Main Body French-Indian relations Previous to the French and Indian war the Indians had shared land with the French in peace. In fact the French and the Indians lived in a state of co-dependence. Certain tribes of Indians were more closely interacting with the French than others, for example the tribes in the Great Lakes region (the Ottowa, Ojibwa, Potawatomis and Huron) were very close to the French. These tribes often exchanged goods, lived and even intermarried with the French people. The interdependency was to such an extent that the economies of the French Colonies in North America were heavily economically reliant on these Native Indians, in they were mainly trade reliant. Unlike the British the French and Indian alliances were based …show more content…
The British never reached this point in their relationship with the Natives. After the French and Indian war the British did not approach the Indians correctly, they struggled with Indian relations. The Indians were treated as inferiors, this led to discontent as the Indians had adapted to the French policy, where they were treated as friends and equals. Historian Richard White termed this as a “middle ground” where the two sides had found means to not only coexist but also cooperate. French and Indian War The French and the British both competed with each other for control over land in North America. It was essential to both their economies as the fur was extremely profitable hence both side wanted to maximise their control over the resources and optimise their alliances with the Indians. Fearing English expansions the French sought to make a link between New France and their colonies in Louisiana in order to create a military barrier to the English. They aimed to do this through the Ohio River which were controlled by the Ohio River tribes: the Seneca, the Delaware and the Shawnee. These tribes relied neither on the French nor on the British for their provisions, they were largely self-sufficient and had an economy based largely on farming and hunting not …show more content…
The British population in North America was rapidly growing, hence they required more land to settle the new populace, and more resources to feed and clothe them. Neither the British nor the French had any settlers in the land but the British required the land for a place to settle their booming population and the French want to protect their economy, in the trade from the Indians. Both looked at the Ohio River lands as land which could be, as if it belonged to no one. But this was untrue as the Ohio River Indians had been living on this land for a long time. As historian Fredrick Jackson Turner claims in his ‘Frontier Thesis’ “[the] idealistic conception of vacant lands as an opportunity for a new order of things is unmistakably present” here he also describes the attitude of the French and the British by saying that “never again will such gifts [such as] free land offer themselves.” , causing the kindling of Native American discontent to