Analyze+the+role+the+French+and+Indian+War+played+in+the+American+Revolution.Liz!

The French and Indian was a war between the French, who allied with many Indian groups, and England, who had their colonists already in the New World. It lasted for seven years and was very brutal. Even though the colonists were fighting for England, resentment was building. The American Revolution had many different motives, but the leading cause was the French and Indian War because it unified the colonies, caused bad blood between the colonists and English, and gave the colonists experience in war. Throughout the history of the colonies, there had been bitter resentment and a lack of unity. During the French and Indian War, however, the distance barriers were broken. Important officials would meet together and realize that even though they lived a ways away, they all spoke the same language and generally had the same principles and ideas. Also over 20,000 men were in the colonial militias and fought alongside the British army. They were all brought together to fight a single enemy. Even thought the colonists had fought for England, after the war ended, the English resumed treating the colonists like scum. The British military refused to recognize anyone who was a colonist as more than a captain. This was a huge blow to "Colonel" George Washington. England also voted in parliament to tax the colonies more than normal because the war had been fought on their soil. The colonists countered this by asking were they not British citizens? And if they were, why should they have to pay more than those in England? But No one was listening, or even cared. And to top all of that off, England issued the Proclamation of 1763. This said that no one was allowed to live west of the Appalachian Mountains. This was the last straw for the colonists. They believed that that last was theirs. They fought for it with their own blood and nothing was going to keep them from moving there. In 1765. around 1000 wagons left to go west in defiance of British law. George Washington is an American war hero and a founding father of our country. He may not have been so renounced a fighter if he hadn't been in the French and Indian war. He was defeated many times and didn't exactly help much. In fact, he had been on a surveying trip and his men had shot and killed a leader of the French. The French retaliated and started the war. From watching the French fight, the colonists learned two things. First, they saw the successfulness of guerrilla warfare against the British. Secondly, they saw that the British were not invincible. Soldiers had ran as the militias hasd stayed and fought. They saw the weaknesses of the army. The French and Indian war was critical for the American revolution. It caused the tense feelings between Great Britain and the colonies. It also caused the colonies to unify and taught the colonies many things about war. =]