Seven Years' War - French and Indian War (1756 - 1763)

Introduction
In a recent book on this critical period in North American History, author Fred Anderson stated: "The most important event to occur in eighteenth-century North America, the Seven Years' War (or as the colonists called it, the French and Indian War) figures in most Americans' consciousness of the past as a kind of hazy backdrop to the Revolution." - the War of Independence. As citizens of a country that was created by secession from the British Empire, we Americans take our reference point as the 13 colonies rebelling and securing freedom. But, the Seven Years' War was an important prelude, and on the world stage even more important…..it resulted in a dramatic rearrangement of power on the North American continent and in Europe. In this war, Great Britain destroyed the North American empire of France…..it created a desire for revenge in the French that would shape European policy for the next few decades, and here in North America it enlarged the British domain to more than twice its size, creating a vast and unwieldy territory to manage. (NY Times article - Saturday, January 1)

Donald Meinig, in his book on the Shaping of America, describes it as the first of the truly "world wars" because it involved two great empires with far-flung holdings. The rivalry between them was intense and the conflict was carried to such distant places as India, Canada, Cuba, as well as on the European continent with fighting over the German and Italian states. Some historians call it "The Great War for Empire."

North America in 1750 (just prior to the War)
Most settlement and activity by the French and by the British to this point was related to the water, to coastal areas and to river systems. The map you looked at earlier shows the Europeanized areas at about this time; it is estimated that there were only about 1.3 million Europeans in all of what is now North America at this time (and, as noted earlier, a very small percentage of those were French). Terrain and proximity to water were the major controls, but settlement was also shaped by colonial land policies, the presence of Indian nations and imperial rivalries. It all looked something like this:

1) French - as discussed earlier
2) Spanish - tenuous hold on the Floridas, while most of their activity was farther west - mostly as a buffer against foreign encroachment
3) British - initial growth in two locations (more on this next week !!!); by 1750 there was a highly uneven, but nearly continuous zone of settlement from New Hampshire to Georgia; reaching inland up the river valleys, and a bit into the hinterland, and the eastern edges of the mountains of the Appalachian region.
4) Conflicting claims along almost every border in North America:
a. French had renounced their claims to Hudson's Bay in 1713, but were still extending their fur trade deeper and deeper into the interior (Rupert's Land - defined by the British as the entire hydrologic basin of Hudson's Bay). Also, the eastern units of Canada were in dispute; the aforementioned treaty of 1713 had transferred Nova Scotia, and the Brits insisted that it meant the whole mainland to the Saint Lawrence, while the French said it was just the peninsula itself. France claimed sovereign rights to the entire drainage of the Saint Lawrence and the Great Lakes, based on early exploration and active exploitation. This was disputed by the British who insisted on rights to much of it based on a series of treaties with the Iroquois. Furthermore, the French claims to the Mississippi drainage cut across the inland latitudinal extensions of a whole series of British coastal grants to seaboard colonies. Also, the Florida boundary between France and Spain was also in dispute.
b. In spite of all that mess, the conflict was actually sparked by tensions in the Ohio River Valley, an area the French claimed; yet an area to which British colonists were actively migrating (illegally, of course). Both nations formed alliances with various Indian tribal units. The Iroquois (with British support) attempted to repel French presence in the region, and the War began.

The War and the Treaty of Paris (1763)
In 1758, Louisbourg fell to the British; in 1759 Quebec City was taken by the British and the next year Montreal surrendered. In the Treaty of Paris, New France was completely lost. Given their half-hearted commitment to the Americas, it wasn't a major blow to the French Empire. Fisheries seemed more important than either Canada (the Saint Lawrence Drainage Basin) or Louisiana (the Mississippi Drainage Basin). In the treaty, they retained fishing rights in Newfoundland, and the ownership of two small islands south of Newfoundland (St. Pierre and Miquelon - which are still a part of France). Canada and all of Acadia was ceded to England; Louisiana (including New Orleans and the French Quarter with Pat O'Brien's Bar) was ceded to Spain.

So - France is pretty much gone from the Americas, and we turn next week to the British colonial experience.