traders with Indians and stuffed their pockets with the trading deals made with the natives.
United States
English: Schematic map of the French and Indian Wa...
Virginia colonial governor Robert Dinwiddie, by un...In doing this, they became very wealthy and the greed for money increased. Looking for more trapping, they moved deeper into the American and Canadian forests nearly wiping out the beaver population. As they ventured into the Ohio Valley, they began to meet English settlers who were traveling west to avoid the filth and crowds of coastal settlements.
In 1749, several prominent English and Virginian businessmen formed the Ohio Company and received a large grant of about 500,000 acres in the Ohio Valley. The fertile soil and vast expanses provided great economic and financial opportunity for them. However, the French also saw the opportunity the land provided and laid claim to the interior lands stretching from Louisiana to the Great Lakes, and in the same year of the Ohio Company?s establishment, Joseph Celeron claimed the Ohio Valley for the French Empire. In 1750, English and French representatives...