France was one of the leading participants in theSeven Years' War, which in fact lasted nine years between 1754 and 1763.France entered the war with the hope of achieving a lasting victory againstPrussia,Britain, and their German allies and with the hope of expanding its colonial possessions.
While the first few years of war proved successful for the French, in 1759 the situation reversed and they suffered defeats on several continents. In an effort to reverse their losses, France finished an alliance with their neighbor,Spain, in 1761. In spite of this the French continued to suffer defeats throughout 1762 eventually forcing them to sue for peace. The 1763Treaty of Paris confirmed the loss of French possessions in North America and Asia to the British. France also finished the war with very heavy debts, which they struggled to repay for the remainder of the 18th century which later led to theFrench Revolution in 1789 and theHaitian Revolution in 1791.
The previous major conflict in Europe, theWar of the Austrian Succession, ended in 1748 with theTreaty of Aix-la-Chapelle. This peace agreement was very unpopular with the French populace who saw the terms as excessively lenient to France's enemies, specifically Britain and theDutch Republic, and many regarded it as a breathing space before war resumed.[1]
France and Britain were engaged in an intensifying global rivalry after they superseded Spain as the leading colonial powers. Hoping to establish supremacy, both countries engaged in several minor wars in North America. French colonies inLouisiana,Illinois, andCanada had largely surroundedBritish colonies strung out in a narrow strip along the coast. All the French needed to totally envelop the British was control of theOhio Country. Attempting to gain control of this territory, France built a complex system of alliances with the area'sNative American tribes and brought them into conflict with Britain.[2]
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In the mid-18th century, France was anabsolute monarchy: all power resided with the King.Louis XV was a weak personality easily manipulated by his advisors and confidants. Chief amongst them wasMadame de Pompadour, his mistress who exercised enormous influence over appointments and matters of grand strategy. Other advisors rose and fell with rapid succession, continuing the lack of stability which had plagued the monarchy in the early 18th century.
While the war began in North America, in 1756 France became drawn into a major war in Europe. Allied toAustria,Sweden andRussia the French tried to defeat the Prussians who had only the British as major allies. Despite repeated attempts between 1757 and 1762, the French and their allies failed to win the conclusive victory against Prussia despite a constant war of attrition. They were partly frustrated by an army led by theDuke of Brunswick made up of British forces and troops from the smaller German states which operated in western Germany.
France had opened the war against Britain in Europe by capturingMenorca and until 1759 they believed they held the upper hand. The British navy, however, had initiated a tight blockade of the French coast which prevented supplies and troops moving freely and sapped morale. Realizing that Prussia was unlikely to be defeated until its ally Britain was, the French foreign minister,Choiseul developed a plan to invade Britain in three separate places atPortsmouth,Essex andScotland. He oversaw the construction of a massive fleet of transports to convey the troops during 1759. Defeats of the French navy atLagos andQuiberon Bay put an end to these plans and he was forced to call off the invasion in the late autumn. A diversionary force underFrançois Thurot had managed to land in NorthernIreland before he was hunted down and killed by the British navy. In the wake of the disaster at Quiberon, Thurot was lionised as a hero in France.[3]
By this stage France's finances were in a poor state, despite the efforts ofSilhouette to keep down expenditure, and France was only kept afloat by a major loan from neutralSpain. Despite the Spanish government's official policy of neutrality, they were slowly shifting towards supporting an outright pro-French position, encouraged by Choiseul. In December 1761, war finally broke out between Britain and Spain – but the Spanish involvement did not provide the relief to the French that had been hoped. Instead French troops were needed to bolster Spanish efforts to invadePortugal, and became bogged down there.[4] Spain also suffered defeats inCuba and thePhilippines in 1762, and by the end of the year both Spain and France were urgently seeking peace.[5]
France began asserting control over theOhio Country as early as 1749, issuing warnings and threats to British colonial traders active in the region. When the French began constructing a series of forts in theOhio River watershed in 1754, the British responded with claims and demands of their own. In 1754,George Washington sparked the beginning of the war with anattack on a French scouting party near present-dayPittsburgh,Pennsylvania. When they learned that the British were planning to sendregular army troops to the area for the 1755 campaign, the French sent a large body of troops toNew France before the British could blockade their ports. These troops, combined with a strong alliances with native tribes and poor British military administration, gave France a string of victories from 1755 to 1757; its only significant loss wasAcadia, whose remaining territories fell into British hands after the 1755Battle of Fort Beauséjour, inaugurating theexpulsion of the Acadians. France was able to maintain control of the Ohio Country as well as the strategically importantGreat Lakes. After their initial successes in North America, however, France began to starve the theatre of forces and supplies, preferring to concentrate on the war in Europe rather than risk large numbers of troops on expeditions across the British-dominated Atlantic Ocean.
This contrasted sharply with the British, who put great emphasis on the war for control of North America. In 1758 the British launched several major offensives,capturing Louisbourg,Fort Duquesne, andFort Frontenac, although they werestopped at Fort Carillon. The following year a large force under GeneralJeffery Amherst tookCarillon andFort Niagara, while a second large force under GeneralWolfe sailed up theSt Lawrence River to besiegeQuebec City. The French commander in Quebec,Louis-Joseph de Montcalm, had orders to try to hold out until the winter spell, with the promise that major reinforcements would arrive from Europe the following year. Montcalm almost achieved this, delaying British attempts to capture Quebec until the autumn, when the British finally won theBattle of Quebec and captured the city. In spite of this, a large force of French escaped westwards, intent on resuming the campaign the following year.
In 1760 the French launched a surprise effort to re-capture Quebec, which succeeded in blunting one British advance onMontreal. Other British armies advanced on Montreal from the south and west, completing theConquest of Canada. In the West Indies the French saw the valuable sugar islands ofGuadeloupe andMartinique captured by British forces. A final attempt to captureNewfoundland from the Britishfailed in late 1762.
The French position in India had been severely weakened following theSecond Carnatic War, which had ended in 1754 with theTreaty of Pondicherry.[6] In spite of this they held several strong trading posts, particularly that atPondicherry and they maintained relations with several major Indian Princes who were also enemies of the British.
The French war in India started badly, with the loss of theChandalore which saw the last French trading post inBengal destroyed.[7] A major French force under theComte De Lally was despatched from Europe, and it threatened to turn the balance in India. However, anattempt to seize Madras failed, while Lally's force was unable to prevent the eventual British capture of Pondicherry and a comprehensive British victory in India. In the wake of Britain's domination of India, they were able to launch an expedition from Madras to thePhilippines whichcaptured Manila from France's ally Spain – further weakening the Bourbon position in Asia.
The Mughals led byShah Alam II were joined byJean Law and 200 Frenchmen and waged a campaign against the British during theSeven Years' War.[8] Jean Law's Memoire:Mémoires sur quelques affaires de l’Empire Mogol 1756-1761 contains detailed information about the campaign of theMughal EmperorShah Alam II and hisFrench allies against theBritish East India Company.[9]
In April 1758 a British expedition conceived by the merchantThomas Cumming and authorised by Pitt captured the French settlement ofSaint-Louis in Senegal. The scheme had been so successful and profitable that two further expeditions were despatched the same year which captured the island ofGorée and the French trading station onthe Gambia.
The loss of these valuable colonies further weakened France's finances. In 1762 a force was prepared to retake the Senegal territories, but had to be abandoned.
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The French began negotiations in Paris in late 1762. Because of a change in the British government, they were offered more lenient terms than might otherwise have been expected. While they lost Canada to the British, Martinique and Guadeloupe were returned to them in exchange for Menorca.
The French defeat had a devastating impact on French political life, and a number of senior figures were forced out of public office. Realizing the deficiency in the French navy, Louis XV began a massive rebuilding program to match British naval strength. Choiseul drew up a long-term plan to gain victory over the British which was partially put into action during theAmerican War of Independence after France joined the conflict in 1778, as did its allySpain.
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