A major reason for the French construction of fortresses in the Ohio Valley in the mid eighteenth century was
a. its desire to protect French farmers settled in the area from the English
b. ongoing wars with the Iroquois and other Indian nations because of French encroachment on Indian lands
c. tension between the French merchant aristocracy on the coast and French settlers inland
d. to counter rising English influence when the Iroquois granted them trading concessions
e. to protect overzealous Jesuit priests undertaking a new campaign to convert the natives to Catholicism
Answer: D