The French felt that they had a superior claim to the lands of the Ohio Valley, especially the territories that are now part of western Pennsylvania. The French leaders in Quebec sent military parties to discourage the Indians from trading with the British in the region. Finally, in 1753, the French built forts in the area and were challenged by the British colonial militia under George Washington. Hostilities erupted on July 3, 1754, after a massacre of some French by Indians they had previously attacked. Washington was forced to surrender and withdraw, and soon both sides were sending reinforcements to fight in Pennsylvania and ultimately in Canada. Indian tribes were allied with both sides, with the French supported by those whose land was imperiled by the British expansion into the interior.By war's end in 1763, the French lost Canada and the majority of their New World empire to the British, but they would get their revenge by aiding the colonials in the Revolutionary War, only fifteen years later.they were fighting over land