The ethnocultural component of the British regular army in the western borderland of Virginia in the middle of the 18th century

The article examines the ethnocultural aspect of the presence of British regular troops on the colonial border of Virginia in the mid-18th century. The subject of the study is the mentality of British soldiers. The object of the study is the economic, cultural and political processes that accompanied the stay of the British army in Virginia. Important attention is paid to the analysis of everyday ideas of British soldiers about the local specifics of showing loyalty to the king and the local colonial administration. A special role is given to the study of the formation of British soldiers’ ideas about their own identity. In the work, the author uses chronological and historical-comparative research methods, which make it possible to analyze the process of formation among soldiers of the British regular army of ideas about their own loyalty and identity, characteristic of the Virginia borderland of the mid – 18th century. Several theses can be formulated as conclusions of the study. Firstly, British ethnocultural stereotypes were historically understandable to France, but turned out to be alien to the indigenous population of North America After the end of the French and Indian War of 1754–1763 negative ethnocultural stereotypes towards tribes began to appear. Secondly, against the backdrop of Britain’s lack of need for an alliance with the Indians after 1763, their relations cooled. New ways of maintaining the defenses of the colonial frontier included cultivating among soldiers a worldview that saw Indians and whites as alien to each other. The reluctance to get used to the unfair conditions of relationships became the cause of border conflicts of 1763–1766. Thirdly, Pontiac's rebellion can be seen as an anti-colonialist protest of tribes who, having lost their ally in France, lost the opportunity to build equal relationships with Europeans.