I never learned about the French and Indian War in school. I suspect most Americans didn't. We jump from the Pilgrims to the Boston Tea Party as if nothing happened in between. In Canada it is a different story. There the war is remembered as the moment New France fell and the country's future was decided.

That is a shame, because it may be the most important war Americans have never heard of. It is where George Washington first saw combat. It is the war behind The Last of the Mohicans. And when it was over, the debt Britain ran up fighting it led directly to the taxes that started the American Revolution. You could call it the war that made America.

It is also one of the richest periods in toy soldiers: green-coated rangers, kilted Highlanders, French regulars in white, and the Native nations both sides depended on. W. Britain, Tradition of London and Don Troiani have all covered it in depth. Here is the war in three parts, and the figures that bring each one to life.

A Border Crossing I Will Never Forget

My first trip to Quebec started badly, at least for me. Before we reached the border, my mother told me, with a perfectly straight face, that they did not have enough money to get me across. I believed her. So I climbed into the back of the station wagon and hid under all the luggage. My mother laughed so hard at the border that the agent became very suspicious of us, but he let us through.

Of course, I came home with toy soldiers. In August 1988 I bought a set of the Royal 22nd Regiment from Cadeaux L'Escale in Quebec City. They were made by a local artist, and the shop owner told me these and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police were the only subjects he made. They are in my personal collection, not for sale, and I still don't know who made them. The Royal 22e Régiment, the "Van Doos," is Canada's French-speaking regiment, and it is garrisoned at the Citadelle of Quebec, overlooking the Plains of Abraham where the fate of New France was decided in 1759. The set even includes the regiment's goat mascot, Batisse.

How a War Started in the Woods of Pennsylvania

In the 1750s, Britain and France both claimed the Ohio Valley. In 1754 a 22-year-old Virginia officer named George Washington led a small force into the disputed country, clashed with a French party at Jumonville Glen, and was forced to surrender at Fort Necessity a few weeks later. A year after that, he rode with General Edward Braddock's army when it was destroyed at the Monongahela. Among the dead was Sir Peter Halkett, colonel of the 44th Foot, whose story is told in Don Troiani's 44th Regiment of Foot British Grenadier, 1755.

The fighting spread to Europe in 1756 and became the Seven Years' War, the name it goes by in Canada and Britain. In North America it lasted until 1763.

The Frontier War: Rangers and the Native Nations

Most of the war in North America was not fought in neat lines. It was raids, ambushes and scouting through forests, across frozen lakes and up rivers. The British answer was Major Robert Rogers and his rangers, colonial woodsmen in green who could move and fight the way their enemies did. On 13 March 1758, on snowshoes near Lake George, Rogers walked into an ambush that destroyed most of his command. W. Britain's Rogers' Rangers Private, 1758 and "First Shot" British Rogers' Rangers are a good start, and Tradition of London's Rogers Rangers with Robert Rogers puts the major himself at the centre of an eight-figure set.

Neither side could have fought this war without its Native allies. France's alliances with the Woodland nations went back to the Great Peace of Montreal in 1701, and Native warriors were often the deciding force in battle. Tradition of London's American Woodland Indians (French Allies) is a full eight-figure war party, and W. Britain's Native line is one of the largest it makes. "The New Trade Coat" carries one of my favourite stories in the range, about how British penny-pinching after the war helped start Pontiac's War in 1763. On the French side, the colony's own regulars were the Compagnies Franches de la Marine.

The colonists fought too. Don Troiani's Black Massachusetts Provincial, 1757 is a reminder that Black soldiers served in New England's provincial regiments, a part of the story almost no one tells.

Ticonderoga, 8 July 1758

The bloodiest day of the war in North America was fought at Fort Carillon, which the British would later call Ticonderoga. General James Abercromby brought about 15,000 men against Montcalm's 3,600 French regulars, who had spent three days building a log breastwork and a field of felled trees in front of the fort. Abercromby attacked head-on, without waiting for his artillery. Wave after wave failed. The 42nd Highlanders, the Black Watch, kept going after other regiments had stopped and suffered more casualties than any other regiment that day. That same month, not yet knowing what had happened, King George II made them a royal regiment.

Don Troiani's painting Battle of Carillon, Fort Ticonderoga 1758 shows the moment a handful of Highlanders forced their way over the wall. Build the scene in front of it with W. Britain's 42nd Royal Highland Grenadier and Tradition of London's Grenadier Company 42nd Highland Regiment. Behind the breastwork go W. Britain's French Fusilier Regiment Berry, 1758, whose battalions built that wall, and Troiani's matching Berry fusilier print.

My favourite Tradition of London set in the whole range served there too. The French Infantry La Reine Regiment is the battalion on the march: an officer out front, a drummer in red with his drum slung on his back, and six privates in grey-white coats with red cuffs. La Reine was there from the very first French battle in North America in 1755 to Carillon and beyond. Put them beside La Reine's companion regiment, Guyenne, and you have the core of Montcalm's army.

Quebec, 13 September 1759

A year later the British came for Quebec itself. General James Wolfe spent a frustrating summer outside the city, and his attack at Montmorency in July was a bloody failure. Then, on the night of 12 September, he sent his army downriver in the dark and up a steep path at L'Anse-au-Foulon. By morning, British regulars were lined up on the Plains of Abraham outside the city walls. Montcalm attacked, and the battle was over in less than an hour. Wolfe was shot and died on the field. Montcalm was mortally wounded and died the next morning. New France never recovered, and the Treaty of Paris in 1763 handed Canada to Britain.

W. Britain made the two generals as a pair: British General James Wolfe, 1759 and French General Marquis de Montcalm, 1759. Facing each other on a shelf, they tell the whole story of the war in two figures. Add Tradition of London's British Grenadiers to give Wolfe his line.

The Road to the Revolution

Britain won North America and was nearly broke. Parliament decided the colonies should help pay for the war fought on their behalf, and the Stamp Act of 1765 was the result. The Proclamation of 1763, which closed the land west of the Appalachians to settlers, angered colonists who had fought for that land. Twelve years later the men who learned to fight in this war, Washington among them, were fighting Britain.

Two W. Britain figures bridge the two wars. Joseph Brant, Thayendanegea, fought alongside the British as a teenager in this war. By 1776 he was in London negotiating with George III for Mohawk land, and W. Britain's Chief Joseph Brant 1776 captures him in that year. The Oneida Warrior, 1777 stands for the nation that chose the other side. At Oriskany in 1777, the Oneida fought for the Americans against Brant's Mohawks, and the Iroquois Confederacy, neutral for most of the earlier war, fought itself. Don Troiani's Shawnee Indian Warrior, 1750-80 spans both wars.

If you want to follow the story forward, my America 250 post picks it up in 1775.

Building a French and Indian War Display

This is a period where mixing makers works beautifully. The gloss Tradition of London sets look like a parade-ground army, the matte W. Britain figures look like men in the field, and a Don Troiani print on the wall behind them ties it all together. A good collection has many different makers, and this war has room for all of them.

Browse the full ranges here:

• W. Britain French and Indian War (Seven Years War)
• Tradition of London French & Indian War
• Don Troiani French and Indian War Soldier Studies

Americans may not learn about this war in school, but it is worth getting to know. Start with a ranger, a Highlander and a French fusilier, and the story tells itself.

— Daniel