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 back to Key Battles of the French and Indian War, our survey of the

conflict that shaped the fate of two great empires laid the groundwork for the American

Revolution.

I'm your host, James Early, as always, and I am joined by my co-host, Lord Jacob, the first

marquee of her.

Jacob, how are you, sir?

I'm doing well.

How are you?

I'm doing terrific.

We're having a great time with this series, and we're going to continue.

And Jacob didn't know I was going to bestow on him an honorary lordship, too.

He's in the nobility now.

All right.

So I'm just full of tricks, aren't I?

But let's recap the last episode as we always do, because it has probably been a

week since you've heard our voices. So what happened last time? Well, we saw that William Pitt,

...