At the beginning of the French and Indian War in 1755, General Edward Braddock led a force he recruited and trained against Fort Duquesne and the French forces holding it. The French forces, moved out from the fort to check the British advance. The disastrous defeat of the British force at the battle of the Monongahela unleashed a torrent of Indian attacks that claimed many civilian lives and reduced colonial trust in Great Britain's ability to defend her colonies. This engagement set the conditions that fostered within the colonists a growing mistrust of Great Britain and her colonial policies.