Please enable JavaScript.
Coggle requires JavaScript to display documents.
The War of Austrian Succession and The Seven Years' War - Coggle…
The War of Austrian Succession and The Seven Years' War
The War of Austrian Succession
Began in Europe but spread to North America
colonists saw it as an opportunity to defeat the French and Spanish and advance into new territory
Britain was too absorbed in Europe to send much help to the colonists so left most of the fighting to colonial militias - small forces made up of volunteers
English speaking colonists outnumbered the French 15 to 1
The colonists' greatest military achievement was capturing Louisbourg in 1745 but in the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle of 1748 it was handed back to France
The Albany Congress 1754
the board of trade in britain recognised that native american support could be vital in defeating the french
so it called on colonies virginia and northward to send delegates to a meeting at Albany to secure an alliance with the native americans
They failed to secure an alliance with the Iroquois
However, the congress did adopt a scheme, drawn up by Benjamin Franklin, which envisaged an elected colonial parliament with authority over the natives. This was called the Plan of Union
However, the colonial assemblies either rejected or ignored it
Fort Duquesne
the french began to build a chain of fort on land owned by Virginian planters
Washington and some men went to forestall them but the French had already built fort Duquesne
Washington was forced to surrender in 1754 and the fort remained in french hands
Britain sent general braddock and 2000 troops to help but this force was ambushed by a French-Indian force
The Seven Years' War 1756-1763
This soon developed into a worldwide conflict with fighting in Europe, Africa, NA etc
Early on, French general Montcalm captured Fort Oswego and Fort William Henry in 1757
british general Earl Loudon failed to unite the colonists, men from the seaboard were reluctant to fight for borders many miles away from them
Then William Pitt came in...
pitt realised that deating the french in NA was the key to overall victory
He sent 25,000 troops to NA and paid to raise a further 25,000 colonial soldiers
Pitt also paid Frederick of Prussia to expand the war in Europe to divert the French away from NA
In 1758, british forces captured Louisbourg then cut the link between CAnada and the Mississippi valley by taking for Frontenac and Fort Duquesne - renamed Fort Pitt
The Triumphs of 1759