Both the British Empire and American colonies suffered greatly from the French and Indian War. It is often thought that it was the main cause of much of what led to the American Revolution. British Empire had a huge impact on the British Empire’s victory in the French-India War. It meant that the British Empire was able to expand its territorial claims in New World. However, the war’s cost had significantly increased Britain’s debt. The war created a lot of resentment among English leaders towards colonists. They were not happy with the financial or military assistance they received from colonists during wartime. All these factors combined were enough to convince many English leaders of the need for major reorganization of the colonies and the need for London as the center authority. These plans, which were a major part of colonial resentment against British imperial policies that eventually led to the American Revolution, were set by the English leaders.
The war had a different, though equally important effect on American colonists. The colonists learned to work together against common enemies. Prior to the war, there was little common ground between the colonies and they lived in mutual distrust. Thay realized that they were a force to reckon with and had come together. Britain would be their next foe. But the English government made a different decision. They issued a Royal Proclamation prohibiting settlement west of the Allegheny Mountains’ crest. To enforce this meassure, they authorized 10,000 permanent soldiers (paid by taxes collected from colonies; the most important being the “Sugar Act”, and the “Stamp Act). The British reacted furiously to this, and the Americans were forced back by the French.
The British victory was disastrous for the Indians, who were third in the French and Indian War. The victorious English reacted with hostility to the alliance of tribes with the French. The Iroquois Confederacy allied itself with Britain and did only marginally better. The alliance fell apart quickly and the Confederacy started to fall from within. For fifty more years, the English fought the Iroquois for control of Ohio Valley. But the Iroquois never again had to deal directly with their white opponents on military or political equality terms.
