Both the French and the British wanted the Ohio River because that was viewed as the key to controlling the territory between the original colonies and the Mississippi River. Google the terms French and Indian War and Ohio River.The Ohio River Valley. As people began to settle in the frontier, the frontier moved farther and farther west. By the middle of the 1700s, British fur traders had crossed the Appalachian Mountains into the Ohio River Valley. They moved into land that was claimed by both the British colonies and France.The French and Indian War began in 1754 and ended with the Treaty of Paris in 1763. The war provided Great Britain enormous territorial gains in North America, but disputes over subsequent frontier policy and paying the war's expenses led to colonial discontent, and ultimately to the American Revolution.
