there's a narrow channel between it and the rest of nova scotia or acadia. so the french did retain this island and also this island off the coast of acadia. besides that, this region was also part of french canada. the point is this. 1713, going back to an earlier french/british war, after all, this was an era of french/british conflict and the seven years war that we talk about today is the culmination of this really in the colonial period. in 1713, when the british gained governance of nova scotia or acadia, the colonists were french. so what did the british say to the french then? they basically wanted them to remove. they wanted the french colonists out if they could effect that. and then they would bring in -- they would bring in -- remove the french catholics if they could to better control the territory which after all was close to the gulf which borders the gulf of st. lawrence and the entry to the st. lawrence river. the point is though, the british military in acadia was weak. they only had a few hundred men. and even though they would have liked

the french settlers in acadia. who were the main actors in this? and why was the decision taken and what was the acadian position at the time? we could devote a whole class to that. so i can only hit a few high points here. let's go back to the map of acadia. and we come to the rationale of the british. the rationale was that a small minority of the acadians, even though living under british rule, had assisted the french in warfare during the 1740s. and then a small number had assisted the french in warfare in this region in 1754-'55. what was the position of most of the acadian settlers, the great majority in the great majority wanted to stay neutral. they said let us be subjects of the king of britain. that's fine. but we insist on two conditions basically. and one of these conditions we'll see was the most important. the first condition was we should not be forced to make war against our own countrymen. ornatatives, indians. we will be loyal to britain. we will not, of course, take up war, arms against britain. but nor should we be compelled as

the british military in acadia was week. even though they would have liked to have removed the french catholics if they could have in 1713, they did not. they found more politics and wiser to allow them to remain. and they did remain. basically over the next several decades, the french population grew. it has a very high birthrate, higher than the number of deaths even though the population was small. nevertheless, it was growing. by the time we're talking about in the 1750s, there were about 13,000 french colonies in the area op acadia and cape read in ireland. this island called the heel san john. in there's about 13,000 french. a couple of things happened to lead to the main tub. that's the expulsion of the acadias. please. the population reached 13,000 french colonies in nova scotia by the 1750s. it's opinion much smaller than that back 450 years before or 4 years. prince edward ie loonds is today this island here. that's its name in canada. in this period, the french, we have to remember that they first gave colonial na

the hardships, not least of the acadia, the french colonyist of acadia who were largely exported. we'll also talk about a battle that occurred in the lake champlain corridor, actually, on the shore s of lake george and triggered a famous episode that's featured in the movie, "the last of the mohicans". we'll talk about the turning point in the war. the french and their native allies were doing well. in 1757, when william pit rise to power as the first minister in england, kings first minister, what would be prime minister today, the british adopted a more effective work policy that made north america a central theater of the war and brought more resources to north america, which helped british victory ultimately. that british victory will see occurred through the occupation of certain points including quebec. we'll talk about the british campaign that culminated in the conquests of french canada in 1759-60. let's turn to a modern map to give you a sense of the geography that i've outlined here. we can see that the -- there's an outline of the british colonies along the seaboard. a

we also talk about acadia or nova scotia, which is here. an important region. and next, we'll begin with the ohio country because this is where the conflict began in 1784. pardon me, 1754. 1754. all right? okay. let's continue. well, historians use maps, you know, to get a sense of not only the relationship between geographic regions and that's very important, but historical maps such as this one which date to 1756 and was drawn in paris gives us this type of map gives us a sense of how europeans perceive the north american landsca landscape. it tells us what they knew most about, what they knew less about. for example, it also shows you little red dots where there are settlements or towns in areas of the british colonies. and here, of course, is the st. lawrence. and montreal would be here where and quebec toward here. so we get a sense of how people living at that time, especially policy maker government, policymakers, government leaders perceived the geographic landscape. one of the most interesting features of this map, which is in the state library of vap

know, still maintain contact with the acadians, the french descendants of the french colonials of acadia in nova scotia today and cape breton island. they have associations, meetings because they are from the same family. of people. so that's an important aspect of the french and indian war. now, what about the fighting in the lake champlain corridor? here we have an interesting image of an iroquois chief called hendrick by the enling and the dutch in new york, and he was an influential mohawk chief for many years, and he made a visit to england about 1740, and perhaps for that reason at one point he didn't necessarily normally wear a british coat like that of an officer, but in this case he did as a badge of honor that he felt a loyalty to the english. of course, that require that the british authorities and the british colonial authorities respect the mohawks, respect their lands, give them sufficient presence and good terms of trade, so there was reciprocity in this relationship. it was not one way. let's go on. we talked about the albany conference earlier in 1754. hendrick was there