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[[Image:GW1755.jpg|thumb|250px|Colonel [[George Washington]] of the Virginia militia]]

[[Image:GW1755.jpg|thumb|250px|Colonel [[George Washington]] of the Virginia militia]]

==Name==

==Name==

The war is called the ''French and Indian'' because the [[Iroquois]] confederacy—which had been playing the British and the French against each other successfully for decades fought on both sides. The French were defeated and in the [[Treaty of Paris (1763)]], France surrendered its vast North American empire to Britain.

The war is called the ''French and Indian War'' because the British army and the American colonials fought against the French army and its Indian allies.  A few Indians fought on the British side.

 

==British Empire==

==British Empire==

British prime minister  [[William Pitt the elder]] decided that it was necessary to win the war against France at all costs. In previous wars America had been a side-show to Europe; not it was an important arena, though still not as important as central Europe. Militia and volunteers from the [[Thirteen Colonies]] became the main source of British manpower, augmented by British regiments and under the command of british professional soldiers.  

British prime minister  [[William Pitt the elder]] decided that it was necessary to win the war against France at all costs. In previous wars America had been a side-show to Europe; not it was an important arena, though still not as important as central Europe. Militia and volunteers from the [[Thirteen Colonies]] became the main source of British manpower, augmented by British regiments and under the command of british professional soldiers.