1.2.1 Conflict Over Land

Conflict Over Land
Learners can:

• explain why control over land in the Ohio River Valley would start a war

Vocabulary: waterway-a flowing body of water
ally-a person, country, or group united with another for a common purpose

By Sierra Scaggs

Starting in the 1500s, European countries like Spain, France, and England began to voyage across the Atlantic to settle in North America.
The journey across the Atlantic Ocean was long and challenging. Still, many families chose to leave a place that they knew well to travel to land that was unknown to them.

They would have to start over and make new friends, build new homes, grow new crops, and find new jobs.
New land brought the idea of wealth and power, and each country wanted a fair claim over the land in North America.

In today's lesson, you will learn about the conflict the French and the British had over land and how it led to a war.

Match

Match the following

• the way people spend money and make money

• 
  

  a place located along a coast where ships load or unload goods

• Blank

Economy

Port City

Blank

• Economy

• Port City

• Blank

Places like Boston, Philadelphia, Jamestown, and Charleston were important port cities during the Colonial Period.
A port city is a place that is located on a coast, where the land meets the water. The waterways, or flowing bodies of water, such as bays and oceans, were important for early settlement for several reasons:

• transportation-People and goods were transported from place to place by walking, riding a horse, or by ship.

  Traveling by ship was the quickest way to transport goods and people. More goods could be transported at once. Since most colonial settlements were along the coast, ships could access them easily using the waterways of bays and oceans.

• trading-Trading was an important part of the economy during the Colonial Period. Colonists were able to make money and receive things that they needed by trading goods with other colonies and countries.

  Ships would arrive in port cities to trade goods such as tea, fabric, fur, gold, tobacco, lumber, and even enslaved people.

• businesses-Port cities brought people from all over the world. The high population of people traveling in and out of port cities made it a perfect place for business owners. They relied on port cities to make money. The businesses you might find in a port city are bakers, printers, blacksmiths, and carpenters.

Many colonists settled along waterways like the bays and the oceans because it was easier and quicker for colonists to receive goods. As colonists migrated west in North America, they also found rivers to be another important waterway for the transportation of people and goods.

An Important River System

After settling along the coast of North America, the colonists continued to move west. As they migrated, they stayed close to waterways, like rivers.

The Ohio River Valley had the Allegheny Mountains and three important rivers, the Allegheny River, the Monongahela River, and the Ohio River.
The Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers join to form the Ohio River.
These three rivers would become important transportation and trading routes during the Colonial Period.
Surrounded by the Allegheny Mountains, the start of the Ohio River is in what is known as present-day Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It continues to move west, where it connects with the Mississippi River, in present-day Cairo, Illinois.
The Ohio River is a wide and long river that provided a path to the West for the colonists.
A waterway, like the Ohio River, that traveled westward opened up opportunities for ownership of land, which meant more possibilities for trade.

Who Occupied the Ohio River Valley?

During the Colonial Period, about 4,000 Native Americans were already settled in the Ohio River Valley. They used the land to hunt, fish, and grow crops. They also hunted beavers and other animals to trade.

This area was also occupied by the French and the British.
The French, the British, and the Native Americans all occupied the land in the Ohio River Valley.

A Battle for Land

The French, in their territory called “New France,” depended on their friendships with the Native Americans who lived there. Their survival and economy were based on trading with the Native Americans. They could not survive without their help.

The Native Americans would trade fur and food for metal products, cloth, and guns.
The British colonists did not depend on the Native Americans in the Ohio River Valley to live. However, trading fur, especially beaver fur, was an important part of their economy.

They also saw owning the land in the Ohio River Valley as a way to become wealthy.
The French feared that as the British moved in on the Ohio River Valley, they would lose control over the trade and transportation that occurred on the river systems. They were not interested in settling or owning the area, but wanted to maintain control over it.
To the French, it became clear that whoever owned the land in the Ohio River Valley would have control over the transportation and trading routes they depended on for survival.

The conflict over who owned the land would quickly turn into a war.

Match

Match the following

• 
  

  They wanted control over trading and transportation.

• 
  

  They wanted to become wealthy landowners.

• 
  

  They already lived there and needed the land for their survival.

British

French

Native Americans

• British

• French

• Native Americans

Claiming Land

In 1749, the French began to fear that the British colonists claimed land as their own in the Ohio River Valley. As a result, the French sent Captain Pierre-Joseph Céloron de Blainville, from Canada, with his men down to explore the area. On his trip, he buried lead plates in the ground to claim the land for the French. He also made speeches to the Native Americans in the Ohio River Valley.

When he arrived near present-day Ambridge, Pennsylvania, he found British traders carrying 150 packs of fur that the Native Americans traded with them. He concluded that the Native Americans were becoming an ally with the British. An ally, or alliance, is a person, group, or country united with another for a common purpose.
In 1752, with Captain Céloron de Blainville's report, the Governor of Canada, Marquis Duquesne, ordered forts to be built along the waterways of the Ohio River Valley.
The first two forts were Fort Presque Isle on the south shore of Lake Erie and Fort LeBoeuf on French Creek, a smaller river connected to the Allegheny River.
While the French set up their first military forts, Governor Robert Dinwiddie from the colony of Virginia gave ownership of land in the Ohio River Valley to the people of Virginia.

Both the French and the British were beginning to take control of the land.

Open Ended

Why did control over land in the Ohio River Valley start a war between the French, the British, and the Native Americans?

Today, you learned about the conflict over land between the French, the British, and the Native Americans.

This conflict would eventually lead to a war called the French and Indian War.

Great job today!