1756
The Seven Years War Begins
The Seven Years War, a global conflict known in America as the
French and Indian War, officially begins when England declares war on France.
However, fighting and skirmishes between England and France had been going on in
North America for years.
In the early 1750s, French expansion into the Ohio River valley
repeatedly brought France into armed conflict with the British colonies. In
1756–the first official year of fighting in the Seven Years War–the British
suffered a series of defeats against the French and their broad network of
Native American alliances. However, in 1757, British Prime Minister William
Pitt (the older) recognized the potential of imperial expansion that would come
out of victory against the French and borrowed heavily to fund an expanded war
effort. Pitt financed Prussia’s struggle against France and her allies in
Europe and reimbursed the colonies for the raising of armies in North America.
By 1760, the French had been expelled from Canada, and by 1763
all of France’s allies in Europe had either made a separate peace with Prussia
or had been defeated. In addition, Spanish attempts to aid France in the
Americas had failed, and France also suffered defeats against British forces in
India.
The Seven Years War ended with the signing of the treaties of
Hubertusburg and Paris in February 1763. In the Treaty of Paris, France lost
all claims to Canada and gave Louisiana to Spain, while Britain received
Spanish Florida, Upper Canada, and various French holdings overseas. The treaty
ensured the colonial and maritime supremacy of Britain and strengthened the 13
American colonies by removing their European rivals to the north and the south.
Fifteen years later, French bitterness over the loss of most of their colonial
empire contributed to their intervention in the American Revolution on the side
of the Patriots.