Which of the following best explains a result of the 7 Years war?

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The French and Indian War was the North American conflict in a larger imperial war between Great Britain and France known as the Seven Years’ War. The French and Indian War began in 1754 and ended with the Treaty of Paris in 1763. The war provided Great Britain enormous territorial gains in North America, but disputes over subsequent frontier policy and paying the war’s expenses led to colonial discontent, and ultimately to the American Revolution.

The French and Indian War resulted from ongoing frontier tensions in North America as both French and British imperial officials and colonists sought to extend each country’s sphere of influence in frontier regions. In North America, the war pitted France, French colonists, and their Native allies against Great Britain, the Anglo-American colonists, and the Iroquois Confederacy, which controlled most of upstate New York and parts of northern Pennsylvania. In 1753, prior to the outbreak of hostilities, Great Britain controlled the 13 colonies up to the Appalachian Mountains, but beyond lay New France, a very large, sparsely settled colony that stretched from Louisiana through the Mississippi Valley and Great Lakes to Canada. (See Incidents Leading up to the French and Indian War and Albany Plan)

The border between French and British possessions was not well defined, and one disputed territory was the upper Ohio River valley. The French had constructed a number of forts in this region in an attempt to strengthen their claim on the territory. British colonial forces, led by Lieutenant Colonel George Washington, attempted to expel the French in 1754, but were outnumbered and defeated by the French. When news of Washington’s failure reached British Prime Minister Thomas Pelham-Holles, Duke of Newcastle, he called for a quick undeclared retaliatory strike. However, his adversaries in the Cabinet outmaneuvered him by making the plans public, thus alerting the French Government and escalating a distant frontier skirmish into a full-scale war.

The war did not begin well for the British. The British Government sent General Edward Braddock to the colonies as commander in chief of British North American forces, but he alienated potential Indian allies and colonial leaders failed to cooperate with him. On July 13, 1755, Braddock died after being mortally wounded in an ambush on a failed expedition to capture Fort Duquesne in present-day Pittsburgh. The war in North America settled into a stalemate for the next several years, while in Europe the French scored an important naval victory and captured the British possession of Minorca in the Mediterranean in 1756. However, after 1757 the war began to turn in favor of Great Britain. British forces defeated French forces in India, and in 1759 British armies invaded and conquered Canada.

Facing defeat in North America and a tenuous position in Europe, the French Government attempted to engage the British in peace negotiations, but British Minister William Pitt (the elder), Secretary for Southern Affairs, sought not only the French cession of Canada but also commercial concessions that the French Government found unacceptable. After these negotiations failed, Spanish King Charles III offered to come to the aid of his cousin, French King Louis XV, and their representatives signed an alliance known as the Family Compact on August 15, 1761. The terms of the agreement stated that Spain would declare war on Great Britain if the war did not end before May 1, 1762. Originally intended to pressure the British into a peace agreement, the Family Compact ultimately reinvigorated the French will to continue the war, and caused the British Government to declare war on Spain on January 4, 1762, after bitter infighting among King George III’s ministers.

Despite facing such a formidable alliance, British naval strength and Spanish ineffectiveness led to British success. British forces seized French Caribbean islands, Spanish Cuba, and the Philippines. Fighting in Europe ended after a failed Spanish invasion of British ally Portugal. By 1763, French and Spanish diplomats began to seek peace. In the resulting Treaty of Paris (1763), Great Britain secured significant territorial gains in North America, including all French territory east of the Mississippi river, as well as Spanish Florida, although the treaty returned Cuba to Spain.

Unfortunately for the British, the fruits of victory brought seeds of trouble with Great Britain’s American colonies. The war had been enormously expensive, and the British government’s attempts to impose taxes on colonists to help cover these expenses resulted in increasing colonial resentment of British attempts to expand imperial authority in the colonies. British attempts to limit western expansion by colonists and inadvertent provocation of a major Indian war further angered the British subjects living in the American colonies. These disputes ultimately spurred colonial rebellion, which eventually developed into a full-scale war for independence.

The Seven Years’ War, which took place between 1756-1763, was a global conflict that spanned five continents, though it was known in America as the “French and Indian War.” After years of skirmishes between England, Spain and France in North America, England officially declared war on France in 1756, setting off what Winston Churchill would later call “the first world war.” While the French, British, and Spanish battled over colonies in the New World, Frederick the Great of Prussia in Europe faced off against troops from Austria, France, Russia and Sweden. The Seven Years’ War ended with two treaties: The Treaty of Hubertusburg greatly enhanced Prussia’s power on the European continent. The Treaty of Paris between France, Spain and Great Britain drew colonial lines largely in favor of the British, an outcome that would later influence the French to intervene in the Revolutionary War.

French and Indian War

By the 1750s, the French had largely claimed Canada and the Great Lakes, while Great Britain clung to their 13 colonies on the Atlantic seaboard. The frontier area around the upper Ohio River Valley soon became a hotbed of contention between British, French and Native American forces, with the Europeans eager to settle the area over their rivals.

The initial armed conflicts did not go well for England: The French built Fort Duquesne and alongside their Native American allies, repeatedly defeated the British.

The war was officially sparked when 22-year-old George Washington was sent by the governor of Virginia as an envoy to the French, warning them to stay away from the area around today’s Pittsburgh. The French refused, and on the way home from his failed mission, Washington’s men became embroiled in a skirmish with a French encampment, where French ensign Joseph Coulon de Jumonville was killed. 

Fort Necessity

Rightly fearing reprisal, Washington ordered the construction of the aptly-named Fort Necessity. The Battle of Fort Necessity on July 3, 1754, (also known as the Battle of Great Meadows) resulted in Washington’s first and only surrender.

Washington would soon be followed in defeat by General Edward Braddock and Governor William Shirley of Massachusetts, both of whom failed to stop the French. In 1756, Britain's William Pitt decided to take a new tack and began strategically financing Prussia’s army as it took on France and its allies. Pitt also reimbursed the colonies for raising armies to beat back the French in North America.

British Victory in the French and Indian War

Pitt’s gambit worked: The first British victory at Louisburg in July of 1758 revived the sagging spirits of the army. They soon took Fort Frontenac from the French and in September of 1758, General John Forbes captured Fort Duquesne and rebuilt a British fort called Fort Pitt in its place in honor of William Pitt.

From there, British forces marched to Quebec, beating French troops in the Battle of Quebec (also known as the Battle of the Plains of Abraham) in September 1759. Montreal fell in September of the following year.

The British under George III were not just fighting over territory in the Americas; they were simultaneously involved in maritime battles that tested the might of the British Navy. The French had to scrap an attempted invasion of Britain after losing the Battle of Lagos and the Battle of Quiberon Bay in 1759.

In addition to the victories in Canada, Great Britain beat back French forces in Guadeloupe, Martinique, Havana, Manila, West Africa and India, wresting Pondicherry in India from the French on January 16, 1761.

The Treaty of Paris

The Treaty of Paris was signed on February 10, 1763, officially bringing an end to the French and Indian War. The British were awarded Canada, Louisiana and Florida (the latter from Spain), thereby removing European rivals and opening up North America for Westward expansion.

The British victory in the French and Indian War earned England a reputation as a world power with a strong navy, a reputation they would use to continue their empire-building efforts around the globe. But the British had also incurred significant debt in the lengthy conflict, and would soon look to the colonists to help pay back the war debt through increased taxes.

The Treaty of Paris also returned Pondicherry to France, and gave them back valuable colonies in the West Indies and Senegal. The French loss would later inspire them to side with American colonists against the British during the Revolutionary War.

READ MORE: 10 Things You May Not Know About the French and Indian War

The Seven Years’ War in Europe

The Seven Years’ War picked up where the War of the Austrian Succession left off in 1748: with increasing levels of hostility between Prussia (led by Frederick the Great) and Russia. The Treaty of Aix-La-Chapelle, or Treaty of Aachen, had taken Silesia from Austria and given it to Prussia, prompting Russia to worry about Frederick’s growing influence in the region.

Frederick, for his part, welcomed another war where he could gain even more territory. With tensions mounting between the superpowers, Europe’s system of alliances shifted in what came to be known as the “diplomatic revolution”: Russia soon allied itself with France and Austria against Britain, Prussia and Saxony in modern-day Germany.

Frederick made the first move, kicking off the war in Europe when he invaded Saxony in August 1756, quickly taking Leipzig and Dresden before moving on to attack Bohemia. Following a failed siege of Prague in May of 1757, he earned early victories at Rossbach on November 5, 1757, when Prussian forces defeated France and Austria, and again at the Battle of Leuthen on December 5, 1757, when the Prussians were victorious over the Austrians.

It was at Leuthen that Frederick began to rely less heavily on swordsmanship and more on firepower to keep up with the advanced weaponry of his opponents.

Prussia’s enemies would soon strike back: Russian and Austrian forces occupied Berlin, which was then the Prussian capital, in October of 1760. The Russians and Austrians withdrew as Prussian reinforcements arrived to battle for their capital.

Prussia was winning, but at great cost. It would take a miracle—the “Miracle of the House of Brandenburg”—to end the war. That miracle happened when Russia withdrew from the war in 1762 following the death of its leader, Tsarina Elizabeth, and the ascension of her nephew, Czar Peter III, to the throne.

Treaty of Hubertusburg

The Treaty of Hubertusburg (also known as the Peace of Hubertusburg) between Austria, Prussia, and Saxony was signed five days after the Treaty of Paris on February 15, 1763.

The Treaty of Hubertusburg named Archduke Joseph of Austria Holy Roman Emperor and gave Silesia and Glatz to Prussia, further bolstering the power and influence of Frederick the Great and Prussia.

Sources

The Global History of the Seven Years’ War. Harvard.edu.
Seven Years’ War. MountVernon.org.
The Seven Years’ War 1756-63. ThoughtCo.
What’s So Great About Frederick? The Warrior King of Prussia. National Geographic.
French and Indian War/Seven Years’ War, 1754–63. U.S. Department of State. Office of the Historian.