Introducing the Seven Years’ War:
Over the course of recorded human history, there are a few moments which truly define the lives of millions of people. The creation and dissemination of the vaccines for smallpox or polio is one such defining moment. The Black Death, the Spanish Flu or the Coronavirus Pandemic are all defining moments. The creation of the internet, the moment Apollo 11 touched down on the surface of the moon, the fall of the USSR, the invention of the printing press, the Reformation, the Renaissance and countless others are all defining moments.
But, throughout modern history, there have been 3 moments that have touched the lives of almost everyone alive today. 2 of these moments are obvious – the First and Second World Wars. They gave us everything we know today. Most of what I mentioned above would not have been possible without the consequences of the World Wars. But the third moment is forgotten by popular history. The Seven Years’ War, lasting from 1756 to 1763, set the world up for World War 1. It led to the French Revolution, the American Revolution, the Napoleonic Wars, the British Conquest of India, the final defeat of the Mughal Empire, the meteoric expansion of Imperial Russia. But most importantly, it was because of the Seven Years’ War that Britain would come to rule the largest Empire in human history. Many of the grievances that led to World War 1 – and, by extension, World War 2 – can be traced straight back to the Seven Years’ War. The extended moment that birthed the modern world, it can be argued, is the Seven Years’ War.
And over the next many articles, we will be exploring this war. By the end of this series, you, dear reader, will come to understand our modern world just a little bit better – because that is just how important this war is. But in this article, we will look at why exactly the war began and lay the groundwork for the next article; exploring the nations that fought the war.
The Causes of the War:
Historians have studied the War and why it began for centuries. A great deal of work was produced on this topic in the 19th Century by both French and English historians. And they all came to differing conclusions. They blamed specific politicians, blamed international incidents, incomprehensible military manoeuvres, propaganda and rhetoric, Parliament or Monarchy – essentially, everything that could have contributed to the war, they found to be at fault.
But modern historians have come to the conclusion that this war should never really have begun – that is how insignificant the spark was. At its core, although it involved the Mughal Empire, the Maratha Empire, the Russian Empire, the Spanish Empire, the Portuguese Empire, various German Monarchies, the colonies in America, various Native American Nations, the Dutch Empire and the Swedish Empire (and that is still not all the participants!), the conflict was a product of Europe’s greatest and most famous rivalry – England and France.
This “world war”, as it can be called, began in North America, in the late 1740s and the early 1750s. The French and English colonies had by then established firm footholds in the continent and were seeking to expand. Given that the colonies furnished their parent nations with vast amounts of wealth, both England and France were greatly invested in aiding their expansion. They knew that, inevitably, the English and French colonies would come into contact and fighting would be the natural consequence. The English and French governments were absolutely fine with it and attempted to pre-empt a larger conflict breaking out by agreeing to turn a blind eye to their colonial disputes. Turning a blind eye to warfare, no matter how small-scale it may be, has never been a good idea and this was proven again in 1754. A communication error resulted in the British being led to believe that France had moved government troops – not colonial, but those in direct service of the King – into British territory in America. This information was, in fact, false – but the British did not realise this until it was too late.
The King of Great Britain, George II, personally ordered British colonial forces to launch an offensive into French territory to avenge the perceived French invasion of British America. Even at this stage, war was avoidable. Had the French and English colonial governments, or even London and Versailles (the then capital of France) communicated better, war would have been avoided. But no one thought to contact the other side. The French, upon seeing the British launching an open offensive into French America, began their own military manoeuvres.
Given all of this, the specific cause of the war remains vague to this day.
2 men are flagged by historian P. L. R. Higonnet for causing this war; 2 men of the French and English colonial governments who drove their very unwilling governments into a shooting war. The French Governor General of New France (Quebec) Michel-Ange Duquesne de Menneville (known simply as Marquis Duquesne) and the Lieutenant Governor of British Virginia Robert Dinwiddie sent false and increasingly worrying reports to their respective governments in Versailles and London. They, acting completely independently of any orders from their capitals, conducted military manoeuvres designed to antagonise the other into committing troops to battle. It is absolutely unclear why they began to posture and prepare for war, when Britain and France themselves remained at peace. Higonnet says the following of their inexplicable behaviour: “From greed, incompetence, or imperialism, but in any case from private motive, they had succeeded in involving their governments in a shooting war.” By April of 1754, the die was cast. The French, motivated by Marquis Duquesne’s reports had sent more troops to the area to capture British forts. The capture of British forts compelled Robert Dinwiddie to send his own men (led by none other than George Washington) out to attack French forts.
And slowly, the conflict spread until it became too big to stop. The French and British began to commit more and more men and materiel to what had once been a small colonial conflict. It was only a matter of time before the conflict spilled into Europe and Asia. But, even when the war really kicked off in 1756, it was not fought only by Britain and France. Every single great power in Europe would be involved in this war in some capacity. Even neutral nations, such as the Netherlands, were not spared the horrors of war – such was the scale of the warfare.
Conclusion:
The motivations behind the actions of Robert Dinwiddie and Marquis Duquesne may never be known. It is very likely that they simply wanted to expand the areas under their personal control. Historian Higonnet is almost certainly correct in stating that their motivations were entirely personal. They likely did not think of the consequences their actions would have. Their actions were characteristic of many local governors of the time – such as Josiah Child, the Governor of Bombay, attacking the Mughals and almost costing British their future Empire as a consequence. In the end, an analysis of their motivations does not yield any result – because the consequences of the war, a colonial conflict turned into a globe-spanning bonfire, matter far more. But more on that, very, very soon.
Sources:
Hamish Scott, “The Seven Years’ War and Europe’s ‘Ancien Régime’”, War in History, 18:4 (2011), pp. 419-455
P. L. R. Higgonet, “The Origins of the Seven Years War”, The Journal of Modern History, 40:1 (1968), pp. 57-90
Nick Harding, Hanover and the British Empire; 1700-1837 (2007)
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