was a war launched in 1763 by North American Indians who were dissatisfied with British rule in the Great Lakes Region and the Ohio Country after the British victory in the French And Indian War / Seven Years' War (1754–1763). The uprising was the first extensive multi-tribal resistance to European Colonization in North America , and the first war between Europeans and American Indians that did not end in complete defeat for the Indians. First extensive war: Ian K Steele, ''Warpaths: Invasions of North America'', p. 234; first not to be complete Indian defeat: Steele, p. 247.
The war began in May 1763 when American Indians attacked a number of British forts and Anglo-American settlements. Eight forts were destroyed, and hundreds of White settlers were killed or captured, with many more fleeing eastwards. Hostilities came to an end after British army expeditions beginning in the summer of 1764 led to peace negotiations over the next two years. The war was a failure for the Indians in that it did not drive away the British, but the uprising prompted the British government to modify the policies that had provoked the conflict.
In terms of casualties and numbers of people involved, Pontiac's Rebellion was small by European standards of the era. Warfare on the North American Frontier was characteristically brutal, however, and the killing of prisoners, the targeting of Civilians , and other Atrocities were widespread. Both sides attempted crude forms of Biological Warfare , including what is now perhaps the war's best-known incident, when British officers at Fort Pitt attempted to infect the Besieging Indians with blankets that had been exposed to Smallpox . The war reflected, and contributed to, a greater level of animosity between Anglo-Americans and American Indians. According to historian David Dixon, "Pontiac's War was unprecedented for its awful violence, as both sides seemed intoxicated with Genocidal fanaticism." Quote: David Dixon, ''Never Come to Peace Again: Pontiac's Uprising and the Fate of the British Empire in North America'', p. xiii. The Indian attempt at biological warfare was the poisoning of the well at Fort Ligonier, Dixon p. 153. For racial antagonism, see Daniel K. Richter, ''Facing East from Indian Country: A Native History of Early America'', ch. 6. For the particular brutality of North American frontier warfare, see John Grenier, ''The First Way of War: American War Making on the Frontier, 1607-1814''.
The conflict is named after its most famous participant, the Ottawa leader Pontiac ; variations include "Pontiac's War" and "Pontiac's Uprising". An early name for the war was the " Kiyasuta and Pontiac War", but after the publication of Francis Parkman 's landmark book ''The History of the Conspiracy of Pontiac'' (1851), the war became widely known as "Pontiac's Conspiracy". Scholars have long questioned the appropriateness of naming the war after Pontiac, since the extent of Pontiac's influence in the conflict has been variously interpreted. Alternate titles have been proposed, but historians generally continue to refer to the war by the familiar names, with "Pontiac's War" probably the most commonly used, and "Pontiac's Conspiracy" now rarely used. "Kiyasuta and Pontiac War": Dixon, p. 303; alternate titles include "Western Indians' Defensive War" (used by Michael N. McConnell, ''A Country Between: The Upper Ohio Valley and Its Peoples, 1724-1774'', after historian W. J. Eccles) and "The Amerindian War of 1763" (used by Steele). "Pontiac's War" is the term most used by scholars listed in the references.
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You think yourselves Masters of this Country, because you have taken it from the French, who, you know, had no Right to it, as it is the Property of us Indians
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Nimwha, Shawnee diplomat,<br>to George Croghan , 1768<!--Dowd, War Under Heaven p 216-->
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