Introduction
The Seven Years’ War (1756-1763) reached from French and British colonies in North America and India to states in modern-day Germany. It seemed glorious at the time for Britain, but it doubled the national debt, and measures to recover the costs triggered the American War of Independence.
IN the 1750s, King George II’s Prime Minister, the Duke of Newcastle,* faced rising diplomatic tensions with Louis XV’s France.
In India, the French were Britain’s chief competitors for the favour of powerful princes. In the Caribbean, French islands were winning the lion’s share of trade, while in North America, the French were threatening to cut off British expansion inland, and making gains around Quebec* and Nova Scotia.*
Keen to avoid war, Newcastle relied on Austria, locked in an ongoing dispute over European territories involving France, Prussia and the Russian Empire, to draw France off. But in 1756, the Austrians suddenly allied with France, and France snatched Minorca back from the British. Newcastle’s credibility was shattered, and with war breaking out across Europe and the colonies, Secretary of State William Pitt gradually assumed full control, bypassing the dithering cabinet and the Admiralty, and deftly employing the Royal Navy to blockade French supplies and sweep their warships from the seas. The pendulum was swinging towards Britain.
Thomas Pelham-Holles (1693-1768), 4th Duke of Newcastle, Prime Minister from 1754 to 1756 and (in coalition with William Pitt the Elder) from 1757 to 1762. Not to be confused with his younger brother Henry Pelham (1696-1754), Prime Minister from 1743 to 1754.
A French colony with its chief city at Montreal. The colony was annexed by Britain in 1759, though Major-General James Wolfe died in the action. The Quebec Act of 1774 formalised its government under the British Crown.
A British colony founded on land ceded by France to Britain by the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713, which ended The War of the Spanish Succession. The French had an enclave at Cape Breton, but many were forced to move south in 1755, and after the Battle of Louisbourg in 1758 Britain’s control over Nova Scotia was firmly established. Americans loyal to the Crown settled there in 1783 after the American War of Independence, and slaves liberated from US plantations were resettled there, such as the parents of William Hall VC.
Minorca had been captured in 1708, during The War of the Spanish Succession.
William Pitt (1708-1778), 1st Earl of Chatham, who was in coalition with the Duke of Newcastle from 1757 to 1761, and Prime Minitser in his own right from 1766 to 1768. He is known as Pitt ‘the Elder’ to distinguish him from his son William Pitt (1759-1806) ‘the Younger’, Prime Minister in 1783-1801 and 1804-1806. See posts tagged William Pitt the Elder (4) and William Pitt the Younger (2).
Word Games
Sevens Based on this passage
Suggest answers to this question. See if you can limit one answer to exactly seven words.
Variations: 1.expand your answer to exactly fourteen words. 2.expand your answer further, to exactly twenty-one words. 3.include one of the following words in your answer: if, but, despite, because, (al)though, unless.
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