Benjamin Franklin's Albany Plan of Union The reason behind Franklin's Albany Plan of Union is the French and Indian War. The French and Indian War started because British colonists were said to be moving in on territory that the French had claimed for themselves. Then, in 1753, the French started constructing a chain of forts connecting Lake Erie with the Ohio River. This caused the governor of Virginia to send George Washington, who was a 21-year-old surveyor from Virginia, to warn the French in the Ohio Valley that the land belonged to the British. As it turns out, the land was originally granted to Virginia by the charter of