The War That Made America Four Part Series Analysis

“The War That Made America” is a four-part series introduced by PBS, which dramaticized and documented the Seven Years War, otherwise known, as the French and Indian War. The series focuses on the significance of this particular war, which is especially important to American history. The first installment of the series, “A Country Between” introduces the viewer to the Forks of the Ohio in 1754, wherein the Allegheny and the Monongahela rivers combine, to form a key geographic control point in North America. With both the British and French infringing on this territory warring for control over this geographic location, the natives of this region are hardly idle in this quarrel. The series begins by employing George Washington, who is depicted
as a central figure in the series, and introduced to the viewer as a young colonial officer serving under the British regime. Washington finds himself in the midst of dangerous politics and aligned with Tanaghrisson, a Seneca native. Washington is tasked with removing French troops from contested land, by force if deemed necessary (film, 4:32.) Unaware that a French troop he has come across are diplomatic envoys, Washington attacks. After this battle has concluded, to his dismay he witnesses Tanaghrisson tomahawk a French officer. The film denotes this event as what ignited the war, and attempts to resolve Tanaghrissons agenda and interests behind his actions, and exemplifies them as people living in difficult times, having to make difficult choices to preserve their own interests. The Seven Years War (1754–63) was actually a worldwide conflict, which fought for control over Germany and colonial N.
America. Most major European powers were involved, “in particular Prussia, Great Britain, and Hanover on one side and Austria, Saxony, France, Russia, Sweden, and Spain” (Seven Years' War, 2017.) The Seven Years War, colloquially to America, the French and Indian War, involved allied British and American colonies against Algonquian natives and French. In America, the French and Indian War began in Pennsylvania wilderness, which saw both the Americans and British simultaneously fighting together and against each other, natives who fought on both French and British fronts, and a war ending with victory which would be shared between a nation that we would soon be warring with. This war is easily convoluted, however the series “The War That Made America” clarifies this recent past, and the four part series provides an essential understanding of the Seven Years War, and emphasizes the importance of what this war will precede years later. Britain was the decisive winner at the end of the war, the French lost their stake of the North America empire. The natives lands and freedoms were now doubly endangered. The Seven Years War did indeed provoke the American Revolution, and if it had no happened then the revolution would not have happened as it had, and Washington would not have been made into the leader he was. Therefore, the Seven Years War is a very crucial
precursor in American history, which shaped the very fabric of both the nation's first president and steps towards independence.

The series was certainly informational, and surprisingly refreshing from typical documentary styles which employ monotonous speakers and an array of historians.
The series utilized actors which portray historical figures, which do occasionally turn towards the viewer to inform and confide to the audience their own thoughts and feelings. The narrator also provides crucial context and paces the events he relates to the viewer. The series covers a wide scope, however it also is able to organize these historical events in a way which makes the history comprehensible and compelling. Despite the series encompassing such a large scope, the series does not extensively detail the war in Europe, the West Indies, and India. As well, it offers little explanation of British subsidies to Prussian royalty, which helped to keep French forces at bay, and how the British navy’s victories divided a new France from and old France. Arguably, one of the series main points is to exhibit George Washington's maturation, correlating his experience in the French and Indian War as a key component in his evolution into a man who would lead the U.S. towards independence. Despite these minor shortcoming the series is a comprehensive guide to an American viewpoint of the Seven Years War, despite that this war encompassed many nations and reshaped the world as a whole. For instance, for Austria and France the Seven Years War was a marked diplomatic rebirth between two secular adversaries, whom eventually
created an alliance. The result saw Marie-Antoinette as the Queen of France, whose Austrian heritage created a rift and overall unpopularity of monarchy, which would eventually lead to the French revolution. In addition, France's defeat in the war produced a need for revenge, which in 1779-83 was quelled, when France declared its support for the Thirteen Colonies. This would bring financial collapse to the empire of France, another cause for the French Revolution. It was thanks to the war that the original Thirteen Colonies were able to expand westward. Britain, deciding to halt expansion instead demanded additional taxes to finance a war, and as a result the colonies rebelled with the aid of Spain and France (Jennings.) In conclusion, the Seven Years War is historically important in shaping the modern world. Without it, revolutions which occured in both France and America would not have occurred, and the systems which were created due to these revolutions would not be in place in modern day. Nations would not have been created, for example Prussia would not have been established as a world power and the creation of the German Empire would not have occured. The creation of these events is crucial to our understanding of modern history because without these events the world would not be as it is now.