The Seven Years' War Flashcards

Causes - Colonial Rivalries

• Historic European rivalries between Great Britain, France, and Spain extended to their colonies in the Americas.
• The Seven Years’ War (French & Indian War) occurred between 1754 and 1763.
  • It pitted the French, their colonists, and Native American allies against the British, their colonists, and Native American allies.
  • The British ultimately won.
• The root of the conflict was control over disputed territory.
• The French controlled virtually the entire interior of North America by the late 17th century but had a sparse population of only 60,000 settlers.
  • They founded widely separated forts to secure their hold.
  • They constructed forts in the disputed territory of the Ohio River Valley to halt the westward growth of the British colonies.
• The governor of Virginia sent a militia under George Washington to impede French progress.
• Fighting broke out in the Battle of Fort Necessity, and Washington was forced to surrender on July 3, 1754 after losing 31 of his men.
• This marked the beginning of the French and Indian War.

The War

• At first, the war went badly for the British, with their troops suffering defeats.
• The British government called for representatives from several colonies to meet at a congress in Albany, New York in 1754 to coordinate colonial defense.
• Delegates from seven colonies adopted Benjamin Franklin’s Albany Plan of Union.
  • The Albany Plan of Union provided for an intercolonial government and a system for recruiting troops and collecting taxes from the colonies for their common defense.
  • The colonies rejected the plan, concerned about preserving their own taxation powers.
  • It represented an early attempt to form a union of the colonies under one government, setting a precedent for unity during the American Revolution.
• By 1763, the French agreed to a peace treaty known as the 1763 Treaty of Paris.
• Gradually, the tide of war turned in favor of the British in the late 1750s and early 1760s.
• French power on the continent all but ended.
• In the treaty:
  • Great Britain acquired French Canada and Spanish Florida.
  • Spain was given the French Louisiana Territory.

Impacts of the War

• Great Britain established unchallenged supremacy among Europeans in North America.
  • Britain’s victory in the Seven Years’ War was a turning point in the British extension of control of North America.
• The mutual victory ironically sharpened tensions between the British and their colonies.
  • The colonists felt the British troops and leadership were inadequate in navigating the wooded terrain of America and were proud of their own contribution to the war effort.
  • The British felt the colonists were inept militarily and selfish, since some colonies refused to contribute troops or money to the war.
  • The war was costly, doubling the crown’s debt.
• The British abandoned the period of salutary neglect and attempted to exercise more direct control over the colonies to make them bear more of the cost of maintaining the British empire.
• Colonists on the frontier began immediately to move over the mountains and into tribal lands.
• The war sparked conflict with Native Americans, whose autonomy was challenged by growing settlements on the western frontier in newly gained territory.
• In Pontiac’s Rebellion, an alliance of tribes under Chief Pontiac struck back, destroying forts and settlements from New York to Virginia.
• The British sent British troops to put down the uprising rather than relying on colonial forces.
• To protect British colonists from further Native American attacks, King George III signed the Proclamation of 1763.
  • This prohibited American colonists from settling west of the Appalachian Mountains, in Native American lands.
  • Colonists were incensed by this interference, viewing it as punishment, but thousands simply ignored this order.

Key Takeaways

• Colonial rivalry intensified between Britain and France in the mid-18th century, as the growing population of the British colonies expanded into the interior of North America, threatening French-Indian trade networks and American Indian autonomy.
• Britain achieved a major expansion of its territorial holdings by defeating the French, but at tremendous expense, setting the stage for imperial efforts to raise revenue and consolidate control over the colonies.
• After the British victory, imperial officials’ attempts to prevent colonists from moving westward generated colonial opposition, while native groups sought to both continue trading with Europeans and resist the encroachments of colonists on tribal lands.