Unit 3.2: The Seven Years' War

European Nations Fought Over (18th c.)

  • Trade

  • Insults to Honor

  • Who occupied what thrones

  • Land enroachment

* The conflict lasted seven years in the Americas, but it was much longer in Europe

Seven Years’ War – Global Conflict

French & Indian War – Americas

Chain Reaction in North America

Extension of War of Austrian Succession

  • Britain and France had increased tensions

    • Moreover, as Spanish presence declined, France and England competed to be the dominant power in the Americas

  • English colonies were expanding westward, while the French colonies were expanding towards to south

    • Both were expanding into the Ohio River Valley

  • (1753) George Washington led a militia of English troops and Native allies to expel the French from the Ohio River Valley

    • French were like “nah” and set up military forts in the area to assert dominance and as a sign of refusal

  • English ambushed the French at Fort Necessity

    • George Washington was forced to surrender, which sparked the French and Indian War

1754 French and Indian War begins

Albany Congress/Plan: Congress consisting of several delegates from different colonies to plan an organized response to French action

  • Thomas Jefferson offered the Albany Plan of Union, but it was rejected because it was very expensive, and the tax plan was silly

    • Laid the groundwork for a future union

Presence of Native Allies/Outcome of the War

Natives used the conflict between the two European powers as a way to maintain control in the Americas

  • French were kinder to the Natives so they gained a lot more support than the English from the Natives

  • French were winning by a landslide

William Pitt (Prime Minister of Britain) was given an unlimited budget to end the war

  • Sent better-trained English Redcoats into battle in the Americas

  • Weakened the French Navy

1763 Treaty of Paris

Britain gained land west of the Mississippi

  • Caused more conflict with Native Americans

    • Parliament passed the Proclamation Line of 1763 to prevent continued conflict with Natives (colonies could not expand past the Appalachian Mountains)

Effects of the War

Colonists believed that British protection was no longer essential because France was no longer a threat

  • Taxes

    • British national debt roughly doubled

    • Price to run the colonies increased fivefold

  • Impressment: British coerced colonist to participate in the war unwillingly

  • Quartered troops with colonial expenses

  • Limited Westward expansion with the Proclamation line of 1763