Seven Years’ War

I

Introduction

Seven Years’ War, worldwide series of conflicts fought from 1756 to 1763 for the control of Germany and for supremacy in colonial North America and India. It involved most of the major powers of Europe, in particular Prussia, Great Britain, and Hannover on one side and Austria, Saxony (Sachsen), France, Russia, Sweden, and Spain on the other. The North American segment of the conflict, known as the French and Indian War, involved Great Britain and its American colonies against the French and their Algonquian allies. The Indian phase, known as the Third Carnatic War (see Carnatic Wars), established British domination in India.

II

European Phase

Austria's resolve to repossess the rich province of Silesia, which had been lost to Prussia in 1748, was the major conflict leading to the Seven Years' War. Maria Theresa, archduchess of Austria and queen of Hungary and Bohemia, acquired the support of Russia, Sweden, Saxony, Spain, and France, with the specific aim of waging war against Prussia and its ally, Great Britain. It was Frederick II of Prussia, however, who initiated the hostilities with his attack and capture of Saxony in 1756.

Through the first half of the war, the Prussians continued victorious. They defeated the French at Rossbach and the Austrians at Leuthen in 1757 and the Russians at Zorndorf in 1758. At this point, however, with Sweden entering the war and virtually all Europe opposing Frederick, the tide seemed to turn. By 1759 eastern Prussia was in the hands of the Russians, and Berlin had been captured. The Prussian situation was desperate. Two significant factors, however, led to the eventual return of Prussian dominance in the war. One was the active support of the British and Hannoverians; both, until this point ineffective combatants, now fought successfully against the French. The second, and more important, was the withdrawal in 1762 of Russia and Sweden from the war. This occurred as a result of the death of Empress Elizabeth of Russia; her successor, Peter III, an admirer of Frederick, quickly signed a peace treaty with the Prussian leader.

III

American Conflict

In North America, the war began in 1754. Colonial rivalry had gradually developed between France and Great Britain over lucrative fur-trading posts and land west of the Appalachian Mountains and over fishing rights off the coast of Newfoundland. The French, by a strategy of encirclement, hoped to contain British settlement, particularly in the Ohio Valley, where Virginia planters had established fur-trading posts in 1749. By resisting British expansion westward, France was in hopes of uniting, through a chain of forts, its Canadian empire with possessions as far south as New Orleans.

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During the first two years of the war, French and Native American forces were largely victorious, winning an important and surprising victory in defending Fort Duquesne. In 1757, however, the British statesman William Pitt, 1st earl of Chatham, a pro-Prussian, was given complete charge of British foreign policy and appointed the British general James Wolfe to command the troops in the New World. Pitt's bold strategy ultimately resulted in defeat for the French. By 1760 the British had conquered all of French Canada.

IV

Indian Theater

Conflict spilled over into India in 1756 as the Third Carnatic War, the last in a series of 18th-century conflicts between the French and the British for supremacy in the area. The first two Carnatic wars had been fought mainly on the eastern coast of southern India, in a region called the Carnatic. The third war, however, passed beyond the limits of southern India into the rich eastern province of Bengal. In 1757 British soldier Robert Clive captured the French possession of Chandernagore. He then defeated the native government of Bengal at the Battle of Plassey and installed a puppet government in the region controlled by the British.

The most decisive battles of the war, however, were fought in the south. Here, the military balance tilted decisively in favor of Britain when Pondicherry, the capital of French India, fell in 1761. With the fall of Pondicherry, Britain succeeded completely in demolishing French plans for control of the country.

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