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Colonial America (1492-1765)

The French and Indian War

The French and Indian War
Reading Level
     edHelper's suggested reading level:   grades 5 to 7
     Flesch-Kincaid grade level:   7.36

Vocabulary
     challenging words:    year-old, original, various, westward, militia, surrounding, gain, separate, beginning, country, neither, phase, upper, defend, longer, itself
     content words:    George Washington, United States, Ohio Valley, Appalachian Mountains, Mississippi River, Ohio Company, Native Americans, Fort Duquesne, Fort Necessity, Indian War

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The French and Indian War
By Sharon Fabian 		  
1     In 1754, George Washington was a young Virginian, and the United States was not yet a country. In that year, Washington was sent West by the governor of Virginia to take care of a problem there.
 
2     The problem was located in the Ohio Valley, the area between the Appalachian Mountains and the Mississippi River. English settlers from Virginia, who were beginning to think about occupying more land, had formed the Ohio Company and made plans to expand westward. At the same time, the French were also expanding into the Ohio Valley area. Native Americans had occupied the area all along. The problem was that all three groups had claims to the same land.
 
3     George Washington, a 22 year-old major in the Virginia militia, had a mission. His mission was to tell the French to go away.
 
4     The French settlers didn't go away. They built a fort, Fort Duquesne.
 
5     Next, George Washington and his men built a fort nearby. Fort Necessity, as it was called, was small - only 53 feet in diameter. Its wooden palisades were built of split logs. Surrounding the fort itself were earth trenches from which the men tried to defend the fort.

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