our speakers, dr. b. franklin cooling, loretta neumann, kym elder. please join me one last time in a round of applause for them. [applause] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2014] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] you are watching american history tv on c-span3. >> each week, american history tv sits in on a lecture with one of the nation's college professors. you can watch the lecture every saturday evening at 8:00 p.m. and midnight eastern. professor brett rushforth talks about france's impact on north america in the early 1700's. he also details the territorial tensions between the french and great britain that brought the seven years war to north

america. he discusses the way britain's frenchl victory impacted holdings and settlers who remained after the war ended. the college of william and mary in virginia. the class is about an hour. >> we're going to talk about the seven years war. it is often known as the first global war. it is a war that in the united states is often called the french and indian war. beck, it is the war of conquest. it is the world conquest. the name is important. the civil war is one interpretation, but calling it the war of northern aggression means you have a different interpretation. uebec, the war of the

conquest has a really heavy political implication because they see this as the moment french society was taken over, concorde by the british, and therefore, the moment -- conquered by the british, and therefore, the moment that you start to see them sees french canada with a long and brutal struggle for attending. -- autonomy. the name the french and indian war comes from the british themselves. this is who they are blaming, naming for the aggression. they do not put themselves to blame. they put the blame on the french. is itsn years' war, name in europe. a's ends with a space -- with

peace treaty in 1873, but the war was already taken. so we call it the seven years' war. the nine year is it is part of an almost century long war for various colonial locations throughout the globe, in this case, particularly north america. instead of telling the story of the seven years' war as it is always told, which typically in north america is something along the lines of this is the war that set up the american revolution. this is the war that kicked the french out of north america, led the colonists to be more unified, and led to all of the crises that would culminate in the american revolution. there is a documentary that pbs put out not long ago and they call it the war that made

america. this kind of storyline is an important one. war asd to focus on the it was experienced by the people we have been talking about all semester. the war in the french atlantic. much less focus on north america. much less focus on future implications for the united states. much more focus on the french atlantic as a whole. there are lots of ways i could do this. i could talk about diplomats. i could talk about battles. but instead i want to talk about individuals. howl for different individuals experience the war, the adapted to the war, and what it tells about the theme of broader imperialism. the four individuals -- charl es-michel de langlade.

de l'enfant, jesus. she was born with a different name. esther will write. we will talk about how she was adopted and "redeemed" by the french. she became an important figure in the ursuline order. mayor, and he was born in st. louis. -- he was of both french and african descent. and he represents some of the

larger themes we have talked about their. negotiation of french and african power. the negation -- the negotiation of commerce and power. the third -- the fourth person we do not have a name. the executioner on the island of martinique. grimd to do some pretty things. to talk about the causes of the war, we can step back and give two general causes and some particular causes. first, the general causes. is thet general cause integration of the atlantic world in the 18th century. what i mean by that -- across the 18th century, colonial in westwhether it is africa, the caribbean, north america, even in europe -- these

places are becoming increasingly integrated over the course of the century through things like the slave trade and other commodity trades. as they become closer and closer in economic ties, in the movement of people, in the it more this -- the administrative peopleus that brings together, it means him pyres start to think about the interrelationship between these various places. something that happens in the ohio river valley can raise concerns about what will happen in bengal. and what happens in the caribbean raises concerns over what can happen in senegal. and conflicts that might have been local, that might have seemed small in the past, can start to take on a more global, oversized importance. they start to seem like patterns the other empire.

there are some ways in which thegration elevated concerns of the french and british and led to war. we will talk about why in a second. a second reason we can talk about as and origin of the war -- as an origin of the war is the general search for wealth in the americas. again, this is a fairly general category. this has two components. one is the search for wealth in ways people understand and know. meaning a commodity they sold in the past -- meaning caribbean slavery particularly -- but also spanish mining, which produced a envyf wealth, and was the of britain and france. there becomes an increasing concern that colonial economies and colonial imports and colonists themselves, as

consumers of european goods, a really important to european empires. and that increased importance more willinges are to go to war to defend those interests and expand those interests there. about northg america that set it apart was how little europeans actually knew about it. this map suggests ways in which the french and british sort of have a lot of conjecture, assumption about what is and is inamerica, -- what also a lot of but speculation. mapping, they had not figured out what north america look like. -- looked like. this map is a pretty good example.

it is fairly well mapped through the mississippi valley, and even the american southwest, but the american northwest is blank. this ignorance had important consequences. for the french, that ignorance about the american west at first met they believed anything could be out there. they were really excited about the possibility may be of silver mines or a northwest passage. be anhought it might opportunity to get out and trade ,n the pacific very easily which was a centuries-old goal in north america for french colonists. mid century, french diplomats and colonial officials more skeptical of north america. just over the horizon, they had thought over and over, there was going to be this great source of wealth, and over and over again they were shown to be wrong.

it was the mid-century where they start to learn about the great plains a little bit more, are.istant and vast they there are no sources of wealth vacancy. great britain at the same time is really interested, not so much about what is available in north america, but how they can get to the pacific, to access spanish well. places like hudson bay, which is really quite isolated, they start to search for passages out of north america so they can access spanish wealth. the french watch this carefully. they are afraid, even if they are skeptical, that they may be beaten to the punch, and the british would get access to the spanish trade and they would be left out of the game and they would be increasingly eclipsed. not only in the colonies, but also as a european power. as we have seen all the way back to the 16th century, colonial

to europeanlates power. remember, the spanish century? all that wealth in america generates power for spain. that example is not lost on them. britain is growing more and more powerful and france is growing more and more concerned. as britain starts to move westward, they start to put interest in the area the on the .ppalachians and hudson's bay france sees this as a threat. not just in north america, but in europe at large. there are are also a series of concern -- take this this general concern -- and the integration of the atlantic world and make it particular and create a spark that then leads to war. there are two instances i am going to talk about. i could talk about a lot more. one is in 1752 and the other is

in 1754. the first one in 1752. in prisondale ohio, not far from dayton, there was a settlement that was set up as a trade center. for thet of this was indians to be able to trade equally with the english and the french. because it was not at the french trading post, and it was not at these sort of british trading areas in pennsylvania, but it was intended it could access both. very independent place. a place to try to set itself tried tom empire, that play them off each other, which it had done for quite a while. by the mid 18th century, that

was getting harder and harder. these alliances became more and more firm. the french were less and less interested in being an alternative to the british. they really wanted these alliances to be exclusive. remember we talked about the native american cultural expectation that trade and alliance were taken to be one thing? this is something the french kept repeating back to them. if you are going to trade with the british, you are their allies and our enemies. the indians would counter with, you are trading with our enemies, so we will do the same with you. mainly it was about commercial interests. these native peoples wanted a place where they could access french goods and british goods. 1750'snch in the early came to see this as a threat. and partly because their entire existence in north america dependent on aid of allies.

alliances that kept them safe and previous colonial wars look like they might the starting to break down. and they were afraid if the example was set that there could be a large independent town that did not really have to choose a side, that their role model for north american colonization would be threatened -- their whole model for north american colonization would be threatened. they could not rely on these alliances as buffers against the british. because these people would also be trade partners with the british. of they gathered a group indians and french settlers in it andnd they raided destroyed it. they waited until the men were away. they attacked in a time of weakness and it was a complete rout.

the french side upset both the native americans and the british. the native americans were upset because they felt like they were being threatened that people were their trading partners, and in fact even by other indians, who in some cases were extended kin. in illinois who are allied to the french were involved in a raid that was targeting kin. threattish see this as a because they see this as british -- as french ambition on ohio. if you ever thought ohio would be worth fighting a global war over -- i'm sorry anyone from ohio. it is not what you expect is all i am saying. but the british stars seen this action as part of this larger concern that the french are

becoming more and more aggressive. the french are getting increasingly bold in their efforts to try to curtail colonies.alth in the the other thing that happens is it solidifies around the british colonies this narrative that the french are trying to take over the ohio valley and ohio itself. 1750's, ohion the is more or less empty. it is not totally empty. there are some native villages along the rivers, but not many. and there certainly are not any colonial settlements. reasons pick ae exist the wayto it was. the french, and take the settlement, the british become thisrned because they see

as an example of larger and more aggressive actions by the french. and the french start building forts along the ohio river drainage system, broadly speaking. the one that most concerns the british is for duquesne, which present dayhed at pittsburgh. again, if you think a global war is going to be fought over ohio and pittsburgh -- well, it's true. the french start to build fort duquesne. use thaty they would to launch from tiered -- -- frontier raid,

the british bank. they had a reason to fear this. war, there george's had been dozens and dozens of onnch and native raids frontier settlements that had been devastating. we talked earlier about the war of the spanish succession, how the villages were left devastated on the french and british side. this happened again in the 1740's. not long after that they see the french moving in, attacking native towns, setting up a fort, and they fear that it will be a launching spot for a lot of those raids, and they start to demand british colonies take interest and hopefully try to stop it. is a youngere military officer who was commissioned to go up and check things out. his job is really just a

reconnaissance mission. he is opposed to go up, find out what is happening with the french. he does take a small group of soldiers with him. he joins up with some native allies. they go and they find a forts, a that has army officers or militia and in confusion and panic, the british fire shots. there is a small skirmish, and seen as the start of hostilities. the name of this military officer? george washington. george washington starts the first mobile war. war.-- the first global they are fighting over pittsburgh and ohio and george washington is to blame. it is a very small place that does not have a lot going, because of these larger concerns

on a largerakes importance. and it is something that people feel is worth going to war over. the governor of virginia is really shocked about this. in part because this territory of ohio is a region virginian's believe they have a right to. and they see their future moving into virginia and, particularly those in power, speculating on land in ohio and making a great deal of wealth as people move out. -- wouldn'twiddie you like to have that name? maybe we can have a microphone and have someone read this for us. can we go that route? it was to do this for us? do not want to be on tv? all right, go-ahead. -- go ahead.

must not suspend or delay taking be proper measures to defend ourselves. all north america will be lost if these practices are tolerated, and no work can be than this, then the suffering of such insults. the truth is the french claim almost all of north america. dinwiddie expresses this concern. the french are grabbing all of north america and they are becoming more aggressive. the concern is not just they will lose ohio. the concern is not there will be skirmishes over trade. the concern is they are going to lose all of north america. this concern is a little exaggerated. it is a concern that really is not based in that one act.

it is instead based in a series of interpretations of a bunch of all over north america, and even globally, where the french and british start to believe that the other is intent on taking them over. at the end of a series of colonial global wars, they probably are not totally wrong, but in this case, it is sort of reading into something very small something that ends up very large. colonistshe british do start to fight actively against the french, and it is not until 1756 it becomes a war in europe. but the fighting in north america starts in 1754. we're going to go through a real brief timeline and then i want to look at the individuals we will focus on. battleed about the 1754

of fort necessity. it is really just a quick firefight. the is what really sparks war. early on, the french have a lot of successes. 55, when the british send regular army officers and soldiers to help with the colonists, to fight against the french, they think they are going to win pretty easily. they are dismissive of native americans as warriors, and they think they can't possibly stand against the disciplined european 1755, a general by braddockof product -- lead the campaign to retake fort duquesne. thinksery confident and

they will build on that and capture other french areas. it turns out they are completely wrong. they face not just a small contingent of french, but several hundred native american allies who have traveled from as far away as modern-day wisconsin and michigan. and these indians have come to fight with their french allies, anduse they have a material cultural relationship that we have talked about so many times. this commercial connection to the french that is also inseparable from these cultural diplomaticy, relationships. and many of them have family relationships. many of the native people who come from the great lakes region , in one way or another, a family connection to the french. they may be the child of a french man and a native woman. they maybe married themselves to

mentive woman or the native might have connections through with sisters, their kin, the french. we will talk about that more in a minute. ock expedition is completely routed. just to give a sense of the level of disparity in the ddock wins 400 dead and 400 wounded. there are only about a dozen on the french side killed. it is a massively lops you did -- a lopsided victory for the french. the british are really surprised. the next year the focus of the britaints in europe and is not sending a lot of troops or supplies yet. the french are able to have a series of early victories.

fort57, famously they take william henry. depicted in "the last of seenohicans," if you have this. a group of french and native allies. they go and lay siege to the fort. surrender the british their. there was a group of native americans who were promised that they could plunder the fort and be paid for there efforts by getting a lot of colonial trade goods. they were then told they could not plunder, because the terms of the surrender met the british had to be respected, captives could not be taken, goods could not be taken. the indians felt betrayed. they had been sold a bill of goods. they decided on their own accord goods andake the

prisoners. this becomes known to the british as the massacre at fort william henry. and it becomes a rallying cry for supporters, to try to rally for more money and military support for their efforts in north america. eventually, they do. in 1758 some of the british decide to send massive amounts in 1758, the of -- british decide to send massive amounts of military support. william pitt decides they need to focus completely on north america to defeat the french and then focus on other areas, like senegal and the caribbean. 1759, they had taken over in ach. the next year, 1760, montréal

surrenders, really without a fight. and north america within two years becomes completely surrendered to the british in this poor. they massively -- really a profound turnaround. -- and north america within two years becomes completely surrendered to the british in this war. frenchve switch of the native alliances. the british start attacking areas that are important for the slave and sugar trades. in the case of senegal, one other commodity -- gum arabic. little bit.out that in senegal, there are only two fortresses the french hold. of these two places become access points for this gun trade. the british decide to use the war as an opportunity to take this over and to benefit from this gun trade -- this gum

trade. in 1752, they also attacked martinique. we will talk more about that in a little bit. in 1753, there is a capitulation treaty. a couple items that ended up in that treaty. first, the french would get completely out of new france. they gave up on new -- on north america. canada went to britain and louisiana went to spain. a lot of the territories to ended up getting taken over by the british were returns. was returned to the french. the french do end up losing a couple of caribbean islands, but not the major ones. those end up in the french empire, and that has profound invitations for the second half of the 18th century.

-- has profound implications for the second half of the 18th century. with that brief timeline, you can see that this war has important geopolitical implications. north america completely changes. laying frenchns and british off one each other -- off one another. it is over. the british are the only game in town. it changes the way colonial powers deal with native people. it also means all kinds of areas that were contested between the british in the french are no longer contested and the british can move in. it allows for a lot more westward movement, which has important implications later. we will talk about 1763 and beyond . next time.nd it wassonally, experienced in very different

ways. people on the ground to make accommodations to the french did not experience the geopolitical settlement of this as some kind of massive break. they oftentimes just continue doing what they had been doing, and they used it as an opportunity may be to make their situation just a little bit better. i want to talk about these four individuals and how they experience the war, what role they played, and how they adapted to its course and its outcome. first, i want to talk about charles-michel de langlade. his full name is kind of a mouthful. born here, and he is the minor a french trader and military officer. and his mother is in ottawa

indian. and her brother is an importance auto what war chief -- an import war chief. he is born into an important ottawa family and in the region and important french family. he is raised speaking both ottawa and french and he is involved in the for trade. his connections to these two communities are equally strong. he is catholic, but he also participates in native war rituals. crown,oyal to the french but mostly to the extent that they are able to serve the interests of his ottawa family. glade plays an

the attack in on ohio. he is able to get a large group of supporters among the ottawa to join the expedition, despite the fact they will be attacking people, in some cases, that were previously allies or in some few cases were extended kin. he is the linchpin of the recruitment effort, getting native people to participate in the attack. he is also the linchpin in getting native people to participate in another battle where braddock was defeated. all of those indian allies that travel from the great lakes and end up fighting and defeating braddock were connected in some glade hade networks lan formed. he was also present at the battle of william henry --fort

william henry, and he is also .resent at the siege of quebec he is sort of like the forest mp of colonial gu wars and in the mid 18th century. -- this plays a role in france for losses. france cannot just dump a bunch of money and send all kinds of support. systemlly the alliance stores to fracture. there are two reasons. one has to do with fort william henry and self. the native people were promised they would be able to get goods, , and they had been

denied this. it meant they lacked trust now. and when the french asked them to come to war again in 1758, a lot of them stayed back. because they did not feel like they would be taking care of after the war. the second reason has to do with disease. in 1757, there is a smallpox epidemic. it is brought back to the great ands by the soldiers warriors who fought in the early stages of the war. when they return, people start to get sick. throughout the fall of 7057, hundreds die. if -- 1757, hundreds die. catholicok through the baptismal registries, you start to see these terse little entries. that does so and so, in danger of death. so and so, in

danger of death. buried so-and-so. day after day, these slow, steady dying off of people in the settlement. and because it had been brought people do the war, not want to go to the war front because they are afraid they might catch the disease and bring it back. suggesthat together there are personal and family reasons for participating in these imperial rivalries and commercial reasons. trade is really central, really important. langlade is actually at michelin mackinac when the french come to take it over. a fear the great lakes will be handed over to be british. when they arrived to take it -- isit is langlade

langlade who hands over the reins to the british. and he becomes an important ally of the british. why would he do this? he is french. the fact is, the british are there. best he can do. you becomes a trade partner to the british. he also becomes a military ally to the british and he fights with the british and the american revolution. he finds a way to adapt himself -- first to the french. his family had done this for a generation. and then again to the british as they arrive. it suggests a couple of things. one, this french native system betweenrelationship trade, cultural adaptation, intermarriage, it creates profound loyalties, but not

loyalties that are national in any sense. it is not as though now that the french are gone he cannot have anything to do with the british. his loyalties are personal. his loyalties are local. when the british are the personal and the local, he finds it is no problem at all to adapt those loyalties and be allies and trade partners with the british. another thing it signals is that this french system doesn't really go away. there are some problems at the end of the war, and we will talk about those next time -- some serious problems -- but in the longer run, the system of trade, alliance, intermarriage persists well after the french leave. the second person we're going to talk about is esther wheelw right, also known as marie-joseph de l'enfant jesus. wright was born in

maine. in 1703, she was taken captive by a group of indians who are allies of the french. they adopted her into their family and they eventually would allow the french governor to pay them a price and reclaim her. he adopted her. she lived for several years in the early 1700s in the home of the french governor. eventually, they decided to put her in the convent, and she is able then to learn french. she becomes catholic. and she becomes a very politics andn the the religious agendas of the ursuline order. as we talked about before, this includes a lot of social and political involvement.

a lot of the efforts to educate. a lot of the efforts to take care of the poor and the indigent. a lot of efforts to take care of social services -- broadly speaking. they were performed by these nuns and they operated largely independently. do you remember a story we talked about martinique when the ofulines were suspected being part of the slave conspiracy? the order maintained this sovereignty, the separation from control of the government for quite some time. well, the life of a nun at this point was very different than you might think. they are very involved. they are not hidden behind walls. they are important figures in the community. ,uring the siege of quebec

play anseph starts to important role. she is bilingual. she speaks french and english. when the british take over, they take over the ursuline convent and turn it into a military hospital. the first two floors are dedicated to the healing of soldiers, and she plays an important role because she is able to communicate with people and she has this family connection still to be british colonies. an she is able to become intermediary. then she is able to turn that into becoming an important political figure who negotiates the place of catholicism, the ande of the ursulines what is now becoming a british colony. as the british takeover -- take quebec, they make

accommodations to the french canadians. they allow them to practice catholicism. there are legal accommodations so certain parts of their legal system remains intact. and asked her -- esther, ma rie-joseph becomes mother superior of this convent because of her ability to be the intermediary between these french-canadians and the british . this suggests a couple of things. there are a lot of things it could suggest. there is a scholar named ann littles riding a biography of this woman right now. i am very interested to read it when it comes out. in one way, it suggests adaptability. dashed captured by the by the abernathy.

a terrifying experience. imagine being taken away to a place where you do not understand the language. ucr was. you are taken to the home of the governor. but over time, she develops the ability to play an important social, religious role in the colony. because you have to do what you have to do, i guess is part of it. violence can create not only distance and separation, but also points of contact and integration. there was a group of english captives in new france that had become catholic and remained there after the captivity, but they continue to remain contacts with the english colonies, and in fact this happens between montréal and albany, where there were all of these movements between the french and british

colonies based on the extended networks of these people who had, through various ways, been involved in colonial war. so, the war does not just separate, right? war can bring people violently together. the other thing that is important to recognize -- in a colonial setting, women played an important social and political role. all right -- example number three. interesting territory. a small island off the coast of senegal. he was the son of a french the west indian company and a west african woman. he was what people call mixed-race. theme time they called

what was french for mulatto, meeting he had an african mother and french father. during the 18th century, there were a series of accommodations that were essential to the operation of these colonial spaces. if you remember, african women become very important in connecting the french members of the company to the people who whether itrading, is, arabic or gold or slaves -- gold orm arabic or slaves. really run these operations day-to-day. when the british see -- when the british lay siege. it is not much of a siege. they really just march in and take over. they find this arrangement is quite surprising to them. it is not what they are used to. it is not what they have seen in other places.

he comes forward early on after be british arrived to let them know he has a certain stature in this community. he comes forward to insist that as -- it is like an inhabitant, someone new has property. and his rights as a leader in the community, his right to have inheritance, his right to have recognition as a free person, as being able to participate in society. and the british that are pressured to recognize these mixed-race families in the treaty of capitulation. so, they insist in the treaty itself that they are guaranteed their property. so, in a setting where it could have gone a very different way -- these people could have been marginalized. the reald have been --

losers in this situation. the mixed-race community actually rise in authority. and they actually gain a more firm foothold. he calls himself, when he goes to the british, the mayor. he says that he is the -- there is this position that has been recognized, although the french never administered that terminology. it was really more in practice, he was the one who was the leader of this community. he wanted that formalized and use the british arrival for the opportunity to formalize that that status that had only been a working relationship before. out,as the french move they have to flee and leave all of their property behind, this -- he is able to benefit from

this in some ways. the other thing that happened, when the company leaves, they leave behind a lot of stuff. buildings, trade goods, boats. involvedies who were in this community and in trade with them end up taking this over. not only do they elevate themselves politically, but also materially, and they end up in some ways really benefiting from this takeover. is interesting in another way. one of the things he discusses would be british when he is trying to make his case for being an important figure is the fact that he is -- he has also been to france. because his father was in the company, he then got a job as part of the company, and in that capacity he traveled at least once, maybe a couple times to a

place called orley on -- orleans, were the company had its headquarters. he spoke french. he had knowledge of the local african community and of the operation of french trade. so, it allowed for him to really benefit from both of these worlds. the other thing it did for the british was that it forced them into new arrangements had not really had and their west african settlements. , it gave themys talking points for new discussions. there was a man by the name of john lindsay who arrived there with the british invasion. priest, a religious figure. he writes a memoir. in that, he talks about this community. he talks about people like this, and he says, maybe this is a good idea. maybe we ought to be

intermarrying with africans and it could work out for the best. not that everybody believes that, right? it is not all of mbaya and racism is gone. but it does allow for talking points, for legal recognition in some cases of status that otherwise would not have been recognized. and after all of this is over, there are a bunch of ships back and forth of property. they end up losing the only thing the french get back. this has longer-term applications for the french empire in senegal, which we will talk about next time. the final story is these sadder one. maybe i should not have had this last. this is kind of depressing, the story. martinique. remember a few weeks ago we read the trial transcripts of the slave conspiracy interrogation

from 1710? and you remember, that conspiracy was concerning to be french, particularly because it happened at a time of war. this was during the war of the spanish succession. british ships are coming and going. they were afraid the island was going to be attacked. it crystallizes their general fear of enslaved people rising up and claiming authority, claiming freedom. the same thing happens during the seven years' war. the 1750's and going up to the siege of martinique in of2, there are a series high-profile escapes and plots discovered. there was a man who wrote a renoir. -- a memoir. he was from martinique. he was a slave holder. he talks about how day after

day, runaway slaves were brought back to the square in martinique and executed in a very public way. because they had to be examples. masts ofs they saw the british ships coming closer and closer, as they heard these worries of british takeover of colonial areas, they became concerned this would be a -- but not just for according to colonial rebellion. executioner at sent here -- do aierre is asked to series of horrific things. he not only has to hang people who tried to run away, but do things like break them on the wheel. he is charged with burning their bodies after they are killed publicly. remember angelique in montréal,

how she was hanged? terrorism,ct of right, to terrorize the people into submission. this was a man who was a slave himself. he was part of this community at st. pierre that certainly involved a lot of friends. these people, when they were not looking, they would spend time together. they had social relationships, sexual relationships, family relationships. this community, even though it was a port city, is a fairly small town. so, what is in all likelihood the case? this enslaved man as being asked to do these terrific things not to an abstract, faceless group of people, but his friends. fic things not to

an abstract, faceless group of people, but his friends. imagine that for a second. they tried to put a good face on this war. they tell the indians they will be destroyed by the british because they will no longer have us to worry about. that turns out to be true. but they say other things to the slaves in martinique. the horror stories you hear about the british caribbean to not happen here because we treat you as catholics, more as equals than these horrible british. no one really believes it, it turns out, and they are right not to believe it. of slavery was at the center of this war. it is important to end on this in some ways, because if we forget this, we forget really what is at stake. there is the potential of the spanish silver trade at stake here. that is theoretical. there is the potential control of the trade in india and bengal, where you will get cotton and silk and other

things. that is a small sliver. what is really at stake, for the french in particular, is there caribbean sugar production. americas is, in the what is profitable. remember the document i had to read? he was laying out this argument about why nor a method of -- north america is so important. he talks about france, louisiana. becauseotecting so much fewer and fewer of his french contemporaries believed him. he makes such a strong case for north america being important, because he has to make a strong case for north america being important. e wouldre self-evident, not have to make such a strong case. he would not have to make such a strong case. consuming a massive amount of energy and attention because it is producing a massive amount

of wealth. the caribbean really is the hearts of what the french -- the heart of what the french are trying to defend in the americas. the extent to which they are involved in north america is largely as a way of both buffering against british competition -- which can hurt the caribbean -- and providing potential supply areas or other things. weeks forois provided new orleans. there were various plans for new france and the caribbean. it never worked out because the growing season in quebec is really too short for that to work out. but the center of this war was really about imperial profits. it was about colonial power -- not in the abstract, but the details of finances, colonial wealth. as we step back, we go back to

the beginning of this war, this idea that north america was coming marginalized -- becoming marginalized in the understanding of its potential and less and less the object of french interests while the caribbean is becoming more and more the object of french interests. this means in negotiations at the end of the war, france does not fight to our to keep north america. brief pointre is a where no one wants canada. i say that not to hurt canadians' feelings. but the french and the british are hot potatoing canada for a while. the british really do want it, but there is a point where they believe it is so vast, hard to contain, hard to control, and the production has been so limited compared to the caribbean or india or other places that produce real well, that this region of for trading and -- real wealth, that this

region of fur trading and small-scale native wealth is not really a prize to be won. britain decides to get it because now they have an idea in claim a north america. for them, it is a real value. for can make their plans north america, not vis-à-vis all of these geopolitical concerns, but they can just take north not have to worry about french competition. france is most interested in getting back their most wealthy colony, martinique. they're also willing to give up france if they can get back martinique. in west africa, the french get back blu-ray -- gorat. so french lose out in india

the british can consolidate their control over india. this is why after the war, british india becomes a real powerhouse in terms of the empire. in the late 18th century, it is more valuable than it was earlier. they no longer have colonial competition. if we look at the french practices in north america and think about how they sustained ,rench presence over a century just a few thousand people coming to north america integrating into the native families that make up the north american cultural landscape, that strategy worked pretty well. that strategy sustained them and allow the french with just a few thousand people to maintain claim on the continent, except the governor of virginia feels they are a genuine threat to the

far more successful british colonies. the other thing i think this highlights is that empire itself is awesome -- is often thought of as an extraction -- abstraction. the empire is something that comes from europe and goes out. when in fact, empire is something experienced on the ground. it is something constituted by the people as much it is experienced by them. he is part french, part indian heritage. he is partly loyal to the french cause, partly loyal to the ottawa cause. he is part of the colonial world as the french officers. an amos girl captured and brought to québec -- an english

girl captured and brought to québec can play an important role in society. a mixed-race man in senegal and his family can be the engine that makes colonialism go, even though in a larger sense the greatest victims of this colonialism were african peoples. right? not all of them and not all the time. that, we should not think of empire as something particularly rosy. it is hard, painful, violent. the actions of the executioner of martinique should remind us even if in the individual situation people are able to adapt, able to make their world make sense in the context of empire, the choices they make are embedded in this larger system of power that is based for its economy and all of its structural strength in the violent transportation of

africans into the slave trade for the production of commodities. right? so this world of empire is complex. it is contingent. it can work for some people. but at the same time, it is not something just contested or negotiated or just experience as personal because there are abstract powers at work that we need to keep in mind. after 1763, the french have to rethink the nature of their atlantic empire. the people who live in the various places where the french have been and would recon center and have to adapt to the new social and economic and legal post-sevenf the years war french atlantic regimes. ok. we are good. now we are going to have

questions. anyone have questions? yeah. why would the british of the french martinique back? >> that is a good question. there are a couple of reasons. alwaysthese things are done not in isolation but as a trade for something else. the agreement was if the french got back martinique, the british could get more games -- gains in places like india. martinique means a lot to franch but they still have other places like barbados and are able to produce a lot of sugar. what they really want our gains -- are gains in places like bengal.

canada was part of it. britain gets the right to not have any french competition in north america, which was important to them. badly did martinique and senegal affect the french slave trades? >> it did not interrupt it much. there was an interruption for a brief period of the slave trade. senegal was not the largest place where the french got their slaves. the slave trade in general was interrupted. anytime you have a massive international war, shipping is going to be interrupted. there are seizures of slave ships. the slave trade does take a serious dip. but it is a short period. martinique is captured in january-february of 1862 and is back in french control by the end of 1763.

it is not a major disruption. goray becomes the headquarters of the french slave trade. the 1760's to the 1790's that is the greatest period of french slave trading. those three decades are the largest. it is a minor disruption, but not overall significant really. you said earlier the british were willing to invest heavily in troops in north america whereas the french were not. 't the french view the war in the french atlantic as an economic war and they had to make certain calculations as to what was important to them and what they were willing to defend? because they were not willing to send thousands of troops to canada to protect their interests there as opposed to the caribbean. >> that is right.

first of all, europe became the most important theater for the french. they were interested in gains in europe. in terms of the colonies, it was the caribbean they really cared about. if you are going to send a lot it isy to new france, going to take away a lot of strength from your ability to defend the caribbean or put efforts and resources into europe itself. there is the famous statement that when one canadian went to the french court asking for additional support for the war in north america he reportedly says, one does not save the stables when the house is on fire. it is probably apocryphal, but it suggests the idea that the center of concern for france was not canada. that is partly because it is a money loser for them. over the not ever

century and a half they have been established there ever made a royal profit. individuals have made profit, but overall it has been a losing venture for france. >> i don't know if you thought about it but if the french had gotten french canada back and lost martinique so they had to focus on canada, a big what if question, what would you say would have happened? >> the french canadians have been asking themselves that question for a long time. you would have a very different legal and ethnic makeup in north america. it is hard to say what would have happened. it is clear if the french had only lost martinique and kept saddam on -- cinnamon, they would have been able to produce a lot of sugar because that economy is growing superfast in the late 18th century. they might have doubled down, which they did anyway, but they might have done it more.

they also probably would have gotten into more colonial wars. the likelihood of that is shown by the fact that since the 16 80's they have been in more or less 20 awards with the british righte they were abutted against each other. it is hard to answer. they would have had more perhaps. others? good? all right. thank you. join us each saturday evening at eight :00 and midnight eastern per classroom lectures from across the country on different topics and euros -- eras of american history.

website or download from itunes. 1960 to 1962, the u.s. government aided cuban parents in sending their children to the u.s. in order to escape the rise of the castro regime. next on american history tv, author and professor anita casavantes bradford discusses the legacy of the mission known as operation pedro pan. she explains a differing interpretations of the children's exodus to the u.s. from cuba and how the 2000 custody battle over elian gonzalez reignited debate over operation pedro pan. after her talk, several audience members who came to the u.s. as part of the operation took part in the discussion. florida international university posted this 45-minute event. [applause] th