The Impact of the Seven Years' War: 1754-1763

1. Impact of the Seven Year’s War

2. Timeline 1754 Washington leads British forces vs. France in the Ohio river valley 1755 British forces under Braddock destroyed 1756 Acadians deported by England 1757 Pitt rises to power 1760 War on the continent ends 1763 Peace of Paris 1763 Pontiac’s Rebellion

3. Foreign Affairs • English colonies in constant fear of invasion and attack • French from north and west, Spain from south • fears that both countries would utilize Indian tribes • European involvement starts many wars whose influences are felt in the colonies

4. European spheres of influence c. 1755

5. Background to the War • France and England fighting over control of North America • three earlier wars starting in the early 1700s • unstable situation in the Ohio River Valley and the Iroquois • English traders • Ohio Company • French decide to build forts • Virginia sends Washington to fight - July 3-4, 1754

7. The War • Three stages • 1755-7 French and allies win victories, English treat colonists as subordinates, poor coordination of fighting, Acadians removed from Canada • 1757-60 William Pitt gains control - well coordinated and planned campaigns, Louisbourg (1758), Fort Frontenac on Lake Ontario (1758) isolates Ohio forts, Quebec and main army (1759), Montreal (1760) • 1760-63 War in the Caribbean disrupts damaged economies

9. Economic Results • Cost of war is staggering • British debt doubles, seeks to pay debt by taxing colonists (enforcing existing taxes at a lower rate) • individual colonies (esp. Mass, Rhode Island) shoulder huge war debt • war disrupts trading patterns • no West Indes - no smuggling - privateering • end of continental war means shift to peacetime economy while still at war • deep recession begins, not ending until mid 1770s

10. Attitudinal Changes in England • Belief that colonists should shoulder some of burden of war - Quartering Act • beginning of shift from mercantile to territorial empire • uncertainty how to administer new lands • confusion over how to interact with Native Peoples in new territory

11. Attitudinal Changes in colonies • without France why need England? • no external concept to bind the colonies together • increasing resentment • first from treatment during war • second from sense of identity in opposition • third from economic issues • fourth over military • fifth over land issues

12. Military Changes • Posting of more peacetime forces than when faced by threat of France • resentment builds • connection to tax collection • connection to jobs and slowing economy • viewed by colonists as a threat to liberty

13. British troop deployments

14. Land Use Changes • Increasing unease of Native Peoples • lack of trade goods • inability to mediate between French and English • threat from settlers • Settlers spilling in to the Ohio river valley • Land companies and speculation • protection of settlers from Indians • Pontiacs Rebellion 1763 • Proclamation of 1763