15 May 1756 A.D. 7-year “French and Indian” War Begins—England declares war on France
15 May 1756 A.D. 7-year “French and Indian” War Begins—England declares war on France
Editors. “1756 – The Seven Years War, a global conflict known in America as the French and
Indian War, officially begins when England declares war on France.” This Day in U.S. Military
History. N.d. https://thisdayinusmilhist.wordpress.com/2014/05/15/may-15/. Accessed 13 May 2015.
1756 – The Seven Years War,
a global conflict known in America as the French and Indian War, officially
begins when England declares war on France. However, fighting and
skirmishes between England and France had been going on in North America for
years. In the early 1750s, French expansion into the Ohio River valley
repeatedly brought France into armed conflict with the British colonies. In
1756–the first official year of fighting in the Seven Years War–the British
suffered a series of defeats against the French and their broad network of
Native American alliances. However, in 1757, British Prime Minister William
Pitt (the older) recognized the potential of imperial expansion that would come
out of victory against the French and borrowed heavily to fund an expanded war
effort. Pitt financed Prussia’s struggle against France and her allies in
Europe and reimbursed the colonies for the raising of armies in North America.
By 1760, the French had been expelled from Canada, and by 1763 all of France’s
allies in Europe had either made a separate peace with Prussia or had been
defeated. In addition, Spanish attempts to aid France in the Americas had
failed, and France also suffered defeats against British forces in India. The
Seven Years War ended with the signing of the treaties of Hubertusburg and
Paris in February 1763. In the Treaty of Paris, France lost all claims to
Canada and gave Louisiana to Spain, while Britain received Spanish Florida,
Upper Canada, and various French holdings overseas. The treaty ensured the
colonial and maritime supremacy of Britain and strengthened the 13 American
colonies by removing their European rivals to the north and the south. Fifteen
years later, French bitterness over the loss of most of their colonial empire
contributed to their intervention in the American Revolution on the side of the
Patriots.
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