Seven Years' War

The first war with a truly global area of conflict, the Seven Years' War (1756 - 1763) pitted Great Britain, Prussia and Hanover against France, Austria, Russia, Sweden, and Saxony. A force from the neutral Netherlands was even attacked in India. Battles in Europe were largely draws and European boundaries were returned to their pre-war states in the Treaty of Hubertusburg[?] (February 1763). An example is the Battle of Rossbach (November 1757).

The war began on May 15, 1756 when Great Britain declared war France.

Great Britain battled France across 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 James Wolfe defeated the French forces of General Louis-Joseph de Montcalm and so conquered Canada (New France). The English returned most French Caribbean islands at the end of the war but acquired Canada permanently. These islands produced great quantities of sugar which England already had access to on their own islands but which the French considered more valuable than the vast, mostly unsettled lands of Canada. The British-French hostilities were ended with the Treaty of Paris (1763).

The North American phase of this conflict is known in the United States as the French and Indian War. Many of the Indians (Native Americans/First Nations) sided with France although some did fight with the British. The name "Seven Years' War" is used in the United States to refer only to the seven-year European phase of the conflict (1756-1763), not the nine-year North American conflict or the Indian campaigns which lasted 15 years.

See also: War, Military history, History, List of Swedish wars