--The French and Indian War, which began in
1754, served its purpose in making the colonists feel that they were one
people. At this time most of them were living on the seacoast from Georgia
to Maine, and had not yet even crossed the great Appalachian range of
mountains. The chief men of one colony knew little of the leaders in the
other colonies. This war made George Washington known outside of Virginia.
There was not much interchange of literature between the two leading
colonies, Virginia and Massachusetts. Prior to this time, the other
colonies had not produced much that had literary value. No national
literature could be written until the colonists were welded together.
The French and Indian War, which decided whether France or England was to
be supreme in America, exposed the colonists to a common danger. They
fought side by side against the French and Indians, and learned that the
defeat of one was the defeat of all. After a desperate struggle France
lost, and the Anglo-Saxon race was dominant on the new continent. By the
treaty of Paris, signed in 1763, England became the possessor of Canada and
the land east of the Mississippi River.
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