7 interesting facts about George Washington

3. Actions led to the start of the French and Indian War

Long before he would fight in the American Revolution, George Washington was a loyal British subject, a major in a colonial Virginia regiment and was at the heart of an incident that sparked the French and Indian War.

In October 1753, a 21-year-old Washington traveled out to the Ohio country to respond to reports that French forces were harassing English traders in the Western region.

After an initial meeting with French forces ended without resolution, a newly promoted Lt. Col. Washington set out again to Ohio in early 1754 with the same goal of removing French military presence.

In May 1754, Washington and a Native American ally known as Tanacharison fought a pitched battle with the French, with Tanacharison brutally murdering the French commander after he surrendered.

“Both sides claimed that the other fired first, but what neither side disputed was that this event deep in the American wilderness helped spark a war that would ultimately spread to places as far away as Europe, Africa and India,” noted the Mount Vernon website.

Shortly after the victory, Washington’s forces were overwhelmed by a larger French army, and that July, he had to surrender under terms that allowed him to return to Virginia.

The conflict sparked by that initial firefight would last until 1763, with many scholars believing that it created the on-the-ground conditions that would birth the American Revolution.