Did England fight France during the Seven Years' War?
American Revolutionary War
Meanwhile, George III had given up on subduing America while Britain had a European war to fight. He did not welcome war with France, but he believed that Britain had made all necessary steps to avoid it and cited the British victories over France in the Seven Years' War as a reason to remain optimistic. Britain tried in vain to find a powerful ally to engage France, leaving it isolated, preventing Britain from focusing the majority of her efforts in one theater, and forcing a major diversion of military resources from America. Despite this, the King determined never to recognize American independence and to ravage the colonies indefinitely, or until they pleaded to return to the yoke of the Crown. Mahan argues that Britain's attempt to fight in multiple theaters simultaneously without major allies was fundamentally flawed, citing impossible mutual support, exposing the forces to defeat in detail.
Dubuque, Iowa
Spain gained control of the Louisiana Territory west of the Mississippi River following the 1763 defeat of the French in the Seven Years' War; the British took over all territory to the east, as well as Canada.
Great Britain in the Seven Years' War
The French government had devised a plan that would allow them to launch their invasion. It required a junction of the two French fleets in the English Channel, where they would be able to cover a major invasion. However, in August 1759 the French Mediterranean Fleet under Admiral La Clue left harbour and was destroyed at the Battle of Lagos near Portugal. This left only the Channel Fleet at Brest under Conflans. When he tried to break free of the British blockade in November, he was run down and attacked by the British under Admiral Hawke at the Battle of Quiberon Bay. This victory left the British in almost total command of the seas, compounded by the effective use of naval forces in the West Indies, Canada and India. A small French force under Thurot did manage to land on the Irish coast, and menace Belfast before being forced to withdraw and being destroyed by a Royal Navy squadron in the Irish Sea.
Fort Waldegrave, Newfoundland and Labrador
The fortifications on the opposite side of the Narrows were named for Lieutenant Colonel William Amherst who successfully recaptured St. John's from French forces in 1762. The Seven Years' War was fought from 1756–1763 where France and Britain fought for superiority in French North America.
In 1762, toward the end of the war, French forces attacked St. John's, Newfoundland. If successful, the expedition would have strengthened France's hand at the negotiating table. Though they took St. John's and raided nearby settlements, the French forces were eventually defeated by British troops at the Battle of Signal Hill. This was the final battle of the war in North America, and it forced the French to surrender to the British under Amherst. The British government now controlled all of eastern North America.
France in the Seven Years' War
While the war began in North America, in 1756 France became drawn into a major war in Europe. Allied to Austria, Sweden and Russia the French tried to defeat the Prussians who had only the British as major allies. Despite repeated attempts between 1757 and 1762, the French and their allies failed to win the conclusive victory against Prussia despite a constant war of attrition. They were partly frustrated by an army led by the Duke of Brunswick made up of British forces and troops from the smaller German states which operated in West Germany.
Madame de Pompadour
Under these changed alliances, the European powers entered the Seven Years' War, which saw France, Austria, and Russia pitted against Britain and Prussia. France suffered a defeat at the hands of the Prussians in the Battle of Rossbach in 1757, and eventually lost her American colonies to the British. After Rossbach, Madame de Pompadour is alleged to have comforted the king with the now-famous byword: ""au reste, après nous, le Déluge"" ("Besides, after us, the Deluge"). France emerged from the war diminished and virtually bankrupt.
Thirteen Colonies
The French and Indian War (1754–63) was the American extension of the general European conflict known as the Seven Years' War. Previous colonial wars in North America had started in Europe and then spread to the colonies, but the French and Indian War is notable for having started in North America and spread to Europe. One of the primary causes of the war was increasing competition between Britain and France, especially in the Great Lakes and Ohio valley.
Battle of Kloster Kampen
The Battle of Kloster Kampen (or Kloster Kamp, or Campen) was a tactical French victory over a British and allied army in the Seven Years' War. The Allied forces were driven from the field.
Roderigue Hortalez and Company
The Seven Years' War had gone badly for France, which had lost nearly all of her North American colonial possessions and had been militarily humiliated by the British. Spain, who had been an ally of France late in the war, had lost the strategically important territory of Florida. Britain, meanwhile, had expanded its colonial territories across large areas of North America.
To get out of legal trouble Pierre Beaumarchais pledged his services to the king in order to restore his civil rights.
Hundred Years' War
The Hundred Years' War was a series of conflicts waged from 1337 to 1453 by the House of Plantagenet, rulers of the Kingdom of England, against the French House of Valois, over the right to rule the Kingdom of France. Each side drew many allies into the war. It was one of the most notable conflicts of the Middle Ages, in which five generations of kings from two rival dynasties fought for the throne of the largest kingdom in Western Europe. The war marked both the height of chivalry and its subsequent decline, and the development of strong national identities in both countries.
Battle of Saint Cast
While the British continued such expeditions against French colonies and islands beyond the reach of the French land forces, this was the last attempt by an amphibious expedition in force against the coast of France during the Seven Years' War. The fiasco of the embarcation from Saint Cast helped convince British Prime Minister Pitt to send instead military aid and troops to fight alongside Ferdinand and Frederick the Great on the continent of Europe. The negative potential for another disaster and expense of expeditions this size was considered to outweigh the temporary gain of the raids.
Louis XVI of France
In the spring of 1776, Vergennes, the Foreign Secretary, saw an opportunity to humiliate France's long-standing enemy, Great Britain, and to recover territory lost during the Seven Years' War, by supporting the American Revolution. In the same year Louis was persuaded by Pierre Beaumarchais to send supplies, ammunition, and guns to the rebels secretly. Early in 1778 he signed a formal Treaty of Alliance, and later that year France went to war with Britain. In deciding in favor of war, despite France's large financial problems, the King was materially influenced by alarmist reports after the Battle of Saratoga, which suggested that Britain was preparing to make huge concessions to the thirteen colonies and then, allied with them, to strike at French and Spanish possessions in the West Indies. Spain and the Netherlands soon joined the French in an anti-British coalition. After 1778, Great Britain switched its focus to the West Indies, as defending the sugar islands was considered more important than trying to recover the thirteen colonies. France and Spain planned to invade the British Isles themselves with the Armada of 1779, but the operation never went ahead.
Seven Years' War
All of Britain's campaigns against New France succeeded in 1759, part of what became known as an "Annus Mirabilis". Fort Niagara and Fort Carillon on 8 July 1758 fell to sizable British forces, cutting off French frontier forts further west. Starting in June 1759, the British under James Wolfe and James Murray set up camp on the Ile d'Orleans across the St. Lawrence River from Quebec, enabling them to commence the 3-month siege that ensued. The French under the Marquis de Montcalm anticipated a British assault to the east of Quebec so he ordered his soldiers to fortify the region of Beauport. On July 31 the British attacked with 4,000 soldiers but the French positioned high up on the cliffs overlooking the Montmorency Falls forced the British forces to withdraw to the Ile D'Orleans. While Wolfe and Murray planned a second offensive, British rangers raided French settlements along the St. Lawrence, destroying food supplies, ammunition and other goods in an attempt to vanquish the French through starvation.
Kingdom of Great Britain
The Seven Years' War, which began in 1756, was the first war waged on a global scale and saw British involvement in Europe, India, North America, the Caribbean, the Philippines, and coastal Africa. The results were highly favorable for Britain, and a major disaster for France. Key decisions were largely in the hands of William Pitt the Elder. The war started poorly. Britain lost the island of Minorca in 1756, and suffered a series of defeats in North America. After years of setbacks and mediocre results, British luck turned in the "miracle year" ("Annus Mirabilis") of 1759. The British had entered the year anxious about a French invasion, but by the end of the year, they were victorious in all theatres. In the Americas, they captured Fort Ticonderoga (Carillon), drove the French out of the Ohio Country, captured Quebec City in Canada as a result of the decisive Battle of the Plains of Abraham, and captured the rich sugar island of Guadeloupe in the West Indies. In India, the John Company repulsed French forces besieging Madras. In Europe, British troops partook in a decisive Allied victory at the Battle of Minden. The victory over the French navy at the Battle of Lagos and the decisive Battle of Quiberon Bay ended threats of a French invasion, and confirmed Britain's reputation as the world's foremost naval power. The Treaty of Paris of 1763 marked the high point of the First British Empire. France's future in North America ended, as New France (Quebec) came under British control. In India, the third Carnatic War had left France still in control of several small enclaves, but with military restrictions and an obligation to support the British client states, effectively leaving the future of India to Great Britain. The British victory over France in the Seven Years' War therefore left Great Britain as the world's dominant colonial power, with a bitter France thirsting for revenge.
United Kingdom–United States relations
The French and Indian War, fought between 1754 and 1763, was the North American theatre of the Seven Years' War. The conflict, the fourth such colonial war between France and Britain in North America, resulted in the British acquisition of New France, with its French Catholic population. Under the Treaty of Paris signed in 1763, the French ceded control of French Louisiana east of the Mississippi River to the British, which became known as the Indian Reserve.
Edward Hawke, 1st Baron Hawke
Hawke went on to achieve a victory over a French fleet at the Battle of Quiberon Bay in November 1759 during the Seven Years' War, preventing a French invasion of Britain. He developed the concept of a Western Squadron, keeping an almost continuous blockade of the French coast throughout the war.
French and Indian War
Canadians conflate both the European and American conflicts into the Seven Years' War ("Guerre de Sept Ans"). French Canadians also use the term "War of Conquest" ("Guerre de la Conquête"), since it is the war in which Canada was conquered by the British and became part of the British Empire. In Quebec, this term was promoted by popular historians Jacques Lacoursière and Denis Vaugeois, who borrowed from the ideas of Maurice Séguin in considering this war as a dramatic tipping point of French Canadian identity and nationhood.
French–Habsburg rivalry
A brief respite in French-Habsburg enmity occurred during the Seven Years' War in 1756. The Seven Years' War involved Prussia, Great Britain, Russia, France, and Austria. These latter three nations became allies for the first time in several hundred years. This alliance was sealed with the marriage of Austrian princess Marie Antoinette to the French Dauphin, who later became King Louis XVI. The war is often said to be a continuation of the War of the Austrian Succession, which was fought in 1740. France and Austria, along with Russia, fought against Great Britain and Prussia.
Seven Years' War
The war also brought to an end the "Old System" of alliances in Europe, In the years after the war, under the direction of Lord Sandwich, the British attempted to re-establish this system. But after her surprising grand success against a coalition of great powers, European states such as Austria, The Dutch Republic, Sweden, Denmark-Norway, Ottoman Empire, and Russia now saw Britain as a greater threat than France and did not join them, while the Prussians were angered by what they considered a British betrayal in 1762. Consequently, when the American War of Independence turned into a global war between 1778–83, Britain found itself opposed by a strong coalition of European powers, and lacking any substantial ally.
Two-front war
During the Seven Years' War, the Kingdom of Great Britain invaded New France, creating a two-front war with France.
Great Britain in the Seven Years' War
Apart from a few isolated victories, the war had not gone well for Britain since 1754. In all theatres except India and North America (where Pitt's strategy had led to important gains in 1758) they were on the retreat. British agents received information about a planned French invasion which would knock Britain out of the war completely. While France starved their colonial forces of troops and supplies to concentrate them on the goal of total strategic supremacy in Europe, the British government agreed to continue their policy of shipping their own troops to fight for total victory in the colonies—leaving Britain to be guarded by the large militia that had existed since 1757.
Fortress of Louisbourg
Britain's American colonies were expanding into areas claimed by France by the 1750s, and the efforts of French forces and their Indian allies to seal off the westward passes and approaches through which American colonists could move west soon led to the skirmishes that developed into the French and Indian War in 1754. The conflict widened into the larger Seven Years' War by 1756, which involved all of the major European powers.
France in the Seven Years' War
France had opened the war against Britain in Europe by capturing Menorca and until 1759 they believed they held the upper hand. The British navy, however, had initiated a tight blockade of the French coast which prevented supplies and troops moving freely and sapped morale. Realizing that Prussia was unlikely to be defeated until its ally Britain was, the French foreign minister, Choiseul developed a plan to invade Britain in three separate places at Portsmouth, Essex and Scotland. He oversaw the construction of a massive fleet of transports to convey the troops during 1759. Defeats of the French navy at Lagos and Quiberon Bay put an end to these plans and he was forced to call off the invasion in the late autumn. A diversionary force under François Thurot had managed to land in Northern Ireland before he was hunted down and killed by the British navy. In the wake of the disaster at Quiberon, Thurot was lionised as a hero in France.
Join, or Die
Also known as the French and Indian War, the Seven Years' War was a war (and choice) for the colonies against Britain, France, and their native allies. They wanted to fight for the land west of the Appalachian Mountains. At that time, the colonists were divided on whether to fight the French and their Native-American allies for control of the land west of the Appalachian Mountains. It became a symbol for the need of organized action against an outside threat posed by the French and Native-Americans in the mid 18th century. Writer Philip Davidson states that Franklin was a propagandist influential in seeing the potential in political cartoons. Franklin had proposed the Albany Plan and his cartoon suggested that such a union was necessary to avoid destruction. As Franklin wrote:
The Last of the Mohicans
Cooper set this novel during the Seven Years' War, an international conflict between Great Britain and France, which had a front in North America known by the Anglo-American colonists as the French and Indian War. The conflict arrayed British colonial settlers and minimal regular forces against royal French forces, with both sides also relying on Native American allies. The war was fought primarily along the frontiers of the British colonies from Virginia to Nova Scotia.
Seven Years' War
The colonial conflict mainly between France and Britain took place in India, North America, Europe, the Caribbean isles, the Philippines, and coastal Africa. Over the course of the war, Great Britain gained enormous areas of land and influence at the expense of the French.
Financial costs of the Seven Years' War
The Seven Years' War (1756-1763) wrought great financial burdens on Great Britain, France, and Sweden. The costs of fighting a protracted war on several continents meant Britain's national debt almost doubled from 1756 to 1763, and this financial pressure which Britain tried to alleviate through new taxation in the Thirteen Colonies helped cause the American Revolution.
Seven Years' War
William Pitt the Elder, who entered the cabinet in 1756, had a grand vision for the war that made it entirely different from previous wars with France. As prime minister, Pitt committed Britain to a grand strategy of seizing the entire French Empire, especially its possessions in North America and India. Britain's main weapon was the Royal Navy, which could control the seas and bring as many invasion troops as were needed. He also planned to use colonial forces from the thirteen American colonies, working under the command of British regulars, to invade New France. In order to tie the French army down he subsidized his European allies. Pitt was head of the government from 1756 to 1761, and even after that the British continued his strategy. It proved completely successful. Pitt had a clear appreciation of the enormous value of imperial possessions, and realized the vulnerability of the French Empire.
Spanish invasion of Portugal (1762)
During the Seven Years' War, a British fleet under Admiral Boscawen attacked a French fleet in Portuguese waters in front of Lagos, Algarve, in 1759. Three French ships were captured and two burned. Portugal, though an old ally of Britain, had stated her neutrality in this war and accordingly, the Portuguese prime minister Pombal demanded satisfaction from Great Britain. The British government apologized to the Portuguese king, José I, by sending a special delegation to Lisbon, yet the captured vessels were not returned, as demanded by France (Pombal had previously informed Pitt that he did not expect it). The Portuguese government materially assisted the French garrisons that had taken refuge in Lagos after the battle. The French king, Louis XV, thanked José I for all the assistance given to the French sailors, although claiming for the navies. The case seemed settled, but Spain and France would use it as a pretext to invade Portugal four years later.
Almeida, Portugal
During the Seven Years' War (1754 to 1763) which involved most of the great powers of Europe, Spain with the help of France launched an attack on Portugal due to its alliance with Great Britain. As a result of the invasion Almeida was captured by Spain in 1762.
Military history of France
Resurgent French armies secured victories in dynastic conflicts against the Spanish, Polish, and Austrian crowns. At the same time, France was fending off attacks on its colonies. As the 18th century advanced, global competition with Great Britain led to the Seven Years' War, where France lost its North American holdings. Consolation came in the form of dominance in Europe and the American Revolutionary War, where extensive French aid in the form of money and arms, and the direct participation of its army and navy led to America's independence. Internal political upheaval eventually led to 23 years of nearly continuous conflict in the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars. France reached the zenith of its power during this period, dominating the European continent in an unprecedented fashion under Napoleon Bonaparte. By 1815, however, it had been restored to the same borders it controlled before the Revolution. The rest of the 19th century witnessed the growth of the Second French colonial empire as well as French interventions in Belgium, Spain, and Mexico. Other major wars were fought against Russia in the Crimea, Austria in Italy, and Prussia within France itself.
Second Hundred Years' War
The various wars between the two states during the 18th century usually involved other European countries in large alliances; except for the War of the Quadruple Alliance when they were bound by the Anglo-French Alliance, France and Britain always opposed one another. Some of the wars, such as the Seven Years' War, have been considered world wars and included battles in the growing colonies in India, the Americas, and ocean shipping routes around the globe.
Battles of the Seven Years' War
After seven years of fighting (nine in North America), the Anglo-Prussian coalition prevailed. The war marked the rise of Britain as the world's predominant power; it also destroyed France's land supremacy in Europe; Prussia, due to Frederick the Great's military prowess, established itself as a dominant land-power in Europe; and the Austrian Habsburgs lost permanently their territories in Silesia. This altered the European balance of power.
George II of Great Britain
In 1754, Pelham died, to be succeeded by his elder brother, the Duke of Newcastle. Hostility between France and Britain, particularly over the colonization of North America, continued. Fearing a French invasion of Hanover, George aligned himself with Prussia (ruled by his nephew, Frederick the Great), the enemy of Austria. Russia and France allied with their former enemy Austria. A French invasion of the British-held island of Minorca led to the outbreak of the Seven Years' War in 1756. Public disquiet over British failures at the start of the conflict led to the resignation of Newcastle and the appointment of the Duke of Devonshire as prime minister and William Pitt the Elder as Secretary of State for the Southern Department. In April the following year, George dismissed Pitt, in an attempt to construct an administration more to his liking. Over the succeeding three months attempts to form another stable ministerial combination failed. In June, James Waldegrave, 2nd Earl Waldegrave, held the seals of office for only four days. By the start of July, Pitt was recalled, and the Duke of Newcastle returned as prime minister. As Secretary of State, Pitt guided policy relating to the war. Great Britain, Hanover and Prussia and their allies Hesse-Kassel and Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel were pitted against other European powers, including France, Austria, Russia, Sweden and Saxony. The war involved multiple theatres from Europe to North America and India, where British dominance increased with the victories of Robert Clive over French forces and their allies at the Battle of Arcot and the Battle of Plassey.
France–United Kingdom relations
Several of the most famous Anglo-French battles took place during the Hundred Years' War: Crécy, Poitiers, Agincourt, Orléans, Patay, Formigny and Castillon. The English under King Henry VIII invaded and defeated France in 1544-46. Major sources of French pride stemmed from their leadership during the war. Bertrand du Guesclin was a brilliant tactician who forced the English out of the lands they had procured at the Treaty of Brétigny, a compromising treaty that most Frenchmen saw as a humiliation. Joan of Arc was another unifying figure who to this day represents a combination of religious fervour and French patriotism to all France. After her inspirational victory at Orléans and what many saw as Joan's martyrdom at the hands of Burgundians and Englishmen, Jean de Dunois eventually forced the English out of all of France except Calais, which was only lost in 1558. Apart from setting national identities, the Hundred Years' War was the root of the traditional rivalry and at times hatred between the two countries. During this era, the English lost their last territories in France, except Calais, which would remain in English hands for another 105 years, though the English monarchs continued to style themselves as Kings of France until 1800.
France–United Kingdom relations
The French and British fought each other and made treaties with Native American tribes to gain control of North America. Both nations coveted the Ohio Country and in 1753 a British expedition there led by George Washington clashed with a French force. Shortly afterwards the French and Indian War broke out, initially taking place only in North America but in 1756 becoming part of the wider Seven Years' War in which Britain and France were part of opposing coalitions.
36th (Herefordshire) Regiment of Foot
On 18 May 1756 Britain declared war on France, beginning a conflict that became known as the Seven Years' War. On 25 August, the 36 Foot was authorised to raise a second battalion. The two battalions were encamped as part of a defensive force at Barham Downs, Kent. In 1758 the second battalion was reconstituted as the 74th Regiment of Foot. The 74th saw service in Senegal and Jamaica until its disbandment in 1763. In 1758 the 36th moved to the Isle of Wight as part of a force under the command of Major-General John Mostyn formed to make raids on the north French coast. They took part in a number of assaults in Brittany and Normandy during 1758 and 1759 and again in the Capture of Belle Île in 1761. The Treaty of Paris of 1763 brought the war in Europe to an end.
Fantastic War
When the Seven Years' War between France and Great Britain started in 1756, Spain and Portugal remained neutral. Their differences in South America had been settled by the Treaty of Madrid (1750). King Ferdinand VI of Spain's prime minister Ricardo Wall opposed the French party who wanted to enter the war on the side of France.
History of the United Kingdom
The Seven Years' War, which began in 1756, was the first war waged on a global scale, fought in Europe, India, North America, the Caribbean, the Philippines and coastal Africa. The signing of the Treaty of Paris (1763) had important consequences for Britain and its empire. In North America, France's future as a colonial power there was effectively ended with the ceding of New France to Britain (leaving a sizeable French-speaking population under British control) and Louisiana to Spain. Spain ceded Florida to Britain. In India, the Carnatic War had left France still in control of its enclaves but with military restrictions and an obligation to support British client states, effectively leaving the future of India to Britain. The British victory over France in the Seven Years' War therefore left Britain as the world's dominant colonial power.
History of Indiana
During the French and Indian War, the North American front of the Seven Years' War in Europe, the British directly challenged France for control of the region. Although no pitched battles occurred in Indiana, the native tribes of the region supported the French. At the beginning of the war, the tribes sent large groups of warriors to support the French in resisting the British advance and to raid British colonies. Using Fort Pitt as a forward base, British commander Robert Rogers overcame the native resistance and drove deep into the frontier to capture Fort Detroit. The rangers moved south from Detroit and captured many of the key French outposts in Indiana, including Fort Miamis and Fort Vincennes. As the war progressed, the French lost control of Canada after the fall of Montreal. No longer able to effectively fight the British in interior North America, they lost Indiana to British forces. By 1761, the French were entirely forced out of Indiana. Following the French expulsion, native tribes led by Chief Pontiac confederated in an attempt to rebel against the British without French assistance. While Pontiac was besieging British-held Fort Detroit, other tribes in Indiana rose up against the British, who were forced to surrender Fort Miamis and Fort Ouiatenon. In 1763, while Pontiac was fighting the British, the French signed the Treaty of Paris and ceded control of Indiana to the British.
Battle of Beauport
The Battle of Beauport, also known as the Battle of Montmorency, fought on 31 July 1759, was an important confrontation between the British and French Armed Forces during the Seven Years' War (also known as the French and Indian War and the War of Conquest) of the French province of Canada. The attack conducted by the British against the French defense line of Beauport, some five kilometres (3.1 mi) east of Quebec was checked, and the British soldiers of General James Wolfe retreated with 443 casualties and losses.
History of the British Army
The Seven Years' War, which took place from 1755 to 1763, has sometimes been described as the first true world war, in that conflict took place in almost every continent and on almost all the oceans. Although there were early setbacks, British troops eventually were victorious in every theatre.
French Royal Army (1652–1830)
The situation after the war was almost the same as before, but it set the stage for the Seven Years' War, which officially began in 1756, when Prussia and Austria again went to war. This time, however, France and Austria were allied and Britain and Prussia formed an alliance. French forces were defeated at the Battle of Rossbach in 1757. At the same time as the fighting in Europe, raiding parties composed of French-Canadian militiamen and Indians attacked English settlements in North America. This war, known as the French and Indian War, was the last of four wars that occurred in North America at the same time as a European conflict. However, by 1759, the British had gone onto the offensive in America and captured Quebec, the French colonial capital.
Seven Years' War
The most important French fort planned was intended to occupy a position at "the Forks" where the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers meet to form the Ohio River (present day Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania). Peaceful British attempts to halt this fort construction were unsuccessful, and the French proceeded to build the fort they named Fort Duquesne. British colonial militia from Virginia were then sent to drive them out. Led by George Washington, they ambushed a small French force at Jumonville Glen on 28 May 1754 killing ten, including commander Jumonville. The French retaliated by attacking Washington's army at Fort Necessity on 3 July 1754 and forced Washington to surrender. These were the first engagements of what would become the worldwide Seven Years' War.
Great Britain in the Seven Years' War
The war started poorly for Britain, which suffered many deaths from the plague and scurvy, and at the hands of France in North America during 1754–55; and in the loss of Menorca in 1756. The same year Britain's major ally Austria switched sides and aligned itself with France; and Britain was hastily forced to conclude a new alliance with Frederick the Great's Prussia. For the next seven years these two nations were ranged against a growing number of enemy powers led by France. After a period of political instability, the rise of a government headed by the Duke of Newcastle and William Pitt the elder provided Britain with firmer leadership, enabling it to consolidate and achieve its war aims.
Saint-François-du-Lac, Quebec
During the Seven Years' War (also known as the French and Indian War in North America), the village and buildings of St. Francis were burned in an attack by Rogers' Rangers on October 4, 1759. This irregular British provincial force raided in Quebec. As a result of its defeat by Great Britain in this war, France ceded its territory in New France and east of the Mississippi River to Great Britain.
French and Indian War
Newcastle replaced him in January 1756 with Lord Loudoun, with Major General James Abercrombie as his second in command. Neither of these men had as much campaign experience as the trio of officers whom France sent to North America. French regular army reinforcements arrived in New France in May 1756, led by Major General Louis-Joseph de Montcalm and seconded by the Chevalier de Lévis and Colonel François-Charles de Bourlamaque, all experienced veterans from the War of the Austrian Succession. On May 18, 1756, Britain formally declared war on France, which expanded the war into Europe and came to be known as the Seven Years' War.
Battle of Cape Finisterre (1761)
The Battle of Cape Finisterre was a naval engagement fought off the Northern Spanish Atlantic coast near Cape Finisterre between British and French squadrons during the Seven Years' War. A British force comprising the 74-gun ship of the line HMS "Bellona" and 36-gun frigate HMS "Brilliant" was sailing from Lisbon to Britain with a cargo of specie when on 13 August they encountered a French force comprising the 74-gun "Courageux" and the 32-gun frigates "Malicieuse" and "Hermione". The British ships immediately chased the French squadron, maintaining contact through the night, and on the following morning two separate engagements occurred as "Brilliant" fought the French frigates and "Bellona" battled "Courageux".
British occupation of Manila
At the time, Britain and France were belligerents in what was later called the Seven Years' War. As the war progressed, the neutral Spanish government became concerned that the string of major French losses at the hands of the British were becoming a threat to Spanish interests. France successfully negotiated a treaty with Spain known as the Family Compact which was signed on 15 August 1761. By an ancillary secret convention, Spain became hurriedly committed to making preparations for war against Britain. Britain first declared war against Spain on 4 January 1762, and on 18 January 1762, Spain issued their own declaration of war against Britain.
Anglo-French War (1778–1783)
Ever since the Seven Years' War of 1756-1763, France's Foreign Ministers, beginning with Choiseul (in office: 1761-1766), had followed the general idea that the independence of Britain's North American colonies would be good for France and bad for Britain, and furthermore that French attempts to recover parts of New France would be detrimental to that cause. When the American Revolutionary War broke out in 1775, the Comte de Vergennes, then the French Foreign Minister, outlined a series of proposals that led to secret French and also Spanish support of the rebel movement, and preparations for war, including expansion of their navies. To further the aim of French participation in the war, Vergennes closely monitored news from North America and from London, and worked to remove impediments to Spanish participation in the war. Vergennes went so far as to propose war to King Louis XVI in August 1776, but news of the capture of New York City by British forces under the command of General Howe in September 1776 delayed that plan.
Seven Years' War
The war has been described as the first "world war", although this label was also given to various earlier conflicts like the Eighty Years' War, the Thirty Years' War, the War of the Spanish Succession and the War of the Austrian Succession, and to later conflicts like the Napoleonic Wars. The term "Second Hundred Years' War" has been used in order to describe the almost continuous level of worldwide conflict between France and Great Britain during the entire 18th century, reminiscent of the Hundred Years' War of the 14th and 15th centuries.
Seven Years' War
Great Britain lost Menorca in the Mediterranean to the French in 1756 but captured the French colonies in Senegal in 1758. The British Royal Navy took the French sugar colonies of Guadeloupe in 1759 and Martinique in 1762 as well as the Spanish cities of Havana in Cuba, and Manila in the Philippines, both prominent Spanish colonial cities. However, expansion into the hinterlands of both cities met with stiff resistance. In the Philippines, the British were confined to Manila until their agreed upon withdrawal at the war's end.
Royal Navy
The subsequent Seven Years' War (1756–1763) saw the Navy conduct amphibious campaigns leading to the conquest of New France, of French colonies in the Caribbean and West Africa, and of small islands off the French coast, while operations in the Indian Ocean contributed to the destruction of French power in India. A new French attempt to invade Britain was thwarted by the defeat of their escort fleet in the extraordinary Battle of Quiberon Bay in 1759, fought in a gale on a dangerous lee shore. Once again the British fleet effectively eliminated the French Navy from the war, leading France to abandon major operations. In 1762 the resumption of hostilities with Spain led to the British capture of Manila and of Havana, along with a Spanish fleet sheltering there.
Quebec City
Quebec City was the headquarters of many raids against New England during the four French and Indian Wars. In the last war, the French and Indian War (Seven Years' War), Quebec City was captured by the British in 1759 and held until the end of the war in 1763. It was the site of three battles during Seven Years' War: the Battle of Beauport, a French victory (31 July 1759); the Battle of the Plains of Abraham, in which British troops under General James Wolfe defeated the French General Louis-Joseph de Montcalm on 13 September 1759 and shortly thereafter took the city; and the final Battle of Sainte-Foy, a French victory (28 April 1760). France ceded New France, including the city, to Britain in 1763.
Seven Years' War
The boundary between British and French possessions in North America was largely undefined in the 1750s. France had long claimed the entire Mississippi River basin. This was disputed by Britain. In the early 1750s the French began constructing a chain of forts in the Ohio River Valley to assert their claim and shield the Native American population from increasing British influence.
Early modern Britain
Peace between England and the Netherlands in 1688 meant that the two countries entered the Nine Years' War as allies, but the conflict – waged in Europe and overseas between France, Spain and the Anglo-Dutch alliance – left the English a stronger colonial power than the Dutch, who were forced to devote a larger proportion of their military budget on the costly land war in Europe. The 18th century would see England (after 1707, Great Britain) rise to be the world's dominant colonial power, and France becoming its main rival on the imperial stage.
France–Americas relations
Northern America became an important theater of the conflict between France and Great Britain in the Seven Years' War (1756–1763), known as the French and Indian War. The royal French forces allied with the various Native American forces in a Franco-Indian alliance. The conflict, the fourth such colonial war between the nations of France and Great Britain, resulted in the British conquest of Canada. The outcome was one of the most significant developments in a century of Anglo-French conflict.
Annus Mirabilis of 1759
The Annus Mirabilis of 1759 is a term used to describe a string of notable British victories over French-led opponents during the Seven Years' War. The term is taken from Latin, and is used to denote a ""year of miracles"" or ""year of wonders"".
Sir William Johnson, 1st Baronet
Johnson's reinstatement as Indian agent came the following year, just as the French and Indian War, the North American theatre of the Seven Years' War, was escalating. In 1755, Major General Edward Braddock, sent to North America to direct the British war effort, appointed Johnson as his agent to the Iroquois. Although Johnson had little military experience, he was commissioned as a major general and instructed to lead an expedition against the French fort at Crown Point. His troops were provincial soldiers paid for by the colonies, and not regular soldiers of the British Army, which meant that he had to deal with six different colonial governments while organising the expedition.
Great Britain in the Seven Years' War
Great Britain was one of the major participants in the Seven Years' War which lasted between 1754 and 1763, although warfare in the European Theatre involving countries other than Britain and France only commenced in 1756 (hence the name "Seven Years' War"). Britain emerged from the war as the world's leading colonial power, having gained a number of new territories at the Treaty of Paris in 1763 and established itself as the world's pre-eminent naval power.
French and Indian War
In British America, wars were often named after the sitting British monarch, such as King William's War or Queen Anne's War. There had already been a King George's War in the 1740s during the reign of King George II, so British colonists named this conflict after their opponents, and it became known as the "French and Indian War". This continues as the standard name for the war in the United States, although Indians fought on both sides of the conflict. It also led into the Seven Years' War overseas, a much larger conflict between France and Great Britain that did not involve the American colonies; some historians make a connection between the French and Indian War and the Seven Years' War overseas, but most residents of the United States consider them as two separate conflicts—only one of which involved the American colonies, and American historians generally use the traditional name. Less frequently used names for the war include the "Fourth Intercolonial War" and the "Great War for the Empire".
Seven Years' War
News of this arrived in Europe, where Britain and France unsuccessfully attempted to negotiate a solution. The two nations eventually dispatched regular troops to North America to enforce their claims. The first British action was the assault on Acadia on 16 June 1755 in the Battle of Fort Beauséjour, which was immediately followed by their expulsion of the Acadians. In July British Major General Edward Braddock led about 2,000 army troops and provincial militia on an expedition to retake Fort Duquesne, but the expedition ended in disastrous defeat. In further action, Admiral Edward Boscawen fired on the French ship "Alcide" on 8 June 1755, capturing it and two troop ships. In September 1755, British colonial and French troops met in the inconclusive Battle of Lake George.
Fantastic War
By 1761 France looked like losing the war against Great Britain. Furthermore, Spain suffered from attacks by English privateers in Spanish waters and claimed compensation. Fearing that a British victory over France in the Seven Years' War would upset the balance of colonial power, he signed the Family Compact with France (both countries were ruled by branches of the Bourbon family) in August 1761. This brought war with Great Britain in January 1762.
New France
The fight for control over Ohio Country led to the French and Indian War, which began as the North American phase of the Seven Years' War (which did not technically begin in Europe until 1756). The war began with the defeat of a Virginia militia contingent led by Colonel George Washington by the French troupes de la marine in the Ohio valley. As a result of that defeat, the British decided to prepare the conquest of Quebec City, the capital of New France. The British defeated France in Acadia in the Battle of Fort Beausejour (1755) and then Île Royale (Cape Breton Island) (which also administered Île Saint-Jean (Prince Edward Island) with the Siege of Louisbourg (1758).
Quiberon Bay
The Battle of Quiberon Bay on 20 November 1759 was one of Britain's greatest naval victories over the French. The British Admiral Sir Edward Hawke with 23 ships of the line caught up with a French fleet with 21 ships of the line under Marshal de Conflans seeking to embark an army at Quiberon for landings in Scotland. After hard fighting, most of the French fleet were sunk, captured or forced aground. The battle was a turning point in the Seven Years' War which foiled a planned invasion of Britain and broke the power of the French Navy for a generation.
Rule of 1756
During the Seven Years' War, France and Britain initially fought over disputed North American colonies. The war became both a naval and economic battle, spreading throughout French and British colonies around the world. The Rule of 1756 was created to hinder all French trade to its West Indies colonies. In 1757 the London Chronicle estimated that French West Indies trade had fallen by 70% since the opening of hostilities. This 70% drop in trade was triggered by British privateering of French ships. France was not able to supply its West Indies colonies due to Britain's naval superiority and lock on trade routes. The French government in Versailles proposed that French goods be carried on neutral ships from the United Provinces or Spain. French goods would be able to reach their intended destinations and the neutral ships from the United Provinces or Spain. French goods would be able to reach their intended destinations and the neutral nation would benefit from participating in the exclusive market. France was forced to remove the trade monopoly it had with its colonies and allowed other nations to supply them with goods. In 1758 the Rule of 1756 was amended to eliminate the loophole France had discovered. The Rule of 1756 was adjusted to its modern form permitting the privateering of all ships carrying French goods. British privateers received permission to act even more aggressively at sea and were granted permission to conduct searches of neutral vessels.
Battle of Sorel
The Treaty of Paris (1763) was signed on 10 February 1763 by the kingdoms of Great Britain, France and Spain, with Portugal in agreement, after Britain's victory over France and Spain during the Seven Years' War. The signing of the treaty formally ended the French and Indian Wars and marked the beginning of an era of British dominance outside Europe. The two nations returned much of the territory that they had each captured during the war, but Britain gained much of France's possessions in North America. The treaty did not involve Prussia and Austria as they signed a separate agreement, the Treaty of Hubertusburg, five days later.
Battle of Fort Necessity
Word of the British military plans leaked to France well before Braddock's departure for North America, and King Louis XV dispatched a much larger body of troops to Canada in 1755. Although they arrived too late to participate in Braddock's defeat, the French troop presence led to a string of French victories in the following years. In a second British act of aggression, Admiral Edward Boscawen fired on the French ship "Alcide" in a naval action on June 8, 1755, capturing her and two troop ships carrying some of those troops. Military matters escalated on both North American soil and sea until France and Britain declared war on each other in spring 1756, marking the formal start of the Seven Years' War.
HMS Dolphin (1751)
Not long after her commissioning, the hostilities of the Seven Years' War had escalated and spread to Europe, and in May 1756 Britain declared war on France of the Ancien Régime. "Dolphin" was pressed into service throughout the conflict, and was present at the Battle of Minorca in 1756 when a fleet under Admiral John Byng failed to relieve Port Mahon, Britain's main base in the Western Mediterranean (as a result of which Byng was later court-martialled and shot).
Sebastião José de Carvalho e Melo, 1st Marquis of Pombal
In 1761 Spain concluded an alliance with France by which Spain would enter the Seven Years' War in an effort to prevent British hegemony. The two countries saw Portugal as Britain's closest ally, due to the Treaty of Windsor. As part of a wider plan to isolate and defeat Britain, Spanish and French envoys were sent to Lisbon to demand that the King and Pombal agree to cease all trade or co-operation with Britain or face war. While Pombal was keen to make Portugal less dependent on Britain, this was a long-term goal, and he and the King rejected the Bourbon ultimatum.
Battle of Saint Cast
During the Seven Years' War, Britain mounted numerous amphibious expeditions against France and French possessions around the world. In 1758 a number of expeditions, then called "Descents", were made against the northern coast of France. The military objectives of the descents were to capture and destroy French ports, divert French land forces from Germany, suppress privateers and spread panic and confusion in France. The battle of Saint Cast was the final engagement of a descent in force that ended in disaster for the British.
France–United Kingdom relations
The Seven Years' War is regarded as a critical moment in the history of Anglo-French relations, which laid the foundations for the dominance of the British Empire during the next two and a half centuries.
Compagnies Franches de la Marine
In New France, these were the only regular soldiers stationed by the Crown from 1685 to 1755; that year several army battalions were dispatched to North America during the Seven Years' War between France and Great Britain, which was waged in Europe and North America.
Franco-Austrian Alliance
The Alliance had its heyday during the Seven Years' War when France and Austria joined forces to fight the mutual enemy of Prussia. Following the allies' defeat in that war, the intimacy of the alliance weakened, and by the 1780s it had become something closer to a formality—when Austria briefly considered the idea of entering the American War of Independence on Britain's side against France. By the time of the French Revolution—when France first declared itself a constitutional monarchy, and then overthrew and executed its king—it had collapsed entirely and Austria actively tried to restore the French monarchy by going to war with the new French Republic.
Battle of Lagos
The ministers of King Louis XV of France drew up plans to invade Britain in 1759, during the Seven Years' War. An army had been collected at Vannes, in the south-east of Brittany, and transports had been brought together in the landlocked waters of the Morbihan which are connected with Quiberon Bay. The scheme of the French ministers was to combine twenty-one ships of the line lying at Brest under the command of de Conflans, with twelve which were to be brought round from Toulon by Comte de La Clue. The army was then to be carried to some point on the coast of England or Scotland by the united squadrons.
History of France
In the North American theatre, France was allied with various Native American peoples during the Seven Years' War and, despite a temporary success at the battles of the Great Meadows and Monongahela, French forces were defeated at the disastrous Battle of the Plains of Abraham in Quebec. In Europe, repeated French attempts to overwhelm Hanover failed. In 1762 Russia, France, and Austria were on the verge of crushing Prussia, when the Anglo-Prussian Alliance was saved by the Miracle of the House of Brandenburg. At sea, naval defeats against British fleets at Lagos and Quiberon Bay in 1759 and a crippling blockade forced France to keep its ships in port. Finally peace was concluded in the Treaty of Paris (1763), and France lost its North American empire.
Treaty of Paris (1763)
The signing of the treaty formally ended the Seven Years' War, known as the French and Indian War in the North American theatre, and marked the beginning of an era of British dominance outside Europe. Great Britain and France each returned much of the territory that they had captured during the war, but Great Britain gained much of France's possessions in North America. Additionally, Great Britain agreed to protect Roman Catholicism in the New World. The treaty did not involve Prussia and Austria as they signed a separate agreement, the Treaty of Hubertusburg, five days later.
Forts of Vincennes, Indiana
After being defeated by the British in the Seven Years' War, in 1763 France ceded control of its territory in North America east of the Mississippi River to the British. On May 18, 1764, St. Ange was directed by the British to leave Fort Vincennes and assume command of Fort Chartres in Illinois Country along the upper Mississippi. He transferred command to Drouet de Richerville, a local citizen.
History of Louisiana
France was forced to cede most of its territory east of the Mississippi to the Kingdom of Great Britain after its defeat in the Seven Years' War. The area around New Orleans and the parishes around Lake Pontchartrain, along with the rest of Louisiana, became a possession of Spain after the Seven Years' War by the Treaty of Paris of 1763.
Franco-American alliance
In the wake of the Seven Years' War, the American Revolution began across the Atlantic. Britain's victory against France and its allies in the war made the French feel vulnerable to British power. The French saw the American Revolution as a way to strengthen itself and cripple the British Empire. At the beginning, the French helped fuel the American war effort but never came out as an official ally on the side of the Americans. American envoys to France, namely Silas Deane, feared that the French would never join the war. They were so fearful, they thought of telling the French that if the French didn't sufficiently support the war effort, the Americans would begin peace talks with Britain.
Great Britain in the Seven Years' War
Britain and France both had significant colonial possessions in India and had been battling for supremacy for a number of years. The British were represented by the British East India Company (EIC) who were permitted to raise troops. The collapse of the long-standing Mughal Empire brought the clash between the two states to a head, as each tried to gain sufficient power and territory to dominate the other. The 1754 Treaty of Pondicherry which ended the Second Carnatic War had brought a temporary truce to India, but it was soon under threat. A number of smaller Indian Princely states aligned with either Britain or France. One of the most assertive of these Princes was the pro-French Nawab of Bengal, Siraj ud-Daulah, who resented the British presence in Calcutta. In 1756 he had succeeded his grandfather Alivardi Khan who had been a staunch British ally. By contrast he regarded the British East India Company as an encroaching threat.
French in Syracuse, New York
Although the war began in America, it expanded into Europe and was known as the "Seven Years' War" (1756–1763). At the same time, the war spread into Asia as the "Third Carnatic War". The "French and Indian War" not only stripped France of its North American empire, it also caused Britain to change its relationship to its colonies, a change that eventually led to the "American Revolution".
Seven Years' War
The British also harassed French shipping beginning in August 1755, seizing hundreds of ships and capturing thousands of merchant seamen while the two nations were nominally at peace. Incensed, France prepared to attack Hanover, whose prince-elector was also the King of Great Britain and Menorca. Britain concluded a treaty whereby Prussia agreed to protect Hanover. In response France concluded an alliance with its long-time enemy Austria, an event known as the Diplomatic Revolution.
John Mordaunt (British Army officer)
On the outbreak of the Seven Years' War in 1756, Mordaunt was placed in charge of training troops at Blandford. The next year, he was appointed to command an amphibious assault on the French port of Rochefort. The immediate objective was to destroy France's Royal Dockyard at the port. A secondary objective was to highlight Britain's capacity to strike at the French mainland, and force France to withdraw troops from other conflicts to defend its western coastline. The plan was championed at the highest levels, including by British Prime Minister William Pitt.
History of the foreign relations of the United Kingdom
Britain played a small role in the inconclusive but hard fought war that convulsed central Europe, while funding its ally Austria. The goal, as defined by foreign minister John Carteret was to limit the growth of French power, and protect Hanover, which was also ruled by King George II. In 1743 King George II led a 40,000-man British-Dutch-German army into the Rhine Valley. He was outmaneuvred by the French but he scored a narrow victory at the Battle of Dettingen. In the winter of 1743-44 the French planned to invade Britain in alliance with the Stuart pretender to George's throne; they were foiled by the Royal Navy. King George gave command to his son the Duke of Cumberland. He fared poorly and Britain pulled out of the war to deal with rebellion at home, where Cumberland gained fame by decisively suppressing the Jacobite Rising at the Battle of Culloden in 1746. Meanwhile, Britain did much better in North America, capturing the powerful Fortress of Louisbourg in Nova Scotia. The Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle (1748) favoured France, which won the most victories. Britain returned the Fortress of Louisbourg to France and the French left the Austrian Netherlands (modern Belgium). Prussia and Savoy were the main winners, and Britain's ally Austria was a loser. The treaty left the main issues of control over territories in America and India unresolved, and was little more than an armed truce, and a prelude to the more important Seven Years' War.
Action of 8 June 1755
The Action of 8 June 1755 was a naval battle between France and Great Britain early in the French and Indian War. The British captured the third-rate French ships "Alcide" and "Lys" off Cape Race, Newfoundland in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The battle contributed to the eventual war declarations that in 1756 formally began the Seven Years' War.
Anglo-French War (1627–1629)
The Anglo-French War was a military conflict fought between the Kingdom of France and the Kingdom of England between 1627 and 1629 that was part of the broader Thirty Years' War. It mainly involved actions at sea. The centerpiece of the conflict was the Siege of La Rochelle (1627–28), in which the English crown supported the French Huguenots in their fight against the French royal forces of Louis XIII of France. La Rochelle had become the stronghold of the French Huguenots, under its own governance. It was the centre of Huguenot seapower, and the strongest centre of resistance against the central government.
Onontio
Onontio fell from power in 1763 with the conquest of New France by the British empire in the Seven Years' War. The British conquerors seemed unwilling or unable to fulfill the role of Onontio, which was, as a father, that of a mediator and provider rather than a conqueror. As a result, the natives of the Great Lakes rose up against British rule in Pontiac's Rebellion, attempting in part to restore Onontio to power. The native war effort was a failure militarily, but the British revised their policies and began to fulfill some of Onontio's duties. The new Anglo-Indian alliance proved beneficial to the British Empire in subsequent decades as the British were able to enlist native allies in struggles against the United States.
Seven Years' War
In 1756 and 1757 the French captured forts Oswego and William Henry from the British. The latter victory was marred when France's native allies broke the terms of capitulation and attacked the retreating British column, which was under French guard, slaughtering and scalping soldiers and taking captive many men, women and children while the French refused to protect their captives. French naval deployments in 1757 also successfully defended the key Fortress of Louisbourg on Cape Breton Island called Ile du Roi by the French, securing the seaward approaches to Quebec.
Treaty of Alliance (1778)
When the thirteen British colonies in America declared their independence from Great Britain in 1776, their most obvious potential ally was France, a long-time enemy of Britain and a colonial rival who had lost much of their lands in the Americas after the French and Indian War. France's leadership had been alarmed by Britain's victory in the Seven Years' War which had shifted the European balance of power and had been planning for a war of revenge since the Treaty of Paris that had ended the conflict in 1763. The French foreign minister Choiseul had envisaged this taking place in alliance with Spain and involving a Franco-Spanish invasion of Britain. Choiseul had been ready go to war in 1770 during the Falklands Crisis, but Louis XV had been alarmed by the British naval mobilization and instead dismissed Choiseul and backed down.
Seven Years' War
In France, 1758 had been disappointing, and in the wake of this a new chief minister, the Duc de Choiseul, was appointed. Choiseul planned to end the war in 1759 by making strong attacks on Britain and Hanover.
Crown Point, New York
During the Seven Years' War (known as the French and Indian War in North America), the British gained control of this area. Before that, the French retreated and destroyed their fort to keep it out of the hands of the British. The latter built Fort Crown Point in 1759, then the largest earthen fort in their colonies. With British victory in the war, after 1763 France ceded all its territory in North America east of the Mississippi River to Britain.
Francisco Menéndez (black soldier)
They continued at Fort Mosé until the British took control of East Florida in 1763, following their defeat of France in the Seven Years' War. In that settlement, the British traded territory with Spain, taking over East Florida.
John Small (British Army officer)
Lieutenant Small went to North America to fight for Great Britain against French Canadian forces in the Seven Years' War. On that front, the war became known to the colonists of the Thirteen Colonies as the French and Indian War, referring to France and its Native American allies. Small fought at the Battle of Fort Oswego in New York. Two years later, in 1758, he fought at the Battle of Ticonderoga, also in New York, under General James Abercrombie.
Seven Years' War
The Anglo-French hostilities were ended in 1763 by the Treaty of Paris, which involved a complex series of land exchanges, the most important being France's cession to Spain of Louisiana, and to Great Britain the rest of New France except for the islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon. Faced with the choice of regaining either New France or its Caribbean island colonies of Guadeloupe and Martinique, France chose the latter to retain these lucrative sources of sugar, writing off New France as an unproductive, costly territory. France also returned Menorca to the British. Spain lost control of Florida to Great Britain, but it received from the French the Île d'Orléans and all of the former French holdings west of the Mississippi River. The exchanges suited the British as well, as their own Caribbean islands already supplied ample sugar, and, with the acquisition of New France and Florida, they now controlled all of North America east of the Mississippi.
Great Britain in the Seven Years' War
The central plank of France's war against Britain in 1759 was a plan to invade Britain, authored by the French chief minister Duc de Choiseul. It was subject to several changes, but the core was that more than 50,000 French troops would cross the English Channel from Le Havre in flat-bottomed boats and land at Portsmouth on the British coast. Aided by a Jacobite rebellion – they would then advance on London and force a peace agreement on the British, extracting various concessions and knocking them out of the war. The British became aware through their agents of the scheme and drew up a plan to mobilise their forces in case of the invasion. In an effort to set back the invasion, a British raid was launched against Le Havre which destroyed numerous flat-boats and supplies. In spite of this, the plans continued to progress and by autumn the French were poised to launch their invasion.
France in the Seven Years' War
While the first few years of war proved successful for the French, in 1759 the situation reversed and they suffered defeats on several continents. In an effort to reverse their losses, France finished an alliance with their neighbor, Spain, in 1761. In spite of this the French continued to suffer defeats throughout 1762 eventually forcing them to sue for peace. The 1763 Treaty of Paris confirmed the loss of French possessions in North America and Asia to the British. France also finished the war with very heavy debts, which they struggled to repay for the remainder of the 18th century.
Colonial history of the United States
The French and Indian War (1754–1763) was the American extension of the general European conflict known as the Seven Years' War. Previous colonial wars in North America had started in Europe and then spread to the colonies, but the French and Indian War is notable for having started in North America and spread to Europe. One of the primary causes of the war was increasing competition between Britain and France, especially in the Great Lakes and Ohio valley.
Great Britain in the Seven Years' War
The war had also brought to an end the "Old System" of alliances in Europe, In the years after the war, under the direction of Lord Sandwich, the British did try to re-establish this system but European states such as Austria and the Dutch Republic now saw Britain as a potentially greater threat than France and did not join them, while the Prussians were angered by what they considered a British betrayal in 1762. Consequently, when the American War of Independence turned into a global war between 1778–83, Britain found itself opposed by a strong coalition of European powers, and lacking any substantial ally.
Louis Billouart
Kerlérec had to struggle in greater than usual isolation during his administration, as the French government was immersed in conducting the Seven Years' War (1756 to 1763) in Europe. This added to the difficulties of communication by ship, where travel took weeks. In addition, the government was conducting the war in North America, where it was known as the French and Indian War, and struggling to maintain its alliances with certain Indian tribes against the British. Kerlérec took precautions to defend the small French colony from a possible British attack by erecting a palisade around New Orleans, rebuilding the battery at English Turn on the Mississippi River, and anchoring an old ship at the mouth of the river at the Gulf Coast. It could be sunk to prevent entry by English ships. However, Kerlérec's request for more troops went unanswered.
Battle of Cape Finisterre (1761)
Following their defeat Battle of Quiberon Bay in 1759, the French Navy was no longer able to compete with the Royal Navy for control of European waters in the Seven Years' War. In April 1761 the Royal Navy capitalised on its regional dominance to invade Belle Île, an island off Brittany, which was captured in June. With the main French Atlantic fleet confined to harbour, smaller squadrons were sent to conduct raiding operations. One squadron comprised the 74-gun ship of the line "Courageux" under Captain Dugué L'Ambert and the 32-gun frigates "Malicieuse" under Captain Longueville and "Hermione" under Captain Montigney, which was sent to the West Indies. After a very successful raiding cruise, the squadron returned to European Waters in early August.