Many Americans think of the Revolutionary War as the pivotal event of eighteenth-century America because, to them, it represents the beginnings of our country. However, some historians argue that the French and Indian War was more significant, as its events and aftermath started Americans on the path to independence.
The war tested the relationships between America and the mother country. The decisions that arose from the conflict caused both the British and the Americans to question the nature of the colonial partnership. After the French and Indian War, it began to become apparent that America and Britain were developing culturally and socially along different lines, and the war exposed and exacerbated the fundamental differences between British and American goals.
George Washington was a pivotal figure in the French and Indian War from the earliest days. For Washington the French and Indian War started in late 1753, when he was selected as the British emissary to the French frontier establishment. It ended with the fall of Fort Duquesne to the combined British and colonial forces. He was a young and ambitious man when he volunteered. His actions--which reflected his lack of experience--and his ambitions helped determine the course of the war.
The war was also an important event in Washington’s life and development. His later decisions and actions were influenced by his French and Indian War experience. Washington’s war experiences not only taught him valuable lessons about command and politics, they also caused him to re-examine his professional and personal goals. The war both provided Washington with valuable military experience and shaped his perceptions of the relationship between the colonials and the British. Washington emerged from the war as a less naïve person.
Washington was an ambitious young man who wanted to pursue a military career. Before his death, Washington’s older, half-brother Lawrence Washington had a brevet officer’s commission in the regular British army during the British invasion of Cartagena[1] and served as the military adjutant for Virginia. It was common in eighteenth-century Virginia for official positions to pass down within families, and it may have been with this in mind that Washington actively sought to succeed Lawrence as a military adjutant. The adjutants’ role was to instruct the militia officers and soldiers in the use and exercise of their arms, to increase discipline in the militia, and to teach the men of the lower classes how to be more civilized. The colonial government divided the colony into four military districts; Washington lobbied for the adjutancy of the Northern Neck, which included his home. However, Washington was appointed to the adjutancy of the Southern district, which stretched from the James River to the North Carolina border. While he was disappointed not to receive the district closer to home, it was an honor for the as not-yet-21-year-old Washington (who had no military experience) to be appointed to the adjutancy with its £100 per year salary and a Virginia Major’s commission.[2]
