Military cooperation was difficult because while each colony might call
on its farmers temporarily to join the militia in order to repel an
Indian raid, the militia-men were always anxious to get back to their
crops and would obey a strange commander with ill grace.
[Sidenote: Altered Situation in the Thirteen Colonies after 1763]
With the conclusion of the French and Indian War, however, conditions
were materially changed, (1) The fear of the French was no longer
present to bind the colonies to the mother country. (2) During the wars
the colonies had grown not only more populous (they numbered about
2,000,000 inhabitants in 1763) and more wealthy, but also more self-
confident. Recruits from the northern colonies had captured Louisburg
in 1745 and had helped to conquer Canada in the last French war.
Virginia volunteers had seen how helpless were General Braddock's
redcoats in forest-warfare. Experiences like these gave the provincial
riflemen pride and confidence. Important also was the Albany Congress
of 1754, in which delegates from seven colonies came together and
discussed Benjamin Franklin's scheme for federating the thirteen
colonies.
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