APUSH AMSCO Topic 3.2 Study NotesAPUSH AMSCO Topic 3.2 Study Notes

A P U S H I S T O R Y · UNIT3

The Seven Years' War

AMSCO Topic 3.2

Learning Objective: Explain the causes and effects of the Seven Years' War (the French and Indian War). Study notes built from the AMSCO text only. No outside sources are added.

Big Picture

Britain, France, and Spain fought a series of wars for empire from 1689 to 1763. The last and biggest, the Seven Years' War (French and Indian War, 1754-1763), ended French power in North America but planted the seeds of the American Revolution by changing how Britain governed its colonies. Britain's victory came at a cost it never imagined: the loss of its Atlantic coast colonies.

Empires at War, 1689-1763

The wars were worldwide (Europe, India, North America) and the stakes were power in Europe and control of colonies and trade. In North America the most valuable possessions were Caribbean sugar islands and the fur trade with American Indians in the interior.

The First Three Wars (1689-1748)

Named for the reigning British monarch; European powers relied on "amateur" colonial forces and most fighting was in Europe.

King William's War (1689-1697): failed British expeditions against Quebec; French-allied Indians burned British frontier settlements.

Queen Anne's War (1702-1713): more British success; Britain gained Nova Scotia and trading rights in Spanish America.

King George's War (1744-1748): James Oglethorpe's colonial army repulsed Spanish attacks in Georgia. New Englanders captured Louisbourg, a major French fortress controlling access to the St. Lawrence River. The peace treaty returned it to France in exchange for gains in India, and New Englanders were furious. The Decisive Conflict (1754-1763)

By 1754 conditions had changed: France (about 60,000 settlers, fur trade with Native Americans) and Britain (about 1.2 million colonists producing grain, fish, tobacco, and lumber) both saw great value in their colonies. Cause: from the British view, France provoked the war by building a chain of forts in the Ohio River Valley, partly to halt the westward growth of the British colonies. Virginia's governor sent a militia under young colonel George Washington to stop work on Fort Duquesne (Pittsburgh). After a small initial victory, Washington surrendered to a larger French and Indian force on July 3, 1754, starting the war.

Early British defeats: General Edward Braddock's 1755 expedition from Virginia was routed near Fort Duquesne (over 2,000 British regulars and colonists beaten by a smaller French and Indian force). Algonquin allies of the French ravaged the frontier from western Pennsylvania to North Carolina. The French repulsed a British invasion of Canada in 1756.

Albany Plan of Union (1754): at a congress in Albany, delegates from seven colonies adopted Benjamin Franklin's plan for an intercolonial government to recruit troops and collect taxes for common defense. Each colony wanted to keep its taxing power, so it never took effect. It set a precedent for the congresses of the 1770s.

British victory: Prime Minister William Pitt focused on conquering Canada: Louisbourg retaken (1758), Quebec surrendered to General James Wolfe (1759), Montreal taken (1760).

Peace of Paris (1763): Britain got French Canada and Spanish Florida; France ceded Louisiana (west of the Mississippi) to Spain to compensate for losing Florida. French power on the continent virtually ended. Immediate Effects

Unchallenged British supremacy among Europeans in North America; Britain became the dominant naval power in the world.

American Indian autonomy was challenged.

Colonies no longer faced concerted attacks from the French, Spanish, and their Indian allies. How each side saw the war

British view Colonial view

Colonial militias were a poorly trained, disorderly rabble.

Some colonies refused to give troops or money. Colonists

were unable and unwilling to defend the empire's

expanded frontiers.

Proud of their record in all four wars and confident they could

provide for their own defense. Unimpressed by British troops and

leadership, whose methods suited badly to the densely wooded

terrain of eastern America.

Reorganization of the British Empire

Britain abandoned salutary neglect and took more forceful control of its expanded North American territory. All four wars had been extremely costly and Britain felt it needed a large military force on the American frontier. Pressure to cut taxes at home led King George III and the dominant Whig party to want the colonies to bear more of the cost of the empire.

Pontiac's Rebellion (1763): Chief Pontiac led an Ohio Valley Indian alliance against colonial settlements, angry about settlers moving west and the British refusal to give gifts as the French had. Forts and settlements from New York to Virginia were destroyed. Britain sent regular British troops, not colonial forces, to crush it. Proclamation of 1763: banned settlement west of the Appalachian Mountains to prevent clashes with American Indians. Colonists expected western land as a benefit of victory, so they reacted with anger and defiance, and thousands moved west anyway.

Growing tensions: the divergent views of the war and the new imperial policies set the context for the conflict over taxation and representation (Topic 3.3).

Cause-and-Effect Chain

Rival empires and Ohio Valley forts, then the Seven Years' War, then British victory and the Peace of Paris (1763), then war debt and a larger empire to defend, then end of salutary neglect and the Proclamation of 1763, then colonial anger and the debate over taxation and representation.

Key Terms and Actors

Term / Actor What it is and why it matters

Seven Years' War / French

and Indian War

Same conflict: Europe's name and North America's name (1754-1763).

George Washington Virginia colonel sent to stop the French at Fort Duquesne; his surrender on July 3, 1754 began the war.

Edward Braddock British general routed near Fort Duquesne in 1755.