Colonial Frontiers 1700–60

The colonial frontier is the name given to the line of European settlements in North America. The disputed territories were principally between the French and English, as the English expanded westwards, beyond the Appalachian Mountains. By 1700, the French had established settlements in New France, northwest Québec, the Great Lakes region (Pays d’en Haut) and French Louisiana. By 1760, they had already become embroiled in war with the British (starting in 1754) over the midwestern territories abutting the Great Plains, which they had laid claim to in the previous century. By 1700, the colonies of the first settlers, the Spanish, in southwest America and Florida had been established for nearly 150 years. In the 1760s the Spanish became increasingly alarmed by Russian fur traders encroaching into northern California. There were also tensions over British encroachments into the Carolinas and Georgia, with Spain providing a document in 1742 claiming Georgia was theirs.