Question

Why was fort Niagara important to the British plans

Answer 1

At the eastern end of Lake Erie, the vast fresh water drainage of the Great Lakes is constricted into the Niagara River. From that point until its junction with Lake Ontario, some thirty miles to the north, the Niagara River drops four hundred feet in elevation. Most spectacular is the 182-foot plunge over Niagara Falls. The cataract, with its gorge and rapids, creates the single greatest impediment to waterborne traffic in the Great Lakes. The importance of this water highway and the portage necessitated by the falls ensured that the Niagara River would become a point of contention between the nations attempting to dominate North America.

While French, British and Dutch colonists all settled on the shores of North America at about the same time, the French were best situated to exploit the natural routes to the interior. Despite some troublesome rapids, the St. Lawrence River led directly from their settlements to Lake Ontario. The French were thus the first Europeans to attempt to control the Niagara Portage. This was not an easy goal. Located astride Lake Ontario and the portage were the Five Nations of the Iroquois, militarily and politically the most powerful group of native people in American history. The French had alienated the Iroquois by aligning with their ancestral enemies. Although moderated for short periods of time, animosity between the Iroquois and the French would never entirely disappear. The French thus found a powerful human obstacle to their use of the Niagara.