USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -The rivers were their main way of traveling. The French wanted to control the American Indian trade in the Ohio River Valley and keep the Pennsylvania traders out. They also needed the American Indians living there to be their allies.

Detailed explanation-2: -In North America, Great Britain and France both claimed the Ohio River Valley. British settlers wanted to farm the rich soil there, and the French wanted to trap beavers and trade the furs.

Detailed explanation-3: -The French and Indian War began over the specific issue of whether the upper Ohio River valley was a part of the British Empire, and therefore open for trade and settlement by Virginians and Pennsylvanians, or part of the French Empire.

Detailed explanation-4: -What advantage would the French have for gaining control of the Ohio Valley? it lay between Canada and their settlements in the Mississippi River Valley. The British would not be able to expand west.

Detailed explanation-5: -Because rivers were so important to transportation, the forks of the Ohio was a strategically important location, one that both nations wanted to control.