The History of the 7 Years War
The real first world war, this often overlooked conflict saw action in Europe, North America, the Caribbean, Africa, India, and the Philippines. Its outcome also set the stage for many of the major events that would reshape the world in the coming decades.
The History of the 7 Years War
Episode 2- The Ohio Country: Crossroads of Empire
Step away from the powdered wigs and marble statues of Europe—the Seven Years' War began in the mud and mosquitoes of the American wilderness. Join us as we trek into the Ohio Country, a forgotten crossroads that sparked global conflict.
The Ohio Country wasn't empty forest—it was prime real estate. Rivers connected in every direction like an 18th-century transportation hub, making it the most strategic territory in North America. The French needed it to connect their empire; the British colonists craved it for expansion; and the Native nations who actually lived there—Shawnee, Delaware, Mingo, and the powerful Iroquois Confederacy—fought to maintain their independence amidst these imperial games.
Enter 21-year-old George Washington—ambitious, inexperienced, and deeply connected to Virginia land speculation companies. When Governor Dinwiddie sends him to deliver a message to French forts, Washington returns with intelligence and newfound fame. But his second mission turns disastrous. After ambushing a French party and allowing their leader to be executed by an Iroquois ally, Washington finds himself surrendering at a rain-soaked Fort Necessity, unwittingly signing a document admitting to assassination.
This seemingly small frontier clash convinced Britain to send regular troops, launched colonial attempts at unity with the Albany Congress, and ultimately ignited a global war fought across five continents. Before Washington became the marble man on the dollar bill, he was a muddy, defeated young officer who accidentally started a world war.
Subscribe to hear what happens next, as we head to Albany in 1754 where colonial delegates tried to forge a united front against the looming French threats. We'll see how their plans for alliance promised much, but revealed even more about the colonies' deep divisions. The Albany Congress may not have solved the crisis, but it left a legacy that would echo far beyond this war.
Hello and welcome to the history of the Seven Years' War. I'm your host, rob Hill. Before we jump into the episode, I want to give a brief disclaimer. We're going to start using a lot of French and Native American names. I'm neither one of those and I don't speak any of those languages. Therefore, when I inevitably butcher them, mia Culpa, mia Culpa, mia, maxima Culpa. Hopefully, as we go along, I eventually get better at my pronunciations. Anyway, to the story Now.
Speaker 1:Today we are going to finally leave the courtrooms of Europe and step into the muddy boots of frontier life in North America. Because before we get to George Washington marching into the woods with a letter and some very misplaced confidence, before Braddock's baggage train grinds its way into legend, before we get to the global war, part of this global war, we need to talk about the Ohio country. Because if you don't understand the Ohio country, you don't understand why Britain and France were so willing to spill blood over what at first glance looks like a lot of forest rivers and mosquitoes and, fair warning, there will be a lot of mosquitoes. So where exactly are we talking about? When 18th century Europeans talked about the Ohio country, they weren't thinking of the modern state of Ohio, with its Cleveland Browns and endless stretches of highway billboards. They meant a vast swath of territory roughly bounded by the Ohio River to the south, the Great Lakes to the north, the Allegheny Mountains to the east and the Mississippi River to the west. This was not an empty land, though. It was thick with forests, cut through by rivers, dotted with prairies and filled with people, cut through by rivers dotted with prairies and filled with people. It was a crossroads, a hub, the connective tissue between eastern North America and the vast interior. If you stood at the forks of the Ohio, the place where the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers meet to form the Ohio River near today's Pittsburgh, you would have had water routes in every direction. To the south, the Ohio River carried you into Kentucky and the Mississippi River To the north, portages led to Lake Erie and the Great Lakes. To the east, the rivers funneled you into the Appalachian Passes. It was like the Grand Central station of the continent, and that made it worth fighting over.
Speaker 1:Now let's take a quick look at the people who actually lived in the Ohio country, those who called it home. This land was the domain of the patchwork of Native nations, most notably the Shawnee, delaware or Lenape, and Mingo, with the powerful Iroquois Confederacy claiming sovereignty over much of the territory, though often in the way that an older brother claimed sovereignty over the TV remote. The Iroquois, or Haudenosaunee people, based in what is now upstate New York, like to think of the Ohio country as theirs by right of conquest. Now, upstate New York like to think of the Ohio country as theirs by right of conquest. Back in the 17th century, during the Beaver Wars, they had pushed out or destroyed many of the peoples who had originally lived there. But by the 18th century new groups Shawnee, delaware and Mingo had moved in and many of them were refugees from those very wars. So the Iroquois technically owned the Ohio country, but these people actually living there tended to have their own opinions on the matter. This would cause no end of headaches, especially when European diplomats who love clear property lines tried to make neat treaties with the Iroquois about land that the Delaware or the Shawnee happened to be occupying at the time. And yes, that's our first callback for the day we signed a treaty with the Iroquois is going to become the 18th century equivalent of terms and conditions may apply. Now let's take a second here to take a closer look at the Iroquois Confederacy, or, as they called themselves, the Haudenosaunee, the people of the Longhouse. This will be very much a skimming of the surface, so I encourage you to look into it if you're interested. I do hope in the near future to put together a longer supplemental episode or two that covers more details about the major Native American powers in colonial America. It covers more details about the major Native American powers in colonial America. So if the Ohio country was contested ground of the mid-18th century, the Iroquois were the referees who insisted on blowing the whistle, pocketing the ball and then renting the field out to both teams at the same time.
Speaker 1:The Iroquois Confederacy was one of the most remarkable political creations of early modern North America. It consisted of five original nations the Mohawk, the Oneida, the Onondaga, the Cuyahoga and Seneca, later joined by a sixth, the Tuscarora. Together they formed a league bound by a constitution known as the Great Law of Peace, which had been around for centuries before George Washington ever put pen to paper. Under the Great Law of Peace, clan mothers appointed sachems to a council that made decisions by consensus to preserve unity among the nations. Their shared identity as the people of the longhouse reflected both their communal dwellings and their political structure. Each nation held a symbolic position within the Great Longhouse stretching across their homelands. The Mohawk, as keepers of the Eastern Door, guarded the Confederacy's eastern boundary, while the Seneca keepers of the Western Door protected the West. The Onondaga keepers of the Western Door protected the West. The Onondaga keepers of the Central Fire hosted council meetings and preserved the Great Law. The Oneida and the Cayuga supported balance and council on either side, with the later addition of the Tuscarora lending strength as allies. Together, these roles created a political and cultural framework where each nation contributed to the security, governance and harmony of the whole.
Speaker 1:This league wasn't a centralized state in the European sense. It didn't have a king or a standing army or a capital city. Instead, it was a carefully balanced system of councils, clan mothers and oratory. Decisions were made collectively, slowly and with great care, and yet the result was an astonishing degree of unity. When the Iroquois acted as one, they could project power far beyond their homeland in upstate New York. And project power they did. Homeland in upstate New York, and project power they did.
Speaker 1:Back in the 17th century, the Iroquois had fought a series of conflicts known as the Beaver Wars, fueled by the fur trade and European firearms. The Iroquois had expanded aggressively westward, pushing out or absorbing rival nations from the Ohio Valley, the Great Lakes and beyond. By the end of it, their influence stretched from the Hudson River to the Mississippi. Now, by the mid-18th century, that influence had shrunk somewhat, but the memory of it still lingered. The Iroquois considered themselves elder brothers of the region, the rightful overlords of the Ohio Valley, and they were very good at reminding both their native neighbors and the Europeans of that fact. So when British officials signed treaties with the Iroquois ceding lands in the Ohio country, they were technically getting the blessing of the Haudenosaunee. But whether the Shawnee or the Delaware who actually lived there agreed was another matter entirely and, as you can imagine, this led to more than a few awkward moments. It was a bit like leasing an apartment from your older brother only to discover that he doesn't actually own the place and the current tenants are not happy about you moving in.
Speaker 1:The Iroquois also had a long history of diplomacy with the British. Known as the Covenant Chain, this was a metaphorical silver chain linking the two peoples, meant to be polished from time to time to keep the alliance bright and strong. And, to be fair, the Iroquois were excellent diplomats. They knew how to flatter the British governors, how to play the French and English off each other and how to secure gifts and concessions in exchange for relatively little. They were the consummate middlemen, profiting from rivalry without committing too strongly to either side. But by the 1750s this balancing act was becoming harder and harder to maintain. The British were pressing westward with settlers and land speculators, the French were pressing eastward with forts and soldiers, and the Iroquois, for all their prestige, were beginning to lose their grip over their so-called tributary peoples in the Ohio Valley. The Delaware and the Shawnee in particular were getting tired of being treated like junior partners. They wanted to assert themselves, and the growing Anglo-French conflict was about to give them that chance.
Speaker 1:Two Iroquois figures come to the forefront in this moment. First, tana Creason, often called the Half King. He was a Seneca leader who acted as the Iroquois representative in the Ohio Valley, based at Logstown Think of him as the resident manager of the Iroquois franchise west of the mountains. He was not a full-fledged sachem, hence the Half King title, but he carried enough authority to matter. And Tana Greeson had a chip on his shoulder. He resented French encroachments and wanted the British to push them back, which is why, when young George Washington showed up on his mission in 1753, tana Greeson was eager to help and, spoiler alert, his eagerness would play a direct role in sparking the war.
Speaker 1:Second, there's Hendrik the Ayugan, a Mohawk leader from the eastern end of the Confederacy. Hendrik was a powerful orator and a frequent diplomat to Albany. He was outspoken in criticizing the British for neglecting Iroquois interests, warning that unless they stepped up, the Confederacy might lean toward the French. He'll make an appearance a little later in the story, at the Albany Congress of 1754. So why spend so much time on the Iroquois here? Because they will swing the vote in the Ohio country. The French need them to block the British expansion. The British need them to legitimize their land claims and the native peoples of the Ohio Valley often resented them for claiming a sovereignty they could not always enforce.
Speaker 1:The Iroquois were not passive victims of European designs. They were savvy operators playing a high-stakes game to preserve their power and independence. But by the 1750s their position was under strain. And when George Washington, of all people, blundered into the forest with orders from the governor of Virginia, that delicate balance would begin to crack. From the governor of Virginia, that delicate balance would begin to crack. So when we talk about the Ohio country, remember that it wasn't just British versus French. It was British versus French, versus Iroquois, versus Shawnee versus Delaware, versus everyone else trying to survive in a rapidly changing world. And if that sounds complicated, well it was. Which is why the next time someone tries to tell you the French and Indian War was just about redcoats versus bluecoats out in the wilderness, you can politely remind them that it was also about Haudenosaunee diplomacy, shawnee migrations, delaware grievances and one particularly ambitious half-king.
Speaker 1:So now let's take a look at the French and their approach to and view of the Ohio country. From their perspective, the Ohio country was nothing less than the linchpin of their North American empire. Remember, france controlled Canada to the north and Louisiana to the south. Remember, france controlled Canada to the north and Louisiana to the south. Their great dream was to connect these two possessions into a single, continuous corridor of empire, and the Ohio River Valley was the highway that made that possible. Control the Ohio and you could float down Lake Erie into the Mississippi, linking Montreal to New Orleans in one grand crescent. Lose it and your empire is split in half, like a baguette that someone dropped at the dinner table. So when French officials looked at the Ohio country, they didn't just see forests and prairies, they saw arteries, lifelines, the essential connective tissue that held New France together.
Speaker 1:To cement their hold, the French began building a chain of forts stretching from Lake Erie southward Fort Presque, isle, fort Leboeuf, fort Michalte. Eventually they'd put the crown jewel at the forks of the Ohio Fort Duquesne. Each fort was like a nail hammered into the land, pinning it firmly to the French map. And they weren't just for show. Each fort served as a trading post, a garrison, a diplomatic hub for Native alliances. French soldiers weren't conquering hordes, they were relatively few in number. Their strength came from diplomacy, from building ties with native allies, especially the Algonquin and the Huron. If the British were prone to looking down their noses at savages, the French were generally more willing to intermarry, trade and integrate native peoples into their imperial project, not always out of altruism, mind you, more out of necessity.
Speaker 1:When your empire is made up of a few thousand Frenchmen spread across half a continent, well, you learn to make friends. So now we'll take a look at the British. And this is where things start to get interesting. For Britain, the Ohio country meant two things land and profit. First, the land.
Speaker 1:By the mid-18th century, the British colonies along the Atlantic coast were bursting at the seams. Populations were growing rapidly, farms were filling up and ambitious young men, many of them second or third sons, were looking west for opportunities. Virginia in particular was keen on expanding beyond the Appalachians. Wealthy Virginians, the Washingtons, the Lees, the Randolphs, were already drawing up claims to land in the Ohio Valley. In fact, george Washington's own family was deeply involved in the Ohio Company, a land speculation venture chartered in 1747 to acquire and sell western lands. If you've ever wondered why a 21-year-old with no combat experience wound up leading a mission into the wilderness, well it helps to know that he was literally carrying his family's real estate portfolio in his back pocket. Second, the profit Beyond farming, there was the fur trade.
Speaker 1:Beaver pelts were the oil industry of the 18th century, messy, lucrative and responsible for an incredible amount of geopolitical nonsense. British traders from Pennsylvania were already slipping into the Ohio country, offering native peoples better prices than the French. To the British merchants, the Ohio Valley wasn't just land, it was a booming market waiting to be tapped. So if the French wanted the Ohio country as a highway, the British wanted it as farmland and a marketplace, and naturally neither side was particularly interested in what the people already living there thought about all this.
Speaker 1:Now you might be asking why would Britain and France risk a war over all this? Couldn't they have just drawn some maps and agreed to split the difference? Well, in theory yes, but in practice two very different imperial visions were colliding. For France, the Ohio country was about connection. Without it, their North American empire would be divided and vulnerable. For Britain, the Ohio country was about expansion. Without it, their colonies would be boxed in by the Appalachians, stunted and frustrated. Put simply, one empire needed the Ohio to hold itself together, the other needed the Ohio to grow, and the native nations who actually lived there needed the Ohio to survive. So you can see how compromise was going to be difficult.
Speaker 1:Our brief overview of the Ohio country has shown us that the region was a powder keg Native nations, french forts, british land speculators everyone had a stake and everyone was looking over their shoulder. The Iroquois claimed authority, the French built forts, the British surveyed land and the Shawnee and the Delaware tried not to be squeezed out of existence. It was, in short, a situation begging for a spark. And into this world steps a tall, ambitious 21-year-old Virginian whose portrait will one day adorn the one-dollar bill. But let's be clear the George Washington of 1753 is not the marble statue, not the mythic father of his country, not the stoic president who never told a lie. The George Washington of 1753 is young, inexperienced, a little hot-tempered, deeply ambitious and, to put it bluntly, still figuring things out. This is not yet the general who will outlast the British Empire, but the young officer who is about to start a global war by accident.
Speaker 1:So who was George Washington in 1753? He was born in 1732 into Virginia's gentry class, but not the very top tier. His father, augustine Washington, died when George was just 11. That left the family, land and wealth divided amongst multiple heirs, and George was not the eldest son. In other words, george had status but not riches. What he did have were connections. His older brother, lawrence Washington, had married into the powerful Fairfax family. The Fairfaxes were not only one of the wealthiest families in Virginia, but they controlled vast tracts of land in the northern neck. Through Lawrence and the Fairfaxes, george got opportunities that might otherwise have been out of reach. One of these opportunities was surveying.
Speaker 1:At just 16, washington went out into the Virginia backcountry as a land surveyor for the Fairfax estate. That meant weeks in the wilderness. With little more than a compass, a notebook and a few hired hands, washington learned to handle himself in the woods, to sleep rough, to negotiate with settlers and to keep his bearings across trackless miles of forest. All of this gave him a skill set that would prove invaluable in the Ohio country. It also gave him a taste for land speculation.
Speaker 1:Washington wasn't just drawing lines on a map. He was dreaming of owning the land himself, and by the time he was 20, he was already thinking like a real estate investor in uniform. And about that uniform. George desperately wanted to be a military man. He idolized his brother, lawrence, who had served as a captain in the British Army and had even fought at Cartagena in 1741. Young George practiced drill, copied out military manuals and learned the art of war from books. When Lawrence died in 1752, george inherited not only Mount Vernon but also his brother's lingering dream of military glory. In 1753, washington was 21 years old tall, broad-shouldered, with a fiery temper and an iron will. He was not yet the cautious, reserved figure of later years. This was Washington, the climber, washington, the risk-taker, washington, the young man with something to prove.
Speaker 1:Now, why was George sent west in the first place? Well, remember those land companies we talked about earlier. Chief among them was the Ohio Company of Virginia, backed by wealthy planters and merchants, including Lawrence Washington and his friends the Fairfaxes. The company had a royal charter to claim and settle hundreds of thousands of acres in the Ohio Valley. But there was a small problem. The French, french soldiers and Canadian militia had begun building a chain of forts through the very land the Ohio Company claimed. By 1753, they had forts at Presque Isle and Leboeuf and were moving south toward the forks of the Ohio. This was a direct challenge not only to the Ohio Company but to Virginia's authority.
Speaker 1:So Virginia's governor, robert Dinwiddie, decided to act. He would send an emissary to the French commander in the Ohio country with a simple message Leave. And for that mission he picked George Washington. Well, why Washington? Several reasons he was young, ambitious and well-connected, he was tough enough to handle the wilderness and perhaps most importantly, he was expendable. To handle the wilderness and perhaps most importantly, he was expendable. The French laughed at him. Well, at least he wasn't an actual diplomat.
Speaker 1:So in October of 1753, george Washington received his orders. He was to travel into the Ohio country, find the French commander and deliver Governor Dinwiddie's letter demanding their withdrawal. But this wasn't just a postal delivery. Washington was also tasked with gathering intelligence, mapping rivers, noting the strength of forts, estimating the size of the French force. Basically, dinwiddie wanted a spy mission wrapped up in diplomatic ribbons. To do what he wanted a spy mission wrapped up in diplomatic ribbons Washington set out from Williamsburg, traveling first to Fredericksburg, then north to Winchester and finally to the trading town of Wills Creek, today's Cumberland, maryland.
Speaker 1:Here he picked up supplies and met his small party. The group included Christopher Gist, an experienced frontiersman and surveyor, who would act as Washington's guide. There was also Jacob von Brom, a Dutch soldier and old family acquaintance, who served as Washington's translator, though his French was about as smooth as gravel. And finally there were a few hired woodsmen and Indian guides recruited along the way. Before plunging into French territory, washington made a key stop, logstown, a multi-tribal village on the Ohio River. Here he met with leaders from the Iroquois, shawnee and Delaware. Among them was Tana Greeson, the so-called Half King, the Iroquois spokesman in the Ohio Valley. Tana Greesisen was no fan of the French. He had watched them build forts on the land he claimed as his own and he was eager to push them out. So when Washington explained his mission, tanak Risen agreed to accompany him to the French. It was a small but important diplomatic win. Washington would not be arriving at the French forts alone.
Speaker 1:The journey from Logstown to the French forts was no easy stroll. Washington and his party set out in late November, just as winter was tightening its icy grip. They trudged through snow, crossed icy rivers and hacked their way through the dense forest. At times they slept in the open, shivering around smoky fires. Washington himself kept a detailed journal noting every river and mountain, clearly aware that this report would be read back at Williamsburg. At one point Washington recorded crossing swamps and miry grounds with their horses sinking deep into the muck. At another, the party nearly froze, attempting to ford an ice-choked river. These were not conditions that pampered aristocrats from London would have endured, but Washington relished the chance to prove himself.
Speaker 1:On December 11, 1753, after weeks of hard travel, the party reached Fort LaBeouf near today's Waterford, pennsylvania. Fort LaBeouf was a wooden stockade garrisoned by about 150 French soldiers under the command of Jacques Le Gardieu de Saint-Pierre. Washington presented Ditton Witte's letter demanding the French withdraw from the Ohio Valley. St Pierre received him politely but firmly. He gave Washington a generous dinner, kept him for several days while drafting a reply, and then sent him back with a clear answer no, the French were not leaving. In fact, they intended to stay and finish their chain of forts. While waiting, washington carefully observed everything he could. He noted the number of soldiers, the cannon mounted on the walls, the boats being built for transport. He even sketched the fort's layout. This was intelligence gathering dressed up as diplomacy, and Washington knew it.
Speaker 1:By December 16th, washington had St Pierre's reply in hand, along with several French warnings that British traders and surveyors should stay out of the Ohio country. His mission, in the strictest sense, was complete, but the journey back would prove even more dangerous. On the return trip, washington and Gist broke off from the main party to take a faster route back to Virginia. The shortcut nearly killed them At one point. A native guide, likely sympathetic to the French, turned on them, fired a musket at close range and missed Washington against, disarmed him and let him go, a decision they would later regret. Then, as they tried to cross the allocating river near present-day Pittsburgh, they fell onto ice flows. Washington himself was nearly swept away by the current. He recorded in his journal that they spent a freezing night stranded on an island in the river, their clothes soaked, their lives hanging by a thread. Only by sheer luck did the ice shift enough the next morning to let them scramble across. Finally, half-starved and exhausted, washington and Gist staggered back into Virginia in January 1754.
Speaker 1:Washington delivered St Pierre's reply to Governor Dinwiddie in Williamsburg on January 16, 1754. But more important than the letter was Washington's own journal. Dinwiddie had Washington's report published almost immediately, sending copies to London and circulating them throughout the colonies. Here was proof in black and white that the French intended to seize the Ohio Valley. Here were Washington's careful notes on their forts, their numbers and their boats. The Journal was Washington's first real claim to fame. Boats the journal was Washington's first real claim to fame. At just 21, he had completed a dangerous mission, gathered valuable intelligence and written a clear, forceful account. The young man who had once been just Lawrence, washington's younger brother, was suddenly a figure of note in Virginia politics. But more than that, the report raised the stakes.
Speaker 1:The French refusal meant the British could no longer ignore the situation. Something had to be done, and Governor Dinwiddie was not exactly the patient type. He was instead the kind of man who looked at a smoldering problem and decided the best solution was to grab a bucket of oil and toss it on the fire, and decided the best solution was to grab a bucket of oil and toss it on the fire. So in the spring of 1754, dinwiddie ordered a small armed expedition westward to secure the forks of the Ohio, that critical triangle of land where the Allegheny and the Monongahela meet to form the Ohio River near modern-day Pittsburgh. If the British could plant a fort there, they could block the French from controlling the Ohio Valley. And the man did what he tapped to lead this little adventure, none other than George Washington, 22 years old, barely tested, but ambitious, eager and, most importantly, available.
Speaker 1:Washington's orders were clear enough March a force of about 160 Virginia militiamen west, link up with colonial and native allies and throw up a fort at the forks before the French could get there. This was, as military orders go about, as simple as go stop the tide with a broom. Because here's the problem by the time Washington and his men even started moving, the French were already ahead. In April 1754, a detachment of French troops had seized the British fort-building party at the Forks, a crew of 36 men led by William Trent from the Ohio Company, and promptly taken over their unfinished works. Trent from the Ohio Company and promptly taken over their unfinished works. Then they finished the fort themselves, building it bigger and stronger and naming it Fort Duquesne after the governor of New France. So when Washington marched west, his entire mission build the British fort at the forks was already obsolete. The French had beaten him to the punch, but Dinwiddie didn't withdraw his orders and Washington, ambitious as ever, wasn't going to say no.
Speaker 1:Now let's picture Washington's force. They were Virginia militiamen, farmers and townsmen with muskets, not professional soldiers. They wore no uniforms, they had little training and Washington himself, though tall and imposing, was still very much learning the basics of command. The spring of 1754 was wet, cold and muddy. Washington's little force slogged its way west, hacking paths through forests, building the very roads that they would need and that any resupply, reinforcements and even future settlers would need as water travel from Virginia to the Ohio country via the Potomac River wouldn't be possible until the construction of the Pattawamack Canal in 1803. Supplies were poor. As the expedition struggled to find supplies along the way, their horses often collapsed or came up lame, and farmers tended to hide their best animals from the expedition. Wagons broke down, the men muttered and complained, as they did the grueling work of building a road on not enough to eat every day, and it was only bread and corn with a little salt anyway, and they would probably stinge you with the rum too.
Speaker 1:But Washington did have one advantage the French didn't Local native allies. Tana Greeson, the Iroquois half-king we met last episode, once again threw in his lot with Washington. He brought with him a small band of Mingo warriors, men who despised the French and wanted to see them driven out. Antone Grison and Washington made an odd pair the young Virginian land speculator and the grizzled native leader trying to salvage Iroquois influence in the Ohio Valley. But for the moment their goals were aligned.
Speaker 1:Antoine Agresson soon brought urgent news A French detachment was in the area. It was May 27, 1754, when Washington received word of about 30 French soldiers camped nearby, led by a man named Joseph Couillon de Jumonville. Now here's where things get murky. Washington insisted later that the French were spies sneaking around the backcountry to scout out British positions. The French, however, claimed that Jumonville's party was a diplomatic mission sent to deliver a message ordering the British to leave French territory which, awkwardly, was basically the reverse of Washington's 1753 mission. Either way, washington decided to act. In the early hours of May 28th, he and about 40 men crept through the forest with 12 of Tana Greeson's men guiding the way. Rain poured down, soaking them as they stumbled through the trees. At dawn they found the French camp hidden in a rocky glen.
Speaker 1:The attack was sudden and chaotic. Washington's men fired a volley, tana Greesen's warriors charged, and in about 15 minutes the fight was over. 11 French soldiers were dead, 21 were captured and only a handful escaped. Among the dead was Jumonville himself, and here's where the controversy explodes. According to several accounts, jumonville was captured alive and presented to Washington. Washington began to question him. Then Tanagrisen, with dramatic flair, stepped forward, declared you are not yet dead, my father, and split Jumonville's skull with a tomahawk. Not yet dead, my father, and split Schumannville's skull with a tomahawk. If true, this was a deliberate execution. Tanagrisen may have been making a point that he, not Washington, held the authority in this alliance, or maybe he just wanted revenge against the French. Either way, schumannville's death turned what might have been brushed off as an accidental skirmish into a full-fledged international incident. Washington, for his part, later insisted he had not ordered the killing. But whether he condoned it, allowed it or just failed to stop it, the result was the same Schonville was dead, his men prisoners and the French were furious Congratulations, george, you just started a world war. Washington knew the French would retaliate, so he pulled back and began constructing a new defensive position in a meadow along the Great Meadows Road.
Speaker 1:A few days after arriving, washington received reinforcements in the form of a hundred men under Captain James McKay regulars from South Carolina. But here Washington discovered a problem that would plague him for years the deep divide between British regulars and the colonial militia. Mckay's South Carolinians were technically independent companies of the British army, which meant they held commissions signed by the king himself. Washington, by contrast, was just a colonial militia officer with a commission signed by the governor of Virginia. So McKay refused to recognize Washington's authority. When they camped, mckay's men even established their own separate camp, apart from the Virginians. Washington fumed, and this planted the seeds of a long sore spot the British habit of looking down on colonial officers as second class.
Speaker 1:The site was less than ideal. It was low, marshy ground surrounded by woods and higher ridges. But Washington liked it because it was open enough to graze cattle and wide enough to see his enemies approaching. He called it optimistically, fort Necessity. Fort Necessity was basically a circular stockade, 53 feet in diameter with a shallow trench dug around it. Inside were some crudes, barracks and stores. It was the sort of fort you might build in a hurry if you knew angry Frenchmen were coming. And you only had about 400 men and some axes. And sure enough, angry Frenchmen were coming.
Speaker 1:On July 3rd 1754, a French force of about 600 soldiers and Canadian militia supported by 100 native allies marched on Fort Necessity. They were led by Louis Coulon de Jumonville, the other Jumonville's older brother. Yes, you heard that right. This was not just a military operation. This was a family revenge mission.
Speaker 1:The French surrounded Fort Necessity in the rain. Their musket fire poured down from the surrounding woods and ridges, while Washington's men huddled in the muddy trenches. The Virginians fired back, but their powder grew wet in the rain and their shallow defenses offered little protection. The fight dragged on for nine miserable hours. By the evening Washington realized the situation was hopeless. His men were exhausted, soaked and low on ammunition. Several dozen lay dead or wounded. The French had lost only a handful. So Washington agreed to parley.
Speaker 1:Devier, the older brother, offered Washington terms. He could march his men home with their weapons, provided he agreed not to build another fort in the Ohio Valley for a year. Washington accepted. But here's the kicker. Here's the kicker. The surrender document, written in French and poorly translated by Jacob von Brahm, included a phrase stating that Washington had assassinated Jumonville. Washington later claimed he had no idea what he was signing, that von Brahm had mistranslated the document. Maybe he did, maybe he didn't, but when the French published the terms, it looked like Washington had admitted to cold-blooded murder. So not only had Washington lost his first battle, but he'd also provided the French with propaganda gold.
Speaker 1:For the French, this was a triumph. They had demonstrated that they could not only defend their claims in the Ohio Valley, but also project power into the contested frontier. With Fort Duquesne now firmly in their hands, they effectively controlled the forks of the Ohio and, by extension, the entire River Valley. The native peoples of the Ohio country noticed this shift immediately. Alliances in the mid-18th century were nothing if not pragmatic. To most tribes. The British now looked like unreliable partners unable to defend themselves, let alone their supposed allies. The French, on the other hand, had won quickly and decisively. That mattered. As one Iroquois emissary later quipped, the English are weak and cannot protect even themselves. French officers quickly capitalized on this. They assured their native partners that France sought only trade and friendship, not land. This was of course a diplomatic fib of the highest order, but in the short term it seemed convincing. Meanwhile, emissaries worked to heal relations with groups like the Mingos and the Shawnee who had been wavering. By the end of 1754, the French position in the Ohio Valley was stronger than ever.
Speaker 1:Back in the British colonies, the response was well complicated. Governor Dinwiddie fumed at Washington's defeat, but he was even angrier at the lack of support from his fellow colonies. Virginia had shouldered the cost of this expedition almost entirely on its own, and when Dinwiddie had asked for money or men from his northern neighbors, he mostly got excuses. Pennsylvania, in particular balked Its Quaker-dominated assembly, disliked military spending in principle and in practice. They had little interest in defending lands west of the Alleghenies that they didn't see as part of their responsibility. Maryland and New York weren't much more helpful. Everyone agreed that the French were a problem, but when it came time to foot the bill suddenly, the Ohio Valley looked very far away.
Speaker 1:The friction between governors and assemblies was more than just a quirk of colonial politics. It revealed a deeper issue. The colonies had no mechanism to coordinate their defense. Each one guarded its autonomy jealously. And if you're detecting a faint scent of future revolution subplot here, well, you're not wrong. Future revolution subplot here? Well, you're not wrong.
Speaker 1:Across the Atlantic, however, Washington's defeat set off alarm bells. The Board of Trade and the Duke of Cumberland, commander-in-chief of the British Army, concluded that colonial militias simply weren't up to the job. If Britain was going to hold its North American claims, it would have to send in regular troops. This was the genesis of what would become the massive British expedition of 1755. General Edward Braddock, cumberland's loyal protege, would be dispatched to America with two regiments of regulars to lead a four-pronged offensive against New France. The objective, nothing less than the eviction of the French from the continent. Spoiler alert it wouldn't go quite that smoothly.
Speaker 1:For Washington personally, the campaign was both a disaster and a valuable education. He had learned how hard it was to move men and supplies through the wilderness. He had discovered the difficulties of dealing with Native allies, colonial politics and British regulars. He had learned that battlefield glory came at the cost of mud, hunger and failure. Years later, when he faced setbacks as commander of the Continental Army, he would recall for necessity. The loss scarred him, but it also seasoned him, and he had gained a reputation, not all good, but a reputation nonetheless. In Virginia he was still seen as a brave young officer who had stood his ground. In France he was seen as a murderer, and in Britain he was now on the map as someone worth watching. Still in the summer of 1754, george Washington was just a young officer with a ruined reputation and the dubious honor of having started a world war.
Speaker 1:Now, before General Braddock lands with his gleaming redcoats and his towering ego, we have to take a brief detour, because even as Washington was surrendering Fort Necessity, colonial leaders and Iroquois representatives were gathering in Albany, new York, in the summer of 1754. Their goal To hammer out a common strategy for defense and diplomacy. The Albany Congress, would be a rare moment when the colonies actually tried to cooperate. It would also give us Benjamin Franklin's famous join or die cartoon, perhaps the world's first viral political meme. But it would also reveal just how hard it was to get 13 squabbling colonies to agree on anything. So next time we'll travel to Albany, where Britain's colonies attempt their first experiment in unity. Franklin will pitch a plan for continental defense, the Iroquois will politely roll their eyes and the seeds of both cooperation and rebellion will be quietly planted. Until then, remember if your fort has necessity in the name, you might already be in trouble. © transcript Emily Beynon.
