Lecture 23: 1759 Quebec—Battle for North America

1759 Quebec—Battle for North America ........................................

Lecture 23

I

n 1754, an ambitious but inexperienced 23-year-old lieutenant colonel in

the Virginia militia was dispatched with a small contingent of soldiers to

a disputed area of western Pennsylvania. There, he was to locate French

troops who were constructing a fort and order them to depart from what the

British considered to be their territory. When his demands were ignored,

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the young lieutenant colonel’s name was George Washington; second, the

episode initiated a chain of events that helped spark a war between England

and France.

Backdrop to the Battle

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entrenched along the Atlantic seaboard with a population of

approximately 1.5 million. But colonial expansion was hampered

by the French conviction that the land west of the Appalachians

was theirs.

x Although the French in North America numbered just 70,000, they

laid claim to a vast diagonal band of territory stretching from the St.

Lawrence River through the Great Lakes to New Orleans. Daring

voyageurs traveled westward through the Great Lakes and explored

south along the Mississippi and Ohio rivers, establishing a series

of trading posts and forts along the way and blocking westward

movement by the English.

x After a series of escalating border incidents, in 1756, war broke out

between France and England. Among the British objectives was to

seize control of the strategic St. Lawrence waterway. Situated on a

series of high bluffs overlooking this river was the capital of New

France, Quebec. If Quebec could be taken, France’s main route of