DECLINE- The Fall of America?
by Bill Hansen

The next Pluto GC alignment (corrected for equinox precession) peaked December 2, 1758. This was another epochal period in American history. The two great powers of the world at the time, Great Britain and France, had fought three wars between 1689 and 1748. The fourth war, the Seven Years’ War (known in America as the French and Indian War), was the culmination of the conflict between these two expanding empires. The origins of the French and Indian War lay in a territorial dispute over the Ohio valley. Although under French control after the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713, the French had only trapped and traded with the Indians and settlers in the region until around 1750 when they constructed a line of forts. In response, Great Britain called a conference in Albany to coordinate defense efforts among the colonies and to negotiate an alliance with the Iroquois tribes. The 1754 conference failed to seal a pact with the Iroquois but Benjamin Franklin presented a plan for uniting Great Britain’s North American colonies in defense of British interests while giving the colonies greater power over their own affairs. British officials were uneasy about giving greater self governing powers to the colonies but colonial unity was still a long way off and the French threat was imminent.

War broke out in 1756 and lasted until 1763. By 1760, however, the war in America was over after the fall of Quebec and the capture of Montreal. Great Britain had won the struggle in North America. Great Britain obtained the territory east of the Mississippi as a result of the war. Statues to King George III were erected standing for the most powerful empire on earth. The war produced significant divisions between the colonies and Great Britain however. The British had no desire to exert complete control over colonial affairs, but they did want tight supervision of trade, the cooperation of colonials in local defense, and more financial contributions to the costs of imperial administration. The colonists, on the other hand, resented increased taxes, forced enlistment into the royal navy, and the presence of British soldiers in their midst.

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