Seven Years' War
For the 1563–1570 war, see Nordic Seven Years' War. For the 1592–1598 war in Korea, see Hideyoshi's Invasions of Korea.The
Seven Years' War (1754 and 1756–1763), some of the
theatres of which are called the
Pomeranian War and the
French and Indian War (see
below), was a war in the mid-18th century that enveloped both
European and
colonial theatres. The war was described by
Winston Churchill as the first
world war, as it was the first conflict in human history to be fought around the globe, though all of the combatants were either European nations or their overseas colonies.
The war involved all major powers of Europe:
Prussia,
Great Britain (with
British Colonies in North America, the
British East India Company, and
Ireland), and
Hanover were pitted against
Austria,
France (with
New France and the
French East India Company), the
Russian Empire,
Sweden, and
Saxony.
Spain and
Portugal were later drawn into the
conflict, while a force from the
neutral United Provinces of the Netherlands was attacked in
India.
The most tangible outcome of the war was the end of France's power in the Americas (having only
French Guiana,
Saint-Domingue, and
Saint Pierre and Miquelon left to them) and the emergence of the
United Kingdom as the dominant colonial power in the world. More importantly, France's navy would never again be at near equal terms with the British
Royal Navy and the British East India Company acquired the strongest position within India, which was to become the
"jewel in the imperial crown".
In
Canada and the
United Kingdom, the
Seven Years' War is used to describe the North American conflict as well as the European and Asian conflicts. The conflict in India is termed the
Second Carnatic War while the fighting between Prussia and Austria is called the
Third Silesian War.
While some U.S.-based historians refer to the conflict as the
Seven Years' War regardless of the theatre involved (such as Fred Anderson in
A People's Army: Massachusetts Soldiers & Society in the Seven Year's War), others and non-scholars often use that term to refer only to the
European portions of the conflict (1756–1763), not the nine-year North American conflict or the Indian
campaigns which lasted 15 years (including
Pontiac's Rebellion), which are known as the
French and Indian War. The name French and Indian War is so given because the British fought the French and many of the
Native Americans (also known as "Indians") sided with France, although some did fight alongside the British.
The Seven Years' War may be viewed as a continuation of the
War of the Austrian Succession. During that conflict, King
Frederick II of Prussia had gained the rich province of
Silesia. Empress
Maria Theresa of Austria had signed the
Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle only in order to rebuild her
military forces and to forge new
alliances.
This she had done with remarkable success. The political map of Europe had been redrawn in a few years. During the so-called
Diplomatic Revolution of
1756, century-old enemies France, Austria and Russia formed a single alliance against Prussia. Prussia had the protection only of Great Britain, which was given because the ruling dynasty saw its ancestral
Hanoverian possession as being threatened by France. Great Britain's alliance with Prussia was a logical complement. The British already had the most formidable
navy in Europe, while Prussia had the most formidable land force on continental Europe and thus allowed Britannia to rule the seas, as well as exert some influence on mainland Europe. The common consent was once called
Broad bottom government. Furthermore, this allowed Great Britain to focus her soldiers towards her colonies.
The Austrian army had undergone an overhaul according to the Prussian system. Maria Theresa, whose knowledge of military affairs shamed many of her generals, had pressed relentlessly for reform. Her interest in the welfare of the soldiers had gained her their undivided respect.
The second cause for war arose from the heated colonial struggle between
Great Britain and
France. Until the war, neither the French, nor the British had claimed the area along the Ohio River in North America. This area was fertile, rich for farming and trading, and would later become part of the American
breadbasket region of the
Midwest. The primary reason for the beginning of the American theatre of the war was a dispute over the Ohio River banks.
Unlike the prior three wars of colonial possession between France and the British, this one began in the Americas and spread to Europe secondarily. To the British Colonials and subsequent Americans, the war lasted somewhat over nine years.
Prelude
In 1753,
France began building a series of forts in the
Ohio Country, a region also claimed by the British colony of
Virginia, though now part of what is today's
West Virginia,
Pennsylvania, and
Ohio. The British Claim to the valley was that by Article 15 of the
Treaty of Utrecht, the Iroquois Confederacy were subjects of the British Crown. Since the Iroquois claimed the valley as their land, the British asserted that the Ohio Country belonged to them. In the Spring of 1753, the French Governor, Ange Duquense de Menneville, ordered a 2,000 man expedition to the Ohio Country. The expedition was to be commanded by Paul Marin de la Malgue and its objective was to protect the King's land in Ohio. To do this a string of forts would be constructed and garrisoned by the Troupes de la Marine at strategic locations. The first of the forts was built at Presque Isle (present-day Erie, Pennsylvania.) Also built by the French was
Fort Le Boeuf (present-day Waterford, Pennsylvania.) These actions were part of an overall strategy by the French, with the support of the indigenous population, to destabilize the American frontier and tie up British military forces in the American colonies.
Robert Dinwiddie, the governor of Virginia, was in a predicament. He had several wealthy friends that had business interests in the area claimed by the French. If the French gained control of the Ohio Country, Dinwiddie's friends would stand to lose large sums of money. He had to act and do so quickly. Therefore, on October 31, 1753 newly minted
Major George Washington of the
Virginia Militia was dispatched, along with his interpreter, Jacob Van Braam to deliver a letter to the French commander in the Ohio Country, Jaques Legardeur de Saint-Pierre. The letter insisted upon immediate French withdrawal from the Ohio Country.
On November 12, 1753,
Major George Washington arrived at Fort Le Boeuf. He dined with Jaques Legardeur de Saint-Pierre on the evening of the twelveth. When he presented the French commander with his letter, Saint-Pierre's response was quite diplomatic, " As to the Summons you send me to retire, I do not think myself obliged to obey it." (Fowler, 35)
As Washington was meeting with Saint-Pierre, Govenor
Robert Dinwiddie sent a force of 50 men under Captain William Trent to sieze and fortify the forks of the Allegheny River where it connected to the Ohio River. The expedition however, didn't reach the area until February 1754. It was at the previously mentioned area that
Fort Trent was constructed by the British.
Fort Trent was attacked by the French forces in the area, under the command of Claude-Pierre Pecaudy de Contrecoeur, on April 16, 1754. The Britsh surrendered on the same day.
First Blood
With the failure of William Trent's expedition and the refusal of the French to leave the Ohio Country, Robert Dinwiddie upped the ante by sending Washington, now promoted to
Lieutenant Colonel, on another mission to the Ohio Country with an advanced force and the British Colonials ambushed a French Canadian scouting party. After a short skirmish (
Battle of Jumonville Glen) wherein virtually all the French force perished or were initially captured, Washington's
Native American ally
Tanacharison brutally killed the wounded French commander,
Ensign Jumonville, by tomahawk in what eventually became widely known as the notorious
"Jumonville affair", an international incident that eventually helped to ignite the Seven Years' War on the European Continent and around the world.
Then, showing his inexperience, Washington built
Fort Necessity on low instead of high ground and failed to clear back a sufficient 'kill zone', both of which soon proved inadequate and fatal to many of his men. With the expected reinforcement of 100 British regulars, Washington and the British regular officer quarrelled over the command structure, and then were attacked by a superior French and Indian force in what became known as the
Battle of the Great Meadows. With many casualties, the British regular officer dead, and nearly two months march from home he was compelled to surrender to the larger French and American Indian force investing his position. The surrender terms that Washington signed included an admission that he had "assassinated" Jumonville. (The document was provided by the French Commander, brother of Jumonville. The document had been translated by Washington's interpreter, Jacob Van Braam, whose first language was neither French nor English. Van Braam either mis-interpreted or was unaware of what he was translating. Washington always maintained he did not see the statement, and resigned rather than face demotion over the incident.)
Hero of the Monongahela
:
In 1755, General Braddock rehabilitated Washington and took him on as an aide and launched a large force into the wilderness intending to take the forks of the Ohio (present-day
Pittsburgh). The French and Indian allies attacked the force in the
Battle of the Monongahela, during which Washington showed great poise and extracted the British Force in a skillful retreat after Braddock fell to wounds. This made Washington an international name, and he was toasted as the
Hero of the Monongahela for years to come.
The war erupted in earnest in Europe as well on
May 15,
1756, when the
Diplomatic Revolution had been finalized and Great Britain declared war on France. In accordance with his military doctrines, King Frederick determined to strike first. On
August 29, his well-prepared army crossed the frontier of
Saxony.
In the European theatre,
Prussia was outnumbered, but not outclassed, by her opponents. Prussia was a small state, but as
Voltaire once remarked, it was an army with a country, not the other way around.
At the start of the war, Frederick crossed the border of Saxony, one of the smaller German States in league with Austria. The Saxon and Austrian armies were unprepared, and at the
Battle of Lobositz Frederick prevented the isolated Saxon army from being reinforced by an Austrian army under General
von Browne. However, Saxony had successfully delayed the Prussian campaign. In the Mediterranean, the French opened the campaign against the British by an attack on Minorca; a British attempt at relief was foiled at the
Battle of Minorca (for which
Admiral Byng was subsequently court-martialed and executed by being shot) and the island was captured.
In the spring of 1757, Frederick again took the initiative by marching on Prague. After the bloody
Battle of Prague the Prussians started to besiege the city, but had to lift the siege after Frederick's first defeat at the
Battle of Kolin.
Things were looking very grim for Prussia at this time, with the Austrians mobilizing to attack Prussian-controlled soil and a French army under
Soubise approaching from the west. In what Napoleon would call "a masterpiece in maneuver and resolution", Frederick thoroughly crushed both the French at the
Battle of Rossbach and the Austrians at the
Battle of Leuthen. With these complete victories at hand, Frederick had once again established himself as Europe's finest general and his men as Europe's finest soldiers.
The British planned a "descent" on
Rochefort, a combined Army-Navy operation to overrun the town and burn the shipping in the
Charente. The expedition set out on
September 8,
1757,
Sir John Mordaunt commanding the troops and
Sir Edward Hawke the fleet. On
September 23, the Isle d'Aix was taken, but it became clear that Rochefort was unassailable, and the expedition abandoned the Isle d'Aix and returned to Great Britain on
October 1.
Though Frederick invaded Austria in the spring of 1758, he failed to score an important victory. In the west, the French were beaten in the
Battle of Rheinberg and the
Battle of Krefeld by Prince
Ferdinand of Brunswick.
|
operations of Russian army from Polish territory during Seven Years' War 1756-1762 |
In the east, at the
Battle of Zorndorf in Prussia, a Prussian army of 35,000 men under Frederick fought to a standstill with a Russian army of 43,000 commanded by Count
Fermor. The Russians withdrew from the field. In the undecided
Battle of Tornow on
September 25, a Swedish army repulsed six assaults by a Prussian army. On
October 14, the Austrians surprised the main Prussian army at the
Battle of Hochkirch. Frederick lost much of his artillery but retreated in good order.
Despite the abject failure of the descent on Rochefort,
Pitt (who showed a predilection for this species of enterprise) prepared to continue such operations. An army was assembled under the command of the
Duke of Marlborough, aided by
Lord George Sackville. The naval escorts for the expedition were commanded by
Anson, Hawke, and
Howe. The army landed on
June 5,
1758 at
Cancalle Bay, proceeded to
St. Malo, and burned the shipping in the harbor; the arrival of French relief forces precluded a siege, and the troops re-embarked. An attack on
Havre de Grace was called off, and the fleet sailed on to
Cherbourg; but the weather being bad and provisions low, that too was abandoned, and the expedition returned, with very little to show for it.
Pitt now prepared at last to send troops into Germany; and both Marlborough and Sackville, disgusted by the futility of the "descents", obtained commissions in that army. The elderly
General Bligh was appointed to command a new "descent", escorted by Howe. The campaign began propitiously: with the support of the navy to bombard Cherbourg and cover their landing, the army drove off the French force detailed to oppose their landing, captured Cherbourg, and destroyed its fortifications, docks, and shipping. Re-embarking, the troops were landed on
September 3 at the
Bay of St. Lunaire in
Brittany, with the idea of acting against St. Malo, but this proved impractical. Worsening weather forced the two arms to separate: the ships sailed for the safer anchorage of
St. Cast, while the army proceeded overland. The tardiness of Bligh allowed a French force of 10,000 men from
Brest to catch up with him and open fire on his embarkation. They were held off by the rear-guard of 1,400 under General Drury while the rest of the army embarked; but they could not be saved, and 750, including Drury, were killed and the rest captured.
1759 saw some severe Prussian defeats. At the
Battle of Kay, or Paltzig, the Russian Count
Saltykov with 70,000 Russians defeated 26,000 Prussian troops commanded by General
von Wedel. Though the Hanoverians defeated an army of 60,000 French at
Minden, Austrian general
Daun forced the surrender of an entire Prussian corps of 13,000 men in the
Battle of Maxen. Frederick himself lost half his army in the
Battle of Kunersdorf, the worst defeat in his military career which drove him to the brink of abdication and suicide. The disaster resulted partly from his misjudgment of the Russians, who had already demonstrated their strength at Zorndorf and
at Gross-Jagersdorf.
The French planned to invade the British Isles during 1759 by accumulating troops near the mouth of the Loire and concentrating their Brest and Toulon fleets. However, two sea defeats prevented this. In August, the Mediterranean fleet under M. de la Clue was scattered by a larger British fleet under
Edward Boscawen at the
Battle of Lagos. In the
Battle of Quiberon Bay on
November 20, the British admiral
Edward Hawke with 23
ships of the line caught the French Brest fleet with 21 ships of the line under
Marshal de Conflans and sank, captured or forced aground many of them, putting an end to the French plans.
1760 brought even more disaster to the Prussians. The Prussian general
Fouque was defeated in the
Battle of Landshut. The French captured
Marburg, and the Swedes part of
Pomerania. The Hanoverians were victorious over the French at the
Battle of Marburg, but the Austrians, under the command of
General Charles Flynn captured
Glatz in Silesia. In the
Battle of Liegnitz Frederick scored a victory despite being outnumbered three to one. The Russians under
General Saltykov and Austrians under
General Lacy briefly occupied his capital,
Berlin. The end of the year saw Frederick once more victorious in the
Battle of Torgau.
1761 brought a new country into the war. Spain declared war on Great Britain on
January 4. In the
Battle of Villinghausen Prince
Ferdinand of Brunswick defeated a 92,000 man French army. The Russians under
Zakhar Chernyshev and
Pyotr Rumyantsev stormed
Kolberg in Pomerania, while the Austrians captured
Schweidnitz.
Great Britain now threatened to withdraw her subsidies, and, as the Prussian armies had dwindled to 60,000 men,
Frederick's survival was severely threatened. Then on
January 5 1762 the
Tsaritsa died, and her Prussophile successor,
Peter III, at once recalled Russian armies from Berlin and mediated Frederick's truce with Sweden. In the aftermath, Frederick was able to drive the Austrians from Silesia in the
Battle of Freiberg (
October 29 1762), while his Brunswick allies captured the key town of
Göttingen.
For North American events, see French and Indian War. |
The descent of the French on St. John's, Newfoundland, 1762 |
Battles occurred in
India,
North America,
Europe, the
Caribbean isles, the
Philippines and coastal
Africa. During the 1750s up to 1763, Great Britain gained enormous areas of land and influence at the expense of the French.
Robert Clive ran the French from India, and General
Wolfe defeated the French forces of General
Montcalm at the
Battle of the Plains of Abraham leading in the following year to the surrender of
Quebec to the British. Great Britain lost Minorca in the Mediterrean to the French in 1756 but captured the French colonies in
Senegal on the African continent in 1758. The
Royal Navy captured the French sugar colonies of
Guadeloupe in 1759 and
Martinique in 1762, as well as the Spanish cities of
Havana in
Cuba and
Manila in the Philippines.
In 1758, the British mounted an attack on
New France by land and by sea. The French fortress at
Louisbourg on
Cape Breton Island fell in 1758. And on
September 13 1759, General James Wolfe defeated the French forces at
Québec. By the autumn of 1760, French America had become British.
Towards the very end of the war, in 1762, French forces attacked
St. John's, Newfoundland. If successful, the expedition would have strengthened France's hand at the negotiating table. Though they took St. John's and raided nearby settlements, the French forces were eventually defeated by British troops in the
Battle of Signal Hill. The battle was the final battle of the war in North America and forced the French to surrender St. John's to the British under the command of General
Jeffrey Amherst.
The war ended with the
Treaty of Paris, signed in 1763. It included the cession to Great Britain of all New France except for the islands of
St. Pierre and Miquelon.
The British-French hostilities were ended in 1763 by the
Treaty of Paris, which involved a complex series of land exchanges. France was given the choice of keeping either
New France or its Caribbean island colony
Guadeloupe, and chose the latter to retain one of its sources of
sugar. This suited the British as well, as their own Caribbean islands already supplied ample sugar, but with the handover of New France they gained control of all lands in North America east of the
Mississippi River. However, the end of the threat from New France to the British American colonies and the subsequent reorganization of those colonies would later become one of the enabling triggers for the
American Revolution. Spain lost control of
Florida to Great Britain, but received
New Orleans and the
Louisiana Territory west of the
Mississippi River from the French. France also returned Minorca to the British.
European
boundaries were returned to their pre-war states, by the
Treaty of Hubertusburg (February 1763). This meant that Prussia was confirmed in its possession of Silesia. Prussia had survived the combined assault of its numerous neighbours, each larger than itself. According to some historians, Prussia gained enormously in influence at the cost of the
Holy Roman Empire. This influence marks the beginning of the modern German state, an event at least as influential as the colonial empire Great Britain had gained. Others, including Fred Anderson, author of "Crucible of War," disagree. According to Anderson, "Beyond the inevitable adjustments in the way diplomats would think of Prussia as a player in European politics, six years of heroic expenditure and savage bloodshed had accomplished precisely nothing." (p. 506)
From a military point of view, the battles are less interesting than the numerous marches and countermarches in which Frederick excelled. This warfare of mobility would later be admired by
Napoleon Bonaparte. In fact, the Seven Years' War was the last major military conflict in Europe before the outbreak of the
Revolutionary and
Napoleonic Wars towards the end of the
18th century.
*
Battle of Minorca:
May 20,
1756*
Battle of Lobositz:
October 1,
1756*
Battle of Reichenberg:
April 21,
1757*
Battle of Prague:
May 6,
1757*
Battle of Kolin:
June 18,
1757*
Battle of Plassey:
June 23,
1757*
Battle of Hastenbeck:
July 26,
1757*
Battle of Fort William Henry:
August 3 -
August 8,
1757*
Battle of Gross-Jagersdorf:
August 30,
1757*
Battle of Moys:
September 7,
1757*
Battle of Rossbach:
November 5,
1757*
Battle of Breslau:
November 22,
1757*
Battle of Leuthen:
December 5,
1757*
Battle of Cuddalore:
April 29,
1758*
Battle of Domstadtl:
June 30,
1758*
Battle of Carillon:
July 7 -
July 8,
1758*
Battle of Negapatam:
August 3,
1758*
Battle of Zorndorf:
August 25,
1758*
Battle of Hochkirk:
October 14,
1758*
Battle of Bergen:
April 13 1759*
Battle of Kay:
July 23,
1759*
Battle of Minden:
August 1,
1759*
Battle of Kunersdorf:
August 12,
1759*
Battle of Lagos:
August 19,
1759*
Battle of Pondicherry:
September 10,
1759*
Battle of Quebec also called the
Battle of the Plains of Abraham :
September 13,
1759*
Battle of Hoyerswerda:
September 25,
1759*
Battle of Quiberon Bay:
November 20,
1759*
Battle of Maxen:
November 21,
1759*
Battle of Meissen:
December 4,
1759*
Battle of Landshut:
June 23,
1760*
Battle of Warburg:
August 1,
1760*
Battle of Liegnitz:
August 15,
1760*
Battle of Torgau:
November 3,
1760*
Battle of Villinghausen:
July 15-
July 16 1761*
Battle of Burkersdorf:
July 21,
1762*
Second Battle of Lutterberg:
July 23,
1762*
Battle of Manila:
September 24,
1762*
Battle of Freiberg:
October 29,
1762* The novel
The Luck of Barry Lyndon (1844) by
William Makepeace Thackeray is set against the backdrop of the Seven Years' War.
Stanley Kubrick's movie
Barry Lyndon (1975) is based on this novel.
* The board game
Friedrich is based on the events of the Seven Years' War.
Fowler, William H.
Empires at War. Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre Ltd, 2005
*
The Seven Years War Website*
Events and the participants in the Seven Years War*
Seven Years' War timeline*
The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition's entry on the Seven Years' War*
Another Seven Years' War timeline*
Memorial University of New Foundland's page about the war
