The Seven Years' War

Lewis Breland

Throughout the history of North America, Britain and France had been jockeying for dominance on the continent.  Thirteen British colonies arrayed themselves along the eastern seaboard of the continent while France possessed most of the western frontier (Louisiana) and Canada (Quebec).  In 1754, when the infamous Seven Years’ War began, the French colonists numbered about 65 thousand while the British colonists to the south numbered roughly 2 million.

The Seven Years’ War began in America between colonial factors and ended on the fields of India.  Fur traders from Pennsylvania and Virginia were eager to trade with Indians in the Ohio River valley.  Leading Virginia planters, who were interested in developing the region, had formed the Ohio Company, and with support of London merchants, had received a royal grant of 200,000 acres in the Ohio River valley in 1749.
The French, determined to secure the territory against encroaching British and American traders and land speculators, built a chain of forts along Pennsylvania's Allegheny River.  The British ministry ordered colonial governors to repel the French advance, "by force" if necessary.

In 1753, Virginia's Governor Robert Dinwiddie, an investor in the Ohio Company, sent George Washington, a 21-year old major in the Virginia militia, to Pennsylvania to demand a French withdrawal from the forts.  The French refused and in the Spring of 1754, Washington returned to Pennsylvania with about 160 men.  The French defeated Washington at Fort Necessity, the first battle of the war.

Meanwhile, representatives of seven colonies met in Albany, New York, with representatives of the Iroquois Confederacy.  The goal of the Albany Congress was to solidify friendship with the Iroquois in light of the approaching war with France and to discuss the possibility of an inter-colonial union.  Benjamin Franklin presented a "plan of union" at the conference which would establish a Grand Council which would be able to levy taxes, raise troops, and regulate trade with the Indians.  The delegates at the congress approved the plan, but the colonies refused to ratify it, since it threatened their power of taxation.

Following the surrender of Fort Necessity, Britain ordered 60-year-old Major General Edward Braddock and a combined force of 3000 redcoats and colonial militia to attack the French stronghold of Fort Duquesne at the site of present-day Pittsburgh.  French and Indian forces ambushed the expedition eight miles from the fort, killing Braddock and leaving two-thirds of his soldiers dead or wounded.

In 1756, William Pitt became the king's new chief minister.  Viewing America as the place "where England and Europe are to be fought for," Pitt let Prussia bear the brunt of the Seven Years' War in Europe, while concentrating British military resources in America.  This was to become a major mistake.
He united the previously divided colonies by guaranteeing payment for military services and supplies.  He also installed younger and what he hoped were more capable officers.

Pitt's strategy at first worked.  In 1758, the British, with colonial forces assisting, seized Louisbourg – a French fortress guarding the mouth of the St. Lawrence River.  However, in 1759, British forces under General Wolfe sailed up the river, laid siege to the city of Québec for three months, but were defeated in September.  Wolfe was killed and his tattered army surrendered. The next year, Louisbourg also surrendered to the French, ending the fighting in America.

The war came to an official end in 1763, with the signing of the Treaty of Versailles.  The treaty gave France all British land in the Caribbean and Newfoundland.  The treaty also gave France all of Britain's holdings northwest of the Ohio river, which now became the boundary between the British colonies and Louisiana.  In effect, triumphant France now was the strongest nation on the continent; Britain was left militarily powerless.