U.S History to 1865
Historical Context Paper
Due: April 25, 2012
The Seven Years War
On May 18, 1756 Great Britain declared war on France. Britain’s sovereignty war effort had completely crashed with the struggle to possess a essential leadership role to push the French out of the Mississippi Valley. Two years before to the start of the Seven Years War, belligerences between American and Canadian colonist had erupted in North America. In 1754 George Washington, at the time was a Virginian major of militia ambushed a small French detachment (1) in America’s Ohio Valley. From this continuing event, people knew that a war would eventually arise. From that moment, both France and Britain began to send troops to the Americas.
A minister, William Pitt was King George II’s most powerful minister in his working cabinet. William Pitt finally provided Great Britain with what it needed most – a forceful leader (Divine, page 53). He had an arrogant personality that significantly affected Britain with a new imperial policy. William Pitt’s goal was to banish the French from the continent of North America, rather than fight the major battles in Europe because in Europe France would have had the higher advantage. Pitt knew by dismissing the French from North America, Britain would gain more control of the colonial markets and the raw materials. To implement his plan, he took over command of the navy and army and created a plan to cajole Parliament to spend millions of pounds into his war tactics. As a result of his plan, Britain and its colonies would later be affected by serious national debt.
To carry out his plan, William Pitt chose Jeffrey Amherst and James Wolfe to aide him in his work. These men were unconceivable and unintelligible British colonels. They were responsible for the capturing of Louisbourg on July 26, 1758. The Louisbourg was the Canadian’s main supply line with France (Divine, page 53). In years of 1756 and 1757,