George Washington who is referred to as the "Father of the United States" played an important role in the French and Indian War. As I read in the preface of The War that Made America by Fred Anderson, I learned that “George Washington struck the first spark of a war that set the British North American frontier ablaze.”(Preface) He was a 21 year old man who was raw and ambitious when he was sent to Ohio. Washington had no idea of the pivotal figure he would become in the start of the French and Indian War, also known as the Seven Years War, and how it would change the face of America. He was sent to the Forks of Ohio to confront the French and tell them to vacate. What George Washington did when he confronted them, started the Seven Years War.