War has played a key role in the history of the United States, from the nation's

founding right down to the present. War made the U.S. independent, kept it together, increased

its size, and established it as a global superpower. Understanding America's wars is essential for understanding American history.

Welcome to Key Battles of American History,

a podcast in which we discuss American history

through the lens of the most important battles of America's wars.

Here is your host, James Early.

Thank you. your host, James Early.

Hello and welcome to Key Battles of the French and Indian War, our survey of the conflict that shaped the fate of two great empires and laid the groundwork for the American Revolution.

I'm your host James Early, as always, and I am

joined, as always, by my co-host, Jacob Hur. Well, Jacob, we had an interesting beginning,

didn't we? Lots of wars, lots of conflict. Absolutely. And things are only going to get hotter.

The thing, the gun is shooting.

They're going to be shooting.

They'll be joined by cannons and probably some arrows.

There will be lots of canoes and baton and all kinds of interesting stuff.

This is going to be a fascinating episode, I believe.

It's certainly a great story and hopefully we will tell it well.

But before we do,

let me recap what happened last time, because it has been a week since everybody's listened.

So we kicked off the series last week by talking about how France and England had been fighting

each other for centuries, going all the way back to the early 12th century. They had fought war after war after war down through the centuries.

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