A Short, Easy History of the French and Indian War

Originally published in 1906 as a section of the author’s larger “School History of the United States,” this Kindle edition, equivalent in length to a physical book of approximately 16 pages, tells the story of the 1754–1763 North American war between France and Great Britain.

Sample passage:
The English occupied but a narrow margin of the continent along the Atlantic coast, scarcely more than a hundred miles wide, from Maine to Georgia. The French were thinly scattered over a territory twenty times as great as that occupied by the English; but the English population was twenty times as great as the French. (The English population exceeded 1,200,000; the French was about 60,000.)

The English had come to America to build homes and to secure religious freedom and happy family life. The French came to convert the Indians to Christianity, to engage in the fur trade, and to build up a great new France. The English would build up a new England by migrating in large numbers; the French would build up a new France, not by coming in large numbers, but by making Frenchmen of the Indians.

The French treated the Indians as brethren, adopted their customs, and often married into their tribes. The English, on the other hand, though often friendly with the red men, never received them as of their own class, never adopted their customs nor invited their confidence. Moreover, the French wanted furs, which the Indians were ever willing to furnish, while the English wanted land, which the Indians were unwilling to give.

About the Author:
Henry William Elson (1857-1935) was a professor of history at Ohio State University. Other works include “Side Lights on American History” and “Four Great American Presidents.”