In the early part of the eighteenth century, the trans-Appalachian region of North America remained much as it had been for the preceding centuries. Some trappers and backwoodsmen—Frenchmen from Canada and Englishmen from the British colonies—traveled through its woods and rivers, but the principal occupants of the region were Native Americans and a great diversity of wildlife, known for the French & Indian War.In the 1750s, the French and the English each moved to deny the other access to the Ohio Country. In the early 1750s, French soldiers captured several English trading posts.