Essay on The Seven Years War Text

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how a small island became the british empire

t he seven years war between prussia and austria mainly with a host of other nations , was the lift off for the british empire, but who would have imagined it, since britain's contribution to what was a land war in europe was light on men and material. But it was heavy in money, spent on prussia, and designed to keep france occupied while the british navy went around the world scooping up french colonies.

this war, begun in 1756, was a residual of the war of austrian succession, in which england aligned with austria and france aligned with prussia, frederick and prussia winning and getting the territory named silesia as the prize. Austria, to get it back, convinced its long time enemy france that it might be better served aligning with austria to prevent prussia from becoming the dominant player in europe. England then switched sides, for several reasons: france was england's principal enemy for hundreds of years, england needed russian timber for her navy, and england's george ii wanted to protect the territory of hanover, from which his family flowed. The treaty of versailles united france and austria, to which would be added russia, the german states, sweden, saxony, and poland, and each of these began gearing up for a final war to put prussia away for good.

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Frederick of prussia, considered the greatest general of the century until napoleon saw the gathering storm and decided to go on offense, subduing nearby saxony right away, and then winning the first engagement with austria. After that, the balance switched to austria france and frederick, undermanned, and attacked from numerous directions, lost several battles. However, england starting sending large subsidies to keep frederick afloat, and sent some troops to defend hanover. Frederick rebuilt his army with english money and won the main battle of the war against the larger austrian army at breslau 1757.

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Over the next four years, the same territories would be taken and lost several times by one side or the other, the war pausing for rest each winter. Russian czar peter i lost his country 1762 in a coup d'etat to katherine, and she wanted russia out of the war. Prussia, and frederick, appeared several times to have lost this war, but with the above events, gathered confidence, took on a larger french army at burkesdorf and won. It had gone around the world, driving the french out of its colonies in india, canada, the caribbean, the great lakes region, louisiana, cuba, and manila.

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France could only strike back with general montcalm in canada, where they succeeded in taking fort william henry from the british in 1757 a battle known from the novel and film last of the mohicans , but then montcalm lost to wolfe in the battle of quebec in which both generals died and france abandoned canada. France got its caribbean colonies back but was obliged to give up claim to india and canada. Spain, a minor participant, was obliged to cede florida to england but obtained louisiana from france. In europe, territorial ownership reverted to the exact conditions which existed before this war began. But for those in the old regime who decided whether or not to take this gamble, the possibility of winning made this risk was attractive. The seven years' war was about the control and supremacy of territory: germany, north america, and india. The underlying reason was as to which country would dominate in the colonial field.

The war was an episode in the european politics of that time, and a continuation of the austrian war of succession. Because this war lasted for seven years from 1756 to 1763, it is called as the seven years' war the seven years' war, the european counterpart to the french and indian war 1754 1763 , began officially between france and england on may 15, 1756, when the latter made a formal declaration of war. Actually, fighting had been going on in america for two years and that was called the french and indian war. The fighting that was occurring halfway across the world in india was called the third carnatic war. The seven years' war involved all the major european powers and was world like in scope, but to the colonists it was a struggle against the french for control of north america.

It was the last major conflict before the french revolution to involve all the great powers of europe. Generally, france, austria, saxony, sweden, and russia were aligned on one side against prussia, hanover, and great britain on the other. The war arose out of the attempt of the austrian habsburgs to win back the rich province of silesia, which had been wrested from them by frederick ii the great of prussia during the war of the austrian succession. But the seven years' war als the seven years war proved to be a crossroads in the history of british colonial rule in america.

Britain was victorious, but after defeating her french foes along with their indian allies , britain was left to contemplate the ramifications of a war that would leave her relationship with her american colonies altered forever. This change would eventually lead to conflict between the colonies and britain, and ultimately the declaration of american independence. In order to understand how the relationship between britain and the american colonies became so strained, we must first examine the nature of britain's imperial authority. Economic relations between the two entities were governed by navigation acts and trade acts. These acts existed for the express purpose of maximizing profits for britain with regards to her colonies in north america.

They served to completely control colonial trade, and in the process stifled some sectors of the colonial economy. To britain's dismay, many colonists openly flouted these regulations during the seven years war, largely because of britain's preoccupation with the ongoing hostilities. After the war it became clear the extent to which some colonists had openly flouted the trade and navigation acts.

This was doubly insulting for britain because of the perceived sacrifices made by britain during the war in terms of material and men, all spent to keep the colonies and colonists out of french hands. The colonists, on the other hand, had become more economically prosperous and decidedly less dependent in the process. Self reliance was a commodity that was little known in colonial america before the war, and now that the colonists had had a taste of it, they were understandably slow to relinquish it. In this paper i am going to explain the diverse social and political backgrounds existent in the eighteenth century america. There were many factors that led to the seven year’s war, and i will explain some of these factors as i venture through this paper.

Before i was born in the seventeenth century, the colonies were being overrun by different immigrants. Famine, warfare, and religious persecution forced those immigrants to move to the colonies. They paid for their passage by signing indentures to work as servants in america davidson, j. When the immigrants and slaves came to america this caused for a very large growth in the population, and the population in the colonies was rapidly growing from natural increase. My father had stated that the birthrate of the eighteenth century in america was triple what it is today davidson, j.

I was born during this time, and most women gave birth to between five and eight children. Because of the religious and ethnic diversity there was a chaotic rate of westward expansion. My dad said that even the children of longtime settlers couldn’t obtain land along the coast. There were limited supplies of land so three and four generations were using the same land and it was pressuring the land for productiveness. The philadelphian farmlands were already taken by earlier settlers, and rural communities offered few opportunities for families. The only opportunity that new immigrants had for land was south of new york, and the prices were cheaper.