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CONTENT MODULE TOPIC
COLONIAL WARS AND THE SEVEN YEARS WAR
Glossary
Events
Seven Year’s War (1756-63) European version of the French and Indian War (1754-63).
(Also known in Britain as the Great War for Empire) This war involved all the major powers
of Europe, and was one of the first “global” conflicts. Countries as far away from North America
as Senegal in West Africa and various outposts in India were engaged. In the Caribbean, the
British seized the valuable sugar islands of Martinique and Guadeloupe as well as the Spanish
colonies of Cuba and the Philippines. From the British colonial point of view, the war centered in
the quest for British dominance over North America. The first skirmish occurred when George
Washington engaged a force of French and Indians near Fort Duquesne in 1754. The war
expanded from that point. Britain’s imperial rule of North America was confirmed by The
Treaty of Paris, signed by Great Britain, France, and Spain. France agreed to cede French
Canada and all of its territory east of the Mississippi River to England, and Spain ceded Florida
to England. In return for the loss of Florida, England returned the Philippines and Cuba to Spain.
France, in turn, gave Spain the title to all of Louisiana west of the Mississippi. This treaty
marked British imperial ascendancy in the world balance of power. France’s imperial regime was
reduced to its remaining sugar islands in the West Indies, and two islands in the Gulf of St.
Lawrence. France effectively lost the international status it had enjoyed in the seventeenth and
early eighteenth century. Despite the degree of its apparent triumph, however, Britain had
incurred a national debt that was to provide the basis of issues over colonial taxation that would
fuel the American Revolution.
The War of the Austrian Succession, 1740-1748, also known as ―King George’s War‖ In
the Americas, this war began as a conflict between Spain and Britain, known as the War of
Jenkins’ Ear, after an English sailor who had lost an ear to a Spanish soldier. The first British
engagement, which was against Porto Bello in Panama, ended disastrously for Britain. Britain
nevertheless used Georgia as a base for launching raids on St. Augustine. When France entered
the war in 1744, there were more border raids on the northern frontiers. An expedition under
Governor William Shirley of Massachusetts went to French Canada and captured Fort
Louisbourg on Cape Breton. The European War of the Austrian Succession actually began when
Frederick II of Prussia seized the Austrian province of Silesia (in eastern Germany) in
December, 1740. Frederick’s move upset the balance of power in Europe, at least as it had been
defined by the Treaty of Utrecht (1713), which had ended the War of the Spanish Succession.
The Hapsburg Empress Maria Theresa responded with a strategic move: she chose the moment
to recognize the crown of Hungary as the most important one of her crowns, and she promised
the Magyars (the dominant ethnic group) a fair amount of autonomy. Central European problems
could have remained distinct from the escalating commercial conflicts between Great Britain and
Spain. However, France intervened in support first of Prussia, which was rapidly becoming a
new, consolidated state. France then moved to support Spain in the conflicts with Great Britain
in the New World. Great Britain, in turn, moved to protect the Low Countries (the Netherlands)
from France. The result was that France’s military capacity and resources were severely strained.
The war ended in yet another stalemate in 1748, with the Treaty of Aix-la-Chappelle. Under its
terms, Prussia was to retain Silesia, and Spain was to renew it previous commercial agreements
with Great Britain.
The War of the League of Augsburg (1689-1697) or the Nine Years’ War European version
of King Williams’ War (1690-1697) as it was called among American colonists and as it is still
designated by American history textbooks. The League of Augsburg was formed to resist
French expansion into German territories after Louis XIV took over the free German city of
Strasbourg. By 1689, the League included England, Spain, Sweden, and the United Provinces,
along with Bavaria, Saxony, and the Palatinate. In the Americas, France and England struggled
for dominance. In British North America, sporadic fighting occurred, mostly in Hudson Bay
posts, which fell to the French, and in Newfoundland, which also fell to a French force led by
D’Iberville, the future founder of Louisiana. With their Indian allies, the French launched an
attack on Schenectady, New York in 1690, and destroyed it. In Massachusetts, Sir William Phips
launched an expedition which took Acadia. The Treaty of Ryswick returned the colonies to the
pre-war status quo. Part of the motivation for both the League and the war was a fear that Louis
XIV planned to engage in a Catholic reconquest of Europe after his revocation of the Edict of
Nantes in 1685. The Edict, issued by Henri IV in 1598, had offered limited religious freedoms.
Louis’s revocation not only solidified Protestant resistance to his reign. It promoted a mass
exodus of some 250,000 French Huguenots from France. Many of these fled to England,
Northern Ireland, Germany, and the Americas where they subsequently fought by the thousands
in the service of Louis’s enemies.
The War of the Spanish Succession, 1701-1714, also known as ―Queen Anne’s War.‖ and as
―Marlborough’s Wars‖ The last of the wars between England and France over Louis XIV’s
territorial ambitions and religious differences. Historians like Stephen Saunders Webb have
explored both the role of religious intolerance and the role of armies—the tools of early modern
nation states—as agents of empire. The war took place after the death of Spain’s Charles II, who
was childless. A succession crisis ensued, even though the major contending powers had reached
an agreement in 1698 in the First Partition Treaty. The treaty was jeopardized when the
proposed successor died before Charles II did. The strongest contender for the throne was Philip,
Duke of Anjou, who was also the grandson of Louis XIV. The Duke ascended the throne as
Philip V in 1700. Fearing Louis XIV’s extension of his territories, England, Holland, and the
Holy Roman Empire formed a Grand Alliance against France. After the formation of the Grand
Alliance, Louis made matters worse when he chose to recognize the claims of James Edward
Stuart. “The Old Pretender,” as he was known, was the son of the Catholic English King James
II, who had been deposed in 1688 in what amounted to a Protestant coup by William of Orange
and James’s daughter Mary. Louis also banned English imports. In reaction, England formed a
Grand Alliance with the Hapsburgs, Hanover, and Prussia. France, Spain, Bavaria, and Portugal
opposed the Grand Alliance, though Savoy and Portugal changed sides in 1703, and joined the
Grand Alliance. Under John Churchill, the Duke of Marlborough, English forces combined
technologically advanced weaponry (flintlock rifles, paper cartridges, ring bayonets) with
Churchill’s tactical brilliance to defeat Louis XIV in virtually every engagement. Louis’s troops
were badly equipped, and lacked the leadership that Churchill provided. In the most famous
battle of the war, Churchill roundly bested French troops at Blenheim in 1704 and again at
Ramillies in 1706. France itself, meantime, was torn by famine, revolts, and financial difficulty
during the years of 1708-06. In the Americas, the colonies of South Carolina and New England
bore the brunt of the attack. Colonists from South Carolina raised a force that destroyed the
Spanish-held town of St. Augustine, but were unable to capture the fort at San Marcos.
Charleston fell under attack, and an intermittent border war ensued between South Carolina and
Florida. The English colonists forged alliances with Yemassee and Creek Indians, who aided
them in their fight. In New England, the frontier between Maine and Massachusetts was
frequently raided. In Canada, despite the fall of Port Royal in 1710, the English were
unsuccessful in their efforts to take Quebec. Several villages in Massachusetts were sacked. The
English were more successful in their Caribbean efforts, where they gained control of the island
of St. Christopher. France finally agreed to an armistice at Utrecht in 1713 and with Holland
and the Hapsburg Empire in 1714, in the Treaty of Rastadt. According to the Treaty of
Utrecht, Philip V remained on the Spanish throne, but had to give Gibraltar and Minorca to
England, thus making England a Mediterranean as well as an Atlantic power. The Spanish
renewed their asiento with Britain, a commercial arrangement whereby Britain earned the right
to supply Spanish America with 4800 slaves every year. Louis XIV was forced to recognize the
House of Hanover’s rights to the English throne. He also had to give up most of his claims in
Germany. The war was a harbinger of things to come: England was to be the most powerful
country in the Atlantic and European worlds in the eighteenth century.
Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle (1748)—See War of the Austrian Succession above.
Peace of Utrecht (1713)—See War of the Spanish Succession above.
Treaty of Paris (1763)—See Seven Years’ War above
Treaty of Ryswick (1697)—See War of the League of Augsburg above.
People
John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough (1650-1722) One of England’s greatest generals.
Superb tactician and victor at Blenheim, Ramillies, and elsewhere in Germany and the
Netherlands during the War of the Spanish Succession.
General James Wolfe (1727-1759) British general who served with distinction in the War of the
Austrian Succession. Wolfe’s successful capture at Louisbourg in 1758 in the Seven Years’ War
led to his promotion and his eventual role in the decisive battle at Quebec, against the French
general Louis Joseph de Montcalm. Wolfe lost his life in the battle that ended France’s
pretensions to power in North America. His death was famously memorialized by Benjamin
West in “The Death of Wolfe” (1770).
General Louis Joesph de Montcalm (1712-1759) Leader of the French forces at Quebec,
where, like Wolfe, he died.
Sir William Phips (1651-95) First governor of Massachusetts, who launched an expedition to
take Acadia in the War of the League of Augsburg.
Pierre Le Moyne D’Iberville (1616-1706) Best-known for rediscovering the mouth of the
Mississippi River and for beginning the colonization of French Louisiana, D’Iberville also
played a pivotal role for the French in the War of the League of Augsburg. He captured
Newfoundland and various posts along the Hudson River.