Unification of the American People (Pre-American Revolution)

For the English colonies, the French and Spanish colonies were an hindrance to westward expansion, trade and cooperation with Native Americans. They saw the French and Spanish as a potential military threat in the new world. The English, who where mainly protestant, thought of the French and Spanish colonies as a bastion of Roman Catholic Christianity, which bothered them greatly. In 1739, Great Britain declared war on Spain in what was known as the War of Jenkin’s Ear, which was fought mostly in the New World. Then this war merged into the much intenser and larger war of the Austrian Succession, which saw Great Britain and France as opponents. This war started in 1744 and lasted until 1748. The war had turned out to be a draw but intensified British and France rivalry, and both kingdoms increased its military and fortifications in the New World. The population growth of the British continental colonies proved to be a source of tension. In 1700 the population was 250,000, it grew to 1.75 million in the 1760s. The colonists saw the colonies as a very dense populated area even though by today’s standards they are considered to but very low density areas. The colonist decided to push west into the Appalachian Mountains and beyond. They had started to creep into areas already claimed by France. The first people to start the march were fur traders and land speculators. The first people were getting rich because they would get land at a low cost on unsettled land and then would turn around and sell Kneibel 2 it as a high price to people that would arrive later on. One of these spectators would become very famous, George Washington of Virginia. The English were moving into an area that was claimed by the people who had been there for hundreds of years, such as the Ottawa and Delaware in the Ohio Valley. These people had good relations with the French, who also had the region dotted with numerous forts. Other people that had occupied the land were the Iroquois