The Eighteenth Century was a period of contest between Britain and France for colonial supremacy. As one war ended the participants began to prepare for the next.

The War of the Austrian Succession ended in 1748. The French had lost Louisberg, which guarded the mouth of the St. Lawrence river in the fighting, but it was returned to them at the peace conference. Immediately afterwards the French fortified Louisberg and then sent agents into the Ohio valley to negotiate Indian treaties and to build forts. Their aim was to claim the whole area for France.

To counter this, English asked the colonies to send delegates to Albany, New York, to talk to representatives of the Iroquois tribe, with a view to signing an alliance. Virginia and New Jersey ignored the request, but most of the others attended. The meeting was a failure and the Indians left without giving the hoped for military assurances.

Delegates did discuss a plan for an inter-colonial congress that would be responsible for Indian affairs, defence and the western lands. They agreed to set up a council with tax raising powers. Its president was to be appointed by the King and would have power of veto.

This idea was rejected by the assemblies who were not willing to share their tax raising powers with any other body. Nor did they wish to give up their individual claims to western territories.

London was secretly pleased by this failure, since it seemed to show that the colonies were as fractious and disunited as ever. Thus, London believed, they would be as easy to manage in the future as they had been in the past. However, they were united on the principle of self-taxation. This factor was overlooked.

It is probable that one of the reasons why Virginia had not attended the Albany conference is the fact that she claimed all the territory to her west and north-west. This was on the basis of the colony's charter of 1609.

In 1747 a group of Virginia businessmen and planters formed the Ohio Company to trade with the Indians and to speculate in Ohio lands. Two of George Washington's half-brothers were involved. Two years later in 1749 Virginia gave the company 200,000 acres of Ohio lands.

In 1754 a certain Colonel George Washington and his militia regiment were sent into Ohio to build a fort at a fork of the Ohio River, the idea being to stake Virginia's claim to the territory. He arrived to find that the French had got there first and were building Fort Duquesne on the site. Washington

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