The Seven Years' War

(noun)

A world war fought between 1754 and 1763, the main conflict occurring in the seven-year period from 1756 to 1763. It involved every European great power of the time except the Ottoman Empire, spanning five continents, and affected Europe, the Americas, West Africa, India, and the Philippines. The conflict split Europe into two coalitions, led by Great Britain on one side and France on the other.

Related Terms

Examples of The Seven Years' War in the following topics:

  • A World War

    • The Seven Years War was a global military war involved most of the great global powers of the time, which affected European colonies.
    • The Seven Years War was a global military war between 1756 and 1763, involving most of the great powers of the time and affecting Europe, North America, Central America, the West African coast, India, and the Philippines (.
    • The Seven Years War was the last major military conflict fought primarily on the European continent before the outbreak of the French Revolutionary War in 1792.
    • A battle during the Seven Years War between British and Indians in North America
    • Discuss the impact of the Seven Years War on the North American continent

  • The War and Its Consequences

    • The Seven Years' War changed relations between the European powers, their colonies and colonists, and the American Indians in North America.
    • Most of the North American fighting of the French and Indian War (the North American theatre of the Seven Years' War) ended on September 8, 1760, when the Marquis de Vaudreuil surrendered Montreal—and effectively all of Canada—to the British.
    • Indeed, the Royal Proclamation itself called for lands to be granted to British soldiers who had served in the Seven Years' War.
    • For France, the military defeat and the financial burden of the Seven Years' War weakened the monarchy and eventually contributed to the advent of the French Revolution in 1789.
    • An image of the 1763 peace settlement reached at the Treaty of Hubertusburg ending the Seven Years' War in central Europe.

  • The Seven Years' War: 1754-1763

    • The French and Indian War (1754-1763) was the North American chapter of the Seven Years' War.
    • The French and Indian War (1754–1763) was the North American chapter of the Seven Years' War.
    • Britain officially declared war on France on May 15, 1756, marking the beginnings of the Seven Years' War in Europe.
    • The sole British successes in the early years of the war came in 1755, at the Battle of Lake George, which secured the Hudson Valley; and in the taking of Fort Beauséjour (which protected the Nova Scotia frontier).
    • In September of 1760, Pierre François de Rigaud, Marquis de Vaudreuil-Cavagnal and the King's Governor of New France, negotiated a surrender with British General Jeffrey Amherst to bring an end to the French and Indian war portion of the Seven Years' War.

  • A Global War

    • Although the question of whether the Seven Years' War was the first world war remains ambiguous, the war marked a shift in the European balance of power that shaped the world far beyond Europe.
    • The Seven Years' War was a world war fought between 1754 and 1763, the main conflict occurring in the seven-year period from 1756 to 1763.
    • Because of its span and global impact, some historians have argued that the Seven Years' War was the first world war (it took place almost 160 years before World War I).
    • The Seven Years' War influenced many major events later around the globe.
    • Assess the claim that the Seven Years' War was the first world war

  • The Diplomatic Revolution

    • The diplomatic revolution of 1756 was the reversal of longstanding alliances in Europe between the War of the Austrian Succession and the Seven Years' War, when Austria went from an ally of Britain to an ally of France, and Prussia became an ally of Britain.
    • This change in European alliances was a prelude to the Seven Years' War.
    • Austria's actions alerted Frederick, who decided to strike first by invading Saxony, commencing the Seven Years' War (1756–1763).
    • This map shows Europe in the years after the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle 1748 and the Seven Years' War (1756-1763).
    • The fragile peace eventually resulted in the diplomatic revolution and collapsed when the Seven Years' War began only eight years after the treaty was signed.

  • The Peace of Paris

    • It ended the French and Indian War, also known as the Seven Years' War.
    • For decades following the Seven Years War, Frederick II would consider the Treaty of Paris as a British betrayal.
    • Locator map of the competing sides of the Seven Years War before outset of the war (mid-1750s).
    • Locator map of the competing sides of the Seven Years War before outset of the war (mid-1750s).
    • Summarize the land swaps in the New World that marked the conclusion of the Seven Years' War

  • Events of the War

    • The Seven Years' War was a world war fought between 1756 and 1763 that involved every European great power of the time except the Ottoman Empire, spanned five continents, and affected Europe, the Americas, West Africa, India, and the Philippines.
    • The Seven Years' War was a world war fought between 1754 and 1763, the main conflict occurring in the seven-year period from 1756 to 1763.
    • In French-speaking Canada, it is known as the War of the Conquest, while it is called the Seven Years' War in English-speaking Canada (North America, 1754–1763), Pomeranian War (with Sweden and Prussia, 1757–1762), Third Carnatic War (on the Indian subcontinent, 1757–1763), and Third Silesian War (with Prussia and Austria, 1756–1763).
    • All the participants of the Seven Years' War: [blue] Great Britain, Prussia, Portugal, with allies; [green] France, Spain, Austria, Russia, Sweden with allies.
    • The Seven Years' War is sometimes considered the first true world war.

  • Territorial Losses

    • Louis XV's controversial decision following the War of the Austrian Succession and his loss in the Seven Years' War weakened the international position of France that lost most of its colonial holdings.
    • The war would last seven years and Fleury did not live to see its end.
    • In 1756, Frederick the Great invaded Saxony without a declaration of war, initiating the Seven Years' War, and Britain declared war on France.
    • The French military successes of the War of the Austrian Succession were not repeated in the Seven Years' War, except for a few temporary victories.
    • In the aftermath of the lost Seven Years' War, France lost most of its colonial holdings in North America and some, although not all, of its colonies in the Caribbean.

  • Treaty of Paris

    • The Treaty of Paris ended the French and Indian War following British victory over France and Spain.
    • The Treaty of Paris was signed on February 10, 1763, by the kingdoms of Great Britain, France and Spain, with Portugal in agreement, to end the French and Indian War, or Seven Year's War.
    • However, the transfer had occurred the prior year in the Treaty of Fontainebleau and was not publicly announced until 1764 .
    • The Treaty of Paris was to give Britain the east side of the Mississippi.
    • This map depicts the competing sides of the Seven Years War.

  • European Wars in the Colonies

    • The war was largely subsumed by the War of the Austrian Succession in 1742.
    • King William's War (1689–1697), also known as the "Nine Years War" and the "War of the League of Augsburg," was a phase in the larger Anglo-French conflict for colonial domination throughout the world.
    • Queen Anne's War (1702–1713) was the second war for control of the continent and was the counterpart of the War of the Spanish Succession in Europe.
    • Following Queen Anne's War, relations between Carolina and the nearby American Indian populations deteriorated, resulting in the Yamasee War of 1715 and Father Rale's War a few years later, which very nearly destroyed the province.
    • The final imperial war, the French and Indian War (1754–1763), known as the Seven Years’ War in Europe, proved to be the decisive contest between Britain and France in America.