It all began with an abortive mission to secure Britain’s hold on its colonies in North America. When a British colonial governor dispatched a young officer to demand the withdrawal of French forces from the Ohio Territory, a series of military and political dominoes began to fall, with world-changing effects.
Having established a strong presence along North America’s eastern seaboard by the mid 1700s, the British were looking ever westward as immigrants flooded in from Europe and sought to establish themselves in a rapidly growing nation.
The political and military fly in the ointment was a rival expansion of colonial interests in the New World by France. With a much smaller settler community, the French had come to depend on exceptionally good relations with Native American tribes, who, through their contacts with French coureurs de bois (independent fur-traders) and voyageurs (licensed transporters of goods to trading posts), had welcomed the French presence.
