The French and Indian War: Something about that Name

This painting was borrowed from the Lake George Mirror.

Have you noticed that there is something Anglocentric about the name "French and Indian War." It assumes that you're English or British. Maybe some would argue that the winners of a war get to name it. I don't know if that is true, but if the so-called French and Indian War had gone the other way, we might not be speaking English here in the United States today.

Instead, that war went the way that it went. The British side (including, of course, their white colonial allies and their Native allies - the Indians from Stockbridge, Massachusetts) won that war.

But the name... I still don't like it. The bias is too obvious. Unfortunately, I cannot think of a better alternative. One Indian I know tried to give that war a different name. I don't remember exactly what she called it, but it seemed to also reflect her own biases.

To French Canadians that war is known as La guerre de la Conquête, which means "The War of Conquest." I like the drama in that name, but it is so generic.

The historical event that we refer to as "The French and Indian War" refers to the North American part of the Seven Years' War, which was essentially the world's first "world war," despite not getting credit for that in its name. In addition to North America, the Seven Years' War had the superpowers of France and Great Britian in a tussle over parts of Europe, as well as much of Central America, the West African coast, India, and the Philippines. Arguably, the colonizers had no right to claim land that was already occupied by people, but that moral argument is beside the point. The war was what it was, and the name still is what it is.

The best alternative name I can come up with is "The North American Theater of the Seven Years' War." Nine words long. It will never be adopted into common English usage.

How about you, is there a name you'd prefer to use for the so-called "French and Indian War"?