1756 - Seven Years War
This international war, officially declared in 1756 and lasting until 1763, had origins in the American colonies. At the outset it was far from certain that the British ultimately would prevail. French forces, with the help of their Indian allies, maintained the upper hand through at least 1757. In 1755 forces under Major General Edward Braddock (1695-1755), Britain’s top commander in North America, failed to retake Fort Duquesne. The British were more successful in the north and northeast than in Pennsylvania, but their successes were offset in 1756 by important French victories at Fort Oswego on Lake Ontario and Fort William Henry on Lake George.
From 1758 onward however, the French armies and their native allies found themselves increasingly on the defensive. Despite their failure that year to capture Fort Ticonderoga (on Lake Champlain), British forces took other important fortifications, notably Fort Frontenac on the east side of Lake Ontario. They won a significant strategic victory with the capture of Louisbourg.
In 1759 British forces made a clean sweep of nearly every remaining French stronghold. The most important battle of the year, however, took place in Quebec. Facing a force of 9,000 men under the leadership of General James Wolfe (1727-1759) and a 20-ship naval force led by Admiral Charles Saunders (1715-1775), the French in Quebec endured a 2½-month siege before surrendering in late September. Detroit and Montreal, France’s last remaining strongholds, fell in 1760.
Although the battles of 1759-60 effectively ended hostilities on the North American continent, the two powers continued to engage each other in battles around the globe. British forces in particular remained active for several years after 1760, especially in North America, where British-Indian wars became yet another variant of the larger imperial struggle, most notably the Cherokee Wars (1759-61) and Pontiac’s War (1763-65).
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