I have two different answers
From 1754 to 1763, the British and French fought for this wilderness of huge potential in a conflict which, though part of the wider Seven Years War, has come to be known as the French & Indian War. The French and Indian War was fought to decide if Britain or France would be the strong power in North American
The colonists called it the French and Indian War, and it permanently shifted the global balance of power. By the mid-18th century, both the British and French wanted to extend their North American colonies into the land west of the Appalachian Mountains, known then as the OhioTerritory.