Documentary access:

The documentary is available through a You Tube.  "The War That Made America" can be found here.

Introduction:

The French and Indian War pitted Great Britain, its colonists, and Native allies against France, its colonists, and Native allies over control of North America. (The name comes from the British perspective after who its enemies were.) Beginning in 1754, a series of fights over territory in the Pennsylvania back country near today's Pittsburgh escalated into a full blown war, which merged into a larger, world wide conflict known as the Seven Years' War.

At the center of the skirmishes was a young George Washington, a Virginia militia officer sent on expeditions to dislodge the French from what Virginia considered its territory (Virginia had an expansive idea of how big the colony was). Britain would win the war, but at an enormous cost that would lead to deteriorating relationship with its colonies.

The documentary episode looks at the origins of the contest between Britain and France with Natives in between confronted with the need to choose sides. It focuses in particular on Washington, a Native leader known as the Half King, the Frenchmen the Sieur de Jumonville and his brother Louis Coulon de Villiers, and the British general Edward Braddock. Over two years, the men made decisions that escalated tensions and making what could have been a small, local conflict into a full-scale war.

Question:

Who was most responsible for the escalation of the conflict: Washington, Half King, Jumonville and Villiers, Braddock? Someone else or some other group?

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