Causes and Effects of the Seven Years' War (College Board AP® US History)

Timeline

Summary

In the mid-18th century, Great Britain and France wanted to control as much money, land, and resources as possible. This imperial rivalry resulted in the global Seven Years’ War (1754–63). The battles over North American territory were collectively known as the French and Indian War.

• The French allied with the many Indigenous groups with whom they traded furs

• The British tried to ally with the Iroquois Confederacy, but the Iroquois only promised to remain neutral during the war

Great Britain defeated the French and took possession of nearly all of France’s territory east of the Mississippi River. But victory came at a high price. Great Britain had taken out huge loans to pay for the war and it needed more money from the colonists to repay the debt. Meanwhile, colonists who started to move west were pushed back by angry Indigenous people, who did not want to lose their homelands, and the British government’s Proclamation of 1763.

Causes & Effects of the Seven Years’ War

• Before the Seven Years’ War, the British controlled the 13 colonies along the eastern coast of North America

  • The western border of the colonies was the Appalachian Mountains

• France controlled land directly west of the Appalachian Mountains

  • New France stretched from Louisiana in the south up through the Mississippi River Valley and into the Great Lakes and Canada

Image: Map of disputed territory during French and Indian War.

• The British and French governments both believed they had the right to the Ohio River Valley

  • Both parties wanted as much North American territory as possible

  • The French did not want to share the profitable fur trade with the British

    • The French were more interested in trading furs than conquering land

  • Indigenous peoples were more likely to keep their autonomy under French rule. That is why the French had so many Indigenous allies

• The Anglo-American population in North America was growing rapidly

  • Colonists wanted to move west onto land that had not been “settled” by Europeans

• The French built a chain of forts between Lake Ontario and the Ohio River to prevent further westward expansion of the British colonies.

• In the spring of 1754, the British responded by building their own fort in Pennsylvania

  • The French captured the fort and renamed it Fort Duquesne

  • The French then attacked the Virginia militia that had been sent to retake it

British Defeat the French, Gaining Land and Power

• The Seven Years’ War ended with the Treaty of Paris of 1763

  • France gave Great Britain its land in Canada and most of its land east of the Mississippi River

  • France’s ally, Spain, gave Florida to Great Britain

    • In return, France gave Spain all its land west of the Mississippi River (known as Louisiana) and the port of New Orleans

  • Great Britain now controlled all North American territory east of the Mississippi River and almost all of Canada

Image: Claims before and after French and Indian Wars

• Great Britain was in debt after the war

  • The war was expensive

  • The British government had many loans to pay after defeating France

  • King George III and Parliament planned to recoup the lost money by raising colonists’ taxes and enforcing stricter trade laws

Colonists Cause Problems By Moving West

• After the Seven Years’ War, colonists wanted to move west into Great Britain’s newly acquired territory

• Many Indigenous groups opposed this

  • They feared Anglo-American colonists would take their land and disrupt their way of life

  • In 1763, Ottawa chief Pontiac urged Indigenous groups to “swear [the] destruction” of Anglo-Americans who were “seeking [the] ruin” of Indigenous peoples

  • Rising tensions resulted in Pontiac’s War (1763)

  • Battles between the British and Indigenous peoples broke out in the Great Lakes region, Pennsylvania and Virginia

• King George III issued the Proclamation of 1763, which prohibited colonists from settling west of the Appalachian Mountains

  • Ten thousand British troops were sent to the colonies to enforce the new law

• The Proclamation of 1763 had two purposes:

  • It prevented future conflicts between colonists and Indigenous groups

  • It forced colonists to remain close to the Atlantic coast, where the British government could more easily control them

• Many colonists disliked the Proclamation of 1763

  • They believed the law restricted their freedom of movement

  • They thought the additional 10,000 British troops stationed in the colonies would take away some of their liberties