King Louis XV had no desire to destroy or conquer Philadelphia or Boston, the French commander of Fort Duquesne said.

Why then, he asked, had the British government sent a huge army to North America to conquer territories -- including what is now Pittsburgh's Point -- that had been claimed by France for more than a century?

Capt. Jean-Daniel Dumas, as portrayed by re-enactor Bruce Egli of Swissvale, made the case for French ownership of the Ohio Country Saturday at a Hinge of History Conference in the Fort Pitt Museum. The topic for the daylong seminar was "When the French Ruled the Forks."

Canadian military historian Rene Chartrand described what life was like for soldiers during the French and Indian War and talked about the conflict's worldwide consequences.

Both men made their presentations within shouting distance of where the French constructed Fort Duquesne in 1754. The small military outpost was burned by its builders in November 1758, just before a large force of British and Colonial soldiers, commanded by Gen. John Forbes, reached the Point.

Coming south from Canada, the French explored the Ohio and Mississippi river valleys all the way to New Orleans, Capt. Dumas said. Unlike most of the English-speaking colonists in North America, they lived mostly in peace with the Native Americans, trading European manufactured goods for furs.

"Perhaps we got along better because there were so few of us to make the Indians angry," he said.

British colonists were "land mad," Capt. Dumas said, "willing to do anything to possess it without a single moral scruple."

Even as they sought to displace the French, Colonial governments feuded with London and among themselves over land claims, he said. Pennsylvania and Virginia, for example, both claimed the Forks of the Ohio.

Britain and France were at peace in 1754 when the English, led by a young Colonial officer Capt. Dumas called "Westingum" -- better known as George Washington -- attacked and killed French soldiers at what is now Jumonville Glen. A few weeks later, Westingum's small army was surrounded, and he surrendered.

The next year, the British returned in force to the Ohio Country with an army of 1,500 led by Gen. Edward Braddock. He lost his own life, and half his force was killed or wounded, defeated by a smaller French and Indian force.

Despite British provocations around the world, from the Caribbean to China, France remained ready to settle the dispute without making claims on its foe's territory in North America, as long as its colonists agreed to stay east of the Allegheny Mountains, Capt. Dumas said.

Mr. Chartrand set the French and Indian War and the fight for control of the Forks of the Ohio in an international setting.

While their armies and Native American allies clashed in North America, French and British trading companies were forming alliances with princes and maharajahs to gain control of large portions of India, he said.

The Fort Pitt Museum Associates sponsored Saturday's program as part of a series marking the 250th anniversary of the naming of Pittsburgh. The next event will be Sept. 14-15, a two-day encampment outside the museum by French, Native American and British re-enactors. More information is available by calling the museum at 412-281-9284 or by visiting the museum Web site, fortpittmuseum.com. Click on the "Fort Pitt Museum Entrance" button on the left of the home page.