Ten Minutes That Changed America

In the book, The Plains of Abraham, the battle on The Plains of Abraham was characterized as "brief though the savage clash of arms had been, their two little armies had fought one of the battles which have changed the face of history. They were the ten minutes that changed America." The British Army led by General Wolfe defeated the French Army led by General Montcalm.

"For a century the French had laboured to draw a vast cordon round the British possessions in North America. Up the Mississippi it ran from New Orleans and through the Great Lakes to the St. Lawrence estuary."

The British colonies were east of the Appalachian Mountains for the most part, although King George II issued land grants ca 1748 for land in the Ohio River Valley.

"With the wild Indian allies they so sedulously cultivated, the French King's henchmen sought to pin the British colonists to the line of the Appalachian range and deny them the interior of the continent.  Wolfe's victory broke their [the French] hold for ever.  Into the vacuum surged the progenitors of the American Revolution."

The most famous of those who "surged" after their French-Indian War experience was George Washington.