Battles that Changed (American) History, Friday 2, 9-10

[screwyoumarvel]

"Good morning," Steve said, "and I regret to inform you that your syllabus is still not ready, but we're going to start off with a battle I won't presume even the Americans among us have heard of: the battle of Jumonville Glen." He paused for a moment, then said, "No? I thought not. The French were building forts in the Ohio Territory, which the British also laid claim to, and when George Washington showed up to ask them to stop that, he was told they were disinclined to acquiesce to his request. That means no. So, the British sent a group of men into the territory to build a fort, the French sent in a larger group to chase them off, and Washington led a group of British soldiers back to attack the French in the night of May twenty-seventh to twenty-eighth, 1754, killing ten soldiers and capturing twenty-one. That was it. The battle of Jumonville Glen. Nothing big, right? Except it had far-reaching consequences--it kicked off the French & Indian War, also known as the Seven Years' War, at the end of which, Great Britain needed money. And where are they going to get that money? From their thirteen colonies in North America, of course--colonies they'd mostly left alone up until that point, and colonies that resented the increased interference in their lives. Colonies who would begin to think...maybe they'd be better off without Britain involved. One little skirmish. All it takes to get the snowball rolling downhill.

"So, let's talk about the battle of Jumonville Glen. I want you to consider the sequence of events, and discuss at what points hostilities could have been ceased instead of escalating, and how. Please don't hesitate to converse amongst yourselves."