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US History Lecture 10 — Transcript

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0:00Let's get going with today's lecture.
0:03Today we're going to be looking at a
0:05couple of conflicts that are going to
0:07have a huge impact in the history of
0:11North America.
0:13The first one takes place smack in the
0:16middle of the 1700s. Uh in North America
0:20will be known as the French and Indian
0:21War which lasts from 1754 to 1760.
0:27But this is part of a larger war, also
0:29known as the Seven Years War, that
0:31lasted between 1756 and 1763.
0:35And this is the big showdown between
0:38England and France for possession. Well,
0:41it starts out in North America, but it
0:43will extend to
0:45really all over the world. I mean, this
0:46is one of those conflicts that in some
0:48ways it would be more fitting to call
0:50this the First World War because it's a
0:53conflict that will be fought everywhere
0:55where France and England have colonies,
0:58which is
1:00not only will they fight in Europe, they
1:01will fight in North America, they will
1:03fight in Africa, and they will fight in
1:05Asia. So, if that's not a global
1:07conflict, I don't know what is.
1:10But in any case, let's look at how this
1:13plays out in North America because this
1:15is the
1:17it's not the first time that France and
1:19England had been in conflict. Well, not
1:22only many times have they been in
1:23conflict throughout history, but also
1:25even in this century, even in the 1700s,
1:28there have been multiple wars and I
1:31didn't bother you with all of them
1:33because after a while it got serious.
1:35Most of them are unresolved and they
1:37just postpone things to the next
1:39conflict. I'm going to talk about the
1:40seven years war because it's a big one
1:42and it has a decisive outcome.
1:46I have skipped bothering you with all
1:48the previous conflict between French and
1:51British in North America because there
1:53are too many to keep track of.
1:56This one, the way it starts out, you
1:58know, the rivalry between France and
2:00England has been ongoing and in some way
2:03this rivalry involves American Indians
2:06because what you see happening is uh
2:11essentially both sides want to expand
2:14westward and gain access to Indian trade
2:18further west. And by the way, when I say
2:21both sides, I'm actually oversimplifying
2:23because the situation is more
2:24complicated than that. There wasn't just
2:27the French and the British. The British
2:29were split in different colonies. You
2:31had, for example, Virginia and
2:33Pennsylvania. They were rivals for some
2:36of the same land in which both of them
2:37wanted to expand. So, it's even more
2:39messier than that. But for the sake of
2:41simplicity,
2:43for a long time, the French had enjoyed
2:46much better alliances with native people
2:49than the British did. For obvious
2:51reasons, since the British are out to
2:53conquer native land, whereas the French
2:55were building trade networks and in some
2:58cases even families with native peoples.
3:02However, in the 1750s,
3:05some British trader, they were able to
3:07lure a few chiefs away from the alliance
3:11with the French. In one case, there was
3:14a chief of the Miami tribe. By the way,
3:17Miami is nothing to do with the modern
3:18American cities of Miami, Florida. It
3:22referred to a tribe from the Great Lakes
3:24area. A chief of the Miami started
3:27building a very sizable village of
3:30native people who were trading with the
3:32British.
3:34Other natives trying to convince him to
3:36return to the alliance with the French.
3:39This Miami chief refused and the French
3:43government was dragging its feet about
3:45figuring out what to do about it. So, an
3:48alliance of Ojiua and Otawa natives
3:51attack this village and in a display
3:54designed to terrorize others who may
3:57think of going the same way as this
4:00chief and join the British, they kill
4:02this guy and actually ate him inside of
4:05everybody because again cannibalism
4:07makes all stories much cooler already.
4:12The what end up happening here is that
4:16this is a native versus native fight,
4:18but it's really boiled down to trade
4:20interest between an alliance with the
4:21French and alliance with the British.
4:24And both sides were interested in the
4:26forks of the Ohio River, which is would
4:29be where modern day Pittsburgh is
4:31located. And the reason for this is
4:34because whoever controlled the Ohio
4:35River would control a lot of the trade
4:38in the area. So you see both sides
4:42trying to claim the land.
4:45I'll go into a few details on this and
4:48then we'll start skimming a little bit
4:49more through the seven years war. But
4:51essentially what happens is that you
4:54have
4:56Virginiaians going out to try to build a
5:00fort at the forks of the Ohio and
5:02claiming it first.
5:04The French army showing up saying you
5:06guys are trespassing. We claim this land
5:09first. We have already done it. Who
5:12knows what the reality is? But the
5:14bottom line is that the French expel the
5:16Virginiaians from the area. So the
5:19governor of Virginia send a very young
5:21George Washington. He was only in his
5:23early 20s to negotiate with the French.
5:26Washington makes the trip from Virginia
5:29to the forks of the Ohio
5:31and quickly find out that the French
5:34have no intention to relinquish their
5:36fort they they are building there.
5:39So after returning with the news in
5:42Virginia, Washington is dispatched a
5:44second time and sent to try to forcibly
5:48evict those French who are staying at
5:50the front at the fort and to use force
5:52if necessary.
5:55things begin to spiral out of control
5:57because Washington will run into a force
5:59of French soldiers in the woods will
6:02order his soldiers to shoot
6:05after capturing the ones they haven't
6:07killed the French look at Washington and
6:10say why did you do that we are coming to
6:13Virginia to talk with you
6:15who knows whether that's true or not
6:17whether it was they were indeed on a
6:19diplomatic mission or not but Washington
6:21clearly begin to start sweating bullets
6:23because he's like did I just put on a
6:25French diplomatic mission. Oops. If
6:28that's the case, that's kind of a
6:30problem because this could be and will
6:33be actually the first incident that will
6:36give rise to this big huge war. But it
6:40could still save the situation here. It
6:42could still be a oops, sorry, didn't
6:44mean to. You know, after all, French and
6:46British had shot each other many times
6:48before and it led even to wars and they
6:51were never that bad. Well, one thing
6:54that makes things worse this time is
6:56that there were some natives with George
6:59Washington
7:01and these guys had, you know, for
7:04example, there was an Irocoy leader and
7:06this guy at stake his reputation over
7:09opposition to the French whereas other
7:12people in his tribes were supporting the
7:14French. So he had gone so far in stating
7:17his opposition to the French that he
7:19wanted to make sure that now that the
7:22Virginiaians were clearly anti-French
7:25that they would stay anti-French.
7:28So he woke up to the wounded French
7:30officer was telling Washington on a
7:33diplomatic mission and drove a tomahawk
7:36through the guy's call, killing him. And
7:38you know Washington was clearly too
7:40young to handle this and lost control of
7:42their situation. Now one of his allies
7:45had murdered in cold blood a French
7:47officer.
7:48There is no coming back from here. You
7:50know this looks really bad. To make
7:53things even worse,
7:55French soldiers from the four tier words
7:58of what happened. They chase down
7:59Washington,
8:01pin him down
8:03and his forces in a place where they
8:05could just wipe them out. And Washington
8:08is forced to sign a humiliating
8:10admission. You know, they say, "We'll
8:12let you go. will let you go back to
8:13Virginia, but you have to sign this
8:15document. And in the document,
8:17Washington admits to the murder of the
8:20French officer and essentially take all
8:22responsibility.
8:24By the time he gets to Virginia, he
8:25makes up 10,000 excuses. He say, "Ah,
8:28the I don't speak French very well. I
8:31don't know what I was signing. The light
8:33wasn't very good. I couldn't read what
8:35was being said." You know, he's
8:36basically deny responsibility for the
8:39death of the French officer. But the
8:42reality is that the French by now have
8:44all the evidence they need to be able to
8:47start a war feeling that they are in the
8:49right. And that is exactly what's going
8:52to happen. And you know this happened in
8:541754
8:56and will be the first uh
9:01the first fight in a war that's quickly
9:06going to
9:08take over North America will affect
9:11Africa, Asia and Europe. So this is how
9:14it starts but it quickly spiral into
9:17something much much bigger.
9:20So we see happen is in 1755
9:23the British army now that they are at
9:26war the British army send a general to
9:29North America and with the biggest
9:31British force ever assembled to this
9:33point they try to march onto that fort
9:36at the forks of the Ohio River and take
9:38it.
9:40There's almost no chance that the French
9:42soldier will be able to resist this
9:44British force. you know, if they get
9:46within sight of the fort, they will be
9:48able to take it. There's just too many
9:49of them and they are too wellarmed.
9:52But some of the French native allies
9:55attack the British force in the woods
9:59and are able to, you know, for one, they
10:02had been scaring. You know, many of
10:04these British had never been in North
10:06America before. They have heard all
10:08these tales about Native American
10:09tribes. They're kind of intimidated.
10:12Um the warriors have been you know kind
10:15of scaling them for a while because
10:17during the march north the warriors have
10:19been kind of tailing the column and
10:20killing anybody that they find going out
10:23in the woods by themsel and letting
10:26their body be discovered. So you know
10:28the British are feeling that they are
10:30being watched. These natives are all
10:32around them. And at one point as they
10:35are getting close to the fort, the
10:37forest explodes with war cries as mainly
10:42natives with a contingent of French
10:44soldiers surround
10:46the British force in the woods and begin
10:48to shoot at them. In the battle that
10:52follows,
10:53it kind of denotes the failure of
10:55British tactics to deal with warfare in
10:58North America. You know, the British
10:59line up in orderly formation. They only
11:02shoot when they are older to. In the
11:04meantime, Indian sharpshooters hide
11:06behind the trees and once a volley had
11:08been shot by the British, they start
11:10picking them apart one by one. British
11:13officers were wearing this very
11:15flamboyant, colorful clothing which made
11:19them easier to identify and so they were
11:21targeted by Indian sharpshooters who
11:24picked them apart.
11:27Long story short,
11:29Bradock himself, General Bradock is uh
11:32shot and killed. Most of his officers
11:35are shot and killed.
11:38Leading the retreat will be a young
11:42George Washington was um he had joined
11:48as as an auxiliary because he was you
11:50know from Virginia. He wasn't part of
11:52the British army officially but he he
11:54had joined
11:57the staff of General Bradock and
12:00Washington himself is he loses horses
12:03his clothes are pierced with bullets but
12:06somehow he managed to get really lucky
12:07and not get shot dead. Now realistically
12:11speaking the natives and French could
12:14wipe out this old British force could
12:16kill George Washington and in that case
12:17the whole history of America as we know
12:19it would be different. There would be
12:22couple of decades later there would be
12:24no George Washington as general in the
12:27American Revolution. There would be no
12:29George Washington as first president of
12:31the United States. The only reason why
12:33it doesn't happen is because natives of
12:36French arrive on the battlefield.
12:39The remaining British forces are fleeing
12:42running for their lives. And the French
12:45and the natives decide not to give chase
12:47because they find all the loot that the
12:50British have left on the battlefield,
12:53including giant bottles of ram. So
12:57British um French and natives decide to
12:59just have a big party and get drunk on
13:01the battlefield instead and just let
13:03this few British including George
13:05Washington escape.
13:08So what's going to happen at this point
13:11is that
13:14this opens a period of fullcale war
13:18that's going to sweep this part of North
13:21America for the next several years. And
13:25this is going to be a very tough war
13:26that neither side is going to have an
13:28easy time winning.
13:30Native people will raid the frontier up
13:33and down
13:35because clearly their number one enemies
13:37wasn't just the British army. They were
13:39the settlers who had been taking over
13:41land of the frontier where native tribes
13:43used to live and now they got kicked
13:45out. So when war starts
13:49they are more than happy to attack those
13:53um British residing along the frontier
13:57and the climate of fear created by this
14:01you know many many people will flee the
14:04frontier as they get terrorized to at
14:06the idea of native attacks.
14:09Now the whole story of native attacks
14:12give rise to something very interesting
14:14that happens here. There's one thing
14:16that native people did
14:19was uh
14:21they would take a lot of prisoners
14:23during these raids and one of two things
14:26could happen.
14:27If they don't like you, if they think
14:30you are a threat or you whine too much
14:32or for whatever reason they don't like
14:34you,
14:35they would kill you in brutal fashion.
14:40If they do like you, however, if they
14:43decide this person is not bad, then they
14:46may adopt you and make you part of the
14:48tribe. There was this customs that most
14:51tribes in the Great Lakes are ahead of
14:53replacing their dead relatives with
14:55somebody they adopt. So, somebody may
14:58have lost brother, sister, father, sons,
15:01daughters, moms. You replace that person
15:05with somebody you have adopted. And once
15:08you adopt them,
15:10they become your family member. You love
15:12them to death. You do anything for them.
15:15So there's this weird duality that being
15:17captured by native tribes. You could die
15:21a horrific death or you could become a
15:24cherish and love tribal member and
15:27either one could happen. You know, it
15:29wasn't about skin color.
15:31There we this practice of adoption lead
15:34to the fact that in some cases there
15:35will be people who have not one drop of
15:38native blood will end up taking very
15:41important roles within the tribes. So
15:44for them wasn't really about race. There
15:46was no concept of race. There was a
15:48concept of you're either part of our
15:50tribe or you're not. And if for whatever
15:53reason we do decide to adopt you then
15:54we'll treat you as good as you can treat
15:57anybody ever.
16:00and to the point where most of the
16:02people adopted in this fashion never
16:05wanted to go back. Even when they had an
16:07opportunity to quote unquote be freed
16:10and rejoin white society, they didn't
16:13want to cuz they discovered something
16:15they actually really enjoyed in living
16:18with the tribes.
16:20There's a quote by Benjamin Franklin
16:22that gives you a good insight into this.
16:24Franklin said, "No European who has
16:27tasted savage life can afterwards bear
16:31to live in our societies."
16:34That tells you something and it puzzled
16:36the English to no end. They couldn't
16:39figure out why, you know, since they
16:42believed they were the superior,
16:44greater, better culture. They couldn't
16:45figure out why some of their own people
16:48would rather live with natives where
16:51there were no natives who wanted to live
16:53with the British.
16:55Clearly, that said something not
16:57flattering about the health and appeal
16:59of each culture. You had a bunch of
17:02Europeans who wanted to live with
17:03natives. You had no natives wanted to
17:05live with Europeans. That says
17:06something. And so even when these
17:09captives were quote unquote rescued,
17:11they would cry and flee and escape to
17:14return to their Indian families because
17:15by that point they saw themselves as
17:17natives for all intents and purposes.
17:20So that's an interesting one right
17:23there. Now something else that's
17:25interesting is that these raids became
17:28the first glue to create a common sense
17:31of American identity. Because keep in
17:34mind the people living in the British
17:36colonies had nothing in common with one
17:38another. There were in many cases they
17:41didn't even have a language since there
17:43were people from Germany or people who
17:44speak Gaelic or you know not even
17:47English was a language that everybody
17:49spoke in the English colonies. So you
17:52had people of different religions who
17:54didn't like each other. people from
17:57different nations, you know, the Irish
17:59or the ScotIrish and the English didn't
18:01like each other and they didn't like the
18:03Germans and so different nations,
18:06different religions, different social
18:08classes as the wealthy tended to look
18:11down on the poor as white rush and vice
18:14versa. So the different colonies,
18:17Virginia, Pennsylvania and others had
18:20rival interests. So there was very very
18:23little to unite
18:26the Euroamerican population of the
18:28British colonies together.
18:31The one thing that they will have in
18:32common, the one thing that will be begin
18:34to create a glue binding them together
18:39will be the fear and hatred of American
18:43Indians. Since at this time during the
18:46French and Indian wars, everybody
18:48doesn't matter religion or nation or
18:51wealth, everybody can become a target of
18:54native attacks.
18:57And so this hatred of natives will
19:00become the first scene that they all
19:01have in common that bring them together.
19:04So it's kind of weird to say that, you
19:06know, native hating is the unifying
19:09element among the colonies, but that's
19:11basically where it's at.
19:14Now, make a really long story short
19:17because I won't take you through a
19:18military history of the French and
19:19Indian War, but over time, despite many
19:23French victories, by 1760,
19:26the war is a wrap. The British are able
19:29to defeat the French, conquer Canada,
19:33and the war will drag on for three more
19:36years in other parts of the world until
19:38it's fully done by 1763.
19:41But by this point, the balance of power
19:44that had existed in North America for so
19:46long no longer exists. The French are
19:49gone as a colonial power and there will
19:51still be French people in North America,
19:54but France as a colonial power is out.
19:57And so in at least this part of North
19:59America, you have a bunch of native
20:01tribes and you have England. That's it.
20:04um the natives are not going to be able
20:06to play the French and the British
20:08against one another the way they had
20:10done before to try to get better deals.
20:14So this is not something that most
20:16tribes are happy with. Now there were a
20:18few tribes who joined the British during
20:20the war, but the vast majority had
20:22either stayed neutral or had joined the
20:25French because they had a closer
20:27alliance with the French, which is why
20:29all these raids were done against
20:31British targets. Hardly ever you see
20:33them against French targets.
20:36And yet at the end of this war, the
20:39whole thing is done and now you have
20:42just the English to deal with.
20:46Now the end of the war will be marked by
20:49the signing of a peace treaty in Paris.
20:52And despite the fact that native people
20:54had fought on both sides of the
20:56conflict, they will not be included at
20:58the peace negotiations.
21:00And this is a mistake that will lead to
21:02an immediately to another war in 1763
21:07because okay let me backtrack one second
21:10because the natives allied of the French
21:12did not see themselves as defeated. They
21:14felt like okay you defeated the French
21:16that's great you didn't defeat us. So
21:19unless you make a peace treaty with us
21:22that makes sense to us we are not done.
21:25We're going to keep fighting you. And
21:27that's exactly what happened in 1763
21:30with what some books refer to as Pontiac
21:33war.
21:34Pontiac being the name of a military
21:37leader of the Otawa tribe.
21:40And Pontiac basically built an alliance
21:44between a bunch of tribes that were
21:46former allies of the French. The Otawa,
21:49the Ojiua, Potawati, Shai, and a bunch
21:52of others.
21:54The Da were among them. The Delaware
21:56interesting enough they had this one guy
21:58Neolin
22:00was a Delaware Delaware being a tribe
22:03then the state of Delaware gets its name
22:05from but the Delaware were this one
22:07tribe who
22:10opposed the English and there was this
22:13man by the name of Neoline who was a
22:15religious leader for the Delaware who
22:18preach this idea that all tribes needed
22:22to join together and fight against the
22:26British to put aside all the intertribal
22:29alliances. And another thing that Neol
22:31preaches is the need to go back to the
22:33days before the for trade to not rely so
22:37much on European goods and find native
22:40independence again which of course makes
22:42sense. The problem is it's kind of too
22:44late because there is no turning back
22:47the clock. There is no relying back on
22:50ancient technologies in the face of
22:51modern ones. But it's an appealing goal
22:54because it speaks to the goal of
22:56self-reliance.
22:59In any case, the Pontiac is brutal. Both
23:02sides know that there will be no pity
23:06for the defeated ones.
23:10The natives will lay siege to a bunch of
23:12British forts and burn a whole lot of
23:14them down.
23:16There's an instance where the British at
23:18one point look like they may have used
23:21biological warfare. There's a discussion
23:24of handing out blankets that were
23:27tainted by smallpox to wipe out the
23:29tribes. Now, there's debate about
23:30historians whether this was only
23:32discussed and not done or whether it was
23:34actually done.
23:36So, that's a controversial topic, but it
23:39looks like a possibility. And by the
23:40way, whereas earlier on, you know, we
23:42spoke about diseases earlier, nobody
23:43understood how diseases were passed
23:45along, by now they did. And so there's a
23:49plan discussed by the British of taking
23:51blankets from the smallox hospital and
23:54handing those blankets as quote unquote
23:56gifts to natives so that they would be
24:00infected and you could wipe them out.
24:04So in any case, the fighting goes on for
24:07quite a while.
24:09It's a very long tough year of fighting,
24:13but the British begin to do a few things
24:15to stop it because the reality is they
24:18were hoping to beat the natives quickly.
24:20They realize they can't. They have spent
24:23way too much money during the seven
24:25years war
24:27and they cannot afford another long war.
24:30The natives at the same time they have
24:32fought very well and they have defeated
24:34the British a few times but they don't
24:36have the strength to fully beat the
24:38British and kick them out of North
24:39America. That's just not going to
24:40happen. So the British try to throw them
24:43a bone. They in 1763 they sign something
24:47known as the royal proclamation. And the
24:49royal proclamation is basically a
24:51document that say all the lands east of
24:54the Appalachian mountains that we have
24:57already taken over those will be ours.
25:00But anything west of the Appalachian
25:02Mountain, that's native land and you
25:05guys will get to keep it.
25:08Which wasn't too bad of a deal because
25:09he was essentially saying, look, native
25:11people can keep their lands for their
25:14west. You're not going to get back the
25:15ones you lost already, but you can keep
25:17the ones for their west.
25:20The problem with the royal proclamation
25:22is kind of the same problem that
25:24affected many other treaties and deals
25:27that the reality is that they were not
25:29meant to be kept. There's a letter, for
25:32example, written by George Washington to
25:34a friend of his about the proclamation
25:38in which Washington states, "I can never
25:41look upon that proclamation in any other
25:43light than as a temporary expedient to
25:47quiet the minds of the Indians
25:50and one that must fall of course in a
25:53few years.
25:54Any person therefore who neglects the
25:56present opportunity of hunting out good
25:59lands and in some measure marking and
26:01distinguish them for their own in order
26:04to keep others from settling them will
26:06never regain it.
26:09Which basically is telling his friend,
26:11ignore the proclamation, cross the line,
26:15make a claim to a piece of land so that
26:17when we'll break this treaty and push
26:19west, you will have claimed some land
26:22first before others. turns out to be not
26:25very good advice to his friend because
26:27his friend will be captured by Delaware
26:29Indians and tortured to death. But you
26:32can see the meaning of it is that this
26:35created a lot of tension between the
26:38British government that didn't want to
26:39fight the natives no more because they
26:41were out of money and many settlers at
26:44the frontier wanted to push west in
26:47order to take more land and make money
26:50the way the previous generations had
26:52done by pushing west and taking native
26:54land. So this peace treaty will actually
26:57anger a lot of British colonists against
27:01their own government and in some way
27:02plant the seeds for what will become the
27:05rebellion of the American Revolution and
27:07the clash between the United what will
27:10become the United States and England. So
27:13that's something right there that sort
27:17of sets up. You can see how Pontiac war
27:20and the proclamation
27:22more or less set up the or or rather
27:26they were one element that set up the
27:30conflict that will come later in the
27:321700s in the 1770s what will become
27:35known as the American Revolution. But we
27:37will tackle the American Revolution in
27:39the next lecture. For today this is

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